Has anyone ever found out the cause of why the heated seats fail? For anyone that has had them replaced...did you ever get any info back from the dealer as to the cause of the failure? Has anyone ever taken a failured unit apart?

Also...Is this specific to our Crossfires...or do Mercedes also have this problem?

Thanks

 

Good question . . . . I have replaced the seats in my car with Cedar color ones . . . kinda thought that the drivers side was not working the same as pass. side. Sure enough, the bottom heaters are not working . . . . . decided to go check the ORIGINAL seats I pulled out of my car - only have 7,200miles (12k km) on them . . . checked the heater elements on both the drivers side and pass side seats. Sure enough, the bottom on the drivers side has an "open" circuit . . . apparently there is a "repair kit" from Chrysler - I have ordered that, and will see what it consists of, then I can determine what is cause. I suspect that it might have something to do with the connection point of the heating element to the cable that then leads to the connector. Perhaps it is not "rugged" enough to withstand the weight placed on it and having the weight moved around when the car is drivern . . . . ?????

I will attempt to post more with pictures, once I get the parts and see what is required.

Cheers

Mark
A12Rag

 

The most common cause of the failure is the elements burn out... the actual cause of this is the control box is faulty and allows the elements to get too hot.

I have not yet had this happen to me, but I'm tempted to track down a 'newer' or 'replacement' part for the control box and just swap it out so I don't have the elements burn out.

 

Some thoughts....

If the cause is the controller...is the replacement controller a different part number...meaning up-graded and fixing the problem? If so...maybe we need to replace it before it burns-out the element.

Another thought...I know the seats have a low and high setting and the high setting stays on for a short time and then reverts to the low setting.

Did anyone who has had a burned-out element...I wonder if it wouldn't burn out if you exclusively only use the Low heat setting. Maybe the problem has to do with the high heat setting over heating and not turning off fast enough. Any observations? Thanks

 

I've never liked the fact that they autonatically go to the low setting. My G does not do that and they never have burned out. Talking about my 04 G35 I had.

 

MMZ_Timelord,

Thanks for your comments. I agree...I feel the same way and would like to resolve this problem before my warranty runs out. I enjoy the heated seats...and with the number of people on the forum that have had them replaced...there must be a weakness in the design; electrically or mechanically.

I hope more forum members reply to this thread. With more input and data...we may be able to solve this problem for others on the forum.

Thanks

 

I'm hoping with enough folks having the problem and complaining to D/C that they will issue a replacement even out of warranty. My '05 is out of warranty and I cannot afford a fix. Keep complaining folks.....

PLEASE!!!

 

1st, the company is no longer "D/C", just "C"
2nd, with Bob Nardelli now running the company there is no way in hell they will do much out of warranty. Did u see what he did to Home Depot? :-)

 

I bought my 05' back in October and the back of the driver's seat was not working and I'll have it checked when I bring the car in eventually but I only use the seat heaters until the car warms up and then I use the regular heaters which takes about 10 minutes. I do notice that it takes about 5 minutes for the seat to actually get warm so I don't know if this is normal or not.

 

Both my passenger and driver's side bottom heaters have gone out in the past 2 months. The backs work fine. Guess I'll warranty repair these soon.

 

Mine failed drivers side lower bolster and under warranty after I screamed when they didn't want to replace it - they finally did. Could not give me any reason for failure. Sorry!

 

So what did the kit consist of and what was involved to do the repair ?

 

This is a three year old thread.

 

And ?......... Consider it a bump

 

My driver seat bottom (only) does not work on my 04 when I bought it used. It is almost guaranteed your seats will fail. I saw a plug in quick heat pad for around $30 a few years ago and should have bought it. You have to remove the seats to properly repair them and the costs for those Chrysler kits is around $100. I'll live with a cold butt!

This is definitely a design or equipment faiiure problem that should have been a recall even if out of warranty!

 

Ok, I had BOTH my seat bottom heaters replaced ~2 years ago. The drivers' side has never, NEVER been turned on....and it does not work. (Proven by the one and only time I went to use it).

Dang. At least Max-Care will cover it.

For a $100 deductible!

IMHO, there is not enough padding on the seat bottoms. After about 20 minutes, it feels like my a$$ is trying to chew its way through to the pavement. The seat heaters just get in the way!

 

I REPAIRED MY SEATS BOTH SIDES A FEW YEARS BACK . IT WAS ONLY BREAKS IN THE WIRING.

I DID TEST FOR THE HEATER MODULE CHECKED OK.

STILL HEATS AS ORIGINALLY INTENDED.

HERE IS SOMETHING THAT MIGHT HELP YOU.

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...structions.pdf

GOOD LUCK

 

The repair looks like way more fun than I want to have just so my butt can be warmed 3 months out of the year. If you google heated seat failure you will see we are far from an "elite" group in this category. I'd have to say it's a design that never was intended to last the life of the vehicle. My daughters Malibu actually started a small fire. Her "extended" warranty covered a new element and install..but not subsequent damages to the seat cover.

 

Couple questions;

Has anyone posted a play by play with pics on how to do the repair ?

To the people that have done the repair how long has your repair lasted ?

 

personally, I see no reason not to take the car to an aftermarket heated seat installer if they go. At very worst, I'll go down to the junkyard, get a cadillac seat heater and hardwire the darn thing to the plug in end. it's just a mat with a wire that goes thru it, vertainly doesn't need to be a Mercedes fitment.