Adding Steering Wheel Radio Controls
07-19-2015, 02:36 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Adding Steering Wheel Radio Controls
I'd read before how to add steering wheel controls to my truck and decided to go about things a little differently.
The factory way of adding controls involves adding buttons and the correct harness or modifying harnesses to allow the factory buttons to be connected to the steering wheel clock spring.
On the backside of the clock spring, one wire is then grounded and the other is then connected to the back of the instrument cluster. After that, with 2006 and up trucks, you had to go to the dealer to have sales code RDZ programmed to allow the truck to recognize the factory buttons.
Once that is done, everything is good to go.
One big thing is that you have to find a dealer who actually knows how to add this sales code. I talked with a couple of local dealers who didn't know how to do this and I got tired of looking and dealing with the time and cost of finding others who would.
Since I was installing an aftermarket radio and knew I would have to use an interface to deal with the factory retained accessory power and another interface to deal with the steering wheel controls. In this case I used the XSVI interface from Metra for retained accessory power and the Metra ASWC-1 for steering wheel controls.
The XSVI in this case comes with the ASWC-1 prewired in, so if you are able to get RDZ programmed, you only have to plug and play.
My plan, however, was to connect the ASWC-1 directly to the factory radio buttons. I would then be able to program the controller to do whatever I wanted.
The problem was that the factory ASWC-1 harness that was integrated into the XSVI harness only has the appropriate wires to allow the ASWC to communicate using the can-bus signal sent from the vehicle.
Since the ASWC has to be purchased separately, it does come with its own harness. I then had to cut loose the ASWC harness that was integrated to the XSVI harness and tie the ground and power connections in with the harness that was provided with my ASWC-1.
I then had to find out which wire from this harness I could connect directly to the factory steering wheel controls so that it would recognize resistance.
I used an ohmmeter to determine the resistances present and sent a vague note to Metra and asked what wire would recognize this range.
Metra replied that I should use Green/Orange.
So then I connected the wire coming from the clock spring that was supposed to connect to the back of the instrument cluster and instead tied it to Green/Orange on the ASWC-1.
I turned everything on and entered the manual program mode for the ASWC-1 and went to programming.
Once programmed, the controls work perfectly.
The only issue I saw was that when I completed programming, the ASWC-1 turned the radio screen off and dropped the volume to zero.
I turned the screen back on and raised volume using the factory buttons. After that the controls have functioned perfectly.
This is a little out of the ordinary, but is an option if you're adding steering wheel radio controls and an aftermarket radio.
In that case you have to add a controller (ASWC-1) anyway and you'll have to do some wiring mods to add the steering wheel controls. So why not go ahead and cut out the middle man (factory wiring and data connection) as well as removing the need to go to the dealer to have RDZ programmed (and the cost associated with that).
Attached is a paint drawing I made showing roughly what was done.
The factory way of adding controls involves adding buttons and the correct harness or modifying harnesses to allow the factory buttons to be connected to the steering wheel clock spring.
On the backside of the clock spring, one wire is then grounded and the other is then connected to the back of the instrument cluster. After that, with 2006 and up trucks, you had to go to the dealer to have sales code RDZ programmed to allow the truck to recognize the factory buttons.
Once that is done, everything is good to go.
One big thing is that you have to find a dealer who actually knows how to add this sales code. I talked with a couple of local dealers who didn't know how to do this and I got tired of looking and dealing with the time and cost of finding others who would.
Since I was installing an aftermarket radio and knew I would have to use an interface to deal with the factory retained accessory power and another interface to deal with the steering wheel controls. In this case I used the XSVI interface from Metra for retained accessory power and the Metra ASWC-1 for steering wheel controls.
The XSVI in this case comes with the ASWC-1 prewired in, so if you are able to get RDZ programmed, you only have to plug and play.
My plan, however, was to connect the ASWC-1 directly to the factory radio buttons. I would then be able to program the controller to do whatever I wanted.
