Synergie - Heated Seats

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Frogboy
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Synergie - Heated Seats

Post by Frogboy »

Chaps

The heated seats on my 1996 1.9TD synergie do not work. Neither have worked since I got the car a year ago. I have power to the switches but after that I don't know what is wrong.
Does anyone have any experience with these or similar. The fact that both seats do not work makes me think that the fault may be related to a relay or something.
A quick guide to how the heated seats work would also be appreciated.

Thanks
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

A heated seat is a very simple construction.

In principle you have a cushioned mat with woven-in steel wires. The electric current thru the steel wires develops heat (by Ohm's law). Voilá.

As the steel wires are constantly exposed to full body weight in motion - it says (by Murphy's law) that the wire must break at some time. The current path is then disrupted. No current thru wires. No heat.

Cheapest solution is to purchase a couple of standard heated mats for car seats in your supermarket. Then simply wire them into the existing circuit.
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Peter.N.
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Post by Peter.N. »

I havn't seen heated mats for sale in the UK, Anders, Maybe something to do with the difference in temperature. Are they available in any stores here?
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

Donno PeterN -

These heated seat mats are so common here in DK you can buy them in car-shops, supermarkets, DIY markets - every place where they have a small selection of standard car goods like bulbs, oil, wheelcaps etc.

Last one I paid approx £10 (pr seat) - made in China I suppose.
They comes with a cigarette lighter connector. Plug it in to get heat. Pull the plug when you're satisfied.

I still have one laying around which I was given as Xmas gift a couple of years ago :oops:
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NiSk
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Post by NiSk »

Someone seems to have them - or had them:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... gory=72230

Could probably trace the seller - he seems to have plenty of different sizes.

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Post by PowerLee »

Peugeot / Citroen heated seats have a flaw in the design.

There is NO thermostat fitted :shock:

They burn out & when the owner finds out how much the new heater mats are ( £150 per seat! ) they faint & the seats stay broken ( unless the cars under warranty )

You can strip the seat down & repair the heat pad by soldering new sections of wire in, You can also retrofit a Maplins thermostat kit for less then £10 per seat to stop them burning out again.

I warn you now, To repair a heated seat is a long old job, The seat has to come out of the car & the material has to be stripped off the cushion part of the seat.

Have you checked for 12 volts at the seat heater plug under each seat?

They are normally brown in colour but do CHECK first, There could be a pyrotechnic seatbelt pre tensioner & a air bag plug under the seats & connecting a multimeter across either of those plugs will FIRE the SRS system!

I modded my 405 heated seats are they worked fine since & where still working when I sold the car :wink:
Frogboy
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Post by Frogboy »

All,
Thanks for the replies. I don't think I'll go down the route of after-market add-ons as they look ugly and I'd need 2 cig lighter sockets to power up both front seats. Anyway, thanks to global warming, it's never that cold in the mornings. It's just a bit frustrating having a car with loads of extras when half of them don't work.
I suspect that the internals have broken down as powerlee reckons. I do have a step by step dismantling procedure on CD somewhere for these so I may look into fixing them properly. A bit worrying re: Airbag & pre tensioner sensors though. Mine is a 96 VSX with single drivers airbag. Not sure about pre tensioners, maybe a bit early to have them.
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