Cleaning steering wheels ?

[Dave Gantz]

Might wanna be careful with lacquer thinner. Pretty aggressive. Maybe prepsolv.

I've used super clean or purple clean, whatever it's called. Aggressive degreaser that seems to be soap based. Lots of water needed to clean the purple stuff off, it's sticky in itself.

[Todd Bailey]

I JUST cleaned one this past February and actually used carb cleaner from Walmart. Theirs is not as potent as say the Gumout brand. You WILL turn a lot of paper towels yellow in the process to get the oil, residue,whatever, etc from the wheel. After cleaning it, i sprayed it with WD-40 and wiped it down. It presently is in the '69 Camaro Stocker ragtop that the Emmons have.(Pops's former car)

[Jeff Kempton]

I've cleaned them easily in the past using hardware store paint thinner. There's another thread currently on FB where someone suggested dusting it with baby powder after cleaning to seal the pores, which seems like a good idea.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Got them done. It was quite a bit of work, but the end result was pretty good. The Dawn dish soap and the hot water and a scrub brush loosened the dirt stuck to the wheel, but a trip to Napa for a three dollar small container of white paste type waterless hand cleaner, not the type with pumice or other granules seemed to soften and remove the sticky residue these steering wheels seem to create.It took several applications, using a shop rag to work it into the wheel rim and the spokes in a rather vigorous fashion, then after all traces of sticky stuff was removed, the end result seemed okay. A final wash with Dawn and hot water seemed adequate enough to finish it off. I remember when new cars had these wheels and if they sat locked up in the sun a lot, they got that way fairly frequently. Working in a dealership for five years, we got good at finding ways not to track up customer's new carpets or mess up steering wheels and dash knobs. The wheel in my Chevelle is getting a little tacky, time to get it next. These two wheels I got out of the attic were really bad,however.

[2021STK]

Thanks for posting your results!

Not only does this happen to the really older wheels, my 2001 Chevy that sits outside has developed 'sticky airbag cover' even though the leather rim is just fine. I'll try your formula asap and post my results.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

I think I would disconnect the battery about a day before I tried anything with the airbag cover. There's capacitors that stay charged in some airbag systems for some time after disconnecting the battery, you won't want to accidentally deploy the bag. At least if you did, you wouldn't ever need to clean it.