Driver's side heated seat abruptly stopped working yesterday; BOTH the bun warmer, & lumbar are a no-go. PASS side just fine.

Fuse = appeared fine, still changed it.
Wiring harness underneath seat = securely plugged in.
Rocker switch on center console = still lights up, whether in low or high setting.

Am I looking at the elements being burned out, or would something like that induce a noticeable smell?

Hmmm, ...

 

Nothing? Really?

 

From what I read after I swapped a set into my car, it's actually a problem that does just happen. There's a thread around here somewhere on a fix, the seats melts a wire, in turn disabling the power to the seat.

Hence why the heat and lumbar go out - they're controlled within the seat, the power up/down and motion are controlled by the harness hooked under the floor. Which is why the seat doesn't stop working completely.

On the other hand, if you're constantly moving the power seat part around, you will burn out the cheap motor, and when I examined the tracks from a spare seat when I was doing my swap, it's all riveted in and wired like a Christmas tree, so just swapping the motor isn't really an easy project. A dealer would sell you the whole lower track, and would charge you as such.

 

I had the heated seat die in my 07 monte... I checked the fuse and everything like but could not figure it out.

When I brought it into chevy they fixed it real quick they said that the part of the fuse box that makes contact with the fuse was not holding tight onto the fuse, not making a complete circuit...

 

do a search and you'll find it..........




Heated seat fix.

 

I had the same thing happen to the driver's seat in my car. It turned out to be the element in the lumbar (seatback) portion. The two are connected in series. That's why neither part works. I used that as an opportunity to replace the leather which was showing signs of years of wear and tear. But the wire burned off the lead to the heating element. The heating element is physically attached to the inside of the leather covering. You'll have to pull the leather cover off the seat. But find out which of the two elements is showing an open circuit first.

 

There's a thread around here somewhere on a fix.