Something really strange has been happening with my steering wheel radio controls a few times lately.

Sometimes the functions of the buttons get messed up. The down volume button changes the channel, the up turns down the music and the change channel button turns down the volume. Even stranger is that the few times it happened, the function of the buttons changed.. i.e. Down became up, etc...

All I have to do to fix this issue is turn off the radio. It happens so infrequently that I am not going to rush to bring it to the dealer, but I was wondering if any of you knew what this could be?

 

This happened to me once before, I just got up the next morning and try again. I had been drinking all night.

 

smack it

 

This happened to my 02 TL-S awhile back....i think the problem was a circle controller board that is placed inside the steering wheel. Replaced and problem fixed. What also happened was my horn stop working also

 

Anyone ever replace this item?? DIYable? and cost of part if anyone knows, thanks.

 

I have the same problem, used to only notice it on cold days, now it is more frequent.

I guess I don't care that much about it.

 

Had mine fixed once....i think they just reconnected some loose wires. Recently, it's been acting up again. Anyone have a DIY fix?

 

The problem is a metal circle ring inside the steering wheel that completes the ground connection for the circuits inside. Acura did not take into account variations in temperature when selecting the size of this ring. As a result, when the weather is cold the ring contracts and the connection to ground is loss.

There is some kind of tech advisory with Acura dealers on how to fix this. Basically you take it to a dealer and they will put notches or bumps (whichever you want to call it) so when it gets cold the ring still contracts but the bumps maintain the ground connection. When is warm it does not matter because the connection is made anyway.

Hope this helps.

 

What is the position of your steering wheel? The functions will shift or will stop working depending on the position of the steering wheel. I tested this in my TL, but dunno if it is the same in the CL. If at a certain position, the functions will work incrrectly or will stop completely. Might not be a problem with the wiring itself.

 

if the ring is a ground, then when it fails to connect wouldn't that just make it non-functional?

this happened to me a while back. it didn't really have any consistency to the weather. it would just happen randomly. not sure what i did but it stopped doing it and hasn't happen since.

 

Mine does this too. Thanks for the info.

 

where is this ring? is it somewhere in the steering column or is it just at the switch itself that's off on the left? if i unscrewed the screw behind the switch, will i be able to access it?

 

The ring is in the sterring column. initially when it happened to me I took apart the switch assembly. Later i found out what the problem was because the dealer had some kind of paperwork of this happening before to other customers and what the tech "how to " reference was to fix it.

The ring is ground, the current will find its way back to the battery at an undesirable potential which will be interpreted as a different function. If in the middle of pressing a button the connection is loss, this leaves a potential that is not considered a 1 or a 0 but some open state in between in which the circuit will try to interpret the input and that is were the random result occurs.

my dealer is Tischer Acura in Maryland.

Hope this helps everyone

 

this is a known problem with the wheel controls by acura. there was a recall on it by acura. just take it to any dealer and they will fix it for free even out of waranty. they have to put dimples or something on the contacts. It happend to me.

 

Thanks for the info. Mine does this quite often and it gets annoying when you want to turn up a good song and it skips tracks instead of increasing volume.

 

Anyone have the recall notice or know where it can be found? want to take mine in and not deal with any bs.

Thanks

 

Mine did this once in a while a few months ago...drove me nuts, and now its back to working normal....I live in florida so my temprature ranges from hot to hot to really hot so I don't know why it did that.

 

I took mine in once before and they fixed it somehow. But it's back again. If anyone has the recall notice, please let me know since I'm out of warranty now and I don't want any problems getting them to fix it this time.