clubted

I know this is minor but it bugs me - the surfaces of the steering wheel switches on my very low milage always in California E430 Sport I recently acquired are very sticky to the touch. I've tried Armor All to see if that would seal it in some way but no. I'd rather not change them out if I could even find matching ones (Mica), anyone come across this and have a fix? Thanks!

Plutoe

wash your hands before using the switches

raymond g-

it may be due to the oxidation of rubber which is common with many rubber surfaces over time (e.g. binoculars, radios etc etc etc)
i'm hesitant to suggest anything because it's not a one solution for all as rubber compounds vary. I've used highly pure rubbing
alcohol and have had some success. there is also but it is highly concentrated and smells like a chemical plant

https://www.benzworld.org/threads/0-...order.1720154/

scroll down to sticky buttons to see what other discussions have been

suicidal4life

Goo Gone will take the sticky off but it will leave the buttons with a smooth plastic feel. If people didn't know better they probably wouldn't even notice it's not supposed to be smooth. Be careful about getting it on the leather though or you may mess up the color.

illest

I used goo gone on mine, you can remove the buttons from the wheel to keep the leather safe.

clubted

Hi, Thanks for the input. I did try a small amount of Goo Gone for a test on a small area on the side and I think it will work, at least better than it was. I used it on small Q Tips and it did remove most of the brown gunk and as you mentioned it left a smoother plastic feel which I don't mind. It helps to replace Q Tips often. It will take awhile though but just as long as it works. How easy is it to remove the switches which would help a lot?

clubted

I'm going to take a flyer and order Rubber Renew which will hopefully help. Just to be safe how do I remove the switch faces without having to remove the steering wheel?

raymond g-

not to say this would/not work for your model. just came across it while YTing

clubted

Thanks very much for forwarding. I'll try that if the new stuff I ordered doesn't work. New stuff seems pretty toxic though.

clubted

I've been working more with the Rubber Renew and it's working pretty well. I had been using Q tips but it's a bit slow so today I tried cheese cloth and gloves. If you're careful it goes pretty quickly and the result is a more plasticky feel but so much better than the sticky gunk.