It takes my seats about 10 minutes to heat up. Is this normal? I have had the dealer check it and he says it is fine. I think all he checked was power to the heating elements but I think maybe my heat elements might be bad.

My heated steering wheel heats up fast!

 

Yup... same here, the darn seats are waaaaay to slow to heat up even on high!
I'm luv'in the heated wheel... almost instantaneous warmth!

 

My driver's seat heats almost as quickly as the steering wheel (~1 minute). Never been in the passenger seat yet.

 

The heated wheel has become one of my favorite features!!

 

My seats are the s-l-o-w-e-s-t heating seats I've ever had and that includes FIVE other vehicles. It's really ridiculous.

Maybe because "Redline" is from CA it's not as noticeable.

I heartily agree with the heated steering wheel comments. That will be a MUST option in any future cars I buy. You won't even need gloves anymore to drive your car, and I'm talking about when the outside temp is in the single digits!

 

Yes, unfortunately that seems to be the consistent opinion amongst the majority of us.

Most likely true.... I'm sure if the Bay area temps were to go down to about zero as in the northeast lately,, Redline might have a different opinion.

 

I live in Boston. The past week or two we've had about 7 or 8 days in the negative temperatures, and tomorrow it is supposed to reach negative 10, a record low.

The heated steering wheel is amazing, I love it, but my seats suck. I always just took it as normal and didn't think too much into it, thinking all seats were like this (because they were in my 98 maxima too), but then I drove my father's 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix the other day; that heated seat had my butt flaming in about a minute, and it got wayyyyyy hotter than my Max's seat. I was not too happy about that

 

I'm from California and the seats are way SLOW!!!
My girlfriend's VW practically burns your butt!!!
I thought the heated steering wheel was unnecessary when I bought the car but now it's one of my favorite features...for those cold 55 degree mornings (sorry east coast guys) I use it every morning!!!

 

55 is like summer over here... Negative 10 is not fun

 

This has been a long standing complaint with the Max (may be all Nissans?). Other manufacturers clearly don't have this problem -- what does it take to make Nissan address this issue ? I had really hoped this simple matter had been resolved in the 5th/6th gens.

With temperatures hitting -29 degres celsius (-40 with the windchill) here in Canada, I am mighty irritated with this annoying behavior .

 

It seems like slow heating in the seats is normal then. I wonder if a TSB or something will come out to address this poor heating issue. Let's all complain to Nissan about this, then maybe by next winter we might have a fix.

 

takes about 10 min or so for me.

 

Me, too. By the time they're warm, you almost don't need them bec. the rest of the car is warm by then...

 

very true

 

I will say the seats in my Z Roadster heat more quickly than the Max. Actually, I think they get hotter, too. Could be the thickness of the leather. My Z's seats are perforated and it is fairly thin leather. The Max's leather, to me, is kind of thick. May just take a bit longer to "soak through". Echo the comments about the steering wheel. I thought it was gimmicky on my 02 SE until I experienced it. Now, if it is available, it is a must have. I sure miss it when I take the wheel of my Z car; but I get over it quickly (grin). srm

 

Yes, the seats are slow to heat up, but when they are finally heated, they can toast your butt!

Someone on this thread use heated steering wheel when it is 55 degrees? I would never do that because it could burn my hands. But using it at 32 and below feels soooo nice!

 

I guess you could say my hands are conditioned to the California weather, out here 55 IS cold!!! Haven't burnt my hands yet!!!

 

my seats are slow too...

steering wheel is fast. i usually end up turning it off once the wheel is warm...

now if they only could heat the shift **** too. Going from the hot wheel to the cold **** wierds me out. it feels like the shifter is wet or something.

 

I paid attention to mine this morning ... the driver's seat was putting out meaningful heat within less than 4 minutes of turning it on.

