Seat Heaters

My drivers side heated seats do not work. Passengers work perfectly. When i press the button on the door it lights up for both Hi and Lo, but no heat. im not really sure where to start with this. I have had the seat out of my car but have zero experience with repairing a faulty seat heater. Any ideas on what may be going wrong and how to repair it?

It gets cold during the winter in Ky and my arse is starting to freeze off. Please save my ass.

get a Prince Albert. it will take your mind off your arse...

There is a write up on here regarding this. Try a Search and see if you can come up with it.
I know it's been discussed before.

i have done a search already, its the first thing i tried to do. ill dig deeper though see if i can find it.

EDIT: I have found some discussions on it, seems that it will turn up when searching heated seats but not just seats which is what i originally searched for.

Still am very lost as to where to go from here, but atleast i have some information to read through.

I don't think any of the discussions ended with a successful repair. I know I still have a spare drivers seat just waiting for me to perform surgery and figure out how to get the heater elements out of it... It hasn't been a priority!

IF this were my issue here's how I'd solve it.

1) get the factory service manual, at least the wiring diagram for the seat heater circuit, the fuse locations, the component locations, and troubleshooting guide if any.

2) using a voltmeter, check for current at connection points. That is, the seat heaters unplug under the seats. Unplug them and then turn on the seat and see if you get current at the plug. If so then somethings busted in the seat. If not then somethings busted in the wiring to the switch.

3) if something is busted in the seat, have to get a pair of upholstery pliers, some hog rings, and a heavy duty wire cutter to remove the upholstery from the seat frame in order to reach the seat heaters. Check wiring in seat heaters with the "ohms" setting on the meter. A very high reading means you found the broken wire.

There are probably better troubleshooting instructions in the factory service manual - this is only intended to give you a sense of what you could be getting into, and now that I have written it I can better understand why some people are not repairing their seat heaters. You could easily chew up a whole day troubleshooting and repairing these suckers.

Albertj

I was hoping that i would be able to get this done without having to take apart the seat, looks like the odds are not in my favor for that.

Anyone know what the chance of finding the wiring diagram for the seats without having to spend 100+ on the FSM. Any leads in the right direction for that would be greatly appreciated. I will continue searching myself to see if i can find anything i have missed.

You can avoid spending $100 or even $50 on the FSM by buying a used one via eBay. GM dealerships closing kind of works in your favor, there's a lot of used tech material floating around. Another alternative is to but an Alldata subscription - I think it's about $30 for a year - which will also give you much of the FSM-type material. Back when Alldata sold CD-ROMs I used it for a '90 Subaru and a '89 Volvo I owned, they were OK replacements for the FSM for most stuff.

Also, you can do this in 2 parts - there are instructions on this site for removing the seats. If I am not mistaken you should be able to figure out which wires go to the seat heaters. What I can not tell you is what resistance you are supposed to see on the seat heaters, a couple hundred ohms I would guess but I don't really know. Thing is, it turns this into a 2-day project. One day to disassemble, diagnose and reassemble; a second day to go in and fix whatever is wrong.

The other thing is, for all you know it's just a loose connector. Unlikely but it happens, especially if driver or passengers put stuff on the floor of the car under the seats as if it is a storage cubby. It's really not. For this and other reasons - Never Do That especially with a car with power seats. Anyway -- Have you actually looked under the seat? Raise the height of the seat as much as you can with the power adjuster, then take a flashlight and have a look. Who knows, the problem may be obvious and as simple as repairing an obviously broken wire or replugging a connector.

Albertj

I have had both passenger and driver seats out of the car in order to clean the carpet. i am confident it isnt a loose connector As far as finding out the resistance. couldnt i just use the passenger side as a baseline since it does work?

So what ned to be doing just to sum everything up, is to remove the seats and find which wires lead to the heater then find the matching pins in the seat harness. find the resistance of the passenger seat with the heater on and then test the drivers side to see if the Ohms are the same. This obviously will tell me where the problem lies. either in the seat or in the car.

I am fairly sure it is the seat and not the car, mainly because the door switch still gets power, it will light up when pressed. Is this an uneducated thought or does that have nothing to do with the circuit the heater is on.

Sounds like you have a good plan for troubleshooting by measuring the passenger seat resistance and comparing it to the drivers side.
When you get those numbers, could you post it on here for all to reference.?

I will absolutely do so. I dont fear doing the troubleshooting but the repair is starting to worry me on this one.

But as albertj said this will break it up into 2 days. which may actually be a blessing this way i can find my problem and then take my time finding a solution.

Albertj, i believe in one of the older topics on this you said you have reupholstered some seats in the past, if this is the route i am going to need to take on this, how advanced is this project going to get at that point for someone with zero experience doing such. what are the chances of me ruining my interior.

If you need I can copy the wiring diagram from the manual I can either mail or fax it to you.
I don't have a scanner, so I can't post it here.
Maybe Albert (he has a 98 and the FSM) can help out with this.
What do you say Albert.????
I have to leave town today and will be back in a few days so I can't help right now.

Here is a replacement heating element that might be suitable(thanks to albertj):
http://www.1aauto.com/1A/SeatUpholstery/Oldsmobile/Jetstar88/1AIPS00001/751866/1/

Bert

Yes, if you find you need new heating elements this looks like an inexpensive way to fix the problem. You'll know better when you get your seat cover removed from the seat and can see what size the existing elements are. (If you even need to do this)
You can probably just wire it direct to the factory wiring under the seat and not have to worry about the temp controller and other stuff that comes with the replacement heating element. All those features are already incorporated into the car's control system.
That is why you need a copy of the wiring diagram, so you can see if the various control mechanism's are working in the Riv the way they are supposed to. I don't know what's involved yet, as i have not looked up the diagrams or looked to see if there is an Description and Operation section in the FSM for the Heated Seats.
If you are not in a hurry for this info, I can look it up when I get back.

Rickw wrote:

If you need I can copy the wiring diagram from the manual I can either mail or fax it to you.
I don't have a scanner, so I can't post it here.
Maybe Albert (he has a 98 and the FSM) can help out with this.
What do you say Albert.????
I have to leave town today and will be back in a few days so I can't help right now.

I'm not home.

Albertj

Oh, sorry Albert.

Im not in any immediate need of the FSM or the diagrams, so i have some time to spare. it will without a doubt have to be a project i take care of on a couple of my days off. i may be able to do a fax, if thats something you are able to do. ill have to check with my employer just to get an okay, but i dont think it will be to big of a problem. ill find out at work tonight.

I remember one boardmember had a way of locating a junkyard in a certain area that had parts in stock. If I could locate a grey leather seat in excellent condition within a couple hours from where I am located (35907) I would probably just get another seat, if the price was fair....anybody know how to locate a seat in my area. Shipping would not be reasonable.

Thanks for any help.

Bert

The place I look for parts like you describe is car-part.com

deekster_caddy wrote:

The place I look for parts like you describe is car-part.com

Thanks deek. There is a junkyard less than an hour away from me that has one for $250.00 (ouch). I will think it over.

When the driver side mirror element fails I wonder if it could be shorting out the power to the seat heater...

Bert

Looks like I might be digging into the DS seat soon to see what it's not working for me as well. I'll chase it down from the plug first and hope that's where the issue is.

I believe it's still possible to be a fuse or other non-seat problem.
Judging by the schematic, it looks like the button gets its power from the dash fuse block, and the heaters themselves get power from the rear seat fuse blocks... The first thing I'd do is check under the back seat for the HTD ST fuse(s).

(BTW, the mirror heat has nothing to do with the seat heat.)