Is the steering wheel trim piece around the buttons sold separately?
 

The trim piece surrounding my steering wheel buttons is peeling. I know this is a fairly common issue, so I'm trying to gauge how much it would cost to replace so I can decide if it's worth going to battle with the dealer to get them to replace it. I looked on Realoem.com and it appears to be part of the steering wheel itself and not a separate piece. Does anyone know if it can be purchased separately? Thanks!

I believe it is a piece of the steering wheel. If you are trying to replace it you may want to look at wrapping it in 3M carbon fiber wrap or another type of wrap.

Ditto on the 3M Dinoc wrapping...
 

I bought a real Carbon Fiber wrapped piece and did my own Dinoc wrapped interior. It is easy to do. Since I was swappining my steering wheel, I did the interior as well. Do the piece yourself. I Bought the wrap on ebay for $45, the wheel from BMWsteeringwheels.com for $400. You will need to remove the Steering wheel, instructions are in another forum. An hour job start to finish to remove wheel, wrap piece, reinstall wheel. see pics.

So the whole steering wheel needs to be removed to wrap the trim piece? Do you have a link to the DIY for the steering wheel removal? Thanks!

When I bought my used 08 the trim was peeling too. They had a guy
paint (?) it. It now has a textured finish, kind of like "spatter" paint.
Looks pretty good and a lot easier.

Trim Piece removal
 

If you are not switching the steering wheel you can remove the trim piece by first removing the airbag and then unscrewing 3 torex screws behind the wheel. You don't need take the full wheel off. find the airbag release holes on either side of the wheel, push in with a long flat head srew driver, lightly lift the airbag on the side you are pushing and the airbag will release on that side. do the the same for the other side. once the airbag is off, find the torex screws from the underside and remove them. the piece should come right off. Replace the trim in the opposite order. Remember not to disconnect the airbag or you could accidently deploy it. To be safe, disconnect your battery so you don't pop the airbag. I searched for some of the previous instructions but can't seem to find them.

Dealer repalced that for me under warranty.

Just got word today that the pieces are going to be covered under warranty! I'll keep the instructions for when it's out of warranty. Thanks sweetbabu1!

was it in the 3 year warranty ? My car is just over 3 years :dunno:

My warranty is 4 years, but I'm not sure if it was covered under warranty or if they goodwilled it.