My volume knob won't turn at all. Help! :(

Asked by First Nov 09, 2017 at 10:17 PM about the 2000 Buick Century Custom Sedan FWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

My volume knob has decided to stick and not
budge. Originally it worked totally fine, albiet the
plastic knob was broken off so I had to turn the
metal peg instead of a knob. I was at the junkyard
the other day and found a replacement knob, and I
tried to fit it on but it was the wrong size. Before I
realized this I tried to press the knob onto the
metal peg and it was supposed to click in. When it
didn't I applied a lot of pressure, not a ton, but a lot,
and I may have heard a snap or crack noise. After
that my volume and balance control (they are on
the same knob, the volume is controlled by a knob
and the balance is controlled by an outer ring) kept
on turning each other. I could hold the balance in
place to change the volume, but it was difficult. I
was playing with it trying to get them to stop
turning simulataneously, and the volume knob got
stuck when I moved the balance all the way to it's
maximum and tried to turn the volume knob to the
right. Something happened and now the knob
doesn't turn and is stuck on. Can you let me know
what happened and how to fix it? Should I try some
WD40 on the metal peg and use pliers to turn it
and hope for the best? Should I use pliers to pry
the metal peg outwards to see if I pushed it in
somehow? I really hope I don't need to replace the
head unit. Thanks.

5 Answers

58,955

Try pulling back out on it, If all else fails replace it.

4 people found this helpful.
Best Answer Mark helpful

This is the happiest day of my life because a pair of pliers seemed to fix it. First I tried pulling it out but it would not pull out. But I noticed that the volume was turning again, although it was also turning the balance. So I gripped the peg (both the outer cylindrical part and the inner peg but not the outer-outer cylindrical part that controls balance - there are 3 layers of metal), and tried wrenching it around while the volume was as low as it could go. The balance was all the way at the left and would not let the volume turn completely off because it needed to turn more to the left. So I took the pryers and pried it towards the left. I had the radio on and could hear the volume as I was prying the peg. The volume was lowering, but the balance that the volume knob was "stuck together" with for some reason kept bringing the volume back up because it would not turn past left speaker balance. So I kept prying towards the left, the two inner layers of metal (the outer layer controls the balance) and they finally because unstuck. Now it works again! Yay.

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