One little niggle with my daughters car is the steering wheel 'leather' has gone all lumpy at the top and you get black bits on your hands when driving it. Want to change it. Do I have to disconnect the battery when taking the air bag out and do i need a puller for removing the wheel, or just undo the nut ( and not remove it !!) and just bash under the wheel to knock it off the splines ? Also anyone have a good nick wheel I could buy? Cheers.

 

Yes, disconnect the battery, wait half an hour for any capacitors to discharge out of the system. Undo 2 screws on rear of wheel, pull airbag off towards you and disconnect, undo centre nut, wheel should pull of easily. There is no splines it is a hex shape fitting so as long as the wheel is straight before hand then it's easy to get it fitted right!

 

As mentioned above the key is time. Make sure the capacitors are fully discharged before you undo the airbag. You DO NOT want one of them going off unattached trust me

 

Before you replace it...

Mine had the same problem, looking like it was unpeeling itself.
Put a load of megs leather cleaner/conditioner on it just to see if it would help and it has cured it completely, still looks worn but no bits coming off and reasonably smooth to the touch.

Took a few coats on a warm day letting them soak in.

 

Cheers guys. The wheel has gone all lumpy, Nick, so think its too late to save it. She's due home on Wednesday for the weekend from Uni with the car, i will have a look at it then and see about trying to clean and leather feed it . If that doesnt work, i will definately change the wheel at Easter time.

 

Bought a replacement standard wheel off fleabay, so will be fitting it at the weekend. Anyone know what the nut size for undoing it? cheers

 

Easy peasy to do. It is a 24mm socket to undo the nut on the wheel. Disconnected the battery and did the plugs and leads while I waited 30 mins. Looks like the previous owner was pretty bad at aiming the oil into the engine , as when I took the oily plug cover off, was in the galley where the plugs were as well. Was all clean oil as well, so not from the engine or rocker cover gasket as was on the underside of the cover too. Stopped the plugs seizing in the head anyway !!. Cleaned out and degreased the plug cover and all sorted. Definately worth doing, as possibly the same HT leads from new looking at them and how stiff they were.