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I just spent some quality time with the buttons in the 2011 XJL I bought two weeks ago. Thank you for the tip about the Neutrogena makeup removal wipes; they worked extremely well. I also used Q-tips for some of the little crevices. All steering wheel buttons, the trunk release & fog light buttons (those were in the worst condition), gear selector quadrant, all window switches, seat memory buttons, and the touch screen shroud are now free of polyurethane goop. All the buttons look and feel so much nicer now!
I didn't do the main center stack controls yet because that whole panel appears to be newer than the rest of the interior and none of the soft-touch coating on it has started to deteriorate yet. I'm sure I'll need to do it in less than a year, though.
Also, when sticky residue got stuck between the buttons I used these, which helped a bit:
axtmerce.....as a help for when you get the gear selector decal / label I am passing on to you the procedure I used for applying the new label.
Prior to taking the label off the backing sheet:
-Go ahead and finish cleaning off the gummy residue from the gear selector lettering area with the Neutrogena wipes if you haven't done so yet.
-Once gummy residue is off, lightly scratch off any remaining lettering white fill paint with a small jeweler's screwdriver, or end of tweezers, or end of paperclip wire.
Scraping off the remaining remnants of the white fill paint will help the back lighting come through the label lettering more uniformly when lit at night.
-Rub / wipe the panel with isopropyl alcohol and a clean rag so it's thoroughly clean and dry before putting new label on.
-Before taking label off backing paper, be sure to remove the little rectangle cutouts above each letter on the new label so the red gear indicator light can shine
through.
-Remove the label from the backing paper with either a pair of tweezers or exacto (utility) knife and position new label over gear indicator...be careful not to apply down
pressure to the label until you are satisfied with the positioning and there are no bubbles or wrinkles. Take a clean soft rag and apply downward pressure to label.
-You're done, sit back and admire your handiwork and breathe a sigh of relief that the gear selector indicator doesn't look terrible anymore......should come out looking
like this.........
Good night waggybeats,
Understood, before pasting the new label, I must clean 100% both the general black paint and the white of the letters, thank you very much for your detailed explanations, I hope to communicate that the result has been as good as the one shown in your photo.
It might have been discussed elsewhere but I searched and wasn't able to get an answer. Was the sticky button issue ever "corrected" on later XJs (2016-2019 in particular)? Never noticed the issue on any post-facelift cars but perhaps that's just because they're not old enough yet? Thanks!
11-20-2021, 03:06 AM
