Now that the weather is getting colder, I put on the heated seats for the first time. The steering wheel gets nice and toasty very quickly but the seats don't. After about 10 minutes it feels like they get a little warm. Every other car I've had get HOT quickly.

I notice that when you set it on high and all 3 red lights are on, the steering wheel heats up and when you turn it down to medium (2 lights), the steering wheel turns off.

If the seat warmers aren't working properly, is there something to check first? Or a fix? I am assuming the fuse is okay since the wheel and seats are on the same circuit.

 

On my car the steering wheel gets toasty warm quickly but the seats take longer when all three lights are on.

I can however feel the seat heat easily but it is never "hot".

 

Ten minutes for the seats to heat up seems rather a long time; I'm sure that on the 'three lights' setting I can feel it after two or three minutes.

The steering wheel heater - yes mine does that as well, fine on 'three lights' but otherwise 'not-a-lot'.

 

Well you could do like me and buy yourselves one of these and see first hand how it's operating - http://amzn.to/2gj8vnF

I've had heated seats in 4 different vehicles and I would say they are utterly average. Only one vehicle I had (Prius) did the seats heat up crazy fast, it was wonderful. But I'm pleased with the level of heat from my Jag. Better than the F150 I had, it was definitely slower to heat up.

 

Went on a 250 mile round trip over the Thanksgiving Day Holiday and had the seats on for an extended period of time. On high, the steering wheel got very hot so turned it down to medium. After 20 minutes or so, I could feel that they were mildly warm. I guess that's about as good as they will get. It's not like Mercedes. They got HOT in the same amount of time the steering wheel gets hot. I guess I'll have to live with that...along with all of the other English quirks that come with it.

BTW 06-XJR, for the $200+ I could have the seats removed and have the warming elements replaced. But thanks for the advice.

 

From my perspective, the steering wheel gets too hot in relation to the seats, at least initially. If I just let the settings ride for a while it seems fine. In a perfect world I would like to adjust the seat warmers and steering wheel separately but that is not possible presently.

 

Hey I was giving you an excuse to buy a cool gadget I use it for all kinds of things like seeing how well my walls are insulated in the winter, etc. It's one of those things where you find extra uses for it. And when I bought it, it was $250.

 

The OEM heating pads have a temp sensor built into them.
The pad and sensor is wired to the FEM as is the switch
When you select one of the 3 heat settings the FEM powers the heat pad
The temp is regulated by the FEM using the sensor

So if you replace the pads you need one with a temp sensor (which are not easy to find)
The second option is to leave the OEM pads in but instll and new ones on top of them.
For this to work you need a pad with less resistance than the OEM ones

The final option, and this is what I did is modify the temp sensor, placing a trimpot at the FEM. This let me adjust the heat settings upwards

When I did this I found out one of the elements on the passenger seat was not working and had to put an aftermarket element in as well

I cant remember the value of the trimpot but posted it here if you search for it

Cheers
34by151

 

I guess I was being a little closed-minded. It might be helpful to see about making my home more efficient and comfortable. Thanks. I'll consider it.

 

Had to look up what a trimpot was. That should tell you a little bit about my mechanical and electrical abilities! I'll have my mechanic look at the seat warmers soon. It will be going in soon as I threw a code on the way back that indicates the thermostat was having a problem. I erased it and it hasn't come back but at 65,000 miles and 8 years, it is probably time to have it checked and replaced. With the tepid seat warmers, I wouldn't want to loose the heat due to a stuck thermostat!

 

Mine are plenty warm enough, BUT I saw in the technical guide that to protect against battery drain from the high load, the cat notches down the heat if voltage is low. It does that without changing the display of red dots. So if, like me this morning, you have the lights, the windscreen heater, the rear window heater, and the fan all on, and revs low, it may cut back the power.

Experiment by turning down some of the other electrical loads and see if it makes a difference.

Otherwise, move somewhere warmer.

 

Have been testing the seats every morning and evening for the past few weeks. I've tried it while cruising the highway with little electrical load. Each time the steering wheel gets really warm very quickly (like the seats in my Merc) but the seats are still quite chilly. After 20 minutes or so I can feel some warmth but not like the steering wheel.

I'll speak to my indy mechanic about adjusting the temp sensor or adding an adjustable trimpot.

 

That sounds like the best advice I've gotten in a long time!

 

I had problems with mine last year but I pulled the seat apart and cleaned all the plugs and inspected the elements for damage. I didn't think I found anything wrong but it warms quickly now. It definitely isn't "burn your posterior" hot like some other makes but it gets comfortably warm within 30 seconds for me.

 

My seats warm up quite quickly, steering wheel doesn't heat up at all in any switch position.

 

Not all XJ's come with a heated steering wheel. Is this a recent problem? Do other steering wheel buttons work, like cruise, mute, volume, horn, etc? If other items on the steering wheel are not working, you might have a damaged clock spring.

 

Only had the car since July & just started using the heated seats, everything else on the steering wheel controls work perfectly so I guess it isn't heated.

 

My Jag is exactly the same but I don't need the heated steering wheel here.

Temps never drops below +4 deg C

 

The quick way to check is to look in the rear fuse box (the one by the battery).

The power for the heated steering wheel is supplied from F54 (15A) in the rear fuse box so if you have a F54 in the rear box it would seem to indicate the steering wheel has a heater; if not ... then not.

 

I have a 15 amp fuse in F54 so maybe something else is wrong somewhere, not too worried I have gloves.