2023 Willys Sport S. steering wheel Audio buttons not working

[joedan916]

I took the Gladiator back to the stealership twice as I am still covered under warranty, they changed the radio, audio wiring harness, and buttons, still not working. Anyone experience this problem, if so how did you resolve it, what is causing this problem?

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[Hootbro]

Sounds like a clock spring issue.

 

[joedan916]

Sounds like a clock spring issue.

for my understanding they checked the clock spring, so they said

 

[Hootbro]

for my understanding they checked the clock spring, so they said

So what are they doing about it? Just giving up?

 

[joedan916]

So what are they doing about it? Just giving up?

They had my jeep for 2 weeks and all got out of it was a new stock radio, but still no working controls, I'm just gonna take it to a local audio guy I know

 

[Hootbro]

If it gets figured out and resolved, update the post to maybe help the next person.

 

[Deleted member 52902]

The controls on the steering wheel are surely digital signals . If they are streaming through wiring that rides along with other CANBUS signaling, I wonder if there is some sort of other data signaling that is trashing the control signals. Just a wild guess/idea. Did you have some aftermarket electronics added and/or maybe Tazer changes? That time-relevancy to when these steering wheel radio controls stopped functioning might be hard to correlate unless you use the steering wheel controls often enough to potentially relate to the modification.

- - -
A story some might find interesting -
Back in the late 1970's/early 1980's, I was working for a company that manufactured laboratory equipment for live vehicle testing without being outside, on the road with drivers. Our equipment customers were pretty much most of the major vehicle manufactures in the USA and abroad.

One day back in Michigan at one of our big three vehicle manufacturers, an RF radiation test aimed at a vehicle inside a special room for car and light truck testing was under way. Except the vehicle the manufacturer put on this particular dynamometer we built for them, for automobile and light trucks, was a much heavier dump truck.

During a dyno run with RF signals bombarding the dump truck, its anti-lock braking system electronics activated while the truck was remotely being "driven" in an RF sealed room. Humans could not be in that room during RF signal bombardment at vehicles under test due to possible radiation hazards. At that time, we had created a special telescoping assembly to place between the floorboard and the driver bottom seat cushion. One end of a hydraulic ram was swivel bolted to this adjustable frame. The piston rod-end was clamped to the accelerator pedal. Special conduit shielded cable exited this room/chamber where on the other side of a wall, operators could either manually accelerate the car, or light truck under test. Or our computer (Z80 processor based if I recall), was programmed with the early EPA's City and Highway driving cycle. Or programming could be altered to provide all sorts of driving scenarios to run a vehicle through. In this form of testing, the task was not to do mileage testing. It was to bombard a vehicle with all sorts of RF signals to see if any of the electronics would be affected in real life, if the vehicle was being driven on the road.

The power level of signals being aimed at vehicles under test in inside this anechoic and RF sealed room were at higher levels than any microwave, power line, radar, arch welder, ham radio, you name it would typically put out at close range. You wouldn't want to be in that room, during testing, trust me. The radiated signaling focused on the cars could potentially kill or burn living organisms. Like ahh, us.
On one day that I was on-site, a signal at some frequency and power, reflecting off the surface of a car under test, started to burn one of the chambers, anechoic, cone-shaped wall surface. Fire alarms activated, - Everybody out of the building right NOW. RF signaling shut down in that sealed room. That vehicle manufacture had their own fire trucks and crew. Damage limited but the point of what I am telling you, vehicles and individual selectronics systems we drive have been testing in many ways. Both in the vehicle and individual systems tested out of vehicles, in other special labs for this purpose. Same sort of testing many products we use in the home or work, undergo some version of these tests to be FCC certified.
Including of course, our smartphones of course.

