vinyl cover over the steering wheel airbag has become tacky sticky

[pullin-gs]

Have any of you experienced the vinyl cover over the horn button becoming tacky or sticky?? What was your fix?

[AZTVR]

I remember this discussion: https://driveviper.com/forums/thread...steering-wheel

[ViperSRT]

Yep. I used the Goof Off and it worked great on the steering wheel. Also used it on the door trim and the rubber triangular piece on the front of the door. So far, so good.

[pullin-gs]

Yep. I used the Goof Off and it worked great on the steering wheel. Also used it on the door trim and the rubber triangular piece on the front of the door. So far, so good.

Thanks for the update. I'll give that a try.
Which Goof Off product did you use?

[ViperSRT]

Thanks for the update. I'll give that a try.
Which Goof Off product did you use?

67AADB7B-583E-4CF3-BD2D-62D64388D4E9.jpg

[pullin-gs]

Thanks again. I just ordered it from Amazon.

[white ACR]

Did you remove the steering wheel cover first or did you work with the cover on the car??--I just ordered the Goof Off from amazon--Dave

[josh]

I tried Goo-gone, goof, and other similar products, none of which got the sticky stuff off my steering wheel... I finally bought these alcohol wipes, and they took it right off no problem. Highly recommend these

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SPJP2C/

[pullin-gs]

Goof-Off worked fine for me. It's been 6 months since I applied and all is fine. I directly applied without removing cover.

[LATAMUD]

This happened to my steering wheel a few years ago. I used "Wet-Wipes", the ones with alcohol. It cleaned everything off.

[C5Longhorn]

For the folks using alcohol or Goo Gone, are you noticing any of the finish coming off or the cover changing color?

[josh]

For the folks using alcohol or Goo Gone, are you noticing any of the finish coming off or the cover changing color?

Nope. Cleaned mine with alcohol wipes about 6 months ago, still looks good

[DirtyD]

There might be two different degrees of cleaning going on here. Mine was the worse of the two where the black vinyl dye literally expired.
- I started cleaning it with Vinylex which is what i regularly use on interiors. The sticky wouldnt budge.
- Switched to an all-purpose cleaner(Mequiars D114 WaterlessWash) at 2x concentration than i would typically use. I noticed a little bit of black coming off as i rubbed harder then realized that the stickiness Was the actual dye. Knowing this would take forever i decided to switch to a more aggressive method.
- Alcohol and terry cloths. Went through a half pack of em... Ended up putting one end through a spoke to the backside and vigorously pulling back/forth like i was fresh out the shower drying my taint after a long sweaty day at the track. Once i got going there was no turning back. Soaking a large patch of towel and letting it sit on the vinyl for 30sec before scrubbing really helped. I thoroughly cleaned the entire steeringwheel&column so the entire assembly would look similar.

The end finish on mine is now a flatter dark dark grey. To the average person, black. It would prob darken/brighten up a bit with a coat of vinylex or similar moisturizing protectant but for now im just enjoying having a naked wheel that i can comfortably grip in warm weather without it feeling like a yucky subway pole. Wish i would have done this years ago when it first became tacky.



My snake is 20+ years old and has sat out in the baking sun on many occasions/events so i'm not at all disappointed in the situation. I don't expect a finish to stay perfect forever on a flexible&moist base that goes through many heat cycles while continuously being marinated in hand oils&sweat. If i ever ant to restore it in the future i would just re-clean with the same method then have someone with experience apply a new coat of dye. In contrast, i'm sure there are many low mileage cars sitting in climate controlled garages that have steering wheels that look & feel like new.

[Herrsss]

This is something that is starting to occur with Gen IVs as well and when I talked to Andy Wheeler at Viper Exchange about it he said you can clean all you want but it keeps coming back because the glue holding the airbag and cover is deteriorating. His suggestion is to replace the airbag which I will do Thursday so fingers crossed I will no longer have a sticky gnarly steering wheel.

[C5Longhorn]

so, you have to replace the whole bag huh. Not cheap.