Heated steering wheel and wheel tilt broken, 6 days with dealer and no fix in sight

[Truckdriver1880]

Not sure of exact timings since I don’t use either often or in summer, but at some point my heating steering wheel AND the adjustment for steering wheel tilt stopped working. This is on a ‘23 Lariat ER. Oddly the wheel will still retract/extend when you start/stop the truck but the controls don’t work and it does not adjust to driver profile.

Dealer has had it 6 days now with no solution in site. Apparently they are now convinced the problem is not the electronics in the wheel but in a module in the drivers seat. Seems odd to me. Also very surprised such a simple thing can take so many days to diagnose and fix.
I’ll reply to this post again when they do finally get it sorted to confirm total days and root cause of issue.

Wondering if anyone else has had similar issues? Does give me concern on what happens with non-warranty issues. A heated steering wheel should not be something that takes days to fix!

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[Ford Motor Company]

Not sure of exact timings since I don’t use either often or in summer, but at some point my heating steering wheel AND the adjustment for steering wheel tilt stopped working. This is on a ‘23 Lariat ER. Oddly the wheel will still retract/extend when you start/stop the truck but the controls don’t work and it does not adjust to driver profile.

Dealer has had it 6 days now with no solution in site. Apparently they are now convinced the problem is not the electronics in the wheel but in a module in the drivers seat. Seems odd to me. Also very surprised such a simple thing can take so many days to diagnose and fix.
I’ll reply to this post again when they do finally get it sorted to confirm total days and root cause of issue.

Wondering if anyone else has had similar issues? Does give me concern on what happens with non-warranty issues. A heated steering wheel should not be something that takes days to fix!

Good afternoon! If you'd like to, go ahead and send us a private message with your VIN and dealer info and we’ll look into these concerns. Thanks!

 

[Truckdriver1880]

Don’t think many folks will be surprised the dealer called me today and said the driver seat module did not fix the problem. They said they are out of options and have to contact Ford for next steps. So that’s now 7 days and counting to fix a heated steering wheel….

 

[Montecarlossfan]

Don’t think many folks will be surprised the dealer called me today and said the driver seat module did not fix the problem. They said they are out of options and have to contact Ford for next steps. So that’s now 7 days and counting to fix a heated steering wheel….

One would think these are the exact same as the standard f150… shouldn’t be rocket science… maybe a different dealership going forward is the answer.

 

[Truckdriver1880]

I agree with you, should not be rocket science. This dealer is 30 mins away, biggest in the area with most BEV techs. Next closest is just over an hour and one recently certified BEV tech. Realities of rural living

What I also didn’t mention is the first time they had the truck for three days and gave it back with no fix the air bag error light was on and steering wheel had been reattached 90 degrees from straight. Really gave me confidence….

 

[Truckdriver1880]

Alrighty, 11 elapsed days in with no truck and no fix in sight. Ford has reached out, which was nice, and issued a case number. We will see what happens with that. Even if it gets figured out fast best case scenario is this fix will have taken at least 17 elapsed days. Anyone know if lemon law can be invoked after 1st year? I’ll be well over 25 days of servicing next week and over 30 if the CSBs are included.
Still can’t believe heated steering wheel can be this hard to fix! So many hours of labor have now gone into fixing a very standard $50 part. Not good for me or Ford.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Anyone know if lemon law can be invoked after 1st year? I’ll be well over 25 days of servicing next week and over 30 if the CSBs are included.

Gut instinct, no, the time spent is tied to the issue not resolved, miscellaneous services (Recalls or CSP) are indepent incidents, caveat .... I don't know the details of Mi lemon laws.

 

[Truckdriver1880]

Giving an update in case anyone else needs help at some point. Basically dealer has given up and said they have no idea how to fix this - it’s an electronics not mechanical issue and they don’t have the skills to diagnose. So they raised a case with ford just over a week ago. Thus far the two of them made contact and agreed the problem would need to be looked into.

But no actual progress and I first took my truck in on Nov 11. At this point I’m not expecting anything much to happen next week as ford dealer and ford slowly and painfully engage to figure out how to fix a steering wheel. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if my truck is fixed before the new year. Will keep this thread updated in case others ever face a similar issue.

 

[Henry Ford]

Anyone know if lemon law can be invoked after 1st year?

In Michigan you must alert the manufacturer of the defect within the warranty period or within one year of purchase, whichever comes first. Not legal advice.

Have they tried replacing the steering wheel? It's possible the tilt and steering wheel issues aren't related. Dealerships don't like throwing parts at the problem but sometimes throwing parts at the problem fixes the problem.

 

[Jesse-Infotainment]

It is either the DSM or the SCCM. The SCCM would make more sense if the heated wheel is also not working.

The column movement motors are indeed controlled by the module under the driver seat. THe heated wheel is not.

The Sccm has the joy stick controlling movement. So my first question would be does easy entry still work?

If so then that would lead to the SCCM being bad.

 

[Truckdriver1880]

Wish I’d known you earlier @Jesse-Infotainment

that’s great advice and relevant as easy entry still worked but not other tilt controls or heated steering wheel.

dealer returned truck today and all is supposedly fixed. Although I’d note they damaged trim under steering wheel and also the leather on steering wheel itself. So now have a new repair order open and have to come back.

End fix was highly unclear on details with ford and dealer both having different details. In summary my ford dealer in northern MI is probably quite good at physical car diagnostics. They have no skills in software diagnostics. That’s what they needed. Additionally Ford engineers had access to info the dealer said they did not which led to the fix. Will post again as still gathering info. But apparently all this was fixed by updating firmware on 11 HVB modules. Stilling trying to figure that out.

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