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Heated steering wheel weak?

WildBlue

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Just got my XLT ER this weekend. Coming from a Chevy Bolt, I can tell you the heated steering wheel is pathetic on the Lightning. When it initially starts, it works well, but as soon as you start driving it cools to barely warm at all. Very poorly tuned. Any possibility of tweaking the settings via Forscan?
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ExCivilian

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Mine used to work well and then one day it seems like it shuts off after 5-10 minutes. Then it's barely warm on the top but almost nothing on the bottom. I had the dealership check it and they said it was fine so now I'm waiting to take it up to the snow and see if it changes when the wheel is freezing cold.
 

Marcelo Zanetti

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Just got my XLT ER this weekend. Coming from a Chevy Bolt, I can tell you the heated steering wheel is pathetic on the Lightning. When it initially starts, it works well, but as soon as you start driving it cools to barely warm at all. Very poorly tuned. Any possibility of tweaking the settings via Forscan?
Mine too seams to work erratic. Some times doesn’t work at all.
 

Adventureboy

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I find it warms up nicely in the cold weather then tapers off as the cabin warms. Forescan works for tweaking this on the ICE (I did it on my 2018 a few years back). I expect if someone knows what numbers to tweak for our Lightning, we'd be able to adjust it.
 

AmandaB

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Mine too seams to work erratic. Some times doesn’t work at all.
Same here. Half the time it doesn't seem like its heating at all. I've tried turning the steering wheel heat off and back on. Doesn't help. Seems like restarting the truck helps occasionally.
 

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TaxmanHog

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One thing to note, heated steering wheel is erratic if used in conjunction with departure time cabin conditioning, even having it set for warm, we're still waiting for an update that will fix this erratic behaviour.

As an alternative, if you need to use preconditioning more so for battery warming when the depth of winter have arrived, set the departure time for about 30-60 minutes prior to actual departure, doing so will ensure the battery temperature is correct, enough time will elapse to allow the truck to go back to sleep.

Then when you're about ready to go ~5, 10, 15 prior to leaving the house, use remote start, to give the cabin, seats and wheel a quick warm up, they will be toasty when you get in and remain on as long as you need them through the drive.

In my experiences, the seat and wheel get to warm and I'm switching them down to low & off respectively.
 
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TaxmanHog

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Side note

Today's remote start request failed to process, I didn't notice while I was getting ready to go and went out to a cold truck, I'm marking this event to yet another failed communications session between Fordpass, the cloud and the truck ...... come on Ford, fire up the hamsters.
 

Flash

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I too have this problem of a weak heated steering wheel. Interestingly enough my '22 Mach E had a strong heated steering wheel but my '23 Mach E is as weak as my '23 Lightning. Wonder if there was a decision to make these weaker on purpose.

The service tech at my dealership is working on a Lightning that is going through the heated steering wheel retrofit and I asked him to see what values are changing. This might show what potential forscan addresses that can be edited.
 

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Ford Motor Company

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Just got my XLT ER this weekend. Coming from a Chevy Bolt, I can tell you the heated steering wheel is pathetic on the Lightning. When it initially starts, it works well, but as soon as you start driving it cools to barely warm at all. Very poorly tuned. Any possibility of tweaking the settings via Forscan?
Hey there! If you send over a DM with your VIN and Ford dealer info, I can look into your concerns on my end.
 

Maquis

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There was an extensive discussion on this topic a year or so ago on the Mach-E forum. Basically, there is a lot of variability in how the temp sensor is positioned in the steering wheel. The closer the sensor is to the heating element, the cooler the wheel. I think one person opened up the wheel and repositioned the sensor.

It‘s been awhile, so my recollection of all the details may be lacking.
 

Pioneer74

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There was an extensive discussion on this topic a year or so ago on the Mach-E forum. Basically, there is a lot of variability in how the temp sensor is positioned in the steering wheel. The closer the sensor is to the heating element, the cooler the wheel. I think one person opened up the wheel and repositioned the sensor.

It‘s been awhile, so my recollection of all the details may be lacking.
On older model vehicles you could also adjust the temperature. I retrofitted a heated wheel into my 2018 Lariat and I believe there were 7 or 8 different heat selections too choose from in FORSCAN.

There might also be an option to adjust it on the current trucks.
 

3rdgenfan

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I too have this problem of a weak heated steering wheel. Interestingly enough my '22 Mach E had a strong heated steering wheel but my '23 Mach E is as weak as my '23 Lightning. Wonder if there was a decision to make these weaker on purpose.

The service tech at my dealership is working on a Lightning that is going through the heated steering wheel retrofit and I asked him to see what values are changing. This might show what potential forscan addresses that can be edited.

Had the same issue with the heated seats in my G8 vs when I had my SS sedan.

You could fry an egg on the heated seats of the G8, meanwhile the newer version of the car (SS) had heated seats close to someone just blowing their luke warm breath on your back.
 

jdmackes

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I too have this problem of a weak heated steering wheel. Interestingly enough my '22 Mach E had a strong heated steering wheel but my '23 Mach E is as weak as my '23 Lightning. Wonder if there was a decision to make these weaker on purpose.

The service tech at my dealership is working on a Lightning that is going through the heated steering wheel retrofit and I asked him to see what values are changing. This might show what potential forscan addresses that can be edited.
The forscan address is: 724-06-01 *xxx xxxx --

0 =HSWLTSP 24°C8 =HSWLTSP 32°C
1 =HSWLTSP 25°C9 =HSWLTSP 33°C
2 =HSWLTSP 26°CA =HSWLTSP 34°C
3 =HSWLTSP 27°CB =HSWLTSP 35°C
4 =HSWLTSP 28°CC =HSWLTSP 36°C
5 =HSWLTSP 29°CD =HSWLTSP 37°C
6 =HSWLTSP 30°CE =HSWLTSP 38°C
7 =HSWLTSP 31°CF =HSWLTSP 39°C

I think mine was set to A and I changed it to F. It gets pretty toasty when it's running
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