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1996 850 Seat Heater Not Working - No Thermostat?

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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kimthepilot
Posts: 20
Joined: 7 October 2013
Year and Model: 1996 850 Wagon
Location: Canada

1996 850 Seat Heater Not Working - No Thermostat?

Post by kimthepilot »

Hi All,

Winter is coming, and I'm finally getting around to troubleshooting my heated seats. The passenger's side works fine, but the drivers side does not. I've read through this thread: https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=24633

Everything checks so far. I have power going to the seat. What I don't seem to have is thermostats... I took a look on the passenger's side, and it doesn't have one either. My wiring looks a little different from whats in the thread above. Any thoughts on continuing to troubleshoot this system? Has anyone else seen this before (I'm hoping yes).

Thanks for the help!

Pics:
seat heater1.JPG
seat heater2.JPG

kimthepilot
Posts: 20
Joined: 7 October 2013
Year and Model: 1996 850 Wagon
Location: Canada

Post by kimthepilot »

Oh. Here's a third pic showing the entire bottom of the seat. As you can see, no thermostat...
seat heater3.jpg

scot850
Posts: 14903
Joined: 5 April 2010
Year and Model: 2000 V70 R
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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Post by scot850 »

It looks to me like the wiring to the seat base is missing. Hard to tell as it should go into the 'cone' in the bottom of the seat foam directly under the horizontal bar in your 3rd picture. These break off with age and seat movement and the seat heater stops working. Let me know if there is any wires to that point. I replaced the heated seat unit on my old 93 850. Took a fair amount of time, a lot of swearing and hog ring pliers and rings.

Neil.
2006 V70 2.5T AWD Polestar tune
2000 V70 R - still being an endless PITA
2006 XC70 - Our son now has this and still parked in our garage
2003 Toyota 4Runner V8 Limited
2015 Kia Sportage EX-L - Sold
1993 850 GLT -Sold
1998 V70 XC - Sold
1997 Volvo 850 SE NA - Went to niece in California - Sold
2000 V70 SE NA - Sold

Ozark Lee
MVS Moderator
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Post by Ozark Lee »

The thermostat is in the black box under the seat. It was a recall modification on many of the cars but I'm not sure exactly which ones (model year and trim) were recalled.

...Lee
'94 850 N/A 5 speed
'96 Platinum Edition Turbo
Previous:
1999 V70XC - Nautic Blue - Totaled while parked.
1999 V70XC - RIP - Wrecked Parts Car.
1998 S70 T5
1996 850 N/A
1989 740 GLT
1986 740 GLT
1972 142 Grand Luxe

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