The problem was that the factory ASWC-1 harness that was integrated into the XSVI harness only has the appropriate wires to allow the ASWC to communicate using the can-bus signal sent from the vehicle.
Since the ASWC has to be purchased separately, it does come with its own harness. I then had to cut loose the ASWC harness that was integrated to the XSVI harness and tie the ground and power connections in with the harness that was provided with my ASWC-1.
I then had to find out which wire from this harness I could connect directly to the factory steering wheel controls so that it would recognize resistance.
I used an ohmmeter to determine the resistances present and sent a vague note to Metra and asked what wire would recognize this range.
Metra replied that I should use Green/Orange.
So then I connected the wire coming from the clock spring that was supposed to connect to the back of the instrument cluster and instead tied it to Green/Orange on the ASWC-1.
I turned everything on and entered the manual program mode for the ASWC-1 and went to programming.
Once programmed, the controls work perfectly.
The only issue I saw was that when I completed programming, the ASWC-1 turned the radio screen off and dropped the volume to zero.
I turned the screen back on and raised volume using the factory buttons. After that the controls have functioned perfectly.
This is a little out of the ordinary, but is an option if you're adding steering wheel radio controls and an aftermarket radio.
In that case you have to add a controller (ASWC-1) anyway and you'll have to do some wiring mods to add the steering wheel controls. So why not go ahead and cut out the middle man (factory wiring and data connection) as well as removing the need to go to the dealer to have RDZ programmed (and the cost associated with that).
Attached is a paint drawing I made showing roughly what was done.
The following users liked this post:
e5.9 (06-30-2018)
08-21-2015, 11:44 PM
#3
Registered User
Thread Starter
I forgot to mention that I also used the Sirius antenna for XM.
Remove the glove box by opening it fully, then squeeze the sides in so that it rolls all the way out. Look up and there is the old Sirius box.
Toward the passenger side there is a yellow connector with a cable coming out. Unplug the connector and carefully remove the cable from the connector. I had to be careful and use a set of sharp cable cutters to slice the plastic away. Inside is the RG174 cable that goes to the antenna.
This will plug directly into the XM tuner if you have one. There is one issue though in that the connector doesn't have the proper SMB female plug to mate to the XM tuner plug and hold it on. You can tape it so it will hold in or epoxy it in and it will work.
What I did was buy an RG174 cable from ebay with the proper SMB ends. I plugged the male end into the female end from the truck and taped it so everything stays together then use the proper plug to connect to the XM box.
This is likely the best choice as the old Sirius cable is very short.
I don't have a subscription, however the XM box was free from Crutchfield at the time and I do receive the preview channel clearly, so it should work fine.
Another neat thing I added was a bypass so that DVD's could be watched while in motion. This was a big selling point to my girlfriend as she'll sometimes get onto me about changing things.
Also attached is a better rendition of the paint drawing of the steering wheel controls showing part numbers, resistances and a little better info. I posted on another forum with this one and sent this to the tech at Metra that helped me. A lot of the part numbers come from going through plenty of other posts made by the first people who added controls to their trucks and without their work this would have been a lot harder.
The Metra guy thought it was neat that it worked correctly and would keep it in mind to help out anyone in the future.
With their controller you can give it just about any resistance within the wide range the Dodge uses and program it to do whatever you like.
Another manufacturer makes a controller that can be made to work, but to use the resistances seen from Dodge you have to add some resistors to bring the output current into a range the unit will recognize. The Metra is much more simple.
If you get adventureous and want to add the Ram buttons to the back of any steering wheel and can get wiring through the clock spring, this method will work!
Remove the glove box by opening it fully, then squeeze the sides in so that it rolls all the way out. Look up and there is the old Sirius box.
Toward the passenger side there is a yellow connector with a cable coming out. Unplug the connector and carefully remove the cable from the connector. I had to be careful and use a set of sharp cable cutters to slice the plastic away. Inside is the RG174 cable that goes to the antenna.
