Ugly Steering Wheel & Ford Says My Fault / TSB ?

[Jerry Bradfield]

Hello board, I have a 04 Sport Trac & the steering wheel wrap is deteriorating or something.

I did a search on this board & found that this is a pretty common problem.

I took my truck to dealer today to check on an irratic stumbling/surging issue when vehicle cold.

They can not seem to duplicate I told them to just keep it until the can " duplicate ".

I have allready had the trans. additive and solenoid valve & reprogram procedur done.

I also asked them about my steering wheel, I can't seem to keep it clean.

It keeps turning black, at all contact point with my hand. If I clean it, it just comes back

within a few days, seems to me that the rubber or foam under leather wrap is coming through.

The service manager told me that they cleaned it & that it was just dirty.

I stated that I do not get in my truck with dirty hands. I told him that I have cleaned

the wheel myself several times and that each time it just turns black again in a few days.

The service manager asked me what I clean it with, I told him that I use an ArmorAll cleaner.

The guy then changed his story and told me that the chemicals in the cleaner must have

damaged the wrap on the wheel.I hope that there is a TSB or NHTSA # on this problem,

If anybody can help me with this, please do.

I also an having a problem with the drivers seat belt retractor being slow & week.

& also my right rear trailer connector is not getting power to the green wire when I hit my right turn signal or brake light.

This guy did not seem to be familiar with any of my problems.

Thanks to all, for reading my posting.



JAB

 

[Ben Poche]

all is warntey work go to a different dealer and to clear the problem on start clean the iac motor do a search on iac see link

 

[shawn stonbraker 2]

I have seen postings on the steering wheel. I don't have the problem, or I don't think so since my wife bought me one of those covers for mine after I got the truck. As for the seat belt, mine is like that off and on. Every once in a while I end up shutting it in the door. I'm not much help there unless to tell you to just make sure it goes in the whole way after removing it. The irratic stumbling issues when cold, IAC valve. There is alot of posts on that one on how to clean it. The trailer connection sounds like a broken wire somewhere. Fallow the wires and see if it is broke or worn somewhere causing grounding. Gotta love the dealers for thier quick "We fixed your problem" crap. Like you didn't know to clean the damn thing. Also, you wouldn't know "NOT TO GET IN THE VEHICLE WITH DIRTY HANDS" and then complain about a dirty steering wheel. DUH!!!

 

[Benjamin Feinstein]

I was having the same problem with my stering wheel but I found some armor all leather wipes that seem to help the problem. The wipes moisturise the leather as well as clean it. I also use the wipes on the seats as my drivers side seat has alot of wrinkles in the leather from when I get in and out of the trac.

 

[Ryan Y]

my dealership service manager tried the "well, normally wear and tear" blah blah... I just told them I understand wear and tear, but this peeling steering wheel was wearing out prematurely, and it should be replaced under warranty. They replaced it. I'm using the Armorall leather wipes like ashaman stated above, and hoping that this one lasts longer than the last one. I wipe it down good with one of those wipes atleast once a week. cleaning the peeling one isn't going to help though, which I'm sure you've noticed.

 

[FlipTrac_511]

JAB, Ryan Y, at how many miles did your steering wheels start to deteriorate?

 

[Kevin Palmer]

My wheel did the same thing There is a TSB on this. I am on my PDA so I can't look it up right now Mine as reolaced no ion questions asked.

 

[Ryan Y]

mine started wearing out around 25,000 miles or so I guess. I didn't realize until I read on here that I could get it covered under warranty. Just didn't think about it. So they changed it out at 30,000 miles I think. It's been almost 4,000 miles since the new one, and it's looking brand new still. Hope it stays that way. If not, it's a wheelskins for me... two-tone black and gray....