Steering Wheel Heater & Seat Heater suck

[epirali]

'13 SL. The steering wheel heater works great for me. 10 sec in and the wheels is all warmed up. Seat warmers work great, too. The rear seat warmer is a nice touch!

Yes, but leave the steering wheel heater on. Does it cycle on/off, or just get hot then shut off and stay off? Mine warms up quickly too, but after a few minutes shuts off and won't come back on.

I'd like to know this as well, unless something was fixed in newer builds, it shouldn't stay warm.

Mine was hi,t in Sep 13 and has same behavior. Starts very hot, cycles off and stays off, but will eventually cycle back on at some point. But I'd say when the wheel is pretty cooled off.

 

[kikbuti]

It was 28 degrees this morning when I left for my 26 mile commute to work. After a few miles, the garage warmth wore off and the windows started to fog up. The defroster quickly cleared up the windows. My hands started to get cold so I turned on the steering wheel heater. It started getting cold in the cabin, so I turned on the heat. After my feet and legs warmed up, I turned off the climate control and turned on the seat heater on high. It got a little too warm so I turned it down to the lower setting. I was fine all the way to work. The steering wheel heater did turn off after about 10 minutes, but I shut off the button, so I don't know if it would have reheated.

I am not too sensitive to heat and cold. I like the temperature at 70 degrees. I get uncomfortable at 80 degrees or 60 degrees. My wife gets uncomfortable at 71 degrees or 69 degrees. When she rides in the Leaf while it's cold, I'll let you know what she says.

 

[lion]

When it gets too hot is when it starts shutting down. Since you caught it before that event, you will be able to turn it back on and use it again. I'm going to figure out a way of logging these temps, constantly toggling these buttons is a driving distraction, and I want Nissan to address this.

 

[XeonPony]

would be great to be able to select a lower cabin temp then 18 too, stupid waste of energy as for me 15 to 16.5c is plenty, and will save a bit when it hits -40c(F)

 

[LeftieBiker]

Want to know how hot that $#@! steering wheel gets? Last night it was frigid and windy, so I wore my new $150 lithium battery heated gloves to commute. This evening when I recharged their packs, I noticed that the palms of the gloves were both slightly melted and somewhat shredded. That really sucks.

 

[Klayfish]

Yep, now that its' very cold outside (20 degrees), I tried it again. Same results. Gets very hot, then shuts off and won't recycle. Only way to turn it back on is to shut it off and leave it for a long time. Guess I'll be going back to Nissan.

 

[lion]

Finally got a Nissan LEAF tech to look at it. He says it's working as designed. The paperwork he showed me (pages from the service manual) show how it's supposed to shut down until it goes below 60F or so, but obviously this is not the case.

I'll have to put a datalogger together with some temp sensors, and record this. I need to open a case with Nissan now since they wouldn't do this until I brought the car in for a check. If anyone else has, please share your case#, as we need to start making some noise.

 

[Berlino]

would be great to be able to select a lower cabin temp then 18 too, stupid waste of energy as for me 15 to 16.5c is plenty

Oddly enough, if you switch the settings to the English system, you can select between 60°F (15.6°C) and 90°F (32.2°C), instead of the 18°C-32°C range offered in the Metric system. It annoys me to have the rest of the nav screen in the English system, though.

 

[Klayfish]

Finally got a Nissan LEAF tech to look at it. He says it's working as designed. The paperwork he showed me (pages from the service manual) show how it's supposed to shut down until it goes below 60F or so, but obviously this is not the case.

I'll have to put a datalogger together with some temp sensors, and record this. I need to open a case with Nissan now since they wouldn't do this until I brought the car in for a check. If anyone else has, please share your case#, as we need to start making some noise.

That's the exact same thing the tech told me when I brought my LEAF to the dealer a few months back. They told me to wait until it was really cold outside then do it again and see what happens. Here's what happened when I left it on to see if it would cycle. It got hot quickly. Stayed that way for 5 minutes or so. Then it went cold. The light on the button was still on, but the wheel got cold. Stayed that way for a good 15 minutes. Then it came back on (first time it ever did that). This time, it got really hot...in some spots it was actually making my palm red. That lasted a few minutes and it shut off. This time, the light on the button went out.

I e-mailed Nissan support to have them reopen my case. I told them I don't want to go back to the dealer again...it's a pain for me, as it's out of the way and I'm busy. I'm now playing phone tag with them. Seems they can only make outgoing calls and can't take incoming...at least that's what they tell me. :? My case is 12620400

 

[Nubo]

Finally got a Nissan LEAF tech to look at it. He says it's working as designed. The paperwork he showed me (pages from the service manual) show how it's supposed to shut down until it goes below 60F or so...

