Axxera AVM70 and Sprinter Steering Wheel Controls

[agilepooch]

Brand new 2017 Four Winds 24HL on a Sprinter. Steering wheel controls don't work with the Axxera AVM70. Lots of finger-pointing going on - Camping World says it's a Mercedes problem, Mercedes says it's a Thor problem. I finally got CW to agree to pay to have my local dealer fix it.

But before I do that, I want to find if it SHOULD be working. And if so, are there special instructions or parts required. I finally managed to find a manual online for the Axxera (wasn't included in my packet) so at least I have the wiring diagram.

Any thoughts?

[Diemaster]

my feeling is this: you bought a product from a company complete with warranty. if it doesn't work or is disabled in some way, that's the company's problem to get it working and or have a explanation as to why they disabled. if they dont want to get that feature working at your request they should have not included it as part of the product you bought.

[Peterrrr]

The wiring diagram is a start but it will not be that easy. I installed steering wheel controls to my Axxera AVM70LH radio but added a Chinese made steering wheel controls to the Ford Steering wheel which did not have any, other than the cruise. I documented it here in this thread.
http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f27...dio-14455.html

In that process I contacted Dual who directed me to Mito who support that model of radio. After asking some questions, I determined that the Tech support person was not going to be of any assistance. I wasn't going to give up so I sent Dual an email specifically asking what interface to use with the radio, and as of this date have not heard back from them. After all they are glad to hear from me and will get back as soon as possible. What is "possible"? Anyways in the mean time it is working but I am not going to let them know. One of the questions I asked the tech was would I receive a message on the SWC screen of the radio. He avoided answering. Basically you need to completely remove power from the head unit, restore power, go to the SWC screen, match all your controls, then press enter.

What you are facing is they need to hook up to the existing steering wheel controls of your MB sprinter and interface to the head unit. In order they need to connect to the wiring harness capture the signals then transpose those signals into what the head unit will understand. From my research there are basically two companies that build interfaces for this. They are PAC-Audio and Axxess. These companies are in this business. What I found at both of their websites, is they have interfaces to the harness, but they did not list any Axxera radio. In my case I did not need a connection to the harness as the signals were coming from my add on buttons.

Hope this helps you understand and good luck to you.

Just curious, did all the sprinter based units come with MB steering wheel controls and used the Axxera radio? Or did they use a MB factory radio or did they not have steering wheel controls? Maybe Thor installed and interface that is not working?

[Peterrrr]

After writing the above I thought further on the topic. Thor must have installed an interface, so more than likely the radio has lost the keys. Try this to see. Remove power from the radio. If the radio is hooked to the coach batteries hit the salesman switch without being hooked to shore power. Restore power then go to the radio settings. Enter the SWC section. Press on your volume up steering wheel control. While holding the button, press on the vol up button of the radio setting screen. If it goes bright then it recognized it. Then do the same for the other buttons. If not then , as Diemaster said let the company fix it.