2004 Heated seat heater won't shut off!
 

OK my heated seats have been working fine but today on the way to work the drivers side one was getting very hot, and the switch would not shut it off. I ended up having to put the back floor mats on the seat as it was burning my butt and lower back. When I got to work I pulled out the 15amp fuse, hopefully that shut it off but with snow coming tomorrow I want to fix it. Any ideas? I'm thinking the switch might have melted closed, or is there a relay somewhere that could cause it?


thanks
Dave:mad:

Sadly, I don't know how the heated seat circuit works. My guess is the switch activates a relay somewhere.
If I recall, the passenger side fuse block has a circuit breaker for the heated seat. Wonder if that is part of the issue. If it is, it's on the BACK of the fuse block (need to take the glove box out to access it).

Yes it sounds like a relay or something. I disconnected the switch in the console and it did not shut the heat off. When I pulled the 15 amp fuse out it turned off the heat. I saw a heated seat control module on eBay, but not sure if this controls the temp like a relay or where it is located. If anyone knows where this goes and what it does let me know!
thanks
Dave

Did a little work to troubleshoot it since it warmed up to 45 last night. I unbolted the seats and took them out, unhooking the wiring harness to both seats. then I located the heated seat control module, shown in the photo above. It is clipped onto the inner seat rail on the side nearest the console and to the front of the seat. I removed the module from the driver's side and switched it with the module on the passenger side, and the symptoms reversed, drivers side worked good but passenger side was very hot and would not shut off. So I ordered another heated seat control module from ebay, part # is 88899787. Hopefully this will do the trick. I will take some photos when I put the new one in. Don't forget to pull the blue 15 amp fuse on the passenger side, I forgot last night and woke up to a dead battery.

Interesting the module died, but good find! Nice when you can interchange parts and confirm the problem :)

Fixed it last night, replacing the module confirmed my suspicions. Was going to take photos but since it was 17° outside last night and dark I just pulled the seat and replaced the module. Plugged everything back in and replaced the fuses and everything works fine! And just in time, it was -8° out the next morning!

Good idea.. my driver side stopped working all together, not the fuse and not the switch. Might have to unbolt my seat tomorrow.

If the seat is not heating at all you probably have a burned out power wire going to the back heater. I had that happen on my old car. There is a write up on this forum that shows how to fix it, not too bad if you can solder a new wire in.

Heated seats??? Unfortunately gave mine up years ago. Luckily out here in Utah we are having a very very mild winter. Been in the mid 40's almost all winter. Little to no snow.

The wire from the bottom pad to the back pad is the typical culprit as Dave says. Burns through... :mad: