In my 96 Firebird, I have the steering wheel radio controls. I was having problems with the volume button, so I pulled the module out of the wheel, worked on the button and put it back in the wheel. From that point on the light in that side quit working.

I bought a used set of controls from Formulized94. I installed the volume control the other day and the button works perfectly, however the light still doesn't work. So I pull the other module out of the wheel (which the light worked in) and test with a multimeter for voltage when the lights are on. It's the blue wire.

So I test the other end of the wire and get no voltage so I assume a bad wire. Luckily the set of modules that I bought came with the wire between them.

So this afternoon I pulled the air bag module off the wheel, and swap the wiring. The seek side lights up but not the volume side. So start working with it trying to figure out what's going on...

Well in the end, neither side lights up at all now, and my horn doesn't work. I have voltage on the blue wire at both modules, but no lights... The funny thing is that the lights in all four modules don't work.

I guess I have to assume bad bulbs, unless you guys can think of something else for me to check.

 

Have had clock springs cause these type of problems. It's the piece under the wheel that the harness goes thru to power everthing up in wheel inc. air bag.

 

Thanks for the tip... I would think that since I have voltage making it to the buttons and since the buttons will control the stereo, that it wouldn't be wiring in the column. I guess it could be caused by a bad ground though... I'll look into that...

I'll check the clockspring too. Got to borrow a wheel puller now..

Maybe shoebox can tell me which wire, if any, if the ground wire? I've been using the steering wheel bolt for ground for my testing. If I knew which of the wires was ground it would make it a little easier to test for..

Anyone else?

 

Ok, I checked all my connections.. I guess it could be a bad ground... I got my horn working at least....


There are four wires that come through the column to a connector. The wire colors are yellow, grey, greenish, and black/white (white tracer).

When the lights are off, there is no votage on any of them. When I turn on the lights, I get 11.?? volts on the grey wire using either the wheel nut or any of the other three wires that run through the column as a ground.

Can someone please tell me what each of the four wires noted above go to so I can start tracing them out?

 

A gray wire should be the 12v one and a black the ground.

 

Maybe some more help.

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Thanks for all the help shoebox! You rock!