I see this on a lot of CLK's. There is a clear coating on the steering wheel buttons that becomes gummy and seems to go soft and scratch off. Because we look at these every day when we are behind the wheel it is annoying and detracts from the quality feel of the car. I thought of scraping the coating totally off or removing with alcohol or acetone but I'm worried that I might remove the black paint (?) as well. Has anybody remove this coating off? Can the buttons be popped off and replaced with new from the dealer?

Thanks.

Well I just removed the coating off mine and it looks a bit better. I didn't use any chemicals just my thumb and elbow grease. I suppose you could replace the two assemblies if you wanted to but if I am not mistaken it would require the removal of your steering wheel. I had the same happen a while back, I think out of boredom while at a red light I started to removed the coating to pass the time, looks better now without the gummy coating.

I might pry some off a wreck to experiment and see if I can remove the coating via chemicals (without destroying the underlying graphics on the butons)...

Soapy H2O, toothbrush, and Qtips. Clean wipe, and repeat.
2MERKS