Steering wheel controls faulty

l posted about this before, the "mute" and "volume" controls on the steering wheel are very intermittent.

Anyhow, l asked the Suzuki dealer to look at it and they said it needs a new steering wheel.

Suzuki have authorised a warranty replacement even though the Jimny is 4 1/2 years old.

lf it's been serviced at the main dealer you get an extra year on the warranty. 

l think this is pretty good from Suzuki. 

Yes very good. It must be one of the few items that is covered by the Service Activated Warranty, because there are a lot of exclusions.

l don't know if the Suzuki dealer had anything to do with it, they are an old fashioned family business in Derbyshire and are excellent.

We didn't buy the Jimny from them (l bought it from someone on here) but it's been in every year for a service (between £200 and £300 depending on what's needed)

If it were me, I'd be slipping the parts man a fiver to let me know when the old steering wheel hits the bins out back.

(The wheel comes apart into several components, and it is good to have spares of trim pieces and small electrical items. And the fault may only be a pinched wire or dirty contact.  Of course swopping the whole wheel is the only economic choice for the dealer, but a DIYer always finds an excuse to fritter away his time.)

Usually carmakers require the dealers to destroy the pulled parts, and while I don't see any other realistic position for them to take, it is still kind of a shame. Lots of usable/fixable stuff ends up in the tip that way. Just my opinion.

If someone did fish the old wheel out of the refuse, I'm happy to buy it from him, broken switches or no! 

l'll certainly ask.

Or possibly have a look in the bin round the side of the workshop

It contains an airbag, so might not go in the bin, unless they swap some of the components over, like the airbag.

The airbag is a separate component of course.  It is not part of the steering wheel and would not be discarded if a steering wheel were being replaced.

The switches, covers, and wheel itself are the steering wheel assembly we're discussing.  Suzuki, like many or most manufacturers, does not list any of those bits individually in their parts book.

New steering wheel fitted today.

l asked if l could have the old steering wheel, but they said as it was a warranty replacement the part had to go back to Suzuki.

Thanks for looking into it. That isn't uncommon. Sometimes they ask for the parts to be destroyed onsite (with evidence) but often they want to see/examine/destroy the parts centrally. It helps them discover manufacturing problems -- if they see a lot of part X failing, they can figure out why -- and also cuts down on warranty fraud.

Glad to hear Suzuki took care of you -- happy driving!