steering wheel controls dont work at night
01-27-2013, 12:36 PM
#1
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Location: illinois
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steering wheel controls dont work at night hello, i have a alpine ida-x100 HU and pac swi jack steering wheel adapter. i installed this about 2 years ago and had problems from the start. it wouldnt work all the time but now it only works during the day, never at night. once my headlights and the steering wheel buttons light up the buttons stop working. it been doing this for 4 months or so now. for example, if i start my car at night with the parking brake engaged the steering wheel controls work great. but as soon as i release the parking brake and the headlights and steering wheels lights come on they buttons stop working. anyone else had this before?? i've been trying to figure this thing for a while now.
01-31-2013, 08:30 PM
#2
TECH Enthusiast
hello, i have a alpine ida-x100 HU and pac swi jack steering wheel adapter. i installed this about 2 years ago and had problems from the start. it wouldnt work all the time but now it only works during the day, never at night. once my headlights and the steering wheel buttons light up the buttons stop working. it been doing this for 4 months or so now. for example, if i start my car at night with the parking brake engaged the steering wheel controls work great. but as soon as i release the parking brake and the headlights and steering wheels lights come on they buttons stop working. anyone else had this before?? i've been trying to figure this thing for a while now.
obv something is not hooked up correctly if it didnt work from the start..what i woould do is retrace your steps and make sure everything is hooked up properly for the pac module, if you figure that out and its still not working after that then consider replacing the module. hope that helps.
02-01-2013, 07:47 AM
#3
A little logical analysis will determine the problem very quickly.
The SWI series of adapters requires only four connections in f-bodies - power, ground, switch signal input, and control output to the head unit. We can be certain that the switch input and control output are connected properly... the output can only go one place (because it's a stereo mini-plug) and if the input connection was wrong, the adapter wouldn't work at all - regardless of lights or time of day.
So we're left with power and ground. The red wire should be connected to ignition switched 12V power. It probably is because the adapter works during the day and there isn't a circuit near the radio that has power with the lights off but no power with the lights on. Still, it wouldn't hurt to check that the red wire is connected to either the yellow wire on the factory side of the radio connection or the red wire in the radio harness adapter (assuming one was installed).
The most likely cause of the problem is the ground. The symptoms sound exactly like what happens when a ground is mistakenly connected to a power wire that just happens to be off at the time of installation. It will appear to provide a good ground until that circuit is turned on and then the device will stop working. In this case, the SWI-JACK ground wire (black) is probably connected to the brown or gray wire in the factory radio connector or one of the orange wires in the radio adapter harness. These correspond to the parking light and dash light dimmer circuits - they would provide a ground while the lights are off but not when the lights are on causing the adapter to stop working whenever the lights are on.
If that turns out to be the case, the fix is simple... connect the black wire from the adapter to a proper ground - either the black wire in the radio harness or something metal in the dash.
The SWI series of adapters requires only four connections in f-bodies - power, ground, switch signal input, and control output to the head unit. We can be certain that the switch input and control output are connected properly... the output can only go one place (because it's a stereo mini-plug) and if the input connection was wrong, the adapter wouldn't work at all - regardless of lights or time of day.
So we're left with power and ground. The red wire should be connected to ignition switched 12V power. It probably is because the adapter works during the day and there isn't a circuit near the radio that has power with the lights off but no power with the lights on. Still, it wouldn't hurt to check that the red wire is connected to either the yellow wire on the factory side of the radio connection or the red wire in the radio harness adapter (assuming one was installed).
The most likely cause of the problem is the ground. The symptoms sound exactly like what happens when a ground is mistakenly connected to a power wire that just happens to be off at the time of installation. It will appear to provide a good ground until that circuit is turned on and then the device will stop working. In this case, the SWI-JACK ground wire (black) is probably connected to the brown or gray wire in the factory radio connector or one of the orange wires in the radio adapter harness. These correspond to the parking light and dash light dimmer circuits - they would provide a ground while the lights are off but not when the lights are on causing the adapter to stop working whenever the lights are on.
If that turns out to be the case, the fix is simple... connect the black wire from the adapter to a proper ground - either the black wire in the radio harness or something metal in the dash.
