thomas-re

Can anyone tell me if the wood steering wheel has a heat funtion when ordered with the E5 pkg?

sf49ers79

can we order the wood wheel after we get the car? if we can do we have to pay for installation fee and how much? hope anybody knows and can answer this... thx

gobenz

I ordered my wood wheel after I got my car. The wheel (with installation) costs approx. $800. The wood part of the wheel cannot be heated.

mkassab

Yes, the wood steering wheel can be ordered anytime. You can order it in the Burl Walnur or the Black Birdseye Maple wood. Mine cost $705 and $55 for installation. You could install yourself, but you should let the dealer do it. Key reasons are the insurance and warranty liabilities with having to move the air bag and all. Keep you old steering wheel int he box the new one came with. I thing I can attest to is the wood steering wheel option feels great and is a very good looking touch to an already beautiful interior.... Mark

benggolf

Yes, you can have it installed by your dealer even after delivery. Here is a picture of mine.

Callaway

There are really two separate options for the steering wheel for the W211.

The first is heated and the second is wood/leather.

The heating option must ordered and be fitted at the factory while the wood/leather wheel can be retrofitted later.

If you have ordered the heated wheel option without wood/leather,the wood wheel can later be retrofitted and the leather only rim area will now heat up.

speedye500

You should get the Brabus steering wheel it is much nicer and bigger. I have it and love it. I like it even more then the S500 wood steering wheel. The Brabus one is like $900.

Baby Jocko

Yeah, but what does it look like. The Brabus website isn't worth much.

sf49ers79

Speedye can you post pic of brabus steering wheel thx

mkassab

The only thing I would caution on Non-OEM Steering Wheels (like Brabus) would be any insurance, warranty and/or Liability issues with the Airbag, etc. items that would have to be moved/changed. Mark

rtrider

I ordered my car with the heated steering wheel option. After reading all the positive comments about the wood wheel, I have decided to get one, as well. When I asked my dealer to order it, he told me that MB does not have a part # for the wood wheel with the heated leather portion . Can anyone provide a part #?

Thanks.

mkassab

Your dealer is correct... i.e.,

Heated wheel = Leather only.

Wood Wheel = No Heat, period.

Sorry...... Mark

Callaway

That doesn't sound right to me.

My understanding is the wood/leather wheel is the same, it's just that when you have the heating option they connect it to the wheel and it heats the leather section.

(i.e) the wheel is the same, it's just whether you can plug the heating wire option in or not that activates it.

rtrider

Thanks for the reply, Mark. I talked with MBUSA and they said that wood wheel is not compatible with heated wheel at all - leather portion will not be heated.

However, I found this in an older thread:

and this:
Can anybody help with this? There are other conflicting comments in other old threads on this board. Anyone out there have a wood wheel with heated leather section?
clembo or jposhea3, can you help?

pat a.

My wood wheel has the heat option, but only the leather portion is heated.

rtrider

pat a.,

Thanks for the reply.

I assume your wood wheel was installed by the dealer, not the factory. Do you have a part # that I could provide to my dealer?

briar

I have std leather heated steering wheel and wanted to upgrade to wood/leather combo. Went to the dealer, and they had wood/leather wheel in stock. Took it out of box, and there were no wires (none) that would be needed for activating heated portion. We checked parts catalogue further and could not locate a replacement wood/leather wheel that allows heated function to work.
Sounds like to have heated wood/leather wheel this needs to be ordered from factory to have functionality, or find a parts dealer in Europe that can provide more than what MBUSA has to offer.
If anyone locates heated wood/leather combo wheel, please post details.

pat a.

Briar, you are correct. The dealers do not have a part number for the heated wood leather steering wheel. I got mine because I had ordered the heated seats/wheel package on my car, and complained loudly enough to MBUSA about my inability (at the time in early december 2002) to order the wood wheel option. So MBUSA had my dealer do something called a "WEO", which stands for something like "warantee part order" - i.e., ordering a replacement part for one that failed under warantee. In other words, you have been able at various times to order the wood wheel and heated wheel combination from the factory, but could not order that combo as a dealer installed accessory. But since any part on a new car from the factory MUST be replaceable, the wood and heat steering wheel part can be ordered as a warantee replacement part. That is how I got my precious wheel.

Ridiculous, huh? I swear, if there has been another new car launch that was as badly mangked as the w211, I would be shocked. I would guess that many careers have been ruined....