Fixed heated seats, pics!

[HawaiiBake]

My drivers side heated sea hasn't worked since I bought the truck in may, and it has gotten chilly so I figured it was time to do something about it. Did a search and found some info on here, and I thought I had a good idea of what I was getting myself into.

I first tired to remove the leather seat cover with the seat installed in the truck total PITA. It only takes 2 minutes to pop the seat out and it was a lot warmer in my garage.

I also took the power seat assembly off the bottom. 4 more bolts and 30lbs later the seat was a lot easier to work with.

I ended up unbolting the recliner bracket on the door side of the seat to be able to pull the leather seat bottom up.

The fun really begins with the hog rings that hold the leather to the seat. I used a pair of needle nose pliers and a flat head to try to pry the hog rings apart. It took me about an hour to get the heater pad exposed.



I did not see any fried wires that others had mentioned in their posts, but I did peel the felt apart on the two little tiny black boxes at the back of the pad that the wires go into. Sure enough several of the wires had snapped off at the soldered joint. The ones that hadn't snapped off I broke trying to pull the felt apart.

I stripped the wires back a bit and re soldered the joints. I suck at soldering so I figured the safest way to go was to put a lot of it on there.



I sprayed adhesive on both sides and stuck the felt back together around the boxes. it was somewhat lumpier than before and I can just feel it if I push my butt back in the seat, so low profile may be important depending on how you have the seat adjusted.

Everything goes back togther nicely, I used some of the spray adhesive to stick he heater pad back onto the foam.
Started the truck up and in a few minutes I had a hot seat!

Start to finish probably about 2.5 - 3 hours

[azkcr]

Good job! I needed to see this b4 I dove into the seats of my gf's trailblazer

[PGreenSVT]

Nice. Congrats on doing it yourself. I love to see guys doing their own work.

[6.0DSLPWR]

Thanks alot man. You have given me something to do today after I get back from the BD dyno days. My drivers seat stopped working about 2 years ago and it has just started to get cold here at night so getting into the truck in the morning really sucks.

I did some research too and it seemed the common problem was broken wires in the pad. So last year i pulled the seat out but couldn't find any broken wires in the pad. I am wondering if mine is broken like your....i never checked those connections! That will be awesome if I can get it fixed.

[hazard]

my backrest heat works on both settings but the actual seat area does not get warm at all on either settings, do you spose this is most likely my problem?

[Goose350]

I still need to fix mine. Good job

[HawaiiBake]

Originally Posted by hazard

my backrest heat works on both settings but the actual seat area does not get warm at all on either settings, do you spose this is most likely my problem?

It really is a simple system. There can't really be that many things that could go wrong. I think if you open up the seat you will probably be abl to fix it if you own a soldering iron.

It is hard to tell if the wires that go into the little black boxes are broken until you pull the felt apart, which invariably will break one I am sure. Pretty easy fix once you get everything exposed.

[ssamsom]

My driver's seat works, but it takes forever to warm up and it usually just gets warm. Occasionally it gets nice and toasty but not very often. I always assumed I needed a new element, do you think i might just have a few bad connections? I know nothing about this so thank you in advance for any more info.

[colinmacdon]

Originally Posted by ssamsom

My driver's seat works, but it takes forever to warm up and it usually just gets warm. Occasionally it gets nice and toasty but not very often. I always assumed I needed a new element, do you think i might just have a few bad connections? I know nothing about this so thank you in advance for any more info.

That's exactly what mine does.

[motorhead440]

Mine are inconsistent too. I'll tear into them soon.