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JK Electrical, Lighting & Sound SystemsBulletin board forum regarding topics such as stereo head units, CD players, MP3 players, speaker systems, amplifiers, hardmounted GPS devices, computers, headlight upgrades, fog lights, off-road lights, general wiring and anti-theft devices.
Hi, odd one here as multiple elements involved. Jeep 2 door Wrangler Sport 2014
Steering wheel buttons are intermittent. Even during a 20 min drive sometimes the radio buttons work, sometimes not. Cruise control and info buttons seem to work all the time. "Clock spring" I hear you say. It has been replaced.
There is more to this though. Frequently the interior lights and horn do not work. Even the interior light dimming switch on the stalk set to the on position does not turn on those lights.
Then some time later they work, horn, interior lights but no radio buttons.
Its driving me daft trying to troubleshoot as there is no logical sequence to create the failure.
Electrical gremlins are the absolute worst. Outside of some bad ground, all those things seem to boil back to the clockspring.....and I know you just replaced it, but it's certainly not the craziest thing to get a "new" one that is bad. Keep in mind that "new" is only "recently acquired". That does not speak to how long it's sat on shelves, bounced around on trucks or airplanes, been packed in a box that shippers tossed etc. Was that a Mopar clockspring you put in? I loath throwing parts at things.....and especially since you replaced that already, but given the various amounts of issues that all tie back to a common part, and the amount of aggravation it's causing, I might be willing to throw a different one at it as a last-ditch effort. Primarily cuz there is no other "easy" thing to look at. It seems further troubleshooting would be to trace electrical from the clockspring backwards, and that is not going to be any easy task.
Electrical gremlins are the absolute worst. Outside of some bad ground, all those things seem to boil back to the clockspring.....and I know you just replaced it, but it's certainly not the craziest thing to get a "new" one that is bad. Keep in mind that "new" is only "recently acquired". That does not speak to how long it's sat on shelves, bounced around on trucks or airplanes, been packed in a box that shippers tossed etc. Was that a Mopar clockspring you put in? I loath throwing parts at things.....and especially since you replaced that already, but given the various amounts of issues that all tie back to a common part, and the amount of aggravation it's causing, I might be willing to throw a different one at it as a last-ditch effort. Primarily cuz there is no other "easy" thing to look at. It seems further troubleshooting would be to trace electrical from the clockspring backwards, and that is not going to be any easy task.
Fair points, my first reaction was to try another clockspring, but wanted to try to find some other areas to look at first. It was replaced about 15mths ago by an independent - in fact it was replaced twice as the first one developed horrible noises when turning the wheel.
Question - is the turn signal stalk (thinking about the interior light) linked to the clockspring circuit? If NOT with 2 intermittent problems the issue could be further down stream - if SO then it does give more credence to another bad clockspring.
Yes, the turn signal stalk is referred to as a "multi-function" switch, and it does plug into the clockspring. They are pretty cheap to replace if need be. If the issues were limited to just the lights and wipers I'd say it's probably just that assembly, but it seems the issues are wider spread. Considering the job is not very hard, I'd probably not worry about replacing the stalk yet. If you are even remotely handy this is definitely something you can DIY. There are videos out there that walk you right through it and if you can do it yourself then the idea of "throwing money at it blindly" comes down to just the cost of the part. I currently have a Crown clockspring in mine and it's been fine for years. Certainly a lot cheaper than Mopar. I'm ok with Crown on some things. I don't think I'd go with a random eBay clockspring though. Not sure what your options might be in that part of the world. So, to reiterate, it kinda is just throwing another part at it, but that is what I would do in this circumstance if it were my jeep.
Just grabbing the snapshot off first retailer I pulled up so I'd search around on the part number. years back when I replaced mine that same one was ~$130-140 I think. Everything has gone up in price.
Intermittent Electrical
Outside of some bad ground, all those things seem to boil back to the clockspring.....and I know you just replaced it, but it's certainly not the craziest thing to get a "new" one that is bad. Keep in mind that "new" is only "recently acquired". That does not speak to how long it's sat on shelves, bounced around on trucks or airplanes, been packed in a box that shippers tossed etc. Was that a Mopar clockspring you put in? I loath throwing parts at things.....and especially since you replaced that already, but given the various amounts of issues that all tie back to a common part, and the amount of aggravation it's causing, I might be willing to throw a different one at it as a last-ditch effort. Primarily cuz there is no other "easy" thing to look at. It seems further troubleshooting would be to trace electrical from the clockspring backwards, and that is not going to be any easy task.
Everything has gone up in price.