Heated Seats/Steering Wheel Not As Hot As Before?
 

I don't use my heated seat too often. I remember when I first got my car and trying out the driver's side heated seat, that it warmed up pretty quickly on the high setting and within a few minutes, I had to lower the setting. We've finally had some sun here in the Bay Area, so the other day, I dropped the top on my way home from work. It was about 55°F out, windows down, I had a long sleeve shirt on, no jacket and the heated seat on high, as I'm on the freeway for about 12 miles of my commute. The seat felt plenty warm on my back and legs, but not enough to have to turn it down. My thought process was that with the outside temperature being as cold as it was, the seats didn't feel as hot as if the top and windows were up. No big deal.

This past Saturday, I went to have lunch with a friend. The sun was out and the temp was in the mid 50s again, so down came the top. Put the heated seat on high and it just didn't feel the same. It didn't feel very warm on my back or my legs. The car sat all day yesterday, so I didn't get a chance to test it out. So I tried it on the way to work this morning (with the top up). I turned the heated seat on high and the heated steering wheel on as soon as I started the car. I could feel the seat warming up and the temp probably reached maximum after about five minutes. But the seat never got to a point where I HAD to turn it down, as was the case when I first got the car. And the steering wheel only felt lukewarm (it was 43°F this morning), nowhere near how I remember it feeling when I first got the car. Is this normal for these two things to not heat up as much after a few months?

Mine is still hot. Haven't noticed a difference...................

I think its all psychological. I believe how hot the seats feel, depends on how hot you are at the time. When you are over heating, you feel like the seats and wheel are burning you, so you turn them off. Same principle when you go for a run outside vs walking.

I notice when I take the top down, I don't feel the seats working at all, and the wheel is just luke warm. When I have the top up and I am not cold, the wheel and the seats burn me at max setting.

Do the heated seats work on a similar principal as the cooler works? i.e. ambient cooled air is blown and circulated through the seats, so my question is do the seats have an internal element that is heated and then the air is blown through the element and forced to the surface with the same blower that the coolers use? As it would make sense if the top is down the surrounding air would be much cooler than if the top were up and the blower was recirculating the heated air.

My steering wheel gets too hot for me. I can only take it for the first few minutes even on a very cold day. Seat heaters work well for me.

Agree with the steering wheel. I have to turn off to keep from being to hot. As far as seats I normally kick on high till I feel them then turn them down. It also depends on what clothes I am wearing. The lighter the clothes the hot it gets.

The seats have heating elements and dont use the fan like the ventilated seats (coolers) do. There is actually not a 'cooler', just a fan to circulate (hopefully cool) air from under the seats.

I would say my heated steering wheel has actually increased in heat (love every second of it)

The outside temperature this morning was about the same as on Monday, 40-43°F, when I started this thread. I thought I'd do an objective test of my heated steering wheel, instead of giving a subjective "it felt lukewarm" opinion. So I brought an infrared thermometer with me this morning. I turned on my heated steering wheel as soon as I started my car. My commute takes about 20 minutes. I measured the wheel temperature at various times throughout my commute. After about 3-4 minutes, the wheel temperatures ranged from 85° to 99°. Approximately 10 minutes into my commute, temps ranged from 88° to 105°. When I got to work 20 minutes later, temps ranged from 88° to 101°. To make sure my hands did not influence the temperatures, I made sure not to wrap my hands around the wheel at any time. I only held onto the back side of the wheel. All measurements were taken on the front side of the wheel. Unfortunately, I don't have a baseline to say whether or not the wheel temps this morning were lower/higher/the same as when I first got the car six months ago. But I now have a reference point, in case I perceive any changes in the future. It would be interesting to find out what wheel temps BrianL and dpevans are getting, as they indicated that their wheel gets "too hot".