Radio Gremlins, HVAC Gremlins, I think it's all the steering wheel controls

So my dad's riv is pretty nice, but the steering wheel controls don't really work, and while you're driving the volume will randomly turn ALL THE WAY UP, or ALL THE WAY DOWN.  Same with temp.

I have a FSM and see the wiring diagram, but I'm not sure where any of these connections are.   Is it in the kick panel?  Or the column?  At this point I just want to unplug them since it makes driving the car annoying, if I get bored I will figure out what's wrong with them.

Update, read more of the FSM, found the SIR disabling section, pulled the airbag fuse. Questioning if I really need to pull the sound pads and unplug the yellow harnesses like the FSM suggests.

Well, I pulled the fuse and disconnected the battery, and just said screw it and did not disconnect the connectors on the bottom of the dash. Whatever.

Airbag is off. Going to test drive tomorrow without an airbag to see if the car still acts crazy. If it does, then I'm stuck diagnosing the harness in the column itself.

Update: Went for a test drive, still does it even without an airbag or steering wheel controls. Darn.

The fact it affects the temp AND the radio means it's in the column somewhere, not the radio itself.

ADDvanced wrote:

Update:  Went for a test drive, still does it even without an airbag or steering wheel controls.   Darn.

The fact it affects the temp AND the radio means it's in the column somewhere, not the radio itself.

My biggest complaint by far was the steering column in the Riviera.  It's an absolute clusterf---.  GM should hang whoever designed it.  Does yours rock back and forth?

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t6471-faq-steering-column-slop-problems-replacement?highlight=steering+column

No, it still feels pretty good. Going outside to tear into it now.

Alright, so I pulled the main multi pin connector of the column to the chassis harness, and it looks clean, no corrosion, so no easy fix.

Now I need to get to the SIR/clock spring to look at the wiring, and ... wtffffff.

In order to remove the top and bottom cover of the column, I need to remove the upper dash trim, the instrument cluster bezel/dash assembly, the sound deadner pedal cover, and the knee brace, just to access the covers?!

This is so dumb.

Also, I found this, which does not look factory; two resistors, different ohms, twisted together, wired in series. Both ends of this circuit loop back and go to the upper left corner of that giant column to chassis harness connector. Has anyone seen this before? It does not look factory but who knows.

Looks like someone attempted to bypass a failing Pass Key sensor in your ignition cylinder, instead of replacing the cylinder.  I believe that's what the two resistors in the top left are.  Bottom right are the Pass Key sensor wires, they go to the ignition cylinder and measure the resistance in the black pellet in your key.

There's some discussion about that mod starting in the 4th post of this thread.

I replaced my ignition cylinder and switch a few months ago. What a PITA. If you decide to do the job the right way, you'll need a female torx socket set, because GM thought that would make the steering column more tamper proof. The torx heads on the bottom steering column cover can be removed with a regular socket, IIRC the holes in the cover are too small to use the female torx. The center hole is even smaller, and you should be prepared to lose a socket there. It will come off your driver before it pulls out.

That's a nice interior color. I wish I had that instead of medium grey.

One other thing, make sure that big honkin' plug goes in all the way when you put it back together. Mine got a bit cock-eyed. I thought it was good, but the pass key wires weren't in at all and the car wouldn't start.

Update: Yeah, I think those resistors are the vats bypass. Didn't know that was done, but whatever, it's fine.

Back to the topic at hand; I located the steering wheel control PLUG from the SIR/clockspring assembly, near that bigass multipin connector. Plugged the connector back in, and then UNPLUGGED that 4 pin harness FROM the clockspring TO the chassis harness, which means nothing in that circuit is active in the column.

STILL DOES IT. This is driving me crazy, the car is so annoying to drive with the volume doing whatever it wants.

Mine is good still.

Ok?

Man I am beyond frustrated. I've spent hours looking at the FSMs, and they have schematics of each ssytem, but not really any schematics of HOW the systems interconnect. Also, the steering wheel controls are bizarre because they go to both the HVAC AND the stereo, but again, there is like zero information of how it does this!

RIght now I am thinking about pulling the dash, and pulling the radio, so I can just unplug the motherfucking wheel controls from the back of the stereo, but that means the HVAC would still do whatever it wants.

It looks like this is a 'data' cable, or part of the data network in the car? Either way... fuck. At this point I just want hte volume to not be annoying then I'm selling this car. Fuck this.

Update: Tore apart the dash last night, to get access to the stereo and the HVAC control module. I unplugged what I believed to have been the steering wheel cable, and I went for a test drive. I listened to a CD without the volume wigging out for about 30 minutes. However, I could not get back to the radio. I plugged that 4 pin one back in, and unplugged the other 'smaller 4 pin' up near the top of the stereo. Now it would get radio signals and play that fine, but it wouldn't play any CDs.

Basically by unplugging one or the other, it solves the problem, but when both are plugged in, it wigs out. At this point I suspect the stereo itself, and given how many hours I have into this so far, I'm just looking to replace it.

I took it for a 3 hour round trip drive today, and snapped these photos while filling up.

The head units do go bad. Mine will only play 1 CD now. It doesn't like any other CD I've tried in it. Used to play everything fine.

It used to be possible to have them rebuilt. Don't know if that's still true or not.

Shame to give up on a black car with a black interior, in good condition.

Lookin for a good 95 stereo install thread, if there is one. Lookin into ordering a new one tonight, if possible.

The search function in the tool bar is your best bet. There aren't many people using this site anymore.

Where is everyone posting about these things? There's a buickriviera website but it's all old rivieras with an occasional newer one mixed in.

Odds are nobody is posting about 8th gen Rivieras anywhere. I don't think there are more than a few thousand left, and it will be fewer every year.

I wonder if there's. way to figure out how many are still registered.

Not in America.  I watch how many are available on eBay and AutoTempest.  Few and getting fewer.  There are only 4 on eBay at the moment, and they're all $10,000 or more.  I noticed a while back that we were seeing a division between low dollar, high mileage cars that would be used up and discarded, and "low" mileage cars with high asking prices.  How much the low mileage cars end up moving for, I can't say, but there are no cheap high mileage cars on eBay today.

edit -- there are still a few reasonably priced Rivieras on Craigslist, but not many!

So here's a weird thing I've noticed:

When I turn off the key, the radio still has power.

I open the driver's door, it still has power.

I open the passenger door, the power cuts out to the stereo.

This would lead you to believe it would be a faulty door switch, right?

Here's the thing: when I open the driver's door, the "Door Ajar" lights up on the dash. So the car knows the door is open. ?!

When you open the driver's side door with the key in "off" or "lock," the radio should turn off.

The radio will retain power until you open the door.

Right, that's what I'm saying. I can have the key out of the ignition, but when I open the door, it stays on. The only way to get it to turn off is opening the passenger door.

The problem is in the driver's door latch. Take the door panel off and look at the wiring to the latch. Might be a fatigued wire. If you leave the radio on, playing with the wiring might cut the radio, and show you where the wiring problem is. Just a thought.