Audio question - steering wheel controls - 2009

OK folks, did a bunch of searching and came up dry-ish. My car is a 2009 and most of the info I've found is for 05-07.

 

So, I have a 2009 Outback. My car is the Special Edition (I think) so it's got heated seats etc but not navigation/sunroof and some lux items.

 

Soon after purchase in February I installed a leather steering wheel to replace the rubber one. While I had the steering wheel off, I couldn't help but notice that the clockspring for the airbag wiring had another input in it. The cruise control on the right side of the wheel is plugged into a port on top, and there's an empty port on the bottom that makes me wonder if the car is pre-wired for steering-wheel-mounted radio controls (volume etc).

 

Can anyone confirm? If so I can hopefully pick up a used left-side button unit and install it. If it's a matter of running wires from the wheel to the radio (like I've found for 05-07 cars) I probably won't bother.

 

Any help appreciated, and thanks!

It is. Even models that don't have cruise control fitted can have it enabled by just buying the steering wheel controls (and also a replacement brake pedal switch), plugging them in and you're good to go.

 

I would be surprised if the steering wheel stereo control wouldn't be plug and play.

 

If you want cruise control and stereo control together, you need to buy a replacement switch that has both sides connected to the one harness. You can just buy the single side you want and splice in the correct pins but it's a bit gash. I did this when I added cruise. From memory I think it's just the positive and negative pins that need to be spliced, everything else is its own pin.

 

Sent from my GM1913 using Tapatalk

Left audio switch is sharing same top connector with right cruise controls switch. Wiring available in internet.