MK5 GTI Steering Wheel Controls or Horn Not Working

[Omerta11]

I have a 2006 MK5 Golf GTI, 5-speed with mid-line cluster display.

A while ago the buttons on my steering wheel stopped working, along with the horn. I cannot control my head unit or anything in my mid-line cluster display.
The stalks on my steering column are fully functional i.e. my front and rear wipers & washers still work, as does the high beam and cruise control.

There are no warning lights on my console.

After taking it my mechanic, at great expense I've had the clock-spring in my steering wheel replaced, and I've also had the steering control module in the steering column replaced too. Both have been programmed, and show no errors in VAG-COM.

But the problems still persist. I'm unsure what to troubleshoot or look at next. Can anyone provide any suggestions?

[Umai Naa!!]

Is the SWCM detecting that the buttons are working?

i.e if you look at the live data in the SWCM, it should be registering each button as it's pressed.

Might be worth looking at the coding in another car the same as yours, and comparing.

[Omerta11]

Is the SWCM detecting that the buttons are working?

i.e if you look at the live data in the SWCM, it should be registering each button as it's pressed.

Might be worth looking at the coding in another car the same as yours, and comparing.

Thanks for the tip. I'm catching up with a guy in the next week or so who has the software and cables to check, so I'll ask him to have a look.
Will post back on here with the results.

[vinnY]

had the same problem for the longest time, swapped out my clockspring with no luck so i tore down the column to inspect my cecm
didn't find anything out of the ordinary plugged it all back in and it's been working for the last 2 years looks like the connection may have just needed to be reseated

could be a problem with the steering wheel harness itself which plugs into the clock spring?

[Omerta11]

had the same problem for the longest time, swapped out my clockspring with no luck so i tore down the column to inspect my cecm
didn't find anything out of the ordinary plugged it all back in and it's been working for the last 2 years looks like the connection may have just needed to be reseated

could be a problem with the steering wheel harness itself which plugs into the clock spring?

Was thinking about doing the same thing too. The curious/frustrating thing is that the problem was intermittent. When I started the car in the morning, the buttons and the horn were functional, but midway during my journey they would stop working. After the car was warm, they would still not work, even after re-starts.

Initially, I thought it could be the Clockspring, or that something was loose, or that it could be a heat issue where contraction/expansion somewhere was causing connection issues.

I had the Clockspring replaced first to no avail. The problem was still intermittent as described above.
I then had the Steering Control Module replaced. The buttons and the horn do not work at all now.

The guys who replaced the Clockspring and Steering Control Module assure me that both were installed correctly and re-coded with no errors. What is being reported now is that the horn is reporting a ‘Mechanical Failure’ and the Steering Wheel Stalks are reporting errors too (not sure what they are) – this is despite that fact that the stalks are still fully functional.

I’ll do the coding checks as suggested by Umai Naa!! and see what comes back. Depending on the outcome of that, I’ll tear down the Steering Column myself and re-seat everything as you’ve suggested.

I appreciate your suggestions, and I am prepared to work through whatever I can look for. As it stands right now, I don’t relish the idea of handing my car over to a dealer/mechanic for an exploratory job that could potentially be expensive for no return – I’ve already shelled out quite a bit of cash for works and items that didn’t look like they needed to be done.

I’m not adverse to paying someone to do some work for me down the track, it’s just that I have contacted a few dealers/mechanics already, and they have all put me off by saying they’re not sure what else it could be considering what has been done so far.

I understand it’s a process of elimination, hence why I’m reaching out to see what I can look for myself.

[vinnY]

yep what you're describing is pretty much what mine was doing however more often than not they just weren't working
take the bottom cover of the dash off and see if it comes and goes if you move any of the harness' down there around

[Omerta11]

yep what you're describing is pretty much what mine was doing however more often than not they just weren't working
take the bottom cover of the dash off and see if it comes and goes if you move any of the harness' down there around

Cheers - will do.
Just for clarification, when you say the bottom cover of the dash are you referring to the bottom cover where the speedometer cluster is (just above the steering wheel column), or the bottom cover at the base of the steering wheel column i.e. the footwell?

[vinnY]

yep in the foot well, that'll give you access to most of the harnesses
that being said you might want to go ahead and take off the bottom cover of the steering column too so you can see what's going on

[Omerta11]

yep in the foot well, that'll give you access to most of the harnesses
that being said you might want to go ahead and take off the bottom cover of the steering column too so you can see what's going on

OK, will do. Thanks for the clarification - much appreciated!
Will do this over the weekend and post back here with the outcome.

[Omerta11]

OK, will do. Thanks for the clarification - much appreciated!
Will do this over the weekend and post back here with the outcome.

