How to fix heated seats (short). | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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How to fix heated seats (short).

sean99

Explorer Addict
Joined
December 13, 2005
Messages
1,289
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City, State
Sunnyvale, California
Year, Model & Trim Level
01 Limited 5.0
My heated seat started acting up last week. It was getting so hot in one spot I had to turn it off...then it stopped working altogether :(
The light would come on, but the seat would not get hot, so I figured it was a short.
I took off the side panel (two clips on top, two screws on the bottom) , but left all of the wires connected.
I cut the vinyl in a couple of spots to get it past the wiring. (see pic)
There are plastic pieces on the bottom front and side of the seat sewed to the vinyl that need to be popped of a rod.
I peeled back the material and cut the hog rings off to expose the burnt shorted out area.
The wires are sandwiched between two thin layers of cotton like material that are glued together.
I peeled them apart to expose the short.. I cut out a two inch burnt section of wire, and straightened out a small section of the blue wire to make up the difference. I soldered the wire, used a small cap, and some electrical tape, I cut a small slot in the padding of the seat, and pushed the new connection into it leaving room for play.
I spray glued the material back over the wires and put the seat back together.
This fix was much easier than I anticipated :)
 

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Only one coors light? Seems like a 2-3 coors light job :)
 






Only one coors light? Seems like a 2-3 coors light job :)

On the beer difficulty scale, this job was 2 beers, but I had 4 for the fun of it :)
 












Heres the seat back together. The leather is nice and tight, and not affected by cutting the vinyl to get around the wires
 

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Nice writeup.
 






Nice writeup.

Thanks! :)
Heres a couple more shots showing the clip that is under the front of the seat and some hog ring pliers. I stuck a phillips screwdriver into the end of the clip to help pry it off.
 

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thanks for the write up and pics :thumbsup:

i need to fix the heated seat in my wife's expedition and this will help out.
 






Tested out the heated seats on a nice hour long trip last weekend and they worked great!! The 01 Limited seats stayed at a perfect toasty temp and never got too hot, so I was able to use them the whole time :) The seats in my 99 eddie would get too hot for me after about 10-15 minutes, and I would have to shut them off.
 






I think i might have this same problem with my limited. I remember the seat in my eddie bauer being nice and toasty when i would turn it on and everytime i turn on the one in the limited it just doesn't seem like it works, and for the first time i rode in the passenger of it the other day and turned that seat on. i thought i was gonna have to get in the back it got so hot. so i think my driver seat definately isn't working. thanks for the pics and stuff i will pursue the project tomorrow. :)
 






If your light comes on with no heat, this is probably the issue...
 






Yea... I think we need to come up with a difficulty rating for certain repair jobs for our vehicles. The thread can be marked with beers for difficulty levels.

1 Beer being the easiest, 10 beers being the hardest.

Maybe someone can pitch this idea to the site?
 






whats that long skinny switch for in front of the seat heat button?
 






haha i like that gabe96explorer. and to greythorn3 the long button is a power lumbar button. and yea in my eddie bauer after the seat had been on a few mins i would have to turn it off b/c the seats in the eddie bauer seemed to be hotter than the ones in the limited.
 






whats that long skinny switch for in front of the seat heat button?


That is the power lumbar support. Limited explorers came with a switch instead of a knob. The Limited also has memory seats.
 

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Yea... I think we need to come up with a difficulty rating for certain repair jobs for our vehicles. The thread can be marked with beers for difficulty levels.

1 Beer being the easiest, 10 beers being the hardest.

Maybe someone can pitch this idea to the site?

I would say 1 up to a 12 pack :)
This was 2 beers, set it up!!
 






Searching the forum (I always do ;) ) I found this thread.
I have a doubt about heated seats. My Explorer is a 96 limited (or 95, anyway 2nd gen Ex).
I suppose I have heated seats because the skin is full of those little holes typical of heated seats, but I don't have the switch (I have all the other switches, lumbar, up down and so on, and memory seats too).
So, no heated seats switch.. what does it mean? Seats are always cold, are they not heated or are simply not working for some reason?
 






Searching the forum (I always do ;) ) I found this thread.
I have a doubt about heated seats. My Explorer is a 96 limited (or 95, anyway 2nd gen Ex).
I suppose I have heated seats because the skin is full of those little holes typical of heated seats, but I don't have the switch (I have all the other switches, lumbar, up down and so on, and memory seats too).
So, no heated seats switch.. what does it mean? Seats are always cold, are they not heated or are simply not working for some reason?

If you had heated seats, there would be a button to turn them on/off. I would suspect they were not available in '96. People were tougher then. :D
 



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If you had heated seats, there would be a button to turn them on/off. I would suspect they were not available in '96. People were tougher then. :D

You're right! People were tougher then!
I asked because someone told me they turn hot when heating system is running, in particular the rear window defroster (sorry for my english), just like heated mirrors do.

And I think they turn hot when you sit on them for a long time :D
 






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