veloAR

First cold WI day today, and turned the heated steering wheel on for the first time. By the time I arrived at work 20 minutes later, it was still only tepid, at best.

I have seen a few posts somewhere about being able to adjust the max temp? Is this possible?

I seem to remember a mention of the OBDEleven unit and app being able to do this. Anyone have any experience with this?


Thanks

Z06jerry

On my B9 A4 Allroad I found the steering wheel was too warm for my liking. I was able to reduce the final max temp by a couple of degrees celsius. This only adjusts the max temp the steering wheel reaches and does not affect the time it takes to heat up. FWIW, I used OBDeleven to make the adjustment.

veloAR

Thanks.

So what version of the OBDEleven do you have? Is it fairly easy to find and navigate functions such as the steering wheel heat functions?

I only have an Icarsoft device for reading/clearing codes, setting the electronic e-brake, etc, as it is pretty universal for the different brands in my fleet.

Z06jerry

^^^ the setting is either in the steering wheel module or central electronics module. My OBDeleven was purchased in 2017 but still works fine. I recently made a bunch of tweaks to my '22 B9 Allroad.

veloAR

Cool thanks, will be picking one up

goodmaj

Same here. It seems to take forever to warm up and the warming generally starts at the 9 and 3 points on the wheel. Would be interested to hear your results with OBDeleven.

veloAR

Picked up the OBDEleven, they were having a sale a few weeks ago and ended up with the "Pro" pack with a one year subscription for under $100. Honestly, having more steering wheel heat for my apparently tender paws is totally worth $100 if it works.

So I found where to change the heat settings, and it really does work. However, I think I went too far as I changed the heat setting from the factory 34C (weak sauce) to 55C, which seemed to be the maximum allowed. I tried various settings before deciding to go max.

The only problem now is it shuts off after about 10 minutes, just when it gets warm. I did find a post on the RS6 board that stated 44C is the max to keep it from turning off.

I'll have to go back in and change this to see if it will stay on.

I'm a little miffed by this. The A4 allroad wheel heated up faster, hotter, and stayed on as long as it was switched on. Same with the old C6 allroad, and our Cayenne. What is the liability here?

John Simcox

At a guess I would suggest two reasons. Firstly a large number of instances of the heating elements burning out if they are allowed to be too hot for too long, resulting in replacement steering wheels under warranty. Second, and whilst not so much of an issue in the US, turning on the heating element in the steering wheel will increase fuel consumption and hence CO2 emissions. In Europe (and maybe elsewhere) manufacturers are under a legal requirement to reduce the overall CO2 rating of their total production so will do anything they can to get a lower figure for each and every car. Also in Europe, cars are taxed based on their actual individual CO2 rating as built including any options. Again manufacturers will be keen to get CO2 ratings for individual cars down to avoid losing a sale due to the higher tax for the car.

veloAR

Makes sense.


Turned it down to 44C. Heats up and stays on now. Looks like a fix

PDXCyclone

Thanks @veloAR for the update! I'm going to do the same as I have the same issue. Did you make any adjustments to the seats? I find them weak as well.

My 1st Audi, a 2002 A4 1.8T had heated seat settings 1-6 and 6 was flesh searing hot! The 3 on my 2022 A6 Allroad is probably something like a 2/6 on my old 2002.