Steering Wheel Renewal

My steering wheel on my 2000AC with oak interior has a rip. I attribute it to my daughter digging nails into the wheel with white knuckle grip learning to drive few years ago. Oak wheels for the 2000 seem to be unobtanium. Anyone know of a place that refurbishes damaged steering wheels? Thanks in advance

 

I sent my wheel for my wife's LS430 to this place about 4 years ago. Wasn't cheap, but great work and the wheel looked new again.

https://craftcustoms.com/photos-by-make-model/woodgrain-steering-wheels/

 

I wonder what an oak interior or wheels are?

 

@N84434 - mine is just vinyl. Do you recall roughly the cost?

 

@chunk - oak is Toyota-speak for tan interior color

 

Okay good, I was envisioning some sort of 1980's plastic wood-grain interior, ala Chrysler "K" cars.

 

Back in 87 my girlfriends parents had a Jaguar xj12 with real walnut veneer trim. Only car I rode in with real wood.

 

Loncky makes leather steering wheel wraps you stitch on, which look OEM. You could contact them on a rough color-match and stitch it on.

@912 dropped one in his truck, and it came at a time when I was strongly considering buying it, but I found an OEM leather-wrapped out of a T4R that worked.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/best-steering-wheel-cover.101790/#post-2608417

Scroll up in that thread for other ideas. You don't want to buy a new wheel. It's $$$. fleaBay is your best bet in that case.

 

Haha. I see what you did there

 

I'm not sure he meant what you're thinking, but I get it. In that case my '66 Mustang I had in high school had wood interior too.

 

Duality in meaning is a beautiful thing especially when both are true.

Her mom would also give me a ride home sometimes. Now get your head out of the gutter!

 

It was somewhere around 300 bucks, which in retrospect was probably more than a decent used wheel would cost. And I realized it's been nearly 6 years ago now... Yes, the wheel is woodgrain, which may have contributed to the cost.

You may be better off with a sew-on Cover which work very well. Just very tedious to install.

 

A lot of salvage yards don't inventory everything, just typically key items which sell fast and leave the rest attached to the whole wreck (at least in my neck of the woods). I would just call your local salvage yard and have them look/call around their network. Maybe even have one send a pic if a yard has it to pull off a steering column.

 

I paid $100 shipped for a pretty damn nice OEM leather T4R wheel (minus airbag and cover) that matches my interior. Dunno if the T4R came with oak/tan interior, though. Came with cruise control lever, all internal wiring, audio controls, etc.

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4Runner wheel identical? You got a pic of the aftermath?

 

Camry, Sienna, 4Runner, LX470, Land Cruiser, maybe others all used the same steering wheel (and controls) through the early 2000s, with variable years. There's more info about this somewhere on the forum, but I think it's buried in the Lunch Table thread.

I still haven't installed it yet. It's in my to-do pile. I think it's sitting on my rear floorboard right now. It's stupid, because I have all the tools, I have the right-hand phone controls and bridge cable, I could probably do it in an hour, but "just haven't gotten to it" yet.

See for yourself, I don't necessarily recommend buying these examples, they're not the best at this price point.
BUT BE CAREFUL, LOOK CAREFULLY, a lot of sellers list "Leather" when there's no leather, and sometimes the leather is jankety!:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234846079005

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154684518354

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265512453965

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And Camry:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234547042189

And Sienna, which has tan, but here's another that says "leather" when it's not leather":

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364086919660

And LX470, if you want more premium with wood and leather:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185635810012

You get the idea...

 

Thanks. I’m pretty anal so id have a hard time with a wheel that isn’t 100% new condition. I keep seeing MIT steering wheel replacements on eBay that I like the thicker style of and wonder how the fit would be.

 

I priced out new wheels a while ago, both on my own and with Roman from Cool Springs, and they were like $850+ for leather. Cheapest in plain vinyl was mid-$600s!

At least one member has one of these you linked, but with mahogany wood, hell if I remember who. For a while they were calling these "sport" wheels on eBay.

The thinness of the frame on those made me take a double-take. It didn't look as beefy as OEM. Basically, IIRC, that style is what came in the Lexus sport coupes?

The one I got for $100 shipped looks low-mile to me. The controls had lost their matte finish, but the wheel surround was in excellent shape, looked to have about the same mileage as my truck, so I was cool with it.

 

True they do look a litter thinner but the only thing it would affect would be being bent easier in an accident. As long as the airbag does it’s job I see it as a downfall

 

I just worry, cheap Chinese pot metal is used for everything these days. Combine structure that thin, add in pot metal, and you've got a ticking time bomb. Last thing you need is the steering wheel breaking off, and one of those pieces puncturing the airbag during inflation. That's probably 1 in a million, just made me nervous.

 

You might also try looking for wheels in the color "Fawn". That's the tan/beige color code on later models. It might not be an exact match, but maybe close enough?