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Your Car Steering Wheel Buttons Not Working? [Solved]

One day you just casually hop into your car in a good mood just to find out that your steering wheel buttons not working? RIP Good Mood. The malfunction of steering wheel buttons does not only indicate audio disabling or volume modifications. It has much more to do with the internal range of your steering and also a standard connection towards the airbag.

Today, we are going to discuss the reasons behind your Steering wheel buttons not working and on how to fix it by just spending a quality small amount of time on it.

Why My Steering Wheel Buttons Not Working?

Well, to begin with, this dysfunctionality first you’d have to gain some knowledge about the steering and the incorporation that are insulated inside of it.

To begin with, your steering does not only takes care of the directions/turnings of your wheel. Instead, it also cares about your internal remote controlling software and your airbag stimulation, your audio player controlling and finally the rotation.

2 major problems might cause trouble in the proper functioning of your wheel.

  • Malfunction of your Clockspring
  • Improper alignment of Controls System

These are the 2 primaries and the most frequent trouble creates that cause dysfunctionalities in your steering wheel.

What Is A Clockspring?

A Clockspring is a circular incorporated object that is located inside the steering wheel precisely behind the airbag pad of your steering.

A clock spring is prominently inserted at the middle mounted with a circuitry ping at the top of the brim plugged with tabs on both sides that take cares of the Airbag system and your vehicle’s audio system.

In general terms, A clockspring is a system that takes care of:

  • Audio Control
  • Trip Control
  • Cruise Control
  • Cluster Control

Whereas in Technical Terms:

A clockspring is responsible for accepting Electronic signals and the rotation of the steering wheel.

The Functioning of a Clock Spring and How It Is Interlinked With Your Steering Wheel Buttons Not Working:

 

Inside the Clockspring, there is a ribbon circular coil that controls the finite rotatory motion of the wheel.

In short, when you turn the Steering wheel towards right the cable Unwinds up to certain sustainable position and then locks.

When turned Left the Coil/Ribbon inside the Clockspring Contracts and tightens up to the certain end.

The ribbons when unwinding from the circular position can be spotted attached to a control plug the fences of those control points defines the number of remote controllable objects that are presented inside your car. For example – Saudi controller, radio controller, Cluster controller, Bluetooth Enable Pin etc….

This is in general, how a clockspring works. The brim of the Clockspring mounts up with a circulatory ping that helps the buttons control the symptoms.

The Clockspring locks the rotatory motion when reached to certain up. If in case you apply more pressure to the wheel the coil incorporated inside the clockspring will get broken thus resulting in the malfunction of your rotating steering wheel.

Inside the house, One part of the Clockspring is attached to the steering wheel and the other is attached to that of Steering Column.

The Assumptions:

In practical theory, A clockspring does not contain an actual spring inside the object. The derivation comes from the basic looks of the coil.  Also, the ribbons that closely resemble the springs inside the housing.

As the theory itself suggests, there is no involvement of the spring in the making of the object. the clockspring has nothing to do with the compression and releasing of energy while turning your wheel. Which constructively speaks about the specialised functioning of a clock spring only help to amend the wheel left to right.

The steering getting back to its definite neutral position is because of Caster Angle.

This is how precisely a clockspring Spring Works in theoretical and practical terms.

How to Troubleshoot?

There are surely multiple ways that can help you find and diagnose your steering wheel buttons not working.

  1. Constant Flictauation Of Lights Indication inside the Control Unit Box.
  2. Weird noises while driving. For Example – scratching, grinding noise, and extensive rubbing sounds.
  3. The interlinked possible connections might hint you the trouble at the display meter.
  4. Your Steering wheel becomes hard to turn. It does not cooperate with your routine force to turn the wheel.
  5. Improper Stability and Contractions.

Note:

Another major problem that might lead you into a complete disaster when you ate having trouble with your Clockspring is The Demplyement of Airbags.

 

We can’t troubleshoot the airbag dysfunction beforehand.

Because the employment of airbags can only be a witness while you find yourself in a fatal accident. So, if you have a tiny bit of suspicion concerning your clockspring make sure you diagnose it before meeting with a fatal accident.

How To Fix Your Steering Wheel Buttons Not Working?

