Hi,

 

I have a 2018 Fiesta Titanium with 16k careful miles on the clock. The steering wheel on the top and right has melted in places and it happened over a few weeks this this summer just gone. My dealership insist it's not covered under warranty as they have never seen it happen before. Has anybody else experienced this on a Ford of a similar age? Thanks.

Hi Paul. Not heard of that on Ford or anything else tbh, even back in the days when steering wheel rims were usually some form of plastic. It is not unreasonable to expect the steering wheel to withstand a British summer (we have members on here in much hotter places!), and it seems a bit off for your dealership to claim it's not covered by warranty just because they have never seen it happen before. I'd push a bit harder and take it up with Ford Customer Service if you get nowhere.

It would be interesting to see the damage if you are able to post up a pic of the wheel.

As an aside, I've always suspected the steering wheel rim on the Mk 8 was not real leather anyway - the rim on mine feels nothing like the leather rims I've had in the past. I see on the latest price list the wheel rim is now described as "Sensico", but it claimed to be leather when I got mine.

does it have a heated steering wheel? - comfort pack i think

3 hours ago, st line x 140 driver said:

does it have a heated steering wheel? - comfort pack i think

Interesting point. The system is supposed to cut off before it overheats (as below) but could it fail and cause damage without blowing a fuse? Never had one myself.

 

HEATED STEERING WHEEL (IF EQUIPPED)

The heated steering wheel button is on the climate controls.

  Press the button to switch the heated steering wheel on and off.

Note:  You can use the heated steering wheel only when the engine is running.

Note:  The system uses a sensor and is designed to control the temperature of the steering wheel and to prevent it from overheating.

Note:  In warm temperatures, the steering wheel quickly reaches its maximum temperature and the system reduces the current to the heating element. This could cause you to think that the system has stopped working but it has not. This is normal.

This:

It isn’t a heated steering wheel as I didn’t go for that option. The dealership have dug their heels in and to be honest belligerent. The melting you can see came on gradually in the summer and the top while not as bad came along later. The rest of the wheel is unaffected which is strange given you pretty much without exception touch all of the wheel when driving. They agreed that some older Fords (around 10 years old) suffered from similar things but didn’t agree that it could happen to younger models. So they agreed it happened but not in my case. And yet, here we are.
Does anyone know where I could source a reasonably priced new authentic wheel please? The dealership is quoting £300 plus labour!  

This is common on the newer soft touch wheels.  It's usually referred to as wear rather melting which may explain why you haven't found any others.

https://talkford.com/community/topic/393383-steering-wheel-leather-wearing/

It's a shame the talkford.com thread doesn't have any pictures so we could see if it's the same thing.

Certainly looks odd, more like a reaction to something than melting, or as if a layer has come off. 

I do remember when the Mk 8 came out, various video reviews made great play of the steering wheel material being resistant to substances on the surface, which is why I suspected it was never "real" leather in the first place. One of the videos showed various things, including suncream, being smeared on the wheel and just wiped off.

From the talkford.com thread it does seem that Ford have replaced some wheels under warranty so could be worth trying Customer Service as the dealer is not being helpful.

Just now, Eric Bloodaxe said:

It's a shame the talkford.com thread doesn't have any pictures so we could see if it's the same thing.

There have been threads on here with pictures in the past...but we all know how good the search function is!  

 

 

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

There have been threads on here with pictures in the past...but we all know how good the search function is!  

Lol yes. Top bit of searching there Tom - that does look pretty similar to Paul's problem.

On 10/27/2020 at 4:37 PM, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Hi Paul. Not heard of that on Ford or anything else tbh, even back in the days when steering wheel rims were usually some form of plastic. It is not unreasonable to expect the steering wheel to withstand a British summer (we have members on here in much hotter places!), and it seems a bit off for your dealership to claim it's not covered by warranty just because they have never seen it happen before. I'd push a bit harder and take it up with Ford Customer Service if you get nowhere.

