[Hybenos]

Buttons not responding on stereo - Solved!

Yes i know this is a common problem on the Ceed models and it´s covered by warranty so to take this out of the equation - No warranty left and i do not wish to buy a aftermarket stereo.

So back to the problem at hand. The original stereo in my ceed is does not recognize the buttons. The knobs, volume/freq, are working fine. I can control the stereo from the wheel buttons so it´s not a big issue. But it would be nice to be able to use the setup (and more).

My question is if anyone has tried to fix this? i have done some modifications of other stereos in the past but i do not wish to make it worse. Been trying to find info through google and so on the 99% of similar threads has the same answer "you need a new stereo, go get one on warranty".

Anyone seen/heard of a fix or why this happens?

Thanks!

 

[Daz Jones]

I realise that this is my "one size fits all" fix but have you tried to reboot the stereo? Pull out the fuse (fuse box between the door and dashboard) and put it back in again. It's worth a try....if it doesn't work I've only wasted a minute of your life and if it does work then I'm your hero.

Daz

 

[Hybenos]

I realise that this is my "one size fits all" fix but have you tried to reboot the stereo? Pull out the fuse (fuse box between the door and dashboard) and put it back in again. It's worth a try....if it doesn't work I've only wasted a minute of your life and if it does work then I'm your hero.

Daz

I have tried that 2-3 times - no go

But thank you for taking time to help me!

Thanks

 

[Nikola]

There was a report somewhere in this forum (like up to 8 months old) where one owner decided to fix it himself.
He took the radio out, opened it and cleaned the contacts, then put everything back in pace.

If you feel you're up to and have spare time, give it a shot.

 

[fullchat]

Twas me.

http://www.kia-forums.com/kia-ceed-forum/82780-audible-chime-when-starting.html

Still working fine

 

[Hybenos]

Thanks alot! i will open it and clean the contacts...cant get any worse so to speak. If i break it, so what? it´s a piece of crap anyways

Ill report back!

 

[Hybenos]

well....it´s alive!!!

I took it apart yesterday and cleaned it. After i was done i was re-assembeling it it noticed that the connector on the "main stereo" (the head unit, not the front) was almost coming of. I removed the cd-player (top part of the main unit) and inspected the connector that connects the front to the unit. The pins had come of the soldering...all of them...

I took the connector of and resoldered it. Now it works like a charm. Was i pain in the ass to solder. I did not have the most advanced soldering iron but it worked.

If anyone is interested i could find some pictures.

 

[Nikola]

Hehe, you seem to refuse to accept the crap your unit throws @ you
That's some spirit!

 

[Hybenos]

Its not spirit it´s cheapness

Well the thing is that i do not want to spend any more extra money on a budget/crap car (no offense). But the KIA has had so many problems in the past due to the lack of quality. I have fixed almost everything my selft since the previous owner missed one service by 2-3 months. Kia refuses to take responsability and when i asked how extra service with oil and filter would make my stereo work they stopped answering me.

I know that something else will break down sooner or later and that is why i refuse to buy new parts for it. I thank the heavens that this is not the only car i own...

The stereo now works with no cost

 

[Nikola]

That's a voided warranty curse
If you still had your warranty, the same car would probably be way more reliable

 

[dubster]

Seriously well done fix guys, and lets face it the stereo warranty isn't worth a crap anyhow

 

[rekutt]

Hi there Hybenos, could you tell me where you got the info from on taking the front panel up to get to the radio to take it out so you could clean the connectors please?

Looks like my stereo did the chime/beep thing and the buttons on the dash unit have stopped working ;( Is it easy enough to do?

Any help would be much apreciated

Thanks in advance.

 

[Hybenos]

I also sent you a message explaining.

But i did not have any info regarding this operation. I just took it apart but to be fair i have done this a couple of times in my past. I have installed numeros car stereos and have a past as It-Technician. But it´s not that hard at all even for a novice.

I took it apart so i could se the connector pins and resolder them. If you are lucky, but i doubt it, you only have to clean the "front button unit" so to speak. Small torx screws, alot of them) and under that a rubber casing. Under that you will find golden connectors which you can clean if you like. But my image below shows what my problem was.

(the text of the image top left should of course be "head unit without front button panel")

 

[Hambones500]

I took my radio apart today to see what was going on with the round multi-function button - I had lost "OK" and the up/down buttons and thought the contacts might need cleaned.

However, once I had the face-plate off (which was not a big job once the radio surround had been prised out and the top/middle 3 cables disconnected, you can just let the surround cant forwards and lean on the gearstick while you remove the 4 T8 torx and remove and disconnect the face-plate for further inspection of the button within it) it turned out that the design of the PCB holding the multifunction button is that the PCB at the back of the button is unbelievably anchored by 4 "bridges" of PCB to the PCB surrounding the button by 4 thin strips of PCB - and over time the PCB had fatigue-failed at one and broken at one of these 4 bridges (again unbelievably) including breaking two printed-in contacts within the bridge when it failed. The bridges are so thin it could well be a design fault causing a common type of button failure with the round multifunction button.
So the unit was/is junk without any intervention (I can't pair it or control anything using the "OK" button) - so I lined-up the broken "bridge" as best I could, carefully prised it back into position (it had been dislocated backwards by repeated pressing and fatigue failure), checked everything looked lined-up and hoped for the best....... epoxied a splint of PCB from another bit of scrap to glue the bridge including the lined-up broken contacts. And it worked! Needless to say, first thing I did was (gently) pair my phone and next thing will be sort out a good aftermarket solution in the event that it goes again - but just be aware these buttons are not as robust as they seem.