Steering wheel buttons acting up

[gsmaclean]

I have an 03 Limited with all the buttons on the steering wheel - cruise, audio control, climate control.

The cruise and audio buttons have never had any problems, but the climate control buttons have been acting up for years.

At first, the lower temp button would work only intermittently. Then, the lower temp button would not work, and the raise temp button would actually lower the temp instead.

Now the lower temp button doesn't work and the raise temp button instead adjusts the fan.

I have a background in electronics, so to me this says that they are using a single wire for all these buttons, and the various buttons have different value resistors. It also says that either the contact in the steering wheel that transfers this signal is dirty, or the button contacts themselves are dirty, which is altering the resistance being detected by the climate control system. I'd like to pull it apart and hit it all with some electrical contact cleaner to see if it fixes the problem.

This is all well and good - but looking at the steering wheel, it's not obvious how these buttons are removed. So...

1. Am I correct in guessing that they are using resistors to multiplex the buttons?

2. How do you disassemble it to get TO the buttons?

Thanks!

 

[BigRondo]

I can check my shop manuals when I get home tonight and see if there is any info pertaining to this.

 

[fusseli]

My coast/decal button has stopped working and my next track button intermittently works. Everything else works great on the steering wheel. Meh. It's a high mileage 12 year old vehicle so I'm not complaining. I've seen steering wheel controls stop working entirely on both a Pontiac and a Chevy that were half the age.

 

[HiImBrian]

Remove the two plastic caps on either side of the steering wheel and use a 10 mm socket to undo the bolts holding the airbag on. Once you remove the airbag, it will be blatantly obvious how the buttons are removed. Just be sure to unhook the battery first. You don't want your airbag going off in your face.

 

[Argentimage]

So anyone comment on what they found wrong and how they fixed it?

 

[dgr6853]

i have replaced all of my buttons on my Lincoln Aviator. I know that doesn't necessarily help but it is do-able....I just went to pick n Pull and got some out of another car.

 

[MrPulldown]

My decel button on the cruise doesn't work well. But if I push REALLY hard...

 

[Argentimage]

decell is the sxact issue on my 05, just got a full set of switches for $65