One consideration is the amount of cold-weather clothing you have on. Keep in mind that your goose down ski parka is really good insulation, and you won't feel the warmth through it very quickly. I had just jeans and a long-sleeve pullover shirt on this morning (temp was about 30 F), so I felt the heat right away.

Mike

 

Wow, never even thought of that!!... must really feel sorta weird going from the nice toasty steering wheel to chilly shifter.

 

I don't understand why I can't turn off A/C when I use the recirculation button and why does it also come on when you push Auto? Is this also a problem that requires Nissan's "FIX" ? It also comes on when you push the defog button although then you can manually turn if off. You must make sure that the temp is set higher than 24 or 25 c for this system to run properly.
72 to 75 F.

 

It sounds as though it's working properly. I think it's all covered in the manual.

 

I definitely have this same problem. The seats are not hot by the time I get to work (about 20 minutes), and even on longer drivers they never really get that hot. When I mentioned this to the stealership the other day, the service tech said all they could do was measure the voltage to the heaters, and if it was within spec, there was nothing they could do. Thus, the heated seats, much needed here in the wintertime in Canada, are next to useless.

The heated steering wheel is fantastic. Just wish the seats worked as well.

 

Hello Gang!

Well, Winter has finally hit Texas and with the single digit temperatures and snow that hit Dallas yesterday, I thought it was time to test the heated seats - Booooyyyy they're slow to heat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On my 2000 Bonneville SSEI, the heated seats heat in no time - they're awesome. On the 2005 Maxima, they take a good 10 minutes to heat, even though the steering wheel heats pretty fast.

My 2 cents!

Dennis D. Mullert

 

As info, this is a design flaw which would be difficult to correct 'after the fact'. It would require replacement of the front seats with new seats having a larger heating assembly drawing more current from a new larger wiring harness.

This problem supposedly was addressed by Nissan in the '05s, and a few '05 owners have posted in another thread that their seats seem to heat OK.

I sympathize with my northern neighbors, but, living in the south, the heated steering wheel was far more important for me than the heated seats.

 

For me they heat in 3 minutes the most.

 

eLMo - Like yours, mine also take about two and a half to three minutes to warm up. Maybe a little longer to really be 'toasty'.

But many heated car seats begin to radiate a little heat within less than a minute; 90 seconds at the most. By comparison, the Maxima's heated steering wheel is clearly warmer thirty seconds after it is turned on. Nissan has admitted they 'underdesigned' (underpowered) the '04 seat heating system, but have redesigned this system for the '05s.

I feel the problem is most noticable in the Arctic (aka, Canada), where Maxima drivers get into their totally frozen car with thick coats on, and the seat heaters have to first warm the seat padding, then the seat covers, then the driver's coat, then his pants, then his undies, then finally, the heat reaches the driver's posterior as he pulls into his parking space at his office. Too little. Too late.

 

Lightonthehill - you are bang on, as usual!

Not sure if you Americans are aware, but it is a fact in that 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border. The rest of this vast country - lies virtually empty.

Thus, 90% of Canadian Maxima owners are in the same type of winter weather as is found in Maine (actually more northern than some parts of Ontario), Vermont, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, etc.

Thus, there would be a heck of a lot of dissatisfied Canadians and Americans who own 2004 heated seat Maximas...

 

My heated seats are admitedly not the fastest to heat up. However they are acceptable. When its -30C out I don't expect them to heat up quickly. When its a few degrees below zero they're fine. Also the amount of clothing you're wearing certainly makes a difference in how long its going to take to feel them.

There are other manufaturers who make seats that heat up faster. VW comes to mind. They have crazy heated seats! The dial goes from 1-5, and I wouldn't ever put it up past 3.

I just took a ride in an 05 Honda Pilot and the seats in there took forever to warm up. They were awful.

I'd have to say the Maxima seats are middle of the road. The heated steering wheel more than makes up for this. Its like crack, I'm so addicted to it.

 

Same here Now that I have it... I can't imagine ever doing without it.