The Heated Steering Wheel (Or In My Case, The Lukewarm Steering Wheel)

[BulldogBuck]

I've had my Badlands for 2 weeks now and everything is basically perfect with no real complaints.....except for the heated steering wheel. This was just brought up in another unrelated thread so I figured I would make my 1st ever post on it to see if it's everyone's or just a handful.

My wife's Nissan Murano and her previous Dodge Grand Caravan both got hot very quickly and I would turn it off after no more than 10 minutes. Not so much with the Bronco. I've left it on for an hour and it gets nothing more than lukewarm. I brought home a Fluke temperature probe from work and did a test on Sunday. I left it outside for an hour in the light snow and 32° temperature before starting. The Nissan got up to temperature very quickly and averaged about 103° or so. I saw a peak of 107°. The Bronco also starts getting warm within seconds. I feel heat building in 15 seconds. But it stops almost just as quickly and hovers just below it's peak. The highest I saw on the probe was 79°. I took it to the dealer yesterday to have them take a look. The mechanic came back with everything was working properly. He said that he got 90.1° with his heat gun and that the Ford literature that he had to look up calls for a range of 82°-94°. I'll try bringing home our laser heat gun from work to see if it's different than the probe but I suspect he got a false reading because the outside air was about 63° yesterday and it was parked in the sun before he pulled it in. Either way that isn't even close to what the Nissan gets or the Dodge before it.

What does everybody else think?

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[Dune_Runner]

Mine is the same, can barely tell that it’s on. Our 2016 explorer gets to the point you have to turn it off. We drove an aviator last weekend and it was the same as the Bronco.

 

[Last Ride Bronco]

Mine is the same, lukewarm at best. That, the no-charge wireless charger and the window wobble are my biggest complaints.

 

[Murraydog11]

Forscan has codes to change the temp from between 75 and 102, I believe.

 

[Axe]

It is indeed a bad sandwich.

 

[one800higgins]

Forscan has codes to change the temp from between 75 and 102, I believe.

Good to know. Can seats be adjusted too? Because even the lowest setting is like a fire to me.

Also, what’s the default temp setting for the steering wheel?

 

[kypt]

Mine also kinda sucks. The heated seats are like sitting on an active lava flow though.

 

[nameuser]

Lukewarm here also, my Power Wagon and Mazda are both HOT.
Body temp is somewhere around 98 and extremities a little less.
Any thing below body temp will not feel warm.

 

[nottinbe]

I think "lukewarm" is the best description for it. I brought this up a bit ago (https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/heated-wheel-temp-usefulness.28133/). Hoping to fix with Forscan when I get a chance to mess around with those settings. I've seen quite a few F-150 owners posting that they upped the temperature and increased\removed the duration\interval that it stays on before cycling off automatically.

 

[VictoryLights]

So the audio system and heated steering wheel from the lux package are both reported as underwhelming.

 

[XirallicBolts]

Anybody try changing temperature in Forscan yet? The HSWM AsBuilt likely has a temperature repeated three times in a row (°F in hex, so a setting of 96°F would appear as 606060. 95°F would appear as 5F5F5F).

There appears to be support for a high/medium/low setting that I'm not sure any Ford ever utilized. I seem to recall an early preproduction Bronco had three LED indicators on the heated wheel button.


Checked in Flex, the stock asbuilt is
714-02-01 0244 4444 EC
44 in Hex is 68°F.

 

[AK SNO RIDER]

Anybody try changing temperature in Forscan yet? The HSWM AsBuilt likely has a temperature repeated three times in a row (°F in hex, so a setting of 96°F would appear as 606060. 95°F would appear as 5F5F5F).

There appears to be support for a high/medium/low setting that I'm not sure any Ford ever utilized. I seem to recall an early preproduction Bronco had three LED indicators on the heated wheel button.


Checked in Flex, the stock asbuilt is
714-02-01 0244 4444 EC
44 in Hex is 68°F.

Would love to see someone play around with this. Fords heated wheels are definitely mediocre from factory. The Ram I had was fantastic.

 

[mrjking2000]

i just had mine in for service on a malfunctioning sway bar, and made then look at the steering wheel heat. while the tech confirmed it doesn't get hot like others, it does indeed warm up. it's operating right in the accepted range when hitting it with an IR temp gun.

the super duty forscan sheet has the ability to change the temp above 100, but i haven't tried those codes yet to see if it'll actually allow the bronco to heat up. i have my cranked up as far as the pre-programmed values will in forscan (i think it's 95) but anything below 100 won't feel hot since we pretty much run 98 body temp lol!

i've found a few of the super duty codes that work (like shutting off the triple ding at startup) so i might try the steering wheel temps entered manually in hex.

 

[DD214]

Mine gets pretty damn warm and definitely comes on hot then cools off after a while when I use remote start.

 

[BuckYeah]

Mine gets warm quickly and I end up shutting it off after only a few minutes. I like your avatar, @BulldogBuck. "Clearly, you're not a golfer."

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