Steering wheel controls acting up?

My 07 Tacoma steering wheel controls intermittently act up. Sometimes I will press the forward button to skip a track and it will end up going back. It does this a few times then goes forward. I would say it's about 25% of the time it does this. Anyone have this issue or know a fix?

 

If you do the same function right on the head unit, does it work correctly?

 

Yes it does

 

I would guess you have a problem with the steering wheel switch, that said since its always rotating the insulation could have worn and be making the wrong connection at certain places, happens with door wires since they are always bending. You can try the controls at every 30 degrees of steering wheel turn, if its consistant its probably the switch but you may want to check those wires to be safe.

 

Would the clockspring have anything to do with that?

 

At least in fords the clock spring does not do the controls its strictly for the airbag.

 

Yes.

 

How is that possible if the buttons are on the rotating steering wheel?

 

There is a different bundle of wires for the horn and steering wheel controls, people seem to think the clockspring is the only wires but in my experience the clockspring is only 2 wires and its for the airbag.

 

I'll have to take your word, but how does the steering wheel turn without twisting these separate wires and breaking them?

 

You can just google car clockspring and you will see what come up and see diagrams that confirm this.

I have not had to deal with any that have worn out and shorted wires together but i have dealt with wires to the doors that have had that problem but its not often.

Thus not the clock spring since it doesnt deal with the controls and also its most likely the switch since its the wires less then maybe 20% of the time, and its intermittent so less likely to be the wires.

I would of course suggest checking these wires before buying new switches for the steering wheel. Or do you have to buy a whole new steering wheel? Minus the airbag of course.

 

Well as you can see from the drawing the steering wheel controls do in fact go through the spiral Cable or as you call it the "clockspring".

 

I take back what I said, you are correct, for toyota the clock spring does do all the controls from the steering wheel. I apologize for saying you were wrong.

 

Not a problem....

 

Finally had time to look at this claim and found it to also be not true. The Ford works the same as every other vehicle. Any and all controls that are attached to the actual steering wheel go through the clockspring or spiral cable.