On my '09 (bought last December with 176k) I have always noticed that the metal part of key gets hot to the touch after driving. Didn't think much about it.

Last week the radio would go out intermittently and the power steering would get stiff and light came on for it. Battery tested fine. Read here that couple people had a similar issue and replaced the negative ground to the battery. I bought a generic cable from auto store and no problem since. Also, key doesn't get hot anymore. Could it have been related?

 

Resistance in grounds is commonly blamed for cluster issues barring a specific design weakness. Resistance makes heat, but I recall your being a pretty handy dude, so you're probably looking for more specific info, huh?

I'd like to see an example of a ground that caused a hot key, so if you took any pics or still have the old cable, that'd be cool. I'd also appreciate a link to the thread where you got the idea for a new ground wire.

The best way to figure out what was going on would probably be to check the manual's troubleshooting procedures for the ignition in hopes of finding resistance specs. You could check the old cable against the new one, too. I'd be happy to provide an additional datapoint as one who hasn't had/noticed this oddity.

Did you up the gauge of the ground wire for the replacement?

Also, thanks for an interesting thread, friend.

 

The resistance of the wire itself should be relatively similar. The problem would probably be the resistance at the contact points with the chassis. Unless the cable was in a really, really bad shape.

 

Sorry, have been out of town for a few days. The cable looks to be in okay shape but the battery end has electrical tape wrapped around it (although can see the end of the wire like the new cable).

Link to the thread I referenced:

Thread for the ground