Steering wheel controls? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Steering wheel controls?

jgfarley47

New Member
Joined
November 23, 2021
Messages
2
Reaction score
1
City, State
Gulf Breeze
Year, Model & Trim Level
1999 Ford Explorer XLT 4D
What controls are on the 1999 Ford Explorer XLT
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year or try it out for $5 a month.

Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.











All of them..
But seriously folks, what exactly do you mean?
The OP should have been more clear, but the heading asks about steering wheel controls. To the best of my recollection, on the XLT it's just cruise control (and horn, of course).
 






All of them..
But seriously folks, what exactly do you mean?
My apology. I meant to ask what controls are on the right and left hand side of the steering wheel of a 1999 Ford Explorer XLT.
Mine have decayed and I am trying to find the right replacement part. I know cruise control was on the left but not sure what was on the right side. Thank you for your input.
 












As Donald's link shows, they come as a set of left and right side, along with the ribbon cable.

If your existing ribbon cable is in good shape, it unplugs at both L & R switch pods so you can reuse it and not have to fish the new ribbon cable in place of the old. Remember to disconnect the battery for a few minutes before fiddling with airbag removal.

Sometimes these are cheaper on ebay, one example $17:
 






How’s the quality on those? Mine are totally shot
 












It was funny how my original degraded, not linearly. It looked good until two years ago, then the black coating started peeling off, then last summer when it got hot outdoors, they turned very shiny/gooey, unlike any summer prior.

I'd never cleaned it with anything more than mild detergent solution, and can't even recall using the cruise control buttons in the last decade or so. They appear to be silicone rubber so probably not a good idea to put armor-all/etc silicone on them.

I did have a bulb burn out and replaced it with an LED (hard soldered on not a "bulb" retrofit) around 5 years ago. The new aftermarket ones like I linked (probably Donalds' too) are LED rather than incandescent, didn't notice much difference in light output but a little less uniform than the original.

I've only had mine installed since summer, looks good still but no idea how long they'll hold up.
 






It was funny how my original degraded, not linearly. It looked good until two years ago, then the black coating started peeling off, then last summer when it got hot outdoors, they turned very shiny/gooey, unlike any summer prior.
I'd never cleaned it with anything more than mild detergent solution, and can't even recall using the cruise control buttons in the last decade or so. They appear to be silicone rubber so probably not a good idea to put armor-all/etc silicone on them.
I did have a bulb burn out and replaced it with an LED (hard soldered on not a "bulb" retrofit) around 5 years ago. The new aftermarket ones like I linked (probably Donalds' too) are LED rather than incandescent, didn't notice much difference in light output but a little less uniform than the original.
I've only had mine installed since summer, looks good still but no idea how long they'll hold up.
 






It was funny how my original degraded, not linearly. It looked good until two years ago, then the black coating started peeling off, then last summer when it got hot outdoors, they turned very shiny/gooey, unlike any summer prior.

I'd never cleaned it with anything more than mild detergent solution, and can't even recall using the cruise control buttons in the last decade or so. They appear to be silicone rubber so probably not a good idea to put armor-all/etc silicone on them.

I did have a bulb burn out and replaced it with an LED (hard soldered on not a "bulb" retrofit) around 5 years ago. The new aftermarket ones like I linked (probably Donalds' too) are LED rather than incandescent, didn't notice much difference in light output but a little less uniform than the original.

I've only had mine installed since summer, looks good still but no idea how long they'll hold up.
I've replaced several in all the Explorers I've owned. The originals (old by the time I got them) were a hard plastic and the face of them were eaten away. The replacements were a soft vinyl. They looked the same, but didn't feel the same. You can tell there is a little button under the face that you need to make sure you push to work the control.
 






It was funny how my original degraded, not linearly. It looked good until two years ago, then the black coating started peeling off, then last summer when it got hot outdoors, they turned very shiny/gooey, unlike any summer prior.

I'd never cleaned it with anything more than mild detergent solution, and can't even recall using the cruise control buttons in the last decade or so. They appear to be silicone rubber so probably not a good idea to put armor-all/etc silicone on them.

I did have a bulb burn out and replaced it with an LED (hard soldered on not a "bulb" retrofit) around 5 years ago. The new aftermarket ones like I linked (probably Donalds' too) are LED rather than incandescent, didn't notice much difference in light output but a little less uniform than the original.

I've only had mine installed since summer, looks good still but no idea how long they'll hold up.
I've replaced several sets with all the Explorers I've owned. The originals (old by the time I got them) were a hard plastic. The replacements were a soft vinyl. You can tell there is a small button you need to push under the control for it to work. The replacements seem to hold up OK.
 






^ It was the originals on my '98 that I replaced. They were fairly soft silicone rubber when new, but get hard as they age, but also mine started getting softer and greasy looking when hot last summer, sort of have a crumbly waxy property to them now. It had to be the silicone oil separating out of the rubber as I hadn't even used them in years, no way that grease would come from an external source.

The green sticker on my originals read UPN150 part # F87A-9D809-BA & next line 0988A W

The underlying silicon rubber was yellowish (but might have started out opaque white), then what looks like a vinyl white layer over that which is for the lettering (so it won't wear off), then a vinyl looking black top layer. I couldn't tell if the replacements use this construction technique or instead used white paint/whatever printing on top of the black layer so might be subject to wearing off over time. I never use cruise control so haven't had any wear on the replacements yet.

Amazon now has the lowest price I've seen on these aftermarket, $16:
Amazon product ASIN B08C271KZG
 






Back
Top