Confused Steering wheel controls?

[AKbrener]

So I have an 05 Eddie Bauer with the steering wheel controls on both sides (cruise, Radio, and HVAC)

Every now and then I will try to use the radio volume button and it will change the station, and the station will change the selection from Radio to DVD to CD etc. I am not sure whats going on, but its very intermittent, but very annoying.

Should I be looking for wiring inside the wheel itself, maybe somehow clean the button contacts, or go into the back of the radio itself?

The cruise control side seems to always work as designed, so seems to be mainly focused on the radio.

Help/input is appreciated!

 

[patelam]

Steering Wheel Radio Controls Confused

I have the same problem in my 2003 Mountaineer Premier. There are four controls vertically stacked on the steering wheel, and occassionally (but more and more lately) they get shifted up one. So the bottom (4th) one acts like the 3rd, which acts like the 2nd, etc. This is not an 'always' situation but very often now. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, first post here.... great resource so far.

 

[matt0248]

The most likely cause is the clockspring assembly under the steering wheel. Since I don't have a wiring diagram I am just guessing, but I believe all the wires for the steering wheel controls go through the clock spring. They do sometimes fail.

 

[JB05Limited4x4]

In my ‘05 Limited, I don’t have a DVD player. So I only have the 24 pin and the 8 pin connectors, not the 16-pin connector at all. My steering wheel control buttons are in pin 18 of the 24 pin connector. I believe if you have the 16-pin connector, yours will be in pin 14 of that connector.
Anyway, I measured the voltage difference when pressing each of the 4 different audio buttons on the steering wheel. Volume up (0.120v), Volume down (0.002v), music (0.06v), and memory (0.02v).
I say all that to say, when I pressed the buttons very quickly, the voltage would not register those same values, it was all over the place.
So your problem may be as simple as pressing the button with purpose. You don’t have to press it hard, but press it “normally” try not to press it “quickly”
Let me know if this fixed the issue!