A couple of general questions

[XLR Hopeful!]

STEERING WHEEL

Most cars have a color-keyed steering wheel. Why do a few have black wheels even with light seats? And those appear to be missing the wood at the top of the wheel. Pic attached.

ENGINE

The guy in this video seems to be pretty conversant with XLRs, although he lost me a little when he was talking about horsepower. The most interesting part, though, is that he says Northstars installed for rear-wheel-drive are different and better than those used for front-drive. Is this true or just internet noise? He talks about it at the 6 minute 30 second point.

YouTube info good?

 

[mickeytee]

Both engines are the same. Have no idea what be is talking about. Most northstsrs in the 90's were front wheel drive and they are the ones with the head bolt issues. In 2004 gm fixed that problem 90%. Engines after that period go for 200,000 miles plus. They must not be run hot. There are a few water leakage issues that can run you out of coolant and cause the car to run hot. They run a little too warm for my tadte when everything is working. If it runs hot, stop pull over. Even though you can supposedly drive in limp mode, its an aluminum block, aluminum heads and if any engine gets too hot it blows head gaskets and warps heads. And i dont use the life time coolant. I prefer to change it and flush the system as needed.

Im not sure about the wheels. I have a couple of all leather as shown for 08-09 and i have some with the matching wood. I think one of them is not heated. Really not sure. Look forward to someone who knows .

 

[luxuryrules]

Perhaps by 2004 when they Northstars were fixed, that also happened to be the year they showed up in RWD applications so people mistakenly correlated the two?

 

[Bjfox1970]

no woodgrain on the wheel = XLR-V i believe

 

[Fireduck69]

I read that when the V came out in 06, they had problems with the wheels zebra wood cracking due to the heated steering wheel. So the produced without the wood trim till they came up with a solution in 08 I believe. Supposedly they offered a discount or to replace the steering wheels at a future date. Most I’m sure were never replaced.

 

[mickeytee]

Interesting

 

[XLR Hopeful!]

Thanks for the wheel info, folks!

Got another question from YouTube now. (Because if it's on YouTube, it has to be true, right?)

At about 18.5 minutes, this guy says the top mechanism was licensed from Mercedes. Is that true?

Top mechanism licensed?

 

[mickeytee]

The top was designed and i think built by

CTS Fahrzeug-Dachsysteme​

They did build the mercedes tops along with others. I doubt gm paid anything to MB unless they somehow had a patent on top in the trunk. But i think thats sort of like tailgate on a pickup, you have to e very spevific and do something special. Nothing on the xlr is shared with MB. Not a pump , line anything. Fluids will interchange but thats about it. The xlr shares a lot of design and some parts with saab. I think GM owned Saab at the time.not up on car history.
I watched a few minutes of the video and the guy was incorrect on at least 4 things he stated. but its the internet, haha.

 

[luxuryrules]

If anything, hardtop convertible that was electronically controlled dates back to 1938 Buick Y job - one might argue MB should license that from GM!