On another day at this vehicle manufactures vehicle RF testing lab, this heavier weight dump truck that should not have been on this particular dynomometer at al, was chained down to run some RF tests upon. Somewhere along the way, an RF signal in tis room activated the anti-lock braking system while the rear wheels were turning under power at some speed. You can imagine the effect of wheels suddenly braking to a stop on a dynamometer roll from a chained down vehicle. No skidding on a pavement. Just a hard stop that likewise made the dyno roll pretty much stop turning instantly too. theses dynes have a few very large weights that are electrically clutched -in, to provide a simulated "Road Load". RL is the natural resistance exhibited by the road, which does not move of course. A dyno roll could freely rotate except with the flywheels of equal weight to the vehicle itself, act as the non-moving pavement. That, and the three phase electricity via a very large, SCR controller box that fed the motor for forward roll, or backward resistance to simulate all sorts of road conditions. Like taking off from a dead stop. Going up an incline. or downhill. The computer tells the giant controller on the wall to send power to the also giant GE electric motor attached to the dyno roll shaft, what RL factor to deliver to the dyno "pavement" roll to assist, or counter the vehicles wheel power. Get the general idea? But these tests add in the RF bombardment to see what it can do to any and all of the electronics inside a vehicle. Bear in mind, back in the late 1970's, we were just starting to have electronics beyond the AM, or AM/FM radios and maybe 8-track players coming into mobile life. High Energy Ignition (HEI) systems were the first electronics besides the optical in-dash radios back in those days.

The 40 inch diameter, single dyno roll (typical dynos back then have a pair of 8.5 inch rolls the powered wheels sit on) shaft, pillow block bearings, flywheels, big GE motor, and other mechanicals of the dyno mostly instantly destroyed. The GE motor was fine if I recall. The shaft coupling used was definitely toast. A very expensive dyno rebuild; this wasn't a typical, simple mechanicals dyno found in speed shops.

Ok so thats the story I hope was interesting. How does this catastrophic issue relate to your situation joedan816? Maybe not at all. But....

Maybe there is some data scrambling taking place, that if the steering controls are data bussing signals back to the infotainment center that the radio is a part of... Like some aftermarket electronic has been added into your JEEP. You need to know that data includes checks that prevent or allow correct data to do their job. But it doesn't mean that it can't be trashed. Unlikely, but possible. Powered wires with nominally 12 volts on them also have data traveling throughout the vehicle. Maybe a clue. Or not. I am pretty sure dealers have no way of diagnosing to this level by themselves. If you have added equipment lately, you might disconnect it and see if your steering control operating resumes. What I would call, eliminating a Cloud of Doubt.

Gene

 

[Hootbro]

Really not much to the switches themselves. I would expect some can bus codes to be setting if they actually did a high level systems scan if the can bus.

I think it is going to be down to wiring between the SCCM and the steering wheel left switch.

 

[joedan916]

If it gets figured out and resolved, update the post to maybe help the next person.

will do, Thanx

 

[joedan916]

The controls on the steering wheel are surely digital signals . If they are streaming through wiring that rides along with other CANBUS signaling, I wonder if there is some sort of other data signaling that is trashing the control signals. Just a wild guess/idea. Did you have some aftermarket electronics added and/or maybe Tazer changes? That time-relevancy to when these steering wheel radio controls stopped functioning might be hard to correlate unless you use the steering wheel controls often enough to potentially relate to the modification.

- - -
A story some might find interesting -
Back in the late 1970's/early 1980's, I was working for a company that manufactured laboratory equipment for live vehicle testing without being outside, on the road with drivers. Our equipment customers were pretty much most of the major vehicle manufactures in the USA and abroad.

One day back in Michigan at one of our big three vehicle manufacturers, an RF radiation test aimed at a vehicle inside a special room for car and light truck testing was under way. Except the vehicle the manufacturer put on this particular dynamometer we built for them, for automobile and light trucks, was a much heavier dump truck.

During a dyno run with RF signals bombarding the dump truck, its anti-lock braking system electronics activated while the truck was remotely being "driven" in an RF sealed room. Humans could not be in that room during RF signal bombardment at vehicles under test due to possible radiation hazards. At that time, we had created a special telescoping assembly to place between the floorboard and the driver bottom seat cushion. One end of a hydraulic ram was swivel bolted to this adjustable frame. The piston rod-end was clamped to the accelerator pedal. Special conduit shielded cable exited this room/chamber where on the other side of a wall, operators could either manually accelerate the car, or light truck under test. Or our computer (Z80 processor based if I recall), was programmed with the early EPA's City and Highway driving cycle. Or programming could be altered to provide all sorts of driving scenarios to run a vehicle through. In this form of testing, the task was not to do mileage testing. It was to bombard a vehicle with all sorts of RF signals to see if any of the electronics would be affected in real life, if the vehicle was being driven on the road.

