Mine stopped working after a few mins in the car and never came back on for the whole ride home, is it supposed to be like that ?

 

Did you try turning it back on?

 

the switch was on, but the heats stopped. tried turning it off and then on but no dice.

 

This is exactly how mine is

 

Mine stays hot for 5 minutes or so...then goes warm for a few minutes and eventually dies...so you aint the only one

 

Mine gets increasingly hotter until a certain point then goes off. If after a few minutes, I turn it off and back on again, it heats up again.

 

how long you leave it off for before turning it back on ?

 

5-10 mins maybe? Its never a conscious thing.... I only turn it off and on (sometimes just off) when I realize that it isn't hot anymore, its not always an immediate reaction...

 

yes the heater was designed to only initally heat up the steering wheel so that its not freezing cold when you get in and drive and its -10 degrees outside. I think that is stupid..it should work the same way the seats work.

 

Except the seats cycle too.



My steering wheel is only on for a few minutes, and gets cold. then it usually will start to warm back up again as I pull into the garage

 

I'm sure this has nothing to do with you in NJ this time of year, but when it's over 50-55 degrees, it won't even come on at all.

 

The owner's manual states that the steering wheel turns off after 30 minutes.

 

Mine Does the same: it gets warm... then really hot then cools off then after a while i notice it getting warm again.

 

It says approx 30 mins... mine has never made it to 30 mins. More like 15 mins tops.

 

It's a weird system. Both my '03 SE and girlfriend's '02 GLE do the same thing as yours so I don't think you have a problem with it. When I first got the '03 I even brought it in for warranty work for something else and had them check the heater because it acts so weird.

In cold weather, when you turn it on it seems to go nuclear and gets really hot, too hot to be really comfortable to the touch. Then it shuts down. It then seems to randomly ramp up again for a few minutes and then shuts down again.

The switch indicator stays on for about 30 minutes while this cycling goes on. Turning the switch off and back on will not make it go back into the major heat mode. Once the switch indicator goes off you can put it on to make it work for another 30 minutes but the same way cycling between nuclear and cold.

I would much rather have a heater that goes on moderately for the duration rather than cycling. However these last couple days of really cold weather in the Northeast does make it nice even with its quirky operation.

 

i wonder if theres a way to overide this feature and make it on demand so to speak....

 

I think it's Nissan's attempt at idiot proofing. What if someone left it on and it got too hot and melted the wheel or burnt them, they could sue.

 

It's only designed to heat the steering when its cold outside. After the steering wheel is warm why would you wanna keep it on. The heat in the car keeps it warm after that. Seems like a good design by nissan to me. I think the feature is nice but it is a little over kill in my opinion. Once my steering wheel is warm i don't use the feature after that.

 

thats what mine does

 

i'm in so cal and i use the heated steering too it does get a bit chilly in the morning and my hands get numb if i don't use the heat haha but i usually just turn it off after a few minutes because i think it uses too much power o_O

 

mine does the exact same thing as well, I asked the dealer to check it out. They printed out a sheet for me from nissan, sayin that this was normal. It heats up to around 85-90 i believe, then cools down till its cooler than 70? Can't remember the exact temps..if someone would like me to scan it and make a pdf, let me know.

 

I don't have it

 

We always have customers bring this issue up, I had talked to the service rep for my district back in '03 and he said it heats to a temp of 85-90 then cuts off and cools to around 70 before kicking back on. Sometimes they wont kick back on b/c the heater vent blows on a part of the wheel, or the drivers hands keep it warm, which confuses the sensor, and will not kick back on. My '03 was like that, I moved the vent off the wheel and it seems to work fine. Apparently they re-worked the design for the 6th gen so it's not as sensitive. I'm not sure though if the 6th gen part is something that could be retrofitted to our cars though.

 

Can this be added to a 02 se that doesnt have heated seats? I do have the radio controls...

 

I think it heats up greater than 85-90, more like 100 to me. In fact, it can become really hot to the touch, but I love it especially when it is freezing cold outside. Before I used to drive with gloves on in the winter, now I just look forward to laying my bare hands on the hot wheel.