Hello all. Finally let the cat stretch her legs a week ago. Trip of about 75 miles, all highway. Used the cruise, set at 70. Nearing my destination, I toggled the minus to drop her speed. No response. Remainder of functions still worked, except for the volume down, again on the steering controls. Knob on the radio worked and I toggled the volume up no problem. Experimented turning cruise off then back on, still the same. Arrived at my destination, she sat for approx 3 hours and on return trip home, controls worked flawlessly. Anyone else ran into this glitch? No check engine light, factory radio, battery replaced last fall per date code. Picking some brains here as I'm about to take a 1600 mile trip. Thanks

 

Sounds like a clock-spring problem? It's mounted under the steering wheel. Kind of a wire cassette that reels in and out as you turn the steering wheel. The wires connect your steering wheel controls. Horn, Volume, cruise, etc.

The other possibility is the switches themselves. Unless you check it with a meter you will have to guess which part to change first. Clock-spring is a known problem while the steering wheel switches don't fail often enough to get mention.
I wonder if the Lincoln LS part is the same? Might be easier to get and cheaper.
.
.
.

 

I had the issue with only the cruise "-".
Turned out to be a slightly dirty contact.

 

Figured dirty contacts too, 'cept how it "fixes" itself with a key off. Wondering if theres a flash for this concern?