Just curious, if anyone else had seen something like this? This is the steering wheel between 12-1 o'clock. Hard to make out in this pic, but its a horizontal patch roughly 2" across that has very thin horizontal, parallel lines in it. Texture is perfectly normal, can't feel anything out of the ordinary. Visually, it looks like very light scoring like from a razor blade, just in that spot.

My detailer said its from the heating element. Says its a common sight in BMW's after first use. I never seen one of these before. Curious if anyone else had noticed one.



You can just make it out on the vid -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qdR...ew?usp=sharing

 

well considering the heating element is only from like 2-4 and 8-10 on the wheel, they’re lying lol.

 

Yeah... I was a bit puzzled by that as well. From what I can tell, only 2-4 and 7-10 o'clock seem to heat up. But minus this possible explanation... I have nothing.

 

How on earth do you have so much time. This is literally nothing.

 

Well, I never said its a problem for me, just curious if others know what this is or what' caused it.

But if you must know...

1. It is right in front of me at eye level. Hence, very hard to miss.
2. I end up looking at it for extended periods of time while driving.
3. I have owned many cars and have never seen anything else like it, so its not ordinary.
4. It is a lot more obvious and easy to spot in person, phone camera just has trouble capturing it.

 

I can't say I've looked that closely at that area, but I will and I'll report back .

 

Almost looks like ring or watch might’ve caught the wheel. My watch clasp caught my steering wheel and left a similar pattern.

Regardless definitely very minor and not worth worrying about one way or another. Do love that this is the level of quality that we expect Lexus to achieve.

 

I'm a pretty picky person and would notice something like this as well (I even see extremely fine scratches on the black console that you can't see unless you use a flash light). The honeymoon phase it would bother me, now that I've had the car for a few months, it's now "used car" time and will inevitably incur many scratches, chips, imperfections, etc... just like stuff on your steering wheel so it's best just to get used to it.

Having said that, I do not have it, granted I haven't used the heating steering wheel yet either.

 

Good point! But I take off my watch while driving and ring is on the other hand. It does look like damage, but the texture is perfectly smooth, no different from any other spot on the wheel. It could be some sort of chemical damage maybe? I'm not going to run out the door to get the dealer to look at it. But, will likely ask them to weigh in next time I'm in for service.

 

Yeah... its not easy being this detail oriented. I sympathize.

I see those scratches as well, those black shiny plastic panels are total scratch magnets, you can scratch them with your finger or bounty+windex or microfiber cloth from sunglasses and likely pretty much everything else!

Like you, I do eventually get used to these things and look past them, but first... I need to go through... can I make it go away phase .

 

Well I looked closely and I don't see any issues with my steering wheel. Wonder what happened with yours? Material defect or something rubbed during transport?

 

Thanks for checking! I'm thinking material defect most likely as I don't see any surface damage or anything like that. I checked the entire wheel and there is no other spot like that. I wish I could provide a better visual of what mine looks like. Its almost like the leather its self is distorted somehow, but the surface is perfectly smooth. It sort of looks like a tiger stripe you find in wood work.

Like this, but only in an oval spot about 2 inches across. Lucky for me, its right in my face. If it was anywhere else, I would likely not even seen it or if I did, I would ignore it.

 

yes my steering wheel has it too... also a scratch which is worse than this. I was driving with a ring on.

 

Oh, sorry to hear. I've just about convinced myself that mine is a one-of-defect. Is it small and localized like mine? Any chance you can try to take a pic? Though, its likely as resistant to being photographed as mine. Maybe you have a better camera though.

 

This is what mine looks like. Yes hard to capture on photos. I think it’s just wear and tear.