Anyone know of aftermarket...

[Godson]

Heated steering wheels. Or companies that offer recovering with heating elements supplied?


I am thinking about this for the M3...

[thesameguy]

Never heard of such a thing. I would be tricky to design a retrofit system to pass that much amperage through a steering column. I think with airbags in place there would be huge liability associated with such a product, and it would have to be specific to each make and model. I doubt there is such a thing.

[speedpimp]

Save your money and invest in a nice set of warm gloves. You can always take them off when your hands are warm enough.

[speedpimp]

Turns out there are inexpensive heated covers on eBay.

[Sad, little man]

Yeah, you're not going to find one aftermarket. Like tsg said, it's difficult to run power into anything that turns on the steering wheel. The way it's done for airbags, steering wheel controls, and factory heated steering wheels is through what's called a clockspring. It's essentially a long ribbon cable that's wrapped into a loose roll (in the same manner as, yes, a clockspring). On one end it connects to a connector that's stationary. On the other end, there's a connector that can rotate with the steering wheel. Since the cable connecting the two connectors is coiled around itself several times, there's room for the coil to tighten or loosen a couple rotations in either direction.

If you wanted to add anything circuit-wise in the steering wheel, you'd have to have a clockspring that still worked with your factory airbag connectors and such, but had extra circuits for a heated wheel. AFAIK, nobody makes an aftermarket clockspring. Too much liability. And they certainly wouldn't make one with additional circuits. Then they'd have to re-work the whole design. Way too much liability and engineering involved.

[thesameguy]

Haha... that is so corny!

[Sad, little man]

Ok, let me re-phrase that. Anything you find aftermarket will probably be a cheesy hack-job that will result in a wire dangling off your steering wheel.

[Godson]

I know what comprises of a steering-wheel and the inner workings. Do remember, I am a former Ford certified tech with pretty extensive knowledge. Looks like I need to do research on retro-fits.

[Freude am Fahren]

I'm guessing you checked if the E36 ever came with heated steering wheel option to retrofit? Try checking if it was available in other markets maybe too?

Also, if your steering wheel is leather, maybe try getting an Alcantara one as it won't feel as cold.

[Sad, little man]

Well if you already understand that it's difficult to the point of being not worth the effort to add a heated wheel, why are you asking if there are any aftermarket ones out there?

Believe me, I've thought how nice it would be to have one on the Milan some mornings, but the next thought that immediately pops into my head is "Oh well, too bad it's impossible to add circuits into the steering wheel."