Update - despite what I said, I was unable to do this over the weekend. As John Lennon once said, "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans". Long weekend coming up here in Adelaide, so I should be able to escape the wife and family for a few hours and give this the time it needs.

[Omerta11]

Update - despite what I said, I was unable to do this over the weekend. As John Lennon once said, "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans". Long weekend coming up here in Adelaide, so I should be able to escape the wife and family for a few hours and give this the time it needs.

Ok, so I spent a few hours on it today. Checked all harnesses, and re-seated as many plugs as possible under the dash. No change. Still, the steering wheel buttons, nor the horn work.

The next step is to get a guy in to check the coding for me.

Unless anyone has any further suggestions, I'm gonna have to live with it for a while, or take it in for some (potentially expensive)exploratory work.

[Omerta11]

Ok, so I spent a few hours on it today. Checked all harnesses, and re-seated as many plugs as possible under the dash. No change. Still, the steering wheel buttons, nor the horn work.

The next step is to get a guy in to check the coding for me.

Unless anyone has any further suggestions, I'm gonna have to live with it for a while, or take it in for some (potentially expensive)exploratory work.

Had a guy come out today and check the coding. After clearing out the previous errors, he said that the steering wheel stalks are reporting errors, despite the fact that the stalks are fully functional. He reckons that the errors reported from there could possibly be affecting the issues I'm having with the steering wheel buttons and horn. He also said that the car is reporting that there is no passenger airbag installed!

I've had the car since new - I've done no mods to it at all. This is truly getting weird.

Said he got no codes response from the horn or the buttons on the steering wheel. He suggested that maybe the clock spring and/or steering control module I've had replaced are faulty, or are not plugged in properly. I'll have to check these (again) and see.

[Omerta11]

Had a guy come out today and check the coding. After clearing out the previous errors, he said that the steering wheel stalks are reporting errors, despite the fact that the stalks are fully functional. He reckons that the errors reported from there could possibly be affecting the issues I'm having with the steering wheel buttons and horn. He also said that the car is reporting that there is no passenger airbag installed!

I've had the car since new - I've done no mods to it at all. This is truly getting weird.

Said he got no codes response from the horn or the buttons on the steering wheel. He suggested that maybe the clock spring and/or steering control module I've had replaced are faulty, or are not plugged in properly. I'll have to check these (again) and see.

I ended up pulling apart my steering column this afternoon...

I discovered that the guys who installed the Steering Control Module did not plug it in properly - one of the plugs was loose, and its associated locking clip was not engaged. And, for some strange reason, they had also re-installed my old clock-spring (I had left it on the front passenger seat when I dropped it off for them to fit the Steering Control Module). I've paid good money for very poor service
So, after re-plugging in the Steering Control Module, and (re)installing the new clock-spring, I now have my steering wheel buttons back!

The only downside, is that the horn still doesn't work.

Almost there I guess - does anyone have any ideas what to do from here?

[vinnY]

weird, pretty sure the horn wires go through the clockspring too since the mechanism is along with the airbag
when my buttons went out, so did the horn(no errors for the airbag though, naturally jumped to the assumption that the clockspring has broken wires)
inspecting and reseating the cecm seemed to solve that

i'd actually initially replaced my clockspring too but they didn't solve anything, ended up reinstalling the original one in the end and haven't had any troubles with it

[Omerta11]

weird, pretty sure the horn wires go through the clockspring too since the mechanism is along with the airbag
when my buttons went out, so did the horn(no errors for the airbag though, naturally jumped to the assumption that the clockspring has broken wires)
inspecting and reseating the cecm seemed to solve that

i'd actually initially replaced my clockspring too but they didn't solve anything, ended up reinstalling the original one in the end and haven't had any troubles with it

It's weird indeed.

Latest is that we believe the issue lies with either the clock-spring or the horn switch. The horn relay works and all fuses are fine - we were able to beep the horn when the software system was plugged in, so we know the issue lies early in the chain.

I say the horn switch might be a possibility because when I took the airbag/horn off to start dismantling the steering column, I noticed that the wiring for the horn and airbag looked screwed up - I'm not convinced it's wired correctly. Considering the poor job the guys did fitting and testing the Steering Control Module, I'm wondering if they screwed around with this too.

I've been trying to find a wiring diagram for the horn/airbag online with not much success - I don't want to re-configure the wiring in case it makes matters worse. The Part Number for the airbag/horn assembly is: 1K0 880 201AH 1QB

The clock-spring is brand new, so it shouldn't be that. But I'm not ruling it out as it's been in and out of my car twice. It could have been damaged, or it was faulty to begin with.

Got my mate coming out on Monday to clear out all the error codes and to check/test the clock-spring and the horn switch. I'm hoping this will narrow it down further.