The power level of signals being aimed at vehicles under test in inside this anechoic and RF sealed room were at higher levels than any microwave, power line, radar, arch welder, ham radio, you name it would typically put out at close range. You wouldn't want to be in that room, during testing, trust me. The radiated signaling focused on the cars could potentially kill or burn living organisms. Like ahh, us.
On one day that I was on-site, a signal at some frequency and power, reflecting off the surface of a car under test, started to burn one of the chambers, anechoic, cone-shaped wall surface. Fire alarms activated, - Everybody out of the building right NOW. RF signaling shut down in that sealed room. That vehicle manufacture had their own fire trucks and crew. Damage limited but the point of what I am telling you, vehicles and individual selectronics systems we drive have been testing in many ways. Both in the vehicle and individual systems tested out of vehicles, in other special labs for this purpose. Same sort of testing many products we use in the home or work, undergo some version of these tests to be FCC certified.
Including of course, our smartphones of course.

On another day at this vehicle manufactures vehicle RF testing lab, this heavier weight dump truck that should not have been on this particular dynomometer at al, was chained down to run some RF tests upon. Somewhere along the way, an RF signal in tis room activated the anti-lock braking system while the rear wheels were turning under power at some speed. You can imagine the effect of wheels suddenly braking to a stop on a dynamometer roll from a chained down vehicle. No skidding on a pavement. Just a hard stop that likewise made the dyno roll pretty much stop turning instantly too. theses dynes have a few very large weights that are electrically clutched -in, to provide a simulated "Road Load". RL is the natural resistance exhibited by the road, which does not move of course. A dyno roll could freely rotate except with the flywheels of equal weight to the vehicle itself, act as the non-moving pavement. That, and the three phase electricity via a very large, SCR controller box that fed the motor for forward roll, or backward resistance to simulate all sorts of road conditions. Like taking off from a dead stop. Going up an incline. or downhill. The computer tells the giant controller on the wall to send power to the also giant GE electric motor attached to the dyno roll shaft, what RL factor to deliver to the dyno "pavement" roll to assist, or counter the vehicles wheel power. Get the general idea? But these tests add in the RF bombardment to see what it can do to any and all of the electronics inside a vehicle. Bear in mind, back in the late 1970's, we were just starting to have electronics beyond the AM, or AM/FM radios and maybe 8-track players coming into mobile life. High Energy Ignition (HEI) systems were the first electronics besides the optical in-dash radios back in those days.

The 40 inch diameter, single dyno roll (typical dynos back then have a pair of 8.5 inch rolls the powered wheels sit on) shaft, pillow block bearings, flywheels, big GE motor, and other mechanicals of the dyno mostly instantly destroyed. The GE motor was fine if I recall. The shaft coupling used was definitely toast. A very expensive dyno rebuild; this wasn't a typical, simple mechanicals dyno found in speed shops.

Ok so thats the story I hope was interesting. How does this catastrophic issue relate to your situation joedan816? Maybe not at all. But....

Maybe there is some data scrambling taking place, that if the steering controls are data bussing signals back to the infotainment center that the radio is a part of... Like some aftermarket electronic has been added into your JEEP. You need to know that data includes checks that prevent or allow correct data to do their job. But it doesn't mean that it can't be trashed. Unlikely, but possible. Powered wires with nominally 12 volts on them also have data traveling throughout the vehicle. Maybe a clue. Or not. I am pretty sure dealers have no way of diagnosing to this level by themselves. If you have added equipment lately, you might disconnect it and see if your steering control operating resumes. What I would call, eliminating a Cloud of Doubt.

Gene

very interesting story, and point well made, I recently purchased the vehicle with only 11k miles on it and bone stock. When I brought the JT to dealership their plan of attack was to install new radio, wiring harness and control buttons, but after a week that plan was unsuccessful .

 

[joedan916]

Really not much to the switches themselves. I would expect some can bus codes to be setting if they actually did a high level systems scan if the can bus.

I think it is going to be down to wiring between the SCCM and the steering wheel left switch.

so in other words fuses, relay switches ?

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