Heat Seats, Steering wheel warmer and Venting Issues

[GX550-1031]

Luxury + owner here and am finding the heated steering wheel and seats not offering much heat at all. I've customized "my settings" to +2 (more heat) and I still don't feel much warmth. Anyone else having this issue? Am I missing something?

I also found that the air vents blow cold or hot air sometimes even when the blower (and everything) is turned to off. You guys having that issue as well?

 

[premplus]

when I start the car and the fan is on the ac seems to default to being on, even when ac switch is not illuminated. I think the ac defaults to on. only when I click the ac button to turn it on and then push again to turn it off, does the ac actually turn off. In summary the ac switch doesn't tell you if the ac is on or off, which doesn't seem right to me. I haven't tried the heaters yet, but when it is hot outside and I turn on climate concierge. the steering wheel heater seems to turn on which doesn't make sense. Curious what other's experiences are...

 

[Ben O]

Luxury + owner here and am finding the heated steering wheel and seats not offering much heat at all. I've customized "my settings" to +2 (more heat) and I still don't feel much warmth. Anyone else having this issue? Am I missing something?

I also found that the air vents blow cold or hot air sometimes even when the blower (and everything) is turned to off. You guys having that issue as well?

I have the Premium Plus and no issues with Climate Control in fact it works much better than the past model GX. I set Climate Control to auto and the seats (Front) will automatically cool down based on temp setting. I live in Texas and so far Spring has been very Hot I have not tried the heating features and no issue with the steering wheel. Sorry to hear about your issues...

 

[Larry]

Luxury + owner here and am finding the heated steering wheel and seats not offering much heat at all. I've customized "my settings" to +2 (more heat) and I still don't feel much warmth. Anyone else having this issue? Am I missing something?

I also found that the air vents blow cold or hot air sometimes even when the blower (and everything) is turned to off. You guys having that issue as well?

Do you have a cool box? If so and it is on, the ac will not turn off.

 

[M2L2024]

Turning off the cool box will allow the A/C and fan to turn off. I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out the solution and gave up. Should have checked here first. Thanks LARRY for the solution.

 

[spiderjoe]

Bumping this thread - anyone else have some feedback to share on the rear heated seats?

Are they fast to warm and stay warm?

Premiun + owner here. Picked up vehicle Sept 2024.

Ventilation - its fall season, haven't tested the limits of cooling but it does seem to be "weaker" compared to Land Cruiser or Toyota standards.
Heated steering works for us, don't find it weak at all
Front Heated Seats - works well, fast.
Rear Heated Seat - this is very weak (coming from a 2022 GX460) and much slower to heat up.

I am waiting on dealership to find out if they can fix the rear heated seats for us. Not sure if it is a design issue or a setting that can be adjusted in the shop.

 

[jlcvt]

My front seat's don't seem to get that warm and the steering wheel gets warm but seems to have cold spots. . In my other vehicles my seats and steering wheels get warmer and heat up faster. I never tried the rear seats yet. Not So far not to impressed with these features.

 

[Outasync]

Previous post, same concern

Overtrail + rear seat heatets

Any OTP folks out there noticing the rear seat heaters are pretty worthless at best? Dealer says they work - ya right. Slightly warm mid-back only after 15 mins

www.lexusgxforum.com

Hope this helps

 

[FirstTImeLex24]

I have the Premium Plus and no issues with Climate Control in fact it works much better than the past model GX. I set Climate Control to auto and the seats (Front) will automatically cool down based on temp setting. I live in Texas and so far Spring has been very Hot I have not tried the heating features and no issue with the steering wheel. Sorry to hear about your issues...

Luxury + owner since June. Recently discovered (fall/winter) Front heated seats barely warm up. Thinking back to summer I was unimpressed with the 'cooling' feature as well. I never had cooled seats so I don't have a comp. Lex dealer admitted to 'hearing of issues' but no solution was offered. Diagnosis by service indicated the seats were producing an expected 80 degrees of heat. 80 degrees? I hope Lexus offers a fix/solution. Robust heated seats should be a no brainer. Especially for a brand such as Toyota/Lexus.

 

[FirstTImeLex24]

Do you have a cool box? If so and it is on, the ac will not turn off.

Yes. I learned that early on. Drove me nuts for a few weeks though...

