Steering wheel controls have gone wacky!

[bfuqua]

Am I the first? My steering wheel controls have gone south. It varies day to day but for the most part when I push the sound down button the sound goes up... when I press the sound up button the station changes. When I press the coast button on the cruise control the car speeds up and sometimes they all work correctly.

I am the only one?

[George]

This is a new one on me and I've been on T-Bird sites for 5 years now.
Is it a new bird and under warranty???

[bfuqua]

It is a 2002 with over a 100K miles... I drive my Tbird every day - with the top down.

[George]

Great to hear it's driven. It would be interesting to know what you have experienced with it. Or, is that the only issue you've had in the 100,000 miles? Other than routine maintenance of course.

[bfuqua]

1. At 20k the cooling fan went out
2. At 40-50K the air conditioner controller went out and again at 100K
3. I have replaced all of the spark plug coils - two went out so I bought 6 more and finished the job. This happened at about 80k.

Not great but not all that bad.

[George]

For 100k that's not all that bad. Thanks for your response

[George]

Originally Posted by bfuqua

Am I the first? My steering wheel controls have gone south. It varies day to day but for the most part when I push the sound down button the sound goes up... when I press the sound up button the station changes. When I press the coast button on the cruise control the car speeds up and sometimes they all work correctly.

I am the only one?

It was suggested to me by another TBird owner that you unhook your battery for about 15 minutes. Then hook it up again, This should allow your tbird computer to reboot and may correct the issue. Certainly worth a try. And, inexpensive

[bfuqua]

I disconnected my battery for about 20 minutes and that didn't fix the problem but I appreciate the idea. I called my dealer and the service department thinks it is the clockspring in the steering column. Has anyone heard of such?

I did learn how to reprogram the windows after the power was disconnected and it was easy.

[George]

Originally Posted by bfuqua

I disconnected my battery for about 20 minutes and that didn't fix the problem but I appreciate the idea. I called my dealer and the service department thinks it is the clockspring in the steering column. Has anyone heard of such?

I did learn how to reprogram the windows after the power was disconnected and it was easy.

I have never heard of the "clockspring", but if you have it repaired, please post the results for us.

Glad the windows were easy for you. I should have warned you that, that would have to be done once the battery was disconnected. Sorry!

[bfuqua]

Air bag error #32 means a bad ground on the driver's air bag. In my case and evidently in most Ford car's case this means the Clock Spring needs replacing. Clock Spring is probably a bad name for this part. It is the part in your steering wheel that keeps the contacts for electrical parts as the steering wheel turns. Without the Clock Spring the wiring would be tied in knocks.

It turns out this same Clock Spring takes care of the wiring for the turn signals, the cruise control and the radio. If you check the internet there is a great deal of information of Clock Springs and Fords.. well all cars.

The bottom line is the part is $120 and installation at the dealership is about another 150. The process takes a few hours as they have to pull the steering wheel and the air bag to change the part.

The good news is that it lasted about 100k miles. It really should be a one time event if it happens.

So... if your steering wheel controls go south you have an idea of what it could be.

The bad thing about the car is that I am replacing the air conditioner control unit for the second time. I don't have a price but that is only about 50k each and in my territory you have to have a/c.

Bill

[George]

Bill:
Thanks so much for the update. Great information.

As it relates to that AC, there's a guy out in CA that has in excess of 100k miles and no AC issue at all. So hopefully yours was just an isolated one..twice

[scriv]

had my 05 since new and never had a similar problem. maybe it's like my thumper. we are just lucky.

[tony millholen]

My steering wheel controls went out twice but both times it was under warr. It had a mind of it's own. I have a 2005 cashmere with 15,000 miles. These cars have alot of bugs in them. But there pretty.....tbirdt

[George]

Tony, just curious as to what the fix was for your controls, based upon what the work order said the fix was.
This is the type of info (issue, fix and part number/description of parts) that may help others at a later date -Our cars are getting older and out of warranty, so this info could help some that may be "do-it-yourself'ers"