Am I the only one that has pretty much all of my steering wheel control buttons flaking? The black "paint" is leaving at an alarming rate. It looks a little like excrement. With only 14k miles on the car this seems like premature wear.

Is anyone else experiencing this and would I be a dork to try and make this a warranty issue? I know it's not a big deal, but I see it every time I get in the car especially at night with the lights on.

 

I have it too on the radio controls. Cruise I rarely use so they are ok for now.

 

My cruise button's started flaking, so i took it in to a local dealer and got them to replace them under the warranty. If the other's flak i'll do the same thing

 

Mine has 1 bad spot. Upper left by the '+ Set' button. That's under warranty? Sorry, not used to having that! If/when it gets worse I'll worry about it.

 

I pay $$$ to Ford every month for a car that should be spotless....so in turn any/everything that breaks and it wasn't my fault i bring it in.

My dealer had no problem fixing this and i didn't even have to talk to a manager to get them replaced....great service

 

Already asked my Ford selling cousin. It's covered. I'll get it replaced. Thanks!

 

Can you take a pic of it Eric? Sounds like a simple warranty claim, but a shame its happening in the first place.

 

This is happening to my buttons too, I thought it was my constant next track button pressing.

 

stupid design by Ford. They have designed durable buttons in the past, why or how did this make it through the design or test phase?
You would think someone would have asked about how duarble they would be. No excuse for this one.

 

^^Really? Would you rather have major engine problems from the factory or a little issue with the steering comfort buttons? yeah....we all make mistakes, as long as they fix it, why should anyone get uptight about it

 

this is one of those things that is just plain annoying and yes, the dealer WILL fix it, but it means at least one day we don't have our car, the hassle of going to the dealer and then no guarantee it wont happen again in a few thousand miles:

AND, after its off warranty, we will be screwed.


On my lincoln, the gear shift **** was loose (up and down) and I took it to get replaced. they put a new one in and they scratched it up putting it on. I decided to keep the **** because I already had to wait 2 days for them to change a stupid gear shift **** and had to drive a piece of **** chevy cobalt as a loaner and wasn't going though all that again. turns out the new **** became loose like a month later

Man, I'm not looking forward to this one. maybe someone can make decals to go on the buttons.

 

I'm disappointed to hear about this issue. Definitely the wrong place to cheap out. But even BMW cheaped out with their newer cars in the exact same way, using clear plastic pieces that were painted instead of molding-in the color. Lots of 2006-2008 BMWs have this problem with their steering wheel buttons and door handles.

I hope the 2012 cars won't suffer from this, but I haven't read anything about Ford upgrading the buttons...

 

Dumb question...what is everyone, with problems, cleaning the wheel with? I have 9500 miles on the car and no indication of problems with the wheel controls, which I use almost daily, to include the cruise. I use a leather wipe on the wheel and just go over everything else with it. I then wipe the leather and the wheel off with a soft towel, so the wheel itself isn't slippery. I did the same thing on my '07 and never had a problem. But, as others have pointed out, this is a warranty issue.

 

It may not be a cleaning issue. If it's the same type of crappy coating that BMW used, it will deteriorate simply by being exposed to natural skin oils, grease, or sunscreen, etc.

Maybe there was just a bad batch of buttons that wasn't coated properly. Hopefully this doesn't affect all cars.

 

Strange, I have 16K km (10K miles) on my car and my buttons look mint.
And I use the volume up/down and the previous/next track ALL THE TIME, and the SYNC button at least twice a day.

(Rarely use the cruise control; owning a Mustang 5.0L means rarely sitting back and letting the car drive itself )

 

Ford always gives the Canadians the good stuff.... NO FAIR!

 

Not when it comes to the SYNC stuff... we don't get Sirius traffic or Vehicle Health Report or Personalized Daily Info

 

Are the buttons different than they were on the 10s? Mine look like black plastic with white lettering. I use the cruise and radio controls daily and no issue.

 

How about some pictures of what's happening? I see a lot of people complaining, but no evidence of it.

 

I'd like to see some pics too so I can keep an eye out for it.