Bantam
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- Mar 14, 2011
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- VZ Executive
Should it be ok to drive till we can get it reset?
Welcome to Just Commodores, a site specifically designed for all people who share the same passion as yourself.
Hey mate. You have picture of your handy work on the steering wheel??A huge THANK YOU to 'Lumps of Cheese' for posting the original explanation. Excellent job!
After disassembling my steering wheel, I was astounded at the exceptionally poor design used by Holden in constructing these steering wheel controls. Engineering a tiny tongue of plastic to form the hinge of these control buttons is clearly designed to last only as long as the car's warranty. The duty cycle for such a design would have to be in the hundreds (of presses) not thousands that would be endured during the typical life expectancy of the car. For those more experienced with Holden (I'm not), maybe this is indicative/expected of Holden? I shudder to think what else they've hidden away - designed to break without warning.
By way of Thank You to Lumps of Cheese and others generously contributing to this site, I'd like to offer a small contribution of my learnings in this exercise. Perhaps it may benefit others.
I had gone ahead and purchased replacement buttons from a wrecker but on discovering the poor engineering of the button hinges, I figured that even the replaced (used) set will likely be someway through its duty cycle and likely to break in the next year or two. So I set to fixing the original (broken) buttons from my wheel. Enter, my (very modest) leather-working skills .... read beginner.
I carefully removed the button assembly from the base of each set of buttons. Easy to do with a small flathead under the retaining lip on the back fascia. This allows all 3 buttons (as one unit) to come clear of the button assembly which houses the circuit board - revealing the underside of the buttons. From here, I wiped clean the buttons inside and out, then hand-sanded both the inside and outside of the hinged area. This abraids the smooth plastic surface to provide a 'key' for gluing - that will hold. Once keyed and again cleaned, I used a sharp knife to cut a new hinge to place on either side of each set - that's 4 strips. I used black roo leather (0.88mm thickness) which is by far the thinnest and strongest leather. Roo scraps on eBay are perfect. For the inside-hinge leather, I crafted its shape to nicely fit into each button recess (20mm button width+5mm gap between buttons - repeat). All one piece of roo leather across the underside of all buttons and across the pathetic original Holden plastic hinge. The outside strip of leather is much easier - with no individual crafting needed for each button. So with inside and outside roo leather hinges carved for both button sets (4 in total), I then used a super-strong contact adhesive to "paint" all 8 surface areas - 4 leather faces and 4 button faces. Let them dry to tacky then put in place using small needle-nose pliers and a steady hand! Gently press all surfaces firmly together and allow to dry (12-24hrs). At this point, you've very effectively braced the crappy plastic hinge (perhaps broken) with some super-strong roo leather. The extra thickness from the roo leather is easily accommodated when reassembling the buttons into the button bases and then into the wheel itself. The roo leather will now outlast the vehicle by around 1,000 years! Never again will you need to replace these buttons. It's worth noting at this point that the hinge itself does not provide that tactile springback experienced when releasing the button from being pressed. The hinge is merely a pivot point. The springback comes from the inner-button (on the circuit board) that is being depressed by the outer button - the one you touch. Whatsmore, the travel of the button (when pressed and returning) is guided by retaining clips and channels in the button base. So this solution makes for a permanent, robust and transparent fix to what is essentially a very poorly designed switch.
Hope this helps others!
PS: while I had the steering wheel apart, I thought I may as well remove my worn steering wheel spokes. Another poor design of paint over plastic in a high-wear zone. Sighhh...
Like above, I hand-sanded the spokes clear of shiny surfaces to create a key. In this instance, I used black cow leather (1.2mm) to cover the spokes (but you could use any leather providing its thin) - again using the super-strong contact adhesive. Now these came up a real treat! They look fantastic done in black leather. Again, the extra thickness brought by the 1.2mm leather trim fits comfortably back into position on the wheel. No issues there. So now I have a "bullet-proof" steering wheel where the buttons will never break again and the spokes covered in robust leather that will never show that terrible paint-wear we all dread.