Rotary Switch on Steering Wheel

[Flopsy]

The thumbwheel switch that selects Distance Travelled, MPG etc is no longer working consistently so I'm wondering if it's an expensive job or not.

Although the car was first registered in April 2016 it has  only done 12000 miles and the switch hasn't had that much stick really. Has anyone any good advice on the way forward with this please?

[nta16]

The thumbwheel might just have some crud on/in it and just need a clear out so just a physical/mechanical fault, I'd try cleaning it first to see if that works as it's quick, easy and very inexpensive to do.

 

Much servicing, maintenance and some/many repairs on a car just boil down to clean and lubricate.

 

Or you could try with the ignition off spinning the thumbwheel forwards and backwards a good number of times and see if it free things up.

 

Such a low mileage and/or use over 6-7 years isn't such a good thing for some parts of the car.

 

[Flopsy]

Thanks for the reply nta16, I've now tried the WD40 Contact Cleaner and, sadly, it hasn't helped. Time to call the main dealer i suppose but as it isn't a safety issue I'll wait until later in the year as I'm a bit strapped for cash at the moment.

[WaveyDavey]

When i bought my Superb at three years old one of the rollers on my wheel failed after a couple of months but it was covered under approved used warranty. I remember at the time though talking to the service guy about it and he said it wasn't an unusual job for them and i seem to remember it would have cost around £200-250 if i'd had to pay for it.

[nta16]

16 minutes ago, WaveyDavey said:

I remember at the time though talking to the service guy about it and he said it wasn't an unusual job for them and i seem to remember it would have cost around £200-250 if i'd had to pay for it.

Can you remember what usually caused it, was it a use it or lose it thing or electronics/computer?

 

[WaveyDavey]

5 minutes ago, nta16 said:

Can you remember what usually caused it, was it a use it or lose it thing or electronics/computer?

 

I think it's one of those damned if you do damned if you don't scenarios........ Heavy use can wear them out quicker but very little use can cause dust and crud to build up and cause failure too.

[nta16]

Yes cars that don't get a lot of regular use can have things fail (hopefully temporarily) through lack of use, used to hear of it more with "classic" cars especially when they had MoTs or out of extended "winter" hibernations.

 

[hetty1]

 I had a similar problem last summer soon after I bought my Fabia 3 estate. The normal information display, oil temp, miles travelled etc went crazy and  I got a screen that said the infotainment was switched off, This happened again a couple of times shortly afterwards. I contacted the sales department and they put it right and also showed me how to change it. They said it was a very common thing, they had had a lot of customer phone calls about it.

 

  I wanted to get it sorted properly and contacted the workshop manager who arranged for the car to come in under warranty.  An update was applied and the cost to the dealership was about 32 pounds. The problem has not returned since.

 

   I posted at the time, I think it was about August last year.

 

  Hope this helps.