Hello, New to Forum

[RAS69]

Hello,

I am new to the Forum, but not new to my wife's 97 850. I started searching for a forum where to ask questions, etc concerning the 850. We bought our 850 in 97 and have mostly been happy with it, until this last week. We have never had any real problems with it.

The situation that has happen is the heated seat on the driver's side went out. Not a fan of electronics, I took it to our local dealer and after a $100 service charge found out the heating pad is bad. The dealer's quote was around $350 dollars to replace the pad. This is after I already paid the $100 to locate the problem, $450 dollars is steep to replace a heating element.

I am a car enthusiant and have a few other muscle cars(69 BB Vette, 69 Chevelle SS, 78 Z-28, and 92 5.0 Mustang) that I perform all the work on. I have restored/rebuilt all of the cars above except for the Mustang. I bought it new and it is still nice. I rate my ability around a 8 out of 10. I can paint and rebuild engines, but I have never torn down a seat. This there any special real skills to do this? I know that I will need some hog-ring style pliers and some of the clips. I want to fix this for my wife but I dont want to handover another $300 dollars for something that is really cosmestic.

Thanks,
Rick
in Ohio

[matthew1]

First, welcome to MVS Forum... then ask your dealer about a recall. The heating grid was a recall item about 2 or 3 years ago. The whole thing may be free.

If that doesn't work, it's probably the thermostat or -- even easier -- the wires just got disconnected via the harness. Look under the seat for one that goes straight up the bottom of the seat from the harness.

More on this:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/chat/p ... thermostat
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/chat/p ... thermostat
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/chat/p ... thermostat

Hope this helps... please let us know what you end up doing. Thanks.

[DCintraining]

I've taken apart a seat on a 93 with just a couple pair of pliers to work on the motor. It wasn't difficult taking apart, just getting the foam and leather back together and smooth was a minor pain. Good luck with the heating element.