It would be interesting to see the damage if you are able to post up a pic of the wheel.

As an aside, I've always suspected the steering wheel rim on the Mk 8 was not real leather anyway - the rim on mine feels nothing like the leather rims I've had in the past. I see on the latest price list the wheel rim is now described as "Sensico", but it claimed to be leather when I got mine.

I live in Egypt, almost two years now and my steering wheel is OK, we have 2010 fiestas here on streets with nothing wrong at all with the steering wheel, summer in Egypt reaches 42 Celsius  on a hot day 😄 35 most of the time in summer.

Deffo not melting, mine is the same on my mondeo. Ford dealers were agreeing to change wheels under warranty on mondeos so can't see why they won't on fiesta. Mondeos and s max galaxy were affected. The material covering is very soft. 

As mine was out of warranty I recovered mine . 

On 10/27/2020 at 12:35 PM, PH69 said:

Hi,

 

I have a 2018 Fiesta Titanium with 16k careful miles on the clock. The steering wheel on the top and right has melted in places and it happened over a few weeks this this summer just gone. My dealership insist it's not covered under warranty as they have never seen it happen before. Has anybody else experienced this on a Ford of a similar age? Thanks.

Been using a lot of hand sanitiser?

On 10/30/2020 at 8:48 AM, MarksST said:

Been using a lot of hand sanitiser?

No. Been washing my hands as normal.

I had that happen to me some years ago on an older model Fiesta Ghia with a leather steering wheel. I had just splashed some aftershave on and got into the car whilst my hands were still wet and that melted the leather on the steering wheel. It was my first car with a leather wheel and I'd only had it a couple of weeks, needless to say I wasn't very happy.

Definitely looks like some form of chemical attack - alcoholic cleaner or corrosive residue on hands/gloves - do you use wheel cleaner? 

3 hours ago, st line x 140 driver said:

Definitely looks like some form of chemical attack - alcoholic cleaner or corrosive residue on hands/gloves - do you use wheel cleaner? 

Yes I agree, some of the modern plastics these days have plasticers which react badly to other substances, I have a guitar stand with a plastic cushion supposidly to protect the guitar from the stand, but instead removes the varnish in that area from the guitar.

Had a telescope with a plastic coating to assist in grip, left it inside its plastic case for a year and the telescope was stuck to the case.

So I suspect a chemical reaction, such as maybe gloves, and certainly hand gel, which I know I have been careful with, definitely not sun.

 

Dig your heels in with Ford PH69 and get replacement, I would suggest dealing with Ford customer service, keep phoning different people there until you get the right response good luck

Hand sanitiser..... that's my guess. 

Or petrol...  Can't just be me that always gets the dribbly pump!

52 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Or petrol...  Can't just be me that always gets the dribbly pump!

You obviously not shaking it enough😁

57 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Or petrol...  Can't just be me that always gets the dribbly pump!

Yeah...me too put it down to prostate 🙂

11 hours ago, billyboy said:

I had that happen to me some years ago on an older model Fiesta Ghia with a leather steering wheel. I had just splashed some aftershave on and got into the car whilst my hands were still wet and that melted the leather on the steering wheel. It was my first car with a leather wheel and I'd only had it a couple of weeks, needless to say I wasn't very happy.

did you pull with the juice...small price too pay 😍 were the back seats ok?

Hello, complain about it at another dealer first, then raise a concern with Ford customer relations and see what they do for you.

I would not class that as wear and tear but defective materials

I still do not think they will do anything about it. 

They will just state the customer/driver has damaged the wheel by having something on their hands that has caused the damage, especially if it is a little known problem.

The Mrs must have been one of the first to have the broken headlight brackets on her car, as there was no TSB for the fault at first. The Ford body shop tried arguing that we must have had a "bump" to break both headlight brackets. I asked where the impact damage was on the car if we had had a bump! 

Obviously the headlights were fixed with the help of the TSB... The body shop were very apologetic for their earlier suggestions.