DBA Dan
New Member
Gday all.
RE: "Better than New" fix to broken audio buttons on steering wheel
I recently suffered a broken button on the audio controls on my VZ steering wheel. After much research, I found that these could no longer be bought new and used sets seemed around the same price as new ones. Supply and demand clearly! Keep in mind that any used set must already be some way through their life-span / duty cycle. Being a very thin layer of plastic that forms the hinge mechanism on the buttons, they're clearly NOT designed to last the life of the car!
Being into leatherwork, I decided to take a shot at fixing my broken set. I used 0.88mm roo leather - the thinnest strongest leather you can get. After deinstalling and taking apart the audio buttons, I cleaned both the inner and outer surfaces where the button-hinge failed, abraded the plastic surfaces to create a "key" and used super-strong contact adhesive to fit a custom-cut piece of roo leather onto both sides of both button sets.
This worked brilliantly to not only repair the broken button, but to eliminate the failure of any other button - ever! Now this is a permanent solution to a very poor original design engineering.
On re-assembly the buttons into the wheel, the roo-leather is so thin, it cannot be seen AT ALL and fits snugly back into its original position.
WANT YOURS FIXED TOO?
If anyone else out there has broken steering wheel audio buttons, drop me a note if you'd like yours fixed too. Doesn't matter if the button has come off completely - just so long as the button is there to be re-attached. I don't offer miracles! If the buttons are cosmetically scratched, damaged or printing worn, then the repair will not fix those cosmetics. It only fixes the broken hinge issue.
I'll attach some pics to give an indication of what I do. Happy to share the info'.
RE: "Better than New" fix to broken audio buttons on steering wheel
I recently suffered a broken button on the audio controls on my VZ steering wheel. After much research, I found that these could no longer be bought new and used sets seemed around the same price as new ones. Supply and demand clearly! Keep in mind that any used set must already be some way through their life-span / duty cycle. Being a very thin layer of plastic that forms the hinge mechanism on the buttons, they're clearly NOT designed to last the life of the car!
Being into leatherwork, I decided to take a shot at fixing my broken set. I used 0.88mm roo leather - the thinnest strongest leather you can get. After deinstalling and taking apart the audio buttons, I cleaned both the inner and outer surfaces where the button-hinge failed, abraded the plastic surfaces to create a "key" and used super-strong contact adhesive to fit a custom-cut piece of roo leather onto both sides of both button sets.
This worked brilliantly to not only repair the broken button, but to eliminate the failure of any other button - ever! Now this is a permanent solution to a very poor original design engineering.
On re-assembly the buttons into the wheel, the roo-leather is so thin, it cannot be seen AT ALL and fits snugly back into its original position.
WANT YOURS FIXED TOO?
If anyone else out there has broken steering wheel audio buttons, drop me a note if you'd like yours fixed too. Doesn't matter if the button has come off completely - just so long as the button is there to be re-attached. I don't offer miracles! If the buttons are cosmetically scratched, damaged or printing worn, then the repair will not fix those cosmetics. It only fixes the broken hinge issue.
I'll attach some pics to give an indication of what I do. Happy to share the info'.