 

[Outasync]

Luxury + owner since June. Recently discovered (fall/winter) Front heated seats barely warm up. Thinking back to summer I was unimpressed with the 'cooling' feature as well. I never had cooled seats so I don't have a comp. Lex dealer admitted to 'hearing of issues' but no solution was offered. Diagnosis by service indicated the seats were producing an expected 80 degrees of heat. 80 degrees? I hope Lexus offers a fix/solution. Robust heated seats should be a no brainer. Especially for a brand such as Toyota/Lexus.

What I noticed is that the heat is down low by your knees leaving your back side unattended. It is very noticeable when the seats are cold. Maybe Lexus thought owners would be driving with shorts in the winter. I will see if I can get a temp off just that area when the car cools down.

I would be interested how they determined seats were actually doing 80F. I think there would be some complaint/comments about roasted buns. In comparison, 2015 Honda Odyssey Elite is much hotter over the full surface of the seat.

 

[jlcvt]

Friends of mine who own a 4 years old RX were looking at my GX today. When one of them felt my seats and asked why I didn't turn on my heated seats on(it was 20* f degrees out), I said they are on. They said they don't feel like they are on. I have been testing out my 3 other vehicles heated seats and all of them work much better than the GX's seats.

 

[spiderjoe]

I find the front heated seats to work well. Warms up pretty fast, actually very fast. Comparison? New RX loaner is about the same. our older GX460 was much slower to warm up. We also have an older Merc which can fire up your a** on high setting but the GX550 heats up faster . Driving In New England weather, and have been below freezing down to single digit F. As to heating climate control, it’s the best for a Lexus that we have , heats up really fast and toasty. We actually have to set a lower temp setting to not sweat. Totally no issues with the heating for us.
Rear heated seats are not that great , slow to warm up.

what we found lacking is the cooling.. it’s not that great and doesn’t move much air volume with the vents.

 

[lexus-gx550-1919]

Luxury + owner here and am finding the heated steering wheel and seats not offering much heat at all. I've customized "my settings" to +2 (more heat) and I still don't feel much warmth. Anyone else having this issue? Am I missing something?

I also found that the air vents blow cold or hot air sometimes even when the blower (and everything) is turned to off. You guys having that issue as well?

I joined this forum today to see if any other fellow GX550s had "heated seats" that were not really heating up. Sounds like I am not alone with my new Luxury model not having working heated seats. I took it to the dealership and they told me they turned off "Concierge" and this worked for another customer. (So obviously I was not the only GX550 locally with this issue). Turning off 'Concierge' did not solve the issue. The Loaner NX model they gave me for the day heated up very nicely so I know what it should be. Very disappointing

 

[nonamex]

The heat index is pretty low on this vehicle compared to other models and brands including Toyota. I'm not sure if someone actually sat in this vehicle before production. Fortunately, most of the annoyances don't bother me because I don't pay much attention or don't use.

 

[JorgeR]

I joined this forum today to see if any other fellow GX550s had "heated seats" that were not really heating up. Sounds like I am not alone with my new Luxury model not having working heated seats. I took it to the dealership and they told me they turned off "Concierge" and this worked for another customer. (So obviously I was not the only GX550 locally with this issue). Turning off 'Concierge' did not solve the issue. The Loaner NX model they gave me for the day heated up very nicely so I know what it should be. Very disappointing

My driver seat barely heats up, it has one hot spot and there are sections that feel cold to the touch. It’s at the dealer now to see what they can do. The backs of any of the seats do not get anywhere near above ambient temperature.

 

[FirstTImeLex24]

I have heard (no proof) GX550 models with the massage seat option are having the most issues with heated/cooled seat performance. The massage mechanism overlays the heat/cool delivery system. Design flaw/poor planning.

Any GX550 owners without the massage option having issues with their heat/cool seats?

 

[Spikeitaudi]

I have a Premium. No Massage function. My seats are hot. Steering wheel does have gaps where I guess the element is not wrapped around the wheel like in others. Haven't had a chance to try cool seats yet as I just got this 3wks ago and it has been cold here in the northeast!

 

[yesitsqk]

Noticed on my OT+ after some use of the massing seats the heating in the seats is barely noticeable
Haven’t tested the rear seats
The heated steering wheel works pretty well except at 12 o clock it doesn’t heat there on mine

 

[REB27]

My totally unscientific take is my OT steering wheel heater isn’t as warm as on the Macan that it replaced. That said, it is fine. Only has front seat heaters and they also work fine. Just finished a hike in -2 degree chill factor weather and hands and butt warmed right up when I got back the vehicle (which I remote started about 7 minutes from the trailhead).