steering wheel mounted radio controls....

[sparky99]

I was hoping to be able to add some steering wheel controls to my 300m. Mine originally did not come with the controls, Is this possible? I grabbed them and the 7 wire clockspring while at the yard today, but for some reason, i'm not sure its enough...

[adu1982]

I forgot what exactly but it can be done....but is quite evolved ....it is not as simple as plug n play. I think you need another bcm hooked up. I just gave up for my base.

It has been done so the experts can probably help you out if you are dead set on it.

[FIREM]

Only one that I am aware of was Stan Walker (swalker) and he had to piggy back an 02 BCM to make it work. He added a switch under the ash tray to toggle between the BCM's

[dmondeac]

Interesting, the only thing I did was put in the dash harness from a "special" and the steering wheel controls with my Intrepid SE bcm and everything worked fine.

[adu1982]

If it is as simple as just a wiring harness I would do it to my 2000 Base too. I might even try it whenever I will have to a evap swap. I will give it a try just for kicks probably.

[02Limited]

I'm thinking it might have something to do with the feature not existing in the BCM programming. I don't think swapping BCM's is doable either, at least not without converting everything in the car to 02+. If you had an aftermarket radio you might be able to get the controls working with one of the adapters since they won't need to be on the PCI buss at all.

[sparky99]

Interesting, the only thing I did was put in the dash harness from a "special" and the steering wheel controls with my Intrepid SE bcm and everything worked fine.

Well, I do happen to have a dash in my garage to swap into my car. I could always pick up a "special" harness and do the harness swap with the dash swap.... My only worry is that maybe the BCM from your car Ron may already support the radio controls. This is Way above my head..... I was really hoping to be able to swap in the clockspring and bingo! I'm going to keep researching....... this might get killed.... we'll see...

[00R/T]

It's basically plug and play on 01+, which is why Ron's worked. If you don't have the wiring in your dash harness to go from the clock spring to the BCM, you'll need to add it or swap the dash harness.

The problem is on the pre-01 cars. Those BCMs don't have an input from the controls so they can't support it. Back in the day, I built an interface that read the steering wheel switches and sent the proper commands across the PCI bus to the radio. Ultimately I ended up not using it because I went to an aftermarket radio. With that, I was able to use the PAC interface as it doesn't require the BCM support.

[sdugasjr]

It's basically plug and play on 01+, which is why Ron's worked. If you don't have the wiring in your dash harness to go from the clock spring to the BCM, you'll need to add it or swap the dash harness.

The problem is on the pre-01 cars. Those BCMs don't have an input from the controls so they can't support it. Back in the day, I built an interface that read the steering wheel switches and sent the proper commands across the PCI bus to the radio. Ultimately I ended up not using it because I went to an aftermarket radio. With that, I was able to use the PAC interface as it doesn't require the BCM support.

Quick question how did you get it to work with the aftermarket radio? Is there a harness you have to use that go from the wiring of the buttons to the radio?

[M-Pressive]

Yeah. Depending on the head unit you have there is a module that will work with your steering wheel controls. I have one in M-Pressive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sdugasjr]

Yeah. Depending on the head unit you have there is a module that will work with your steering wheel controls. I have one in M-Pressive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm looking into some Apple Carplay radios. But it seems the more "sleek" looking they are (less buttons all over the face) the more expensive they get lol.

[LUNAT1C]

It gets worse when you add navigation. I'm keeping an eye on the latest units to upgrade to wireless Android Auto from my current wired AA unit, but between the price tag and availability due to the chip shortage, it's on hold.