This will plug directly into the XM tuner if you have one. There is one issue though in that the connector doesn't have the proper SMB female plug to mate to the XM tuner plug and hold it on. You can tape it so it will hold in or epoxy it in and it will work.
What I did was buy an RG174 cable from ebay with the proper SMB ends. I plugged the male end into the female end from the truck and taped it so everything stays together then use the proper plug to connect to the XM box.
This is likely the best choice as the old Sirius cable is very short.
I don't have a subscription, however the XM box was free from Crutchfield at the time and I do receive the preview channel clearly, so it should work fine.
Another neat thing I added was a bypass so that DVD's could be watched while in motion. This was a big selling point to my girlfriend as she'll sometimes get onto me about changing things.
Also attached is a better rendition of the paint drawing of the steering wheel controls showing part numbers, resistances and a little better info. I posted on another forum with this one and sent this to the tech at Metra that helped me. A lot of the part numbers come from going through plenty of other posts made by the first people who added controls to their trucks and without their work this would have been a lot harder.
The Metra guy thought it was neat that it worked correctly and would keep it in mind to help out anyone in the future.
With their controller you can give it just about any resistance within the wide range the Dodge uses and program it to do whatever you like.
Another manufacturer makes a controller that can be made to work, but to use the resistances seen from Dodge you have to add some resistors to bring the output current into a range the unit will recognize. The Metra is much more simple.
If you get adventureous and want to add the Ram buttons to the back of any steering wheel and can get wiring through the clock spring, this method will work!
06-30-2018, 12:43 AM
#5
I'd read before how to add steering wheel controls to my truck and decided to go about things a little differently.
The factory way of adding controls involves adding buttons and the correct harness or modifying harnesses to allow the factory buttons to be connected to the steering wheel clock spring.
On the backside of the clock spring, one wire is then grounded and the other is then connected to the back of the instrument cluster. After that, with 2006 and up trucks, you had to go to the dealer to have sales code RDZ programmed to allow the truck to recognize the factory buttons.
Once that is done, everything is good to go.
One big thing is that you have to find a dealer who actually knows how to add this sales code. I talked with a couple of local dealers who didn't know how to do this and I got tired of looking and dealing with the time and cost of finding others who would.
Since I was installing an aftermarket radio and knew I would have to use an interface to deal with the factory retained accessory power and another interface to deal with the steering wheel controls. In this case I used the XSVI interface from Metra for retained accessory power and the Metra ASWC-1 for steering wheel controls.
The XSVI in this case comes with the ASWC-1 prewired in, so if you are able to get RDZ programmed, you only have to plug and play.
My plan, however, was to connect the ASWC-1 directly to the factory radio buttons. I would then be able to program the controller to do whatever I wanted.
The problem was that the factory ASWC-1 harness that was integrated into the XSVI harness only has the appropriate wires to allow the ASWC to communicate using the can-bus signal sent from the vehicle.
Since the ASWC has to be purchased separately, it does come with its own harness. I then had to cut loose the ASWC harness that was integrated to the XSVI harness and tie the ground and power connections in with the harness that was provided with my ASWC-1.
I then had to find out which wire from this harness I could connect directly to the factory steering wheel controls so that it would recognize resistance.
I used an ohmmeter to determine the resistances present and sent a vague note to Metra and asked what wire would recognize this range.
Metra replied that I should use Green/Orange.
So then I connected the wire coming from the clock spring that was supposed to connect to the back of the instrument cluster and instead tied it to Green/Orange on the ASWC-1.
I turned everything on and entered the manual program mode for the ASWC-1 and went to programming.
Once programmed, the controls work perfectly.
The only issue I saw was that when I completed programming, the ASWC-1 turned the radio screen off and dropped the volume to zero.
I turned the screen back on and raised volume using the factory buttons. After that the controls have functioned perfectly.
This is a little out of the ordinary, but is an option if you're adding steering wheel radio controls and an aftermarket radio.
