Strange electrical issue

[wilde108]

This is the issue im havin with my 92 cutty vert. Sometimes when I start the car the radio will work and so will the internal climate control. Other times when I start it the radio will work and the climate control system will just say off on the led and not let me turn any of the auto controls on. On other occasions the radio and the climate controls will do nothing. Hitting power on the radio does nothing and tapping any climate control button does nothing. Also on other occasions when the climate control does work the display keeps blinking back and forth between interal and external temp repeadedly. Its quite strange. Anyone have their two cents?

[GnatGoSplat]

Sounds like a short on the E&C data bus. E&C stands for Entertainment and Comfort, I think. It's the bus that the steering wheel controls send data on. If there was some bad data on that bus, it would cause the radio and climate control to malfunction.

You might try removing the underdash panel and locate a small translucent rectangular box under the steering column. That's the steering wheel control module. Unplug it and see if your problem clears up. If it does, either that module is bad, or something in the steering column/steering wheel is bad.

 

If it doesn't clear up, you might try unplugging the radio and see if the climate control works properly. It could really be anything on the E&C that could cause the problem. In your car there's only 3 things on the bus, the steering wheel controls, radio, and climate control.

 

That's just my guess though, it could end up being something completely different for all I know.

[wilde108]

Ill give that a try tonight and see what happens.