Anyone with a ZHP experiencing wear issues with your steering wheel? I love the feel of this wheel but after 50,000 miles it’s starting to matt down and become raggy looking and feeling. Just spoke with a factory rep today and he agreed to replace the wheel and gave me 2 choices… 1. Would be an exact replacement but more than likely will experience the same wear issues as more miles add up. 2. Other option would be to have the leather wrapped M3 wheel with the multi colored stitching. Either option would be a one time fix. Curious to hear any thoughts on what wheel you think would look better. Original wheel looked out of place since I have leather interior and a leather covered shifter knob. I’m leaning toward the M3 leather wrapped wheel, let me know what you all think.
ZHP Steering Wheel wear issues
- Thread starter dball711
- Start date
wow- I think that's a tough choice. I have an '04 ZHP with 25K as of right now and starting to find it wearing the same way- matted at 10 and 2 and pilling down the bottom.
I love the feel of that wheel though + I have the alcantara interior. If I can get 50K out of it and then get the thing replaced, I might go for the same alcantara wheel again- It is what makes the car the ZHP. By 100K, I'll probably be trading it in for the next one...
Good luck.
I love the feel of that wheel though + I have the alcantara interior. If I can get 50K out of it and then get the thing replaced, I might go for the same alcantara wheel again- It is what makes the car the ZHP. By 100K, I'll probably be trading it in for the next one...
Good luck.
Alcantara is a great material because it is more sticky than leather, but unfortuantely it does experience significant wear-and-tear over a short period of time. For driving on the street, the leather-wrapped wheel would be better so that after you make a turn the leather wheel "slides" through your fingers better, back to the center position. But if you take your car to the local autocross or track often enough, going with alcantara would also be great.
Maybe, but if you do track your car and are worried about grip with the leather all you need and should do is wear leather driving gloves. You get outstanding grip with leather wheel and leather gloves.
I have always wondered and believed the Alcantara wheel would wear fast. I have asked many BMW dealer emps. and many of them want to avoid the subject until they find I am not interested in purchasing the car. That’s when they state it will wear a lot faster than leather, which I already thought and believed.
Go with the leather wheel....
I have always wondered and believed the Alcantara wheel would wear fast. I have asked many BMW dealer emps. and many of them want to avoid the subject until they find I am not interested in purchasing the car. That’s when they state it will wear a lot faster than leather, which I already thought and believed.
Go with the leather wheel....
if you have the sports package, you should have the m3 wheel, (iirc that is) or something very similar to it. (3 spoke) if you have the regular one w/ the 4 spoke wheels, you'll run into the airbag issue, since they are shaped differently. and those guys are expensive!
as for the alca, yea, when mine gets all torn up near 50k, i'm opting for the leather, if given the choice. it feels nice for like the first 1000 miles, then it starts to feel raggy and you just wanna pull off the bunched up alca material, making it only worse..
as for the alca, yea, when mine gets all torn up near 50k, i'm opting for the leather, if given the choice. it feels nice for like the first 1000 miles, then it starts to feel raggy and you just wanna pull off the bunched up alca material, making it only worse..
![[confused]](/images/smilies/confused.png "Confused [confused]")
When I had the "L" I would clean it with Blue Coral Dri-Clean and it always came out looking new. [driving2]