PaulW

The problem is that the 12 VDC (power supply) wires that feed the heating element open circuit.

I checked mine....there are four wires, two for thermostat control, and two for power to the heating element. The heating element open circuits. Easy as that.

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/images/sw1.JPG">

KaMaKaZieP -ALUMIN8-

At using those buttons as TIP buttons....

JimR

When you say the *wires* open circuit, I take that as meaning that the actual heating element isn't burning out, but rather the wires leading to it are. Is this correct?

If the wires are burning out (going open circuit), are they just undersized? Would it be possible to replace with something larger to prevent this occurring? Or is the place where this occurs somehow in the wheel where it can't be fixed?

If undersized, that sure seems like a safety concern, though I've not heard of any safety issues caused by it. Generally, I like my fuses to be fuses, my wires to be wires, and not have my wires act as fuses.

PaulW

I imagine it's the heating element or the connection between the heating element and the wire. Most likely not the wire.

There have been a few cases of the thermostat circuit going bad and not turning off the power to the heating element and then it literally almost burns (and in some cases has) through the wheel.

pw

PaulW

If you see in the picture below, there is only one wire that goes across the cancelling ring from the steering wheel to the wiriing for the radio switches. It's the third one from the left.

There is a small PC card in the steering wheel that takes input from the four switches on the steering wheel and then conditions the signal, and sends it across the cancelling ring in one wire.

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/auto_transmission/tip9.JPG">

Therefore, you can't use anything but one wire, which won't cut it for the tiptronic, you need three wires (engage, upshift, downshift) plus you really need twice that many, because you need "goes in" and "goes out".

Unless you could do it with a RF transmitter/receiver, then you'd be good to go.

pw

skiracer

tip in the '97s is to install a tip shifter. We looked at all kinds of ways to get the signals across the clock spring, and nothing worked 100%.

BackToBasics

Your dealer told you NOT to use the seat heater settings 4-6? This is laughable.

greenie

the optional HVAC for the rear which is pretty funny now even though we solved the problem.