DIY Heated Steering Wheel Install

[akoza]

How warm would you say the wheel gets? Even the OEM heated wheel seems just above like warm. It also seem to take longer than the oem to warm up, but I supposed it’s like 2 times as thick too. But unlike the heated seats, the engine needs to be on for the heated steaming wheel to work. The OEM heated wheel works fine, but the TTD wheel keeps turning off the heated function after a minute or two. Polarity didn’t seem to matter.

I agree with you, it's not very hot and would be nice if it could be a bit hotter. And I think the thickness also plays a bit of a factor. My wife's RAV4, on the other hand, does get noticeably warmer. That said, I think the heated seats are also subpar in comparison to other cars and get "just warm" instead of hot. Over time though, I've gotten used to it and appreciate having it over not having any heating.

When you say it "turns off" after a minute, do you mean it completely stops and you have to repeatedly hit the button again? I haven't had any issues with that - I wonder if somehow yours is drawing too much current or something, or you have a loose ground or loose wire somewhere?

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[wickedgoodheah]

I agree with you, it's not very hot and would be nice if it could be a bit hotter. And I think the thickness also plays a bit of a factor. My wife's RAV4, on the other hand, does get noticeably warmer. That said, I think the heated seats are also subpar in comparison to other cars and get "just warm" instead of hot. Over time though, I've gotten used to it and appreciate having it over not having any heating.

When you say it "turns off" after a minute, do you mean it completely stops and you have to repeatedly hit the button again? I haven't had any issues with that - I wonder if somehow yours is drawing too much current or something, or you have a loose ground or loose wire somewhere?

Oddly, my seat gets so hot. Like in 15 seconds my ass is on fire. I can hardly ever leave the seat on 3. When it’s really cold, I leave it on 2 and it’s nice. When it’s 30-40 out, 1 is about all I can do.

for the wheel, maybe I had a bad ground or loose test wire that was switching off the heated function after button. Seems better now. And actually the polarity seems to make a difference for me.

car purple to black TTD
car black to red TTD
the blues don’t seem to matter, but if I switch the black and red wires, I get almost no heat.

I am fairly disappointed in the heat. The wheel is nice, but the heated feature is what I really wanted and it’s definitely sub par

 

[akoza]

Oddly, my seat gets so hot. Like in 15 seconds my ass is on fire. I can hardly ever leave the seat on 3. When it’s really cold, I leave it on 2 and it’s nice. When it’s 30-40 out, 1 is about all I can do.

for the wheel, maybe I had a bad ground or loose test wire that was switching off the heated function after button. Seems better now. And actually the polarity seems to make a difference for me.

car purple to black TTD
car black to red TTD
the blues don’t seem to matter, but if I switch the black and red wires, I get almost no heat.

I am fairly disappointed in the heat. The wheel is nice, but the heated feature is what I really wanted and it’s definitely sub par

Interesting - I just took some time to look through my videos and found that I have the opposite setup as you (red to purple, and black to black). Not sure whether this is worth mentioning, but the heat is only in 4 spots (10 and 2, and 7 and 5), and not the whole wheel like I would have liked. Although in comparison, the RAV4 has it in similar spots. I think the wheel thickness definitely has something to do with it.

Now I'm wondering if either there are variances in the heat with the seats depending on when the car was made, or our expectations/tolerances for heat are just different. I have noticed you can feel the heat from the seats rather quickly, but I've never thought they get unbearably hot.

 

[wickedgoodheah]

Interesting - I just took some time to look through my videos and found that I have the opposite setup as you (red to purple, and black to black). Not sure whether this is worth mentioning, but the heat is only in 4 spots (10 and 2, and 7 and 5), and not the whole wheel like I would have liked. Although in comparison, the RAV4 has it in similar spots. I think the wheel thickness definitely has something to do with it.

Now I'm wondering if either there are variances in the heat with the seats depending on when the car was made, or our expectations/tolerances for heat are just different. I have noticed you can feel the heat from the seats rather quickly, but I've never thought they get unbearably hot.

interesting. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling such varried temps. If 10/2 are hot, but 12 is just getting the left over, it might make sense. I did use it this morning on my 30° drive and it was better than none, so I’ll still call it a win. The shape of the wheel is really nice.

 

[akoza]

interesting. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling such varried temps. If 10/2 are hot, but 12 is just getting the left over, it might make sense. I did use it this morning on my 30° drive and it was better than none, so I’ll still call it a win. The shape of the wheel is really nice.

Yeah, hopefully with more seat time, you'll be able to do a more thorough test and see more consistent results. Definitely better than having nothing, although I still feel the heat even if I'm wearing a thin pair of gloves (I usually wear UnderArmour glove liners in winter).
I agree the shape and thickness is nice. After you get used to the thickness, it'll feel strange getting back into the average car with a "thin" OEM wheel.

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