L460 Range Rover Heated Steering Wheel Fault, Turns Off After 20 Minutes and Won't Turn Back On (For googling purposes).


Hi All,

I've got a problem on my '73 plate L460 with my heated steering wheel, it turns off after 20-30 minutes and then wont turn back on. I have bad circulation and get very cold hands when driving long journeys and use my heated wheel all the time even in summer.

The first time I reported it Land Rover said that was how they were meant to operate but then agreed to fit a new wheel under warranty.

This cured the problem for a few weeks and on the first long drive I went on it stayed on for 2 and a half hours, something it had never done before. Great!!! I thought, I can now have it on the whole time like my previous Range Rovers and not have to stop to reset it after 30 minutes.

On the long drive home it stopped working again and turned itself off about 30 minutes into the drive and would then not turn back on even when the wheel was completely cold.

Land Rover are saying it is a safety feature and it is meant to do this but it was obviously fixed and working properly on the long drive and stayed on (like every other Range Rover I have ever driven).

It cannot be a safety feature that needs the vehicle turned off and on to reset the wheel before it is turned on again, there must be a problem with the thermostat thinking it's getting too hot and tripping out or something.

Has anyone else had this problem? I found this other thread that suggests I'm not the only one.

https://www.rangerovers.net/threads/heated...en.356010/

Last edited by ATB on 15th Jun 2024 12:13pm. Edited 2 times in total

To be honest I’d struggle to see this as a fault. I can absolutely manage this isn’t the design intent for the technology and there would be a degree of timeout feature built in. Sorry this isn’t helpful but I doubt you’ll find many others who has this on continuously for more than a few minutes…

It may be that not many other people have it on as much as me, but just because you don't see it as a fault it doesn't mean it isn't one!

On every other Range Rover I've ever had or driven, you can leave the wheel on constantly. And indeed it was working as intended for a short time.

It is obviously a fault if you cannot turn it back on again without turning the car off and on again, when the wheel is stone cold.

You’ll need to pickup with LR then. If they aren’t saying it’s a fault, you aren’t going to get very far…particularly if they’ve already changed the steering wheel once and it’s the same.

No personal experience of this, but I see that if one goes into Eco Mode that automatically switches the heated wheel off, might the car be putting itself into Eco Mode (assuming you have not selected that mode) e.g. due to a software fault?

Incidentally my sympathy to you for having poor circulation in your hands, I have a bit of vibration white finger and it's no fun. Only Range Rovers since 1988

Thank you for the helpful suggestion, I don't think it is that though as it happens on the motorway when I haven't changed anything and I haven't seen any change of mode flash up or anything.

It's booked back in in August, as that was the first slot they have, they must either have sold so many that they all need servicing or there must be so many faulty vehicles that they are booked up two months in advance!

Autobiography wrote:

You’ll need to pickup with LR then. If they aren’t saying it’s a fault, you aren’t going to get very far…particularly if they’ve already changed the steering wheel once and it’s the same.

Hi did you manage to get this sorted? I got my car in the summer so didn’t have much use for the heated steering function. Now it’s winter I’ve noticed that the steering wheels gets really warm and then after about 40 minutes it basically turns off like yours and goes cold.

Find it really annoying as none of the older generation range rovers did this. Kind of defeats the purpose of it on longer journeys as I have the wooden steering wheel and it’s stone cold by the time I’ve got to my destination.

After taking the Tech out on a test drive in November they finally admitted there was still a problem (tech could see the car's brain in real time and it thought the wheel was on when the light was off and sometimes the button had no effect on what the car though the wheel was doing) and after lots of talking to LR Technical Assist they are waiting for the part to arrive which is meant to be next week I think.

This is what they said at the start of December: "Finally, we have some productive news on your vehicle. Land Rover’s engineering department has advised us to replace the body control module/gateway module, as it appears there is an underlying fault preventing updates and causing discrepancies with the steering wheel—along with possibly other, as-yet-undetected issues."

Since then my rear parking sensors have started playing up, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I'm hoping it's related to this module they're waiting for.

Maybe you have the same problem but you'll have a bit of a slog trying to get them to fix it. Be persistent is my advice and make it clear you know this is a fault and that it's not how it's meant to operate.

A work around seems to be to turn it off when it gets hot and then wait for it to cool a little bit and then turn it on again and repeat but if you forget obviously and it "trips" then you can't use it until you turn the car off and on again.

Luckily I only live 10 minutes from the dealer because I've been there many times trying to get this sorted! Good luck.

Hey thanks for getting back to me.

Oh wow ok fingers crossed that fixes it for you. Maybe I have the same problem as well then. I have been having other unrelated electrical gremlins have just been putting up with it for now.

I keep getting a yellow warning light randomly appear for the lane assist turning off by itself and also another warning randomly coming on for the emergency braking turning off by itself as well.

if I turn the car off and on again it clears it until it randomly turns off again the next time I drive it.


I wonder if it could be linked to that body control modules you mentioned? Have you had any issues like that?

While you’ve been having these issues did they give you a curtesy car or did you do it through Land Rover assist to get a curtesy car or you just popping in for them to have a quick look at it in your spare time?

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

No other problems apart from the odd "emergency braking not available" or something which is quite rare and clears itself on restart. Probably a dirty sensor.

I couldn't do it through LR assist as it wasn't deemed a serious fault, the dealer gave me a courtesy car while it was in being diagnosed a couple of times and when the steering wheel and clock spring were also replaced previously (at different times) to try and fix it, I didn't always get a courtesy car thought as I have other vehicles so didn't always need one but sometimes I did get one just to keep them focused on the task! While I've been waiting for the part for a month I've just had it back and been using it.

I'll update when the new module has been fitted and I've been out with the Tech and his laptop and checked it's all working as intended.

It’s not good enough really with price of the car. You’d think they would have sorted the time frame for waiting for parts by now.

Also you won’t believe this but I went to start the car today and it had a low battery warning and the boot wouldn’t open I noticed on the dash it said battery low start engine so I started it and then about 10 different errors lit up in the dash. The engine started fine no problem but had the engine light on and the car is stuck in park and won’t shift into drive or reverse as well as a multitude of other errors

Had to leave it at home and use wife’s car. Will call Land Rover assist when I get home but I’ve never seen so many warnings. Don’t get how the battery could be low as I did a 100 mile round trip on the motorway yesterday as well.

I’ve copied a link to the Reddit post I made with a video of all the errors showing

https://www.reddit.com/r/RangeRover/s/7BTfrNqO7y