Steering wheel buttons not working

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m4mckeen

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I have a 2015 ram with 146K. The radio control buttons stopped working also the EVIC control stopped working. the cruise control buttons still work fine. I’ve done lots of research on the Internet, most people say it may be the clock spring. I bought a new clock spring and that did not fix the issue. I don’t know what else to do


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Ricks Ram

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I have a 2015 ram with 146K. The radio control buttons stopped working also the EVIC control stopped working. the cruise control buttons still work fine. I’ve done lots of research on the Internet, most people say it may be the clock spring. I bought a new clock spring and that did not fix the issue. I don’t know what else to do


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It may be a problem with your actual steering wheel harness. They are pretty delicate. If you haven't checked it yet you may want to pull the airbag and check the harnes for any damage and to make sure all the connectors are fully seated. From your post I'm assuming you have the volume and radio control switches on the back of the steering wheel that aren't working plus your EVIC controls on the left side of the steering wheel. The switches are known to go out on occasion but it would be extremely unlikely they would all stop at the same time. If you don't have the radio controls on the back of the steering wheel and you are referring to the voice/radio control/EVIC control on yhe left side of the steering wheel not working I would suspect that switch would be your issue. If you do have both the audio controls on the back of the steering wheel and they aren't working as well as the EVIC control buttons I would reccomend checking the actual harness itself.

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m4mckeen

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It may be a problem with your actual steering wheel harness. They are pretty delicate. If you haven't checked it yet you may want to pull the airbag and check the harnes for any damage and to make sure all the connectors are fully seated. From your post I'm assuming you have the volume and radio control switches on the back of the steering wheel that aren't working plus your EVIC controls on the left side of the steering wheel. The switches are known to go out on occasion but it would be extremely unlikely they would all stop at the same time. If you don't have the radio controls on the back of the steering wheel and you are referring to the voice/radio control/EVIC control on yhe left side of the steering wheel not working I would suspect that switch would be your issue. If you do have both the audio controls on the back of the steering wheel and they aren't working as well as the EVIC control buttons I would reccomend checking the actual harness itself.

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Radio controls and evic/voice are not working, Should I order a new harness then?


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Ricks Ram

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Radio controls and evic/voice are not working, Should I order a new harness then?


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Not necessarily, but I would reccomend pulling the airbag and checking the harness for any possible damage or scuffing that may have exposed any bare wires and also check to make sure all if the connectors are still attached. You should be able to get to most of the harness without pulling the wheel by removing the screws that attach the upper cover to the steering wheel. That's the first thing I would check and go from there. Did everything stop working at the same time? If so that would seem to confirm even more that it's possibly an issue with the wiring.

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m4mckeen

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Yes everything happened at the same time. I have pulled the wheel already to try the new clock spring. The wiring in the harness looks ok from what I can see, but I haven’t been able to see all of it.


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Ricks Ram

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Yes everything happened at the same time. I have pulled the wheel already to try the new clock spring. The wiring in the harness looks ok from what I can see, but I haven’t been able to see all of it.


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All I can recommend to start with is pull the upper steering wheel cover to expose as much of the harness as possible and inspect it. Or even pull the wheel and take off both covers so you van see the entire harness. It's the next logical thing to check. In my opinion it must be a problem with the wiring somewhere unless you got a faulty clockspring which is unlikely. Since the steering wheel harness is the first link connecting all the switches I would start there. In most cases it seems to be the clockspring that causes this issue but you've already replaced it with no change. Was the clockspring you tried new?

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m4mckeen

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All I can recommend to start with is pull the upper steering wheel cover to expose as much of the harness as possible and inspect it. Or even pull the wheel and take off both covers so you van see the entire harness. It's the next logical thing to check. In my opinion it must be a problem with the wiring somewhere unless you got a faulty clockspring which is unlikely. Since the steering wheel harness is the first link connecting all the switches I would start there. In most cases it seems to be the clockspring that causes this issue but you've already replaced it with no change. Was the clockspring you tried new?

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Yes it was a new clockspring. I will better inspect the wiring after work.


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m4mckeen

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I replaced the steering wheel wiring and the same buttons still don’t work. I tried it with the old and new clockspring


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Ricks Ram

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I replaced the steering wheel wiring and the same buttons still don’t work. I tried it with the old and new clockspring


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That is definitely strange. I've never seen anyone have this issue before. If it were me at this point I would do my best to trace the wires coming from the clockspring down the column as far as I could just to check for anything that could possibly cause the issue. Most of it is taped up in the loom but you can still look for things that could cause it. I guess if that all looks good the next logical step would be to replace the buttons. They do go out on occasion but like we have been saying to have both the buttons go out on the same side at the same time would be very unlikely but not impossible. The buttons aren't crazy expensive so even if that didn't fix it at least you could rule them out and start looking at other possible causes.

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Tach_tech

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Would be worth it to get a shop to see if there’s any codes. They’ll need to be able to retrieve communication codes though. If there is a code at least you know where to go instead of just throwing parts at it hoping you guessed right.
 
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m4mckeen

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I’m so happy to have my truck back and fixed!

Fuse Number 49!

I swear I checked them all with a test light.

If anyone needs to buy a new clockspring or steering wheel wiring harness let me know
4c54630fa42244b1e58a12fe47724163.jpg


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Spinrb8

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I replaced my gauge cluster (used) and got the same problem. I put the old one back in and the wheel controls worked again. Cruise worked but everything else was a no go. ‍♂️
 
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