stimpy2301
New member
With the experience of seat teardown & pad installation on my Tiburon, I think I should be able to handle it. Looking forward to receiving the parts and getting started.
Stay tuned!
Heated seats issue
- Thread starter Ubryaj
- Start date
With the experience of seat teardown & pad installation on my Tiburon, I think I should be able to handle it. Looking forward to receiving the parts and getting started.
Stay tuned!
Eric Smit
Enforcer
Make sure to take unnecessary amounts of pictures.
stimpy2301
New member
FYI, this repair is currently in work. Interesting things I've learned thus far:
1) GM made it ridiculous by not selling the heating pads by themselves. The only way to get new pads is to buy an entire new seat cushion & back cushion -- foam and all. Your options are to buy it with heating pad, or without heating pad. There is no option to buy the pads by themselves (as found by my independent part search and confirmed by the dealership service department who performed initial diagnosis). There's no reason they couldn't sell these pads by themselves with a peel-and-stick sheet attached to the adhesive side (as I experienced when I did it for my Tiburon).
2) I've determined, in my case, only the heater element in the seat cushion is bad -- the seat back heater is just fine. As I'll describe in the DIY, you can check the existing seat wiring but the wiring can still read 'good' even if the heater element is bad. In this scenario, unfortunately, the only way to determine what's gone bad is to have BOTH new components on hand. So, if only one has gone bad, then you'll have the other one left over. I foresee a passing-around of unneeded heating seat components for SOF members...
Once again, stay tuned. Now that I've identified the problem (and have documented the troubleshooting process for the DIY), it's time to move on to actual R&R.
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stimpy2301
New member
Those having heated seat issues -- my troubleshooting & replacement DIY is complete, follow the link.
gasonright
Member
Taking mine to the dealer tonight for this issue. I'm 1500 miles away from the end of the warranty so hopefully this get resolved. Will post the outcome.
gasonright
Member
Seat repaired and all is good. Turned out to be a short in the heating element.
Mine started acting up in the spring and is not working. Have an appointment to have it checked out by the dealer Thursday. Extended warranty. Anyways, very concerning to hear that this is not an isolated issue, even my co-workers Buick Regal had the same problem. Twice. I wish there was a TSB or recall on this for others.
Update 11/20: Was at the dealer yesterday and it is the heating element in the seat, part will be ordered and repaired under warranty.
Update 11/20: Was at the dealer yesterday and it is the heating element in the seat, part will be ordered and repaired under warranty.
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Hmm.... I just read this, as my 2012 LTZ just started doing this, and my wife LOVES heated seats so I'm getting complaints. I'm handy, I may replace them myself with generic ones from like Ebay, especially since the OEM ones don't seem to be very long lasting themselves and come with the seat stuff attached.
I see some universal ones advertised, one has great reviews on Amazon and has 5 levels, the Sonic ones tended to get too hot for me. I found the same thing on ebay for 20 less per seat, or about $44 shipped.
This is currently in the title of the product
2 Seat Universal Carbon Fiber Heated Seat Heater Pad Car 5 Level Switch
hmm.. not sure about where to install that big switch or just stay with a simpler system that hooks to the OEM.
I see some universal ones advertised, one has great reviews on Amazon and has 5 levels, the Sonic ones tended to get too hot for me. I found the same thing on ebay for 20 less per seat, or about $44 shipped.
This is currently in the title of the product
2 Seat Universal Carbon Fiber Heated Seat Heater Pad Car 5 Level Switch
hmm.. not sure about where to install that big switch or just stay with a simpler system that hooks to the OEM.
LizzyTheLez
New member
It appears these are two different problems, and I've had the joy of experiencing both. We'll call the instantly-shuts-off 'Problem A', and the stays-on-for-some-period-of-time-then-shuts-off 'Problem B'.
When I experienced Problem A, I started troubleshooting by pulling the fuse. The fuse looked good, so I put it back in, and the problem went away and never recurred. That was nice.
I am currently experiencing Problem B. I know it shouldn't be turning off -- I have a long commute and I usually would run the heated seats the entire way. Lately, though, I'd notice the seats not being warm, looking at the switch and finding it turned off. I'd turn it back on, and discover shortly later it was off again. Grr!
Unfortunately, even with carpooling, this commute has put me up to 39K miles already (bought Oct 2012), so I'm probably boned as far as warranty goes. No recall to fix this problem yet??
Going in for oil change soon, so I suppose I'll ask about warranty ... I've had no other problems with this car so I don't remember how long my warranty period was! lol
I have leather seats so when it is cold heated seats are nice, unfortunately I am having problem B. Turn the heat on to the seats only to realize that it has gone off mins later and does not ever get warm.
I thought that it was just like a timer of some sort but I guess not....
Blue Moon Sonic
New member
I seem to be experiencing issue B myself. If it was issue A, the passenger side wouldn't work all. I think the consensus for fixing issue B is to replace the heating element in the seat. Think it's a $60 part if I remember correctly.
LizzyTheLez
New member
I looked on amazon and a kit was less then 60 not sure how much shipping was with it though.
Only bad thing is I dont want to take the seat apart.
I live in texas its not cold much so i think ill just go with out since it is not under warranty any more.
Blue Moon Sonic
New member
Yeah, Kind of need mine in the winter when it gets super cold outside. I'll probably just pick up some seat covers at some point, because that would do better for both summer and winter with the seats getting blazing hot or are bone chilling cold.
JTee2017
Well-known member
Stumpy wrote up a good thread on this. . .
http://www.sonicownersforum.com/forum/do-yourself-articles/15886-diy-heated-seat-troubleshooting-replacement.html
