I had grown tired of looking at the badly worn beige leather at 3 and 9 o'clock on my original XJR steering wheel. Also, the presence of one chip and one crack in the wood veneer had me thinking I'd prefer a full leather wheel.

Found a black one on eBay from an S-type R in very good condition and swapped it over last week. It looks terrific (although not quite as classy) and feels even better (slightly thicker and much grippier). I had to give up the heating elements (since the S-type never came with a heated steering wheel), but living in Southern California makes that an easy compromise to live with.

The problem is now that I've got it all back together, I notice a very slight scrapping sound (plastic on plastic) when turning the wheel from full-lock to full-lock. In fact, I think there is a bit of a creak too, when going over bumps and everything is quiet in the car.

I am pretty sure it is the slip ring. Does anyone know if the slip ring is supposed to positively attache to the steering wheel somehow? Everything transferred over easily from the XJR to the S-type wheel including the airbag and adaptive cruise control buttons. So, I don't think it is an incompatibility, but I am open to any and all suggestions!

Thanks,

-Burt

 

bump.