Sticky steering wheel & skid pan steering...

[MrRegieRitmo]

I've encountered this weird phenomena in the past couple of days, experienced it before on my other cars but this has been the first time it's happened on this car.....for absolutely no reason at all the steering wheel has been sticky to the touch in the mornings & left a dirty black residue all over my hands which takes some removing - any ideas?? :?The other slightly more concerning problem is that my front wheels feel like I'm driving on banana skins when I'm turning corners, going round roundabouts etc, feels like the wheels are going to turn 180 & I'll lose control.....is it as bad as it feels or is it purely a sensation of losing control?? I know the roads are wet but my tyres are fine, certainly nowhere near bald which is how they are feeling the way they slide around!

[Pete-M]

Loads of tread doesn't necessarily mean loads of grip. Old, cheap, or wrongly inflated tyres can be right buggers in the wet but fine in the dry.Another thing is that some roads seem to be sweating diesel at the moment, normally bus / truck routes, but there are some shady arse roundabouts near me that when it first rains are slippier than Arthur Daley's returns policy.

[Mr Lobster]

Grip problem is probably down to either crappy tyres or the road itself. If it hasn't rained much recently, a bit of rain can then make the road greasy. Steering wheel - is it a leather one? I had an R5 that had that problem years ago. Think I took it off, gave it a good clean, and it was fine! Is it getting wet / damp at all or does the car have an internal water leak thats letting it absorb moisture?

[pogweasel]

What he said. The steering wheel is down to it getting colder/moister at night at the minute, some of your steering issue may be down to the same. Try weaving like an F1 driver on warmup lap to get some heat into your tyres............

[whitevanman]

or.........Dampness is causing the steering wheel issue. especially if its a leather rim.............check for loose track rod ends and play in the rack. it causes that LOOSE feeling as well

[Split_Pin]

In respect of your tyres issue, I had 'budgets' (ahem) on my Astra and the right time to pull away from a junction quickly had to be forecast rather than judged. The grip was very poor and was resolved when i bought other wheels which had decent tyres Lasted bloody ages though

[pogweasel]

I really need to buy some tyres. All the ones on my van are kippered, and the ones on the BMW are oddly perished, plus are shitty budget tyres anyway. Even though I get them at trade with no fitting costs I suspect some decent 215/40/18's will be assraping.

[Station]

Monkey driven car (leaving monkey-esque filth on wheel), and left banana skins in arches?

[MrRegieRitmo]

Thanks Station, I think you've hit the nail on the head there!

[MrRegieRitmo]

The tyres probably aren't the best in the first place no, the offside front one was an advisory on the MOT to suggest it wasn't long for this world, so maybe it is about to expire!?The steering wheel isn't made of anything fancy, just a standard rubber feel type one as on most cars of the 80s / 90s.

[STUNO]

Yep, a steering wheel thats rubber feel and has the outer coating worn away autoshite style will be sticky etc in damp weather. I solved the problem with a cheap sw cover (which fell to pieces but left the stretchy inner part on the wheel and still did the job ).

[nigel bickle]

Dont worry Reg- its the same here. Its not rained right on the south coast for months- and now its hooning down. All the oils in the tarmac have come to the surface-making it very slippery. However, this amount means it'll be alright by tomorrow-

[peter9000uk]

The steering wheel will be down to years of dead skin & dirt accumulating on the wheel coupled with the damp weather lately makes it worse.Get a coarse sponge and with some sort of diluted cleaning solution scrub the wheel. You will be surprised how much crap comes off

[bones96]

Dont worry Reg- its the same here. Its not rained right on the south coast for months- and now its hooning down. All the oils in the tarmac have come to the surface-making it very slippery. However, this amount means it'll be alright by tomorrow-

and loads of dead and damaged cars caused by people driving like loons in the wet