You can tell its winter when...

[Bandit12]

Hi guys now that winter has arrived i thought i would actually investigate why my drivers heated seat does not work. After unbolting the seat and waving a multimeter at the various connectors i have confirmed an open circuit in the heating element.
My questions are these,

In which order and how do I remove the leather seat covers to identify exactly where the break is?

And as these elements are renowned for being unreliable (and very expensive) can I replace them with similar from say a Ford mondeo?

Bandit

[Ben82]

Hi Mate,
Have emailed you with the seat trim removal stuff from docbackup Hopefully it helps. I assume docbackup still isn't working for you?

[Peter.N.]

I got mine from a comparatively low mileage car but they don't work either but I decided I didn't need the hassle so have ignored it. You can get some heated seat covers from ebay, don't know wheat they are like but it might be a cheap option.

Peter

[Bandit12]

Hi Ben thanks for the email n will look at it tonight when I get home. No unfortunately that patch still does not work despite me removing it/restarting pc then adding it again etc. very strange but then so is the car its meant to help!

Hi Peter, I think we have had same idea cos i was concerned about fixing the original then having it fail again so found this on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/heated-seat-element" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For £45 I can have a brand new heated seat element with 5 settings and a 2 year guarentee. All I need to to is remove the seat and carefully take it apart, replacing the element and recovering with original leather trim. I've found a few turorials on Utube and whole process if done carefully should not take longer than a day. As this is a common fault I plan on taking step by step photos and posting them on this site for others. I'm ordering the seat element in a week or 2 and plan on doing the job after half term as i need car to ferry grumpy teenager about

[Peter.N.]

Not seen those before, sounds pretty good. I will wait until you have done yours.

Peter

[Stickyfinger]

this may help

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =3&t=46184" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bandit12]

this may help

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =3&t=46184" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks Sticky thats helpful