2 ways can help you fix your non-functioning steering wheels;

  1. Replacing The Clockspring
  2. Aligning with The remote Control System.

The First method will consume some definite time and skill whereas the second one is just a simple as downloading an app on your android.

Either of them, guarantees you the permanent fixation of the trouble. Let’s see how:

How to Fix/Replace Your Clockspring:

  1. Before performing any action inside your vehicle, make sure you unplug the battery power system.
  2. Now, wait of complete 15 minutes to let the supplied energy drain inside your vehicle.
  3. Adjust your seat position according to your steering.
  4. Now, take a keen look behind your steering wheel you can spot 2 small holes on either side of the steering.
  5. Pic up the SST tool key from your kit – a small seven shaped bar. Insert the SST key inside the hole and apply some pressure.
  6. Now you van gently applies some pressure to remove the airbag pad from your steering.
  7. Disconnect the plug that connects your Airbag pad and the Clockspring.
  8. Now you can see the big steering nut hat is insulated at the middle of your steering, Here, make sure you see the proper crowbar to loosen up the nut. The different vehicle carries different torques. By removing the nut you will also be disconnecting the clockspring connection. (Note: While unplugging the string wheel make sure that wheel is pointed straight forward towards the front end. You can make sure the position by confirming it with the position of the front wheel.
  9. Tip – Use a marker or a colour tape to mark the straight positioning of the steering before continuing to the next option.
  10. Now you can slide your hands before the clockspring to find the click bars that will help you unlock the clockspring from the position by just pressing the bar down.
  11. The click sound hints you that the clockspring is free to remove fro the bar hat s placed in the middle of the spring.
  12. Now, assuming that you have the new one in your hand, replace the clockspring.
  13. Just follow the steps backwards to fix your clockspring.
  14. Connect the airbag pods to with the plugs.
  15. And then you are done.

This is how exactly you can replace the clockspring in a complete superficial manner.  This does not take much effort as you can see the whole process needs to perform only on a single equipment and by sitting comfortably at your driver’s seat. So, why to rush for the mechanic when you have the step-by-step instructional set in your phone.

Cost of the Clockspring:

Out of the 2 fixing problems, only the Clockspring requires money as we’d have to replace it with a new one. The Cost of Clockspring varies from (50$ – 200$) based upon the vehicle). Additional labour charges may differentiate from 100 to 200$ at the least. So why to spend such a good amount of money when you can simply diagnose the problem on your own with the help of us right!

How To Fix The Control Unit & Your Steering Wheel Controls Not Working?

Well, the most simple and effortless way to fix a car problem.

 

  1. Switch on your car to get access to your LCD.
  2. Go To General Settings.
  3. Under steering Wheel click on User-defined,
  4. Now press and Hold the derived Functioning option.
  5. As you grant permission to the system now press the similar functioning button on your steering column and child it for 5 seconds.
  6. This means that you have now linked the button on your LCD remote system and the manual upon the system.
  7. Now, do the same for every single button on your string column.
  8. Finally, Start the vehicle and check the Functions.

 

Simple, Practical and effortless isn’t it.

Does You Car Bounces Up and Down While Driving?

1. Radio Buttons On Steering Wheel Not Working

Radio buttons on steering wheel that allow you to change from one station to another work when car is simply turned on (engine not running), but don’t work when engine is turned on. (Can’t change from one preset station to another). Volume control works both ways and all other functions work just fine (touch screen, control knobs) in both situations

2. Gunk Inside The Steering Wheels Buttons

Take out the steering wheel to clean inside the buttons

3. Stuck Stereo Issue

Reboot the infotainment screen or update the latest software

4. Broken Or Problematic Clockspring

Replace the old clockspring

Conclusion:

Small malfunction leads to bg disasters, So why to hand up your lives onto a simple technical problem when you simply fix it with some guidance.

The malfunction of Steering buttons does not only bother your mood but can also reinstate some serious problems during your prolonged journey. So make sure you fix them before something bizarre happens.

I hope this article helped you on How to find, Learn about and Fix the problem of your vehicle. As I always say, This is not rocket science. All you need is a kit and an Instruction set.

By following the above method you can fix your car steering wheel buttons not working trouble once for all without any intervention of a mechanic.

Drive safe and Obey The Traffic Rules.