In that case you have to add a controller (ASWC-1) anyway and you'll have to do some wiring mods to add the steering wheel controls. So why not go ahead and cut out the middle man (factory wiring and data connection) as well as removing the need to go to the dealer to have RDZ programmed (and the cost associated with that).
Attached is a paint drawing I made showing roughly what was done.
The factory way of adding controls involves adding buttons and the correct harness or modifying harnesses to allow the factory buttons to be connected to the steering wheel clock spring.
On the backside of the clock spring, one wire is then grounded and the other is then connected to the back of the instrument cluster. After that, with 2006 and up trucks, you had to go to the dealer to have sales code RDZ programmed to allow the truck to recognize the factory buttons.
Once that is done, everything is good to go.
One big thing is that you have to find a dealer who actually knows how to add this sales code. I talked with a couple of local dealers who didn't know how to do this and I got tired of looking and dealing with the time and cost of finding others who would.
Since I was installing an aftermarket radio and knew I would have to use an interface to deal with the factory retained accessory power and another interface to deal with the steering wheel controls. In this case I used the XSVI interface from Metra for retained accessory power and the Metra ASWC-1 for steering wheel controls.
The XSVI in this case comes with the ASWC-1 prewired in, so if you are able to get RDZ programmed, you only have to plug and play.
My plan, however, was to connect the ASWC-1 directly to the factory radio buttons. I would then be able to program the controller to do whatever I wanted.
The problem was that the factory ASWC-1 harness that was integrated into the XSVI harness only has the appropriate wires to allow the ASWC to communicate using the can-bus signal sent from the vehicle.
Since the ASWC has to be purchased separately, it does come with its own harness. I then had to cut loose the ASWC harness that was integrated to the XSVI harness and tie the ground and power connections in with the harness that was provided with my ASWC-1.
I then had to find out which wire from this harness I could connect directly to the factory steering wheel controls so that it would recognize resistance.
I used an ohmmeter to determine the resistances present and sent a vague note to Metra and asked what wire would recognize this range.
Metra replied that I should use Green/Orange.
So then I connected the wire coming from the clock spring that was supposed to connect to the back of the instrument cluster and instead tied it to Green/Orange on the ASWC-1.
I turned everything on and entered the manual program mode for the ASWC-1 and went to programming.
Once programmed, the controls work perfectly.
The only issue I saw was that when I completed programming, the ASWC-1 turned the radio screen off and dropped the volume to zero.
I turned the screen back on and raised volume using the factory buttons. After that the controls have functioned perfectly.
This is a little out of the ordinary, but is an option if you're adding steering wheel radio controls and an aftermarket radio.
In that case you have to add a controller (ASWC-1) anyway and you'll have to do some wiring mods to add the steering wheel controls. So why not go ahead and cut out the middle man (factory wiring and data connection) as well as removing the need to go to the dealer to have RDZ programmed (and the cost associated with that).
Attached is a paint drawing I made showing roughly what was done.
Thank so much for posting this! I've installed the factory switches and wiring in my 05' from a donor truck but nothing was working, I didn't know about the wires on the clock spring. Do you happen to remember what color they are? Could I just get the clock spring from my donor truck? Anything else I'd need to grab?
11-22-2018, 12:15 AM
#6
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I just did this in my '07 Ram ST. I have a Kenwood stereo. I had previously installed the XSVI unit when I put the stereo in a few years back. I did not separate ASWC-1 harness from the XSVI. I did use the harness that comes with the ASWC-1. Simple install, 4 wires - power, ground, wire coming from clock spring into ASWC-1 green/orange wire, and then wire/plug to aftermarket stereo.
I was not able to change the button configuration, even after talking to their tech support and having them walk me thru the steps. They said it's probably not accepting the steps because it's not setup in the proper configuration. Either way, I'm very happy with it in the stock button configuration.
I talked to the Dodge dealership here in Queen Creek, AZ. It's a new one...less than a year old, but they said they knew how to add RDZ to the computer & would be 1/2hr of labor ($70) to do it. I may go ahead & do that soon. I would have to tie the wire from the clock spring into the plug behind gauges, then the ASWC-1 would plug into the harness with the XSVI.