So somewhere there is an actually an engineer who thinks this makes perfect sense: :?

Use Case:
Cutomer has pressed a button indicating they would like a warm steering wheel.

Design:

1 - Has wheel heat been selected for more than 30 minutes?
YES:
disregard the customer and turn OFF the wheel heating.
NO:
2 - Warm the wheel briefly, then allow it to cool for an extended period, until:
(a) it is the temperature of a cadaver:
go to step 1
(b) you've kept the driver waiting for that heat to return for about 25 minutes:
add insult to injury and turn OFF the wheel heating.

 

[stjohnh]

Well, I have a theory: Only the black steering wheel from 2013 Leafs are affected. Why I say that, my 2013 S, Black interior, made May 2013, has the "Hot-off" disease. My wife's 2013 SV, also made May 2013, has the grey interior, and the steering wheel heater works perfectly.

Anyone with a grey steering wheel in a 2013 have the "Hot-off" disease.

BTW, I have an appt Monday with the dealer specifically about the steering wheel problem.

 

[Klayfish]

For what it's worth, I heard from Nissan yesterday. Same guy I spoke to when I contacted Nissan LEAF support the first time. He's a nice enough guy, but here's what I was told. I had e-mailed him this thread (Hi Jason, if you're reading this).

1. Nissan doesn't "recognize" this forum, as it's not manufacturer supported. I explained I thought Nissan may want to know what some of their customers are saying, to which he agreed.

2. He said that he and his fellow LEAF consultants had not heard anything else about this steering wheel issue. So if your car is doing this, call or e-mail Nissan!!!

3. Since my car was already checked by a dealership, there's nothing else they can do for me. I pretty much just have to live with it. They couldn't say if it's a software glitch or something else, but they're not going to do anything about it at this time.

As I've said, I still love my LEAF, but this is silly. :roll:

 

[Nubo]

...Since my car was already checked by a dealership, there's nothing else they can do for me....

This kind of situation is one of the major dysfunctions of the current dealership business model, where you have to deal with 2 separate entities, each of which will claim that their hands are tied by the other. The Tesla business model is going to lay waste to this.

 

[XeonPony]

at -30 I will not "Just live with it" mind you at those temps can't get my hands off the wheel either till it warms up again!

 

[stjohnh]

I called Nissan support 877 664 2738. Talked to Wesley, specialist ext # 457250. He didn't know about the problem, but said he would call the Leaf technician at the local dealer on Monday when I have my appt to have the steering wheel heater looked at.

Might be helpful is everyone with this problem called the same specialist, Wesley, at the above extension. Open a new case # for problem. My case # is 12674403.

 

[stjohnh]

GOOD NEWS!

My Nissan dealer (Nissan Sunnyvale) says I have a bad steering wheel heater and they have ordered a new steering wheel for me. Should arrive in a couple of days.

Anyway, I took the car in to be evaluated by the Leaf technician, the service manager said he had already looked over the service request and suspected I needed a new steering wheel. The technician checked the resistance of my steering wheel heater and said it was out of spec. Took about an hour at the dealer. Dealer offered to give me a loaner (ICE, no Leaf loaners) and leave the Leaf with them for a day or so (not clear how long) and they would call when ready to pick up. I said I'd rather take my car home and bring it back when the new steering wheel arrives. Supposed to take about an hour to install the new one. Service dept has been very accommodating, though when I was initially describing the problem, one of the service clerks said, "Oh, that's the way it's supposed to work." I immediately said, "No, that is NOT the way it is supposed to work, my wife has a Leaf also, and her steering wheel heater works completely differently." No further comments from the service clerks.

Will I be the first to actually have this problem fixed????

 

[Klayfish]

Very good to hear. Maybe you will be the first to have it fixed. As I documented earlier in the thread, I've been in touch with Nissan Customer care several times and have a long standing case with them, but have been told there is nothing they can/will do about it.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

So, what is the resistance spec for the steering wheel?

 

[stjohnh]

Very good to hear. Maybe you will be the first to have it fixed. As I documented earlier in the thread, I've been in touch with Nissan Customer care several times and have a long standing case with them, but have been told there is nothing they can/will do about it.

Yes, and thanks. Because of your posts, I started a case with Nissan Customer support BEFORE I went to the dealer. When I went to the dealer I mentioned that I had started a case with Nissan USA. Maybe that helped for them to take this seriously.

 

[stjohnh]

So, what is the resistance spec for the steering wheel?

Don't know what the number is, but the point is that the technician doesn't need to spend an hour checking that the wheel really does get too hot then shut off. Just needs to check the resistance of the heater and if out of spec you need a new wheel, no arguing about "it was designed this way."