The aim of this work was to conduct a test campaign to investigate the effect of temperature on the fretting fatigue life of aluminum alloy 6201-T81 wires taken from All Aluminum Alloy Conductors (AAAC) 900 MCM. To this end, fretting fatigue tests were conducted at room temperature (25 °C) and 75 °C. A three actuators fretting fatigue rig was upgraded with a heating system to allow the tests at elevated temperatures with an accuracy of ±2 °C. A methodology to ease the control of the temperature within the contact region was proposed and the details of the wire-against-wire fretting fatigue test were described. Two S–N curves were then obtained under the same load conditions, but each one at a different temperature. The results showed that at higher temperature the fretted wires could face up to 72 % reduction in fatigue life. Failure analysis of the fracture surfaces proved that the fatigue phenomenon in both conditions, i.e., at 25 °C and 75 °C, were very similar even though fatigue lives are quite different. •The heating system developed in this study can carry out tests at a temperature of 75 °C with excellent stability and accuracy of ±2 °C.•In this study, it was possible to perform fretting fatigue tests on conductor cable wires at the operating temperature experienced by the actual conductor.•The device proved to be able to reproduce a fretting fatigue test between aluminum wires of overhead conductors, inducing elliptical fretting marks at wire surfaces (similar to those observed in internal layers in the conductors when tested under fatigue at full scale) and respecting the condition of partial slip regime, that is, the Amontons's principle, showing clearly defined stick and slip zones.