Much thanks to DaveB.inVa
Any questions....feel free to ask....
I was not able to change the button configuration, even after talking to their tech support and having them walk me thru the steps. They said it's probably not accepting the steps because it's not setup in the proper configuration. Either way, I'm very happy with it in the stock button configuration.
I talked to the Dodge dealership here in Queen Creek, AZ. It's a new one...less than a year old, but they said they knew how to add RDZ to the computer & would be 1/2hr of labor ($70) to do it. I may go ahead & do that soon. I would have to tie the wire from the clock spring into the plug behind gauges, then the ASWC-1 would plug into the harness with the XSVI.
Much thanks to DaveB.inVa
Any questions....feel free to ask....
Last edited by 53burb; 11-22-2018 at 12:17 AM. Reason: add
11-22-2018, 11:28 AM
#7
Registered User
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Oregon/California
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
If you go ahead with the dealer programming, please report back and post if it's successful or not. I spoke with another dealer who used to be able to do this and was told that FCA has changed their policy and won't allow dealers to add option codes in most cases. I've already installed the switches and harness, but without the RDZ code I'm stuck. I don't plan to add any aftermarket stuff, just want the stock setup to work.
Trending Topics
03-11-2019, 05:06 AM
#9
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
just an update, - I just changed my head unit to a Sony one from a Kenwood unit. I plugged in the ASWC plug into the back of the Sony, but my SWC are not working. It may be the wiring or programming because I did not see the LEDs light up. I will check it again soon.
03-11-2019, 05:15 PM
#10
Registered User
Did you try to reset the ASWC box. There is a reset button next to the LED light. Press and hold, wait for rapid red/green and reprogram.
03-11-2019, 08:43 PM
#12
Registered User
Check out Pg 2, starting on the section "3.5mm Jack." You may need to do a little mod to the wiring. https://metradealer.com/files/aswc/ASWC-1_INST_2001.pdf
Mike.
Mike.
03-11-2019, 08:52 PM
#13
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
THE ASWC-1 has the male plug & if you are using a Kenwood HU, as I was, you plug the female end into it & use the brown wire coming from it to wire into blue/yellow from the HU. You don't need to do this with a Sony unit, it just plugs in. I think I need to reset everything and reprogram. I think it will work after that.
03-12-2019, 05:44 AM
#14
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Success!! I did it tonight at work when it was slow. I did the reset & did a "force" update. Then reread the instructions on programming. It works great, even better this time. By that, I mean with the Kenwood, the left side up/down buttons scrolled thru ALL the radio stations, not just the preset ones. Now with the Sony, it DOES the preset ones only. Better!
Also, for some reason, with the Kenwood, the buttons didn't always work right when you started the truck. Sometime within the 1st 5 minutes of driving they would start working. Never knew why that was like that. Hopefully the Sony isn't like that. We.ll see.
Now that it is working correctly & the way I want it to work, I won't be taking it to the dealer to get it programmed with the RDZ code as I previously said that I would.
Also, for some reason, with the Kenwood, the buttons didn't always work right when you started the truck. Sometime within the 1st 5 minutes of driving they would start working. Never knew why that was like that. Hopefully the Sony isn't like that. We.ll see.
Now that it is working correctly & the way I want it to work, I won't be taking it to the dealer to get it programmed with the RDZ code as I previously said that I would.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
permx11
3rd Gen High Performance and Accessories (5.9L Only)
1
12-12-2007 04:39 PM
lt11le
3rd Generation Ram - Non Drivetrain - All Years
2
05-16-2006 03:01 PM
Badd Dogg Guy19
3rd Generation Ram - Non Drivetrain - All Years
5
04-15-2006 07:03 PM
ncdodgeman20
2nd Gen. Dodge Ram - No Drivetrain
9
03-28-2006 07:12 PM