AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

This has been an ongoing problem for years now and enough is enough. When the stock head unit was in there, the volume would turn all the way up if any button on the steering wheel was pressed. Then it deteriorated to the point where it would do it randomly whether a steering wheel button was pressed or not.

When I put an Alpine 9885 in, it worked great. I didn't have the steering wheel hooked up at first. Then I bought a PAC SWI-Jack and programmed it correctly and to my delight the buttons worked fine for a few days. It soon started turning itself up to max after a steering wheel button was pressed and then randomly on its own.

So I bought a new set of buttons and just got those installed today. For some reason the radio wouldn't turn on while the SWI was still on, I had to open the door, turning off the SWI, then I could turn on the radio again. I eventually programmed the SWI and no sooner did it exit program mode, the LED started flashing rapidly and the volume shot up again. The Alpine also beeped as if a button was pressed. I took out the key, opened the door, then tried turning it on again and the LED flashed rapidly and the volume maxed out.

What is going on here? Is there some module of some kind buried in the dash somewhere between the buttons and radio? It seems like something having to do with the steering wheel is causing my volume to max out. Help!

Flaring Afro

i believe i have heard for some cars the swix will measure intensity of electricity, where different amount = different buttons. if thats how ours is instead of set of wires for every button than maybe a bad wire or something? i dunno thats really weird.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

Dang, I really didn't want to go digging around in there. What a pita. How can I tell if a wire is bad?

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

I called Crutchfield and they said since it was happening with the stock head unit, it's most likely a bad ground, wire or resister inside the steering column somewhere. Time to bust out the wallet.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

Still haven't fixed this but my motivation to do something about it is up again. I would like to expose the wires in the steering column so I can inspect them and do whatever I have to do but I don't know how.

Does anyone know how to take the column apart enough to see the radio wires?

shoemike

iTrader: (25)

Have you tried reprogramming it again?

My SWI-JACK would not increase the volume unless the button was held down for a long time so I reprogrammed it.
Then the volume would increase on it's own so I had to go through the motions again.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

Found an amazing write up that pretty much tells me everything I need to know:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/stereo...-controls.html

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

So I've been pretty busy this weekend. I managed to get the SIR coil out of the column and tested it for continuity. It was fine so I plugged it in and tested from one end of the coil to the PAC SWI unit I have and that was good too. With the wheel buttons in my lap I tried programming them again and once I was done the light on the PAC SWI started flashing like crazy, indicating a button was being "held".

I ran 4 new wires from the buttons to the radio control pigtail under the dash to rule out the SIR coil completely and still have the same problem.

So apparently it is not the SIR coil, it is not the buttons because it's done this with 2 sets, it's not the PAC SWI because it did this with the stock radio and it's not the Alpine for the same reason it's not the PAC.

Looking at shoebox's diagram (http://shbox.com/1/st_radio_controls.jpg), black is ground, tan is the dimmer, blue is the signal and yellow is power. It's got to be something with these four wires but they run up into the dash before coming back down behind the radio and getting at them would be a HUGE pita.

I wanted to test the ground but I'm not sure how. When I had the alligator clip of my continuity tester on the ground terminal, I touched the tan wire terminal (dimmer) and got continuity. Is this bad? It didn't happen with the other two.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

I cleared some more out of the dash and got more room to view the area. I tried the continuity test again and with the alligator clip on the ground terminal for the steering buttons I touched the probe to the dimmer terminal at the radio end and got continuity. That means these wires are crossed somewhere right? Here's what the workspace looks like:



The wires are part of that huge bundle wrapped in electrical tape going up into the dash.


There it's going down and to the right towards the radio.


All the exposed wire looks good and I don't see how the stuff in the electrical tape could cross. I'm kinda stumped. I'll take an extremely close look tomorrow I guess.

Dallas Sinclair

AdsoYo, hate to be the one to dig up a 10yr old thread. I am having the same issue.
did you ever resolve this? Do you remember what the problem was?

thanks

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

I ended up running a new ground wire from the head unit to one of the mounting bolts for the e-brake. It's been working perfectly ever since.

Dallas Sinclair

thank you for the reply. Appreciate you following up after all this time.
i dug into my dash and found a idatalink maestro Rr as the interface between my clarion and steering wheel controls. The led showed communication between the steering wheel and maestro, but the clarion wasn’t working properly.
i ended up flashing the maestro with updated firmware and it’s been working better, hopefully that was my fix.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

Well, I installed a new Kenwood DMX907S and the issue has returned. I forgot about this thread and started a new one but I think it would be better to continue this one. I'll copy my posts from that thread:

The issue has returned where I go through the setup process and assign the buttons. Then after the unit exits setup mode, the LED flashes nonstop as if it's receiving constant input. Last time I believe it was the ground, but that was over a decade ago. Any ideas on what to try here?


