Xantia Heated seats

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 08 Jan 2007, 09:45

Hi all,

My drivers one has stopped working, passenger one is fine

It there likely to be a seperate fuse for each seat?
or could this be something more sinister....

John G

PowerLee · Post by **PowerLee** » 08 Jan 2007, 12:24

Wire burnt out on the heater pad, normal for a early design of PSA heated seat.

The ones on the 405 never had a thermocut out fitted ( another PSA design cock up ) never looked at a Xantia one in detail.

If you have a mutlimeter you can check for a circuit at the base of the seat on the connector plug, open circuit = broken wire.

Watch out for the seatbelt pretensioner connector plug, dont unplug or probe that with your multimeter!

If your handy with cable ties, soldering iron & heatshrink & fancy a few hours work they are fixable, dont even ask how much a new heater pad is!

I had this problem on my old 405 Exec, I made a modifiaction kit to stop them burning out in future, about £9 per seat & a visit to Maplins.

If you want to know the mod I did ill post it up tomorrow

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 08 Jan 2007, 12:38

Powerlee many thanks..

I will take a look under later, its a Mark II Xantia

yep, put the mod up...

J

deian · Post by **deian** » 08 Jan 2007, 16:10

i have the same problem too, passenger have nice botties, i don't! if you decide to fix it yourself and it works then i will copy you

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 08 Jan 2007, 18:28

cool

PowerLee · Post by **PowerLee** » 09 Jan 2007, 11:41

Heres basically how I fixed my heated seats.

Once the seat is removed from the car, strip the base with sliders off so you are just left with the seat.

Now its a case of undoing the brass clips so you can then strip the material off the cushion.

Unclip any adjustment knobs for lumber / backrest etc.

You will most likely find that on the base between the joins in the cushion that the seat heater wire has broken there, you need to strip back to solid copper wire both ends & solder a new piece of wire in & cover both joints with heat shrink.

I then used a hot melt glue gun to stick the repaired wire back down.

The back rest hardly ever give trouble, its always the base that burns a link out.

Should be aprrox 1 ish ohm resistance when you have a working circuit measured from the connector under the seat.

I also added a mod.

I got this kit from Maplin ( one per seat )

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... at&doy=9m1

I also got a plastic project box to house it in & I placed it inside the back rest part of the seat & attached it to the springs so it wouldnt move about.

I added a couple of wires on to the blue sensor & stuck that to the base cushion in the middle about where you sit.

Because the relay in the kit isnt really good enough for the high power you will be pulling I used it to power up the coil on a standard automotive relay ( scrapyard hunting for a pair ) & a bit of extra wiring

I used a 12 volt 15 amp relay & I then cut the heater wire in the back rest & connected each end to the normally open relay contacts.

Then you just connect up the plus & minus 12 volts dc to the 2 seat heater supply wires.

I set the thermo to its max of 30 degrees C.

When you put the seat back together, just use cable ties instead of the brass clips ( well thats what the main dealers use )

Turn seat heater on, powers the kit up & if the sensor says its under 30 degrees C the relay will close & allow electric to flow through the seat heater & it will heat.

Once the sensor sees 30 degrees C the relay drops out & the heater stops heating.

This cycle gets repeated until you turn the heated switch off again.

deian · Post by **deian** » 09 Jan 2007, 11:49

what if you have electric seats? i'm wary of taking the seats out in case i pull the a wrong plug (the pre-tensioner/airbag circuit), i already have a flashing airbag light

thanks

PowerLee · Post by **PowerLee** » 09 Jan 2007, 12:49

Disconnect the battery first & wait 10 minutes.

As long as the battery is disconnected it wont log a fault code by unplugging the seats.

Also dont probe the seatbelt pretensioners or side air bag plugs & you will be fine, normally a 10mm nut or 2 holds the side airbag on.

Check the plug on the back of the side airbag, these have a metal safety clip that will short to earth & put the warning light on if the wire is even slightly pulled.

deian · Post by **deian** » 09 Jan 2007, 23:45

not got side airbags, just the normal two, i have the airbag light flashing all the time too

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 09 Jan 2007, 23:51

Regarding the airbag light - you've probably heard this one a few times
before, but check the wiring/connections under the seats, my '97 VSX 2.0i
had this exact problem cured immediately upon undoing and firmly
reconnecting the multiplug connectors.

Had an Xm drain it's battery due to poor wiring to the seat - had to take the
fuse out to spare aggro getting it started, though the heating is missed!!

Andrew

deian · Post by **deian** » 09 Jan 2007, 23:58

unpluging and replugging after disconnecting the battery i take it? i shall have to try it, what plug is it again? thanks

(sorry for being off topic, we shall now return to the heated seat issue, many apologies)

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 10 Jan 2007, 00:10

I'll specifically check in daylight which plug - IIRC it's a twin orange one
each seat. I did this with AND without the battery connected. Either way,
the rogue warning light illumination never happened again.

Andrew

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 11 Jan 2007, 11:39

hmm mine has the side airbags/electric seats etc etc.. sounds like a tricky job powerlee.. or am i out of confidence today...

What you think, 2 hours to get seat out and do the repair? and back together.. (without fitting thermostat) ?

John

PowerLee · Post by **PowerLee** » 11 Jan 2007, 16:34

I would put aside more then 2 hours for the first one, I would say double it.

Getting the seat out is the easy / heavy part.

Stripping it down, fixing it & then putting it back together is what takes all the time up.