I have a '97 GXE with a bland steering wheel. The prior owner must have rubbed the hell out of it at the 12:00 position. The plastic is worn down and looks and feels like crap. I want to replace it and upgrade if there is a leather wrapped wheel that was offered with the GLE or SE. Has anyone seen the leather wrapped with the stitching? Was it offered with the GLE or SE? If so then I'll start the hunt.

 

Yes. The cars with leather came with a leather wrapped steering wheel. My 96 wheel has started to show signs of wear (leather is getting torn up)... I'm not to keen on swapping it out (don't want to mess with airbags, etc.) - so I might just rewrap it (not the best solution, but I might have to put up with it).

 

My 95 SE doesn't have leather seats ("sport" cloth seats, which look VERY good being 10 years old), and has a leather steering wheel. Feels awesome, has alot of scratches, but you can't feel them.

 

Hmm.. maybe it was standard on the SEs and GLEs then... I thought it was part of the leather package (but clearly that is not the case - assuming that your steering wheel is the original one).

 

dont you need a speical tool to remove your steering wheel. and you have to disable your SRS. there might be a lot of work involed with it.

 

If it isn't too far gone, an interior place can fix it. I just had mine done. They use some liquid stuff. If they do it right you can't really see what's been done. Might check into that before you go buying a new wheel and fight with all that.

 

To disable your airbags i would believe that all you would have to do is unhook the battery and/or pull a fuse or two (although i think it would be safer to do both). And as for a tool, i think you need a special tool called a steering wheel puller. Maybe you dont need it, but im sure it would make the job a little easier. My cousin replaced the steering wheel on his 98 Cobra and from he said it was relatively easy since he did it himself.

EDIT:BTW I am almost 100% certain that all you need to do to disable your airbags is unhook the battery since if you have gotten in a more serious accident and the airbags didnt deployed, the cops/fire department unhook the battery when they are going over the car so the bags dont deploy and possibly injure someone.

 

Right. I saw a leather wrapped steering wheel on a 96 SE today. The SE had cloth seats. So, it must be part of the SE/GLE packages. That's great because that will make it easy to find. Seeing one today definitely made me want one more. They look much better than the stock GXE, which is pretty bland. I have a '94 Sentra SE-R with a leather wrapped wheel and it looks good and feels much better than my non-wrapped maxima GXE's wheel.

I think it will be easy to replace. As indicated above, I need a steering wheel puller to pull the wheel off of the shaft. I've used one before and its a piece of cake. As far as the airbag goes, my Haynes Repair Manual says that the battery should be disconnected and you should wait at least ten minutes before removal because the airbag system has a back-up electrical source. Also, there is an airbag module connector that can be disconnected easily after removing the plastic piece under the steering column. Looks like about a half hour job.