Driver side - heated seat not working

trstjohn · Post by **trstjohn** » 06 Feb 2011, 06:26

All--
I've noticed my driver side heated seat is not warming up at all.. I investigated under the seat and it looks like everything is hooked up. The passenger seat heated module does work.

On another note, I'm not sure if it's related, but since my CD player is shot and I'm getting the SRS Airbag maintenance message, does this have something to do with it since a variety of components are ran under the driver seat?

Any suggestions on troubleshooting this issue?

dyerkes · Post by **dyerkes** » 07 Feb 2011, 20:13

I'm guessing that it's likely the heating element on your seat, as that is what happened with mine. It wasn't working when I purchased it, and after trying to switch it on several times I noticed that it got painfully hot in one spot. When I stopped the car to see what was going on I found a small hole in the leather that was burnt. When I removed the leather from the cushion I found that one of the electrical heating element wires had broken (looked a little rusty).

With regards to your SRS light, if anybody had removed and unplugged your entertainment console without first having disconnected your battery, than that may be the issue.

Regards,
David

Post by **jimmy57** » 07 Feb 2011, 22:07

The CD probably has no bearing on seat problem but the gang connector under seat not being securely latched together could give seat heater and SRS problems.

trstjohn · Post by **trstjohn** » 08 Feb 2011, 12:43

All of the cords are connected correctly in the front; however I did notice that two connectors were not plugged in when I initially bought the car (grey and green). I connected the grey but the seat is still not heating up and green to no avail. Due to the awkward position, I'm not able to see where the green should be plugged into.

Is there a diagram I can reference to make sure i'm plugging everything in the correct slots?

TexasCoder · Post by **TexasCoder** » 11 Feb 2011, 05:04

Look at the attached document for Seat repair. This should help, I suspect it is your heater pad that is malfunctioning. I haven't looked, but I am certain I remember seeing replacement pads on FCP Groton. Let us what you find!

dougbrewster · Post by **dougbrewster** » 01 Mar 2013, 14:03

I've just got my heated seat working on the first day of Spring. The heater elements had checked out OK - 0.8 ohm for the seat pad and 0.4 ohm for the backrest - as near as you can tell with a good multimeter and allowing for the lead resistance. Power was available at the black and red connector on the seat heating module under the seat so I bought a second hand module from a breaker on ebay for £13.50 and it fixed the problem.

It was difficult to replace the seat heating module with the seat still installed; you need to be very dexterous to get to the torx screw holding the module itself and the two 10mm bolts holding the audio amp on the floor which needs to be moved out of the way to get to the screw holding the seat heating module.

I had bought a Haynes manual for wiring information but it was only marginally helpful - no wiring colour codes or other useful details but the schematic arrangement was somewhat helpful in that it identified that there was only one stat (in the seat pad) and it was logical therefore to suppose that the two elements are connected in series - hence the 0.8 ohm plus 0.4 ohm = 1.2 ohm on a 12 volt supply = 10A current draw. This matched with fusing at 15A per seat. The series connection of the heating elements must be in the heating module because it isn't in the wiring.

It is very easy to disturb the connections for the seat airbags when working upside down under the seat so be sure to disconnect the battery first.