8-13-2020: I just finished reprogramming again. This time I wiped the memory first and started from scratch. Again, programming went fine. It accepted interface version 1 and I was able to assign the buttons. Then when it exited setup, the LED began flashing nonstop. This time I got to see what the offending function was: volume up.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Back when the car was completely stock in the late 90's, the radio began turning itself up to max volume. It didn't happen very often but as time went on, it would do it more frequently. It got to the point where it would do it 100% of the time the radio was on. Fast forward to 2007 when I came back from overseas. I installed the Alpine and the PAC SWI-Jack hoping the volume issue was due to the old stock radio. The issue continued and after days of troubleshooting and getting nowhere, I ran a new ground from one of the ebrake bolts to the Alpine and SWI-Jack as an experiment. After doing that, the issue was resolved... until now. I tried wiring the SWI-Jack to its own ground but that didn't work. Now I'm back to square one.

I don't think it's the steering wheel buttons because I replaced those around 2007 also. This issue has spanned 2 sets of buttons and 3 head units. It must be in the wiring somewhere.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

Just discovered that if I skip programming volume up, the mute function will be continuous. So I reprogrammed again skipping volume up, volume down, and mute and the seek function was continuous. It just keeps using a different function. Maybe something in the steering wheel or column?

Looking back at my old posts, I already ruled out the wire coil. And I already tried running a new ground. That leaves the dimmer and the power wire that could be interacting with the buttons.

The fact that the function just moves down the line if I don't program it makes me think the resistors are okay as well, since it should eventually stop correct?

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

I'm back at this again since I had the lower dash panels out for a clutch change. Reading through my old posts I saw that I took the buttons out and connected them to the radio pigtail under the dash and it still didn't work. I don't specifically remember doing that so I'm going to connect the buttons directly to the back of the radio. I already tried running new wires from the SIR coil connector to the radio and that didn't work. I even used JUST the power and ground and the SWI-JACK still flashed like a strobe indicating it was getting continuous input.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

I connected the power and ground of the buttons directly to the back of the radio and the swi-jack still flashed. I disconnected the buttons completely and turned the ignition on and the swi-jack still flashed. This makes me think the problem isn't with the buttons at all. That would explain why this problem cropped up again after installing the new radio. Somethings going on in the wiring behind the radio that is causing the issue. I don't know why the swi-jack would be giving constant input though. Remember this was happening when the radio was totally stock 20 years ago also and something I did back in 2010 randomly fixed it until I upgraded to this Kenwood.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

Tried connecting the swi-jack to the IGN port on the fuse block, didn't help. I have 3 grounds to choose from behind the radio. The stock ground, the ground of the unused defroster pigtail, and a new ground I ran to one of the ebrake bolts. I tried connecting the swi-jack to each and nothing changed.

I set my voltmeter to DC volts and checked the IGN wire at the fuse block and the wire behind the radio and they both read 11.5v. I checked the steering wheel signal wire and it read 0.7mV. I checked all 3 grounds and got 2.5mV for the unused defroster ground, 5mV for the stock radio ground, and 0mV for the new ground going to the ebrake bolt. I also discovered that any ground the radio is connected to will read about 30-35mV.

I've had the radio and swi-jack on separate grounds and that doesn't help. Turning the lights on so the buttons illuminate doesn't change anything. Not sure where to go from here.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

Tried running a new BAT wire directly from the battery to the radio and it didn't help. Then I tried unplugging the whole plug from the radio and left the swi-jack plugged in and turned the ignition on and the swi-jack still flashed. This MUST narrow it down to the dark blue signal wire.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

I'm defeated.

I triple checked the wires and I'm pretty sure they're all good. The dark blue wire was something low like 2mV and when I pressed a button it would shoot up for a split second, didn't catch the values. The green wire coming out of the swi-jack that connects to the dark blue was also essentially 0v. The Kenwood steering wheel input wire connected to the radio was 5v and the wire coming out of the swi-jack was 2.5v. When they're connected it's 4.xx. Grounds are all still good, BAT and IGN wires are all good.

I disconnected the steering wheel input and output wires from the swi-jack so all it had going to it was power and ground. I even ran it's own wire directly to the battery and same thing happened! The LED was constantly flashing. So I buttoned everything back up, wiped the swi-jacks memory and reprogrammed it AGAIN and it immediately maxed out the volume. So I pulled the fuse out of its power wire and I'll see what kind of professionals I have in my area.

AdsoYo

iTrader: (1)

I can't believe you guys were just gonna sit there and let me admit defeat. The problem is fixed!

I went back through the troubleshooting section of the manual and noticed it said that if the swi-jack controls the radio with no button input, it may be because the buttons weren't held until the LED turned off during programming. Well I wasn't holding the buttons during programming, I was simply pressing and releasing them. I went back and reprogrammed the swi-jack, this time holding each button. Once programming was done, it worked perfectly!

I now have to rethink about what caused the original issue when the radio was stock. I don't think running the new ground was necessary. Maybe there are a number of things that can cause a constant signal in this case. Maybe the original buttons were in fact worn out or the radio itself was worn out somehow. Who knows, it works now and I know everything including the wiring is in good shape.