Why or how often does steering wheel heater turn off by itself?

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jjeff

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2016
Messages
2,859
Location
MSP MN
In the winter(basically October-March around here :( ) I never turn off my steering wheel heater, it's just on all the time I use the car. The problem is, and I've read this from others, I find every couple days?? it seems to turn itself OFF :x I don't notice it until the wheel is cold, then I look down and see it's off! The seat heaters don't do this, another thing which I basically leave on(albeit on low) for 6 months out of the year. Has anyone figured out a pattern to what automatically turns off the steering wheel heat, is it every 20 car starts, every so many hours, related to how many miles driven, any idea? Like basically everyone else I sure wish there was a LOW setting, which would help with the very noticeable cycling of the heat where the wheel gets hot and then cold but I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the heater turning itself OFF and the light going off, only to go back on if I push the button again.
 
It's just determined by how hot it gets. A thermostat turns it off when it gets too hot, then it has to cool too much before the thermostat lets it back on. The bandaid solution is to turn it off and on manually, as it gets just hot enough, and when it gets too cool.
 
No the light goes off too and I need to push the button to get it back on, it will never come back on by itself.
 
gene said:
My 2013 owner's manual states the steering wheel heater will stop once it reaches 68 degrees.

It's supposed to cycle on and off. Mine certainly does, and that's what I read here. The above post is the first I've read about the heater actually turning itself off at the switch.
 
Yes mine does with somewhat regularity. I thought others also experienced this but maybe they were just talking about the heater cycling on and off?? mine completely turns itself off. Simple enough to turn back on, just by pushing the button and all is fine, until a few days later when it turns off, gets cold and I look down and see the light is not on, push the button and all is well for a few days, rinse and repeat.
It's my guess after so many hours or car start/stop cycles it turns itself off, thinking maybe someone accidentally left it on?? but again I basically leave mine on for the 6 months of winter around hear and never find an occasion to turn it off, so I'd like it to stay on!
The heat heaters seem to be a mechanical switch so no way for those to turn themselves off, wish the steering wheel heater was mechanical and then I wouldn't have to worry about it automatically turning itself off :(
Does anyone else leave their steering wheel heater for many weeks at a time and do you also notice it turns itself off? it seems to happen irregularly enough that I haven't caught a pattern, which is why I was wondering if anyone else had...... I'm not sure if its off at startup or turns itself off during driving. Because of the steering wheel and placement of the switch I cannot see it unless I move my head, so it's not something I notice unless the wheel gets cold at which time I look around and see the damn light off :x
 
I flip mine on and off. I find if I just leave it on it will stop heating until the wheel is really cold before it turns on again. I have said this before but I so wish it had a "low" setting so it would just stay warm all the time instead of getting hot, shutting off for to long and then coming back on again to get hot and shut off.... I thought about making an automatic time delay switch for something like 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off. I would think that would never get hot enough to trip out.

My seat heaters do the same thing if you leave them on high they will shut off until they are cold again, I often turn the seat heater on high, then once I feel them get nice and warm switch it to low so they stay on.

Jeff I have never seen the actual switch go off, my wife just leaves the steering wheel heater on all the time and often she will pick me up and let me drive home and I get in and the wheel is cold and go to turn it on but it's already on. :(

Oh and Jeff it you swap the order of those switches if you want, its not to hard to pop them out and move them in the order you want. Check out this thread.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=15628
 
BrockWI said:
Oh and Jeff it you swap the order of those switches if you want, its not to hard to pop them out and move them in the order you want. Check out this thread.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=15628
Thanks for the link, interesting and I'll have to remember to do it come summer, sounds like it's easier to do in the summer because the plastic parts are more flexible. Even though I hadn't read it before, it sounds like lots of other people also can't see the wheel heater button/light so Nissan changed it in '14, one year after to my '13 :(
I did see one post by Nubo(third post down on the second page) where he also mentioned the heater button going off by itself, so it sounds like I'm not alone there but I don't think he ever did anything about it, like me probably just pushes the button and all is good, for a while anyway......
 
I see this is a few years old, but just the other day I had the same thing happen, twice in about 30-mile driving distances, 2022 Leaf SV with 2000 mikes. For the last month, since it started getting cold (just when it is really nice to have). I have noticed the regular heat/cold cycle being more pronounced and more cold than hot.

then this turning itself off happened, again, twice in one excursion. It had to be turned back on both times. Once is an accident, twice in the same day on the same trip is no coincidence.

FWIW, and might be totally unrelated, I am also getting serious static on Apple CarPlay AND Nissan navigation. The nissan voice assistant sometimes needs multiple pushes of the Talk button even if Bluetooth and Apple CarPlay are off and phone nowhere near car.

From the get-go, the infotainment screen has blacked out randomly.

There is some kind of electrical glitch that causes all these intermittent issues. Any ideas?
 
LeftieBiker said:
gene said:
My 2013 owner's manual states the steering wheel heater will stop once it reaches 68 degrees.

It's supposed to cycle on and off. Mine certainly does, and that's what I read here. The above post is the first I've read about the heater actually turning itself off at the switch.

The steering wheel heater on my 2014 S turns off (light goes out) regularly as well.
 
I know I posted this somewhere on here, don't remember the exact place, but the steering wheel heater has a 30 minute "on" limit per driving session. So if you turn it on while driving and before the 30 minutes is up, you turn off the Leaf. It will come back on the next time you turn your Leaf on. The timer is reset every driving session, so if you are making a lot of "short" trips, the heater will *seem* to stay on the entire time, but in reality, you just haven't hit the 30 minute limit in one driving session yet.

Hope this helps, yeah a little confusing, but I had to test this myself to finally figure it out when I was asking the same question years ago. :?
 
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