SWRC Replacement Issue

[Thauber]

Hey guys!

I bought a set of new steering wheel radio controls for my '04 Yukon XL SLT w/ Bose, but am having an issue. Same thing would occasionally happen in my '03, but I always assumed it was the harness that had a bad spot as the problem was only intermittent. On this one, it is constant the second I install the new buttons. Double checked part numbers to make sure they were the same.

With the old factory buttons, all functions work as they should, only reason for replacing is they are worn and lights are gone out on most. The 2 new lower switches work like a charm, give me all the info on the DIC, no problems there. The top 2 new ones are another issue. Left lights up correctly, but nothing responds at all, none of the buttons pressed result in anything responding. Right one is even better. Seek Up activates OnStar, Seek Down seeks up, Volume Up seeks down, and Volume down tunes down one frequency at a time. Put the old ones back in, all functions on both work exactly as should. I would simply say bad switches, but what are the odds that both are bad AND that my '03 did the same thing, just intermittently.

Does something need to be flashed or reprogrammed for new switches? Seems ridiculous, but I wouldn't be surprised. Anyone else experience this when installing new switches, or am I just lucky?

 

[Thauber]

Heard back from the supplier, these switches are both faulty. Claim they had a bad batch of them, but I'm calling bull because the ones I bought over a year ago for my '03 did the same thing, just intermittently, which means they have been making bad boards for awhile. So paying shipping to exchange them is just wasting more time and money. Covers for new ones look great, board from old ones work great, just need me some lights.


So... while tiny electrical is not my cup of joe, I have soldered more than a few connections over the years. Does anyone know of a replacement LED to go in the place of those little bulbs that are in them? Would be nice to have them white like the Kenwood that is in the dash.

Next will be upgrade the cluster to LED as well. I'm sure some of you here have done that, and hoping to acquire some of that knowledge. Apparently those solder in as well.

EDIT:

Thinking of using these (from Amazon - Partsam 20Pcs 4.7mm-12v Car White Mini Bulbs), unless someone has had issues with this brand or knows of better ones.

 

[MrBalll]

I know online photos are doctored to make lights look amazing, but I feel like that would be way too bright for something so small.

Somewhere in Tech Info I think there is a tutorial thread on changing cluster lights. Look in there for a possible idea on a bulb to use in place for the controls.

 

[HiHoeSilver]

Heard back from the supplier, these switches are both faulty. Claim they had a bad batch of them, but I'm calling bull because the ones I bought over a year ago for my '03 did the same thing, just intermittently, which means they have been making bad boards for awhile. So paying shipping to exchange them is just wasting more time and money. Covers for new ones look great, board from old ones work great, just need me some lights.


So... while tiny electrical is not my cup of joe, I have soldered more than a few connections over the years. Does anyone know of a replacement LED to go in the place of those little bulbs that are in them? Would be nice to have them white like the Kenwood that is in the dash.

Next will be upgrade the cluster to LED as well. I'm sure some of you here have done that, and hoping to acquire some of that knowledge. Apparently those solder in as well.

EDIT:

Thinking of using these (from Amazon - Partsam 20Pcs 4.7mm-12v Car White Mini Bulbs), unless someone has had issues with this brand or knows of better ones.

This is on my research list as well. A bunch of them are out in the Denali, and I want to go blue. Let's see if @ScottyBoy may have some advice.

 

[Thauber]

I know online photos are doctored to make lights look amazing, but I feel like that would be way too bright for something so small.

Somewhere in Tech Info I think there is a tutorial thread on changing cluster lights. Look in there for a possible idea on a bulb to use in place for the controls.

I am one of those people that crank the dimmer dial to max in my vehicles, so I'll probably be good with these. I know several of the reviews said "too bright" while others said "looks awesome", so I'm guessing the "awesome" votes are from others like me that like the lighting being vivid. However, IF they turn out too bright, I'll get to have fun installing either a method of darkening OR an inline resistor.

I did a search for led cluster lights and scanned several pages but didn't find anything, also scrolled the first several pages of the Tech section without any luck. If there is a write-up on making this swap, I would definitely like to see it.

 

[Thauber]

I can definitely recommend those LEDs for the cluster, they look fantastic. I didn't scrub the blue off the overlay, so they have a very slight nice blue to the gauges which goes great with the lights on the Kenwood HU, couldn't be happier unless there was a way to make the drab green on PRND123 and the DIC look better, but I think I would need a new overlay with proper color tinting for that. Replaced all the stepper motors as well, everything went smooth.



Crap cell phone pic, it doesn't exactly have a pro level of dynamic range, but you can see it isn't overly bright in comparison to the PRND and DIC.

I also put them in the SWRC switches and they look good, but definitely brighter than my A/C control buttons... have a new unit on order to arrive Monday with LED upgrade already done to it, so I'll add that pic then


EDIT: Ignore the TPMS message... My '03 didn't have that on it, so my Outlaw 20's with Pirellis don't have the sensors installed, and I sure as hell wasn't leaving the set up on the '03 to be hauled to the salvage yard, so they are on the '04 now.

 

[Thauber]

Alright, another pic now that new led a/c unit is in. Next issue: SWRC is yellow, very yellow in comparison, but that has to be the cover/plastic as the LEDs used are white (100% positive on that). It isn't all that clear in the pic, but the SWRC buttons are more yellow and the cluster is less blue than how it looks in the pic. Cell phones don't always have good auto WB.



Has anyone successfully found a solution to make these buttons white?