when i was looking for used trucks to buy, i looked at a ton of options.
ANY of the GC's i looked into with >75k miles on them had completely shot leather steering wheels. all of them! the wheel has the worst feel to it, like the leather is just too loose and squishy around the steel wheel frame. is this just a poorly manufactured steering wheel or what?
the first thing i did when i bought a jeep was to put on a thick leather wheel cover, the stock leather one was just nasty...
Every single person I know that has a wj and even some with a zj have this problem with the steering wheel. I myself have the same thing. I'm pretty sure its just poor manufacturing.
The solutions I can offer you is to either get a nice thick cover like you did or some people swap out the wheel for the vinyl version.
The wheels with the radio controls on them are leather and do seem to break down quicker than the vinyl ones without the radio buttons on the back. The worst ones are it is like the driver had a death grip on the top of the wheel and broke down both the leather and the padding underneath. The vinyl ones can look like new at 100k. Different years have a different connector for the wiring, but if you find one that has the wrong connector for your WJ, you can simply unclip and swap the whole plastic back with the wiring attached. Doing so will also let you put radio buttons on a vinyl wheel.
My '01 was terrible in this regard. My '04 is much better, in very good shape at 90k miles. I did what JeepAMG said, put a steering wheel cover over it.
I bought a new one at about $280. The price was rough, but now I don't ***** about it every time I get in. The cover is the cheapest way to go, but I've just never been a fan of covers.
Can't remember who at the moment, but someone had a good looking vinyl one in the classifieds last week.
One of the first things I bought for my GC was a thick leather steering wheel cover.
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