I'm writing this on my phone so sorry for any bad grammar.

I own a second hand Fiat 500c from 2009 and noticed that the up and down buttons on the steering wheel don't work quite as well as the ones on my dashboard.

If I connect my media device (phone, cd) the steering wheel up/down buttons bring me to the next or last song. But when I listen to the radio it does change channel but it's really slow. And when I use the arrow buttons on my radio it's just good.

I think that the steering wheel arrow buttons have a different function. I believe it says something about a tuner, whatever that might be.

Does anyone know if I can use these buttons on my steering wheel to switch between radio stations?

I could be wrong since I don't listen to the radio, but the buttons on the radio skip to the next 'preset', while the buttons on the wheel 'tune' to the next station. That's why it's not instant. I know I've had cars like this, just not 100% if the Fiat is one of them.

I don't think that's it.

On my radio, the right bit that I got marked in my image contains four arrows. Up and down and left and right. The ones left and right switch between radio stations and the ones up and down switch 'channels'. The ones on the steering wheel seem to be something else entirely...

They seem to switch channels but it takes about 7-10 seconds plus the quality is bad.

I just wonder if anyone uses the steering wheel up/down arrows to switch between radio stations

I've just been out to ours on the drive to see how ours works.
I don't use the arrow buttons on the steering wheel, and I think that was the first time I've used them, just checking now!

I switch channels on the radio itself, but rarely move off Radio4 or perhaps Classic FM. Basically just the two.

When I checked just now, it's like UFI said above. The arrows on the wheel tune to the next station available, not like on the radio that tunes to presets.

Ours changed stations quickly enough, but not as quickly as the presets.

I do seem to remember, that some stations in some part of the country have two frequencies ............ one for your locality, and another for another locality ......... so you could perhaps receive both. One good, the other poor.

Maybe you are finding the "poor" channel and perhaps you should try further along the frequencies.

Just an idea.

Best wishes,
Mick.

Thank you so much for checking it out!

At least now I know that they do switch between radio stations. I think that there's something wrong with mine then, they literally take up to about 10 seconds to find something. While the buttons on my dashboard take about 3 seconds...

No clue what's causing that to happen, it sounds odd. Probably not an easy fix, so I guess that I will have to leave it this way unfortunately.

Thank you guys for your input

Mick F said:

The arrows on the wheel tune to the next station available, not like on the radio that tunes to presets.

Click to expand...

That can't be true, since I always use the up and down buttons on the steering wheel to switch to the next or previous radio preset. I even use the up button on the steering wheel to cancel traffic information from another station and return to the original preset. This procedure works fine on my 2014 500S and so it did on my 2011 500.

I'll check again shortly, and make notes.
I think that some of the stations I found on the arrow keys aren't the ones on presets.

I'll check later.
Mick.

Well .............. a bit strange, but perhaps not.

It's like AGH 1965 has said.
The arrow buttons scroll through the presets.

Mine are these, though I never set them, it must have been the lady who owned ours from new.
All FM

Radio1
Radio2
Radio3
Radio4
BBC Radio Devon
Classic FM

I didn't try AM.

I found that by just pressing the arrow buttons, it sometimes didn't change channel properly. The reception was "hazy" and crackly, but another press changed properly.

If I pressed hard and long (1 sec maybe slightly less) rather than a quick dab of a press, the channels changed perfectly one to the other in sequence.
Even when changing perfectly, it wasn't instant like on the radio buttons.

Hope that helps!

Off to wrap some presents now.
Mick.

Mick F said:

I found that by just pressing the arrow buttons, it sometimes didn't change channel properly.
...
Even when changing perfectly, it wasn't instant like on the radio buttons.

Click to expand...

Strange. This doesn't sound familiar to me. I have no complaints about these steering wheel buttons. In my car they work flawlessly, and so they did in my previous car.

Does it make a difference if it's on FmA or FM1/2 ?

It works! I'm so happy. The up/down arrows indeed scroll through the presets. It turns out that it was going through German radio stations as my car is an import. Which is why it took my car so long to find a station. Plus when it did, radio signal was poor.

So for future readers, the solution to use the steering wheel when listening to radio is that it only goes through the preset radio stations. Those are the 1 to 6 buttons on your radio.

To set a station, first find one you like and hold the 1 until it confirms with a beep sound. Then that station becomes p1. So then do the same to all others and it works like a charm. You can now scroll through your favorite radio stations using the steering wheel.


Hope I explained it right. Thank you all for your input! Cheers from the Netherlands

Then I guess Mick has a similar issue, since the presets of his car's radio are also a legacy from the previous owner. After reprogramming the radio's presets the steering wheel buttons should work flawlessly.