How to fix heated seats (short).

[MuscleJunkie]

Big thanks to the original poster of the thread. I was able to use the information to fix the seat heater in the driver's seat of my limited. It was burnt at the same exact spot. Apparently Ford bridges the segments at that point and that is the weak link. It also causes the top section to not work as well. Put some heavier duty wire there and protected it. Reinstalled new hog rings and back together. Seat heat working perfectly now (both top and bottom).

Thank You again!

 

[waren]

Just purchased a 99 limited to replace my totalled 00 EB. Unfortunately drivers seat heat not working. I thought maybe it was the same splice (passenger door sill wire loom) that corroded on my 00 EB years ago, so I checked it first but it was in good shape. Crap it’s the element ... so I pull the seat cover back and find a burned up wire just like the posts above.

like above the fix is to replace the burned section.

It seems that the steel rib sewn into the seat cover flexes and wears the jumper wire that connects the sections of the element (blue wires). This seems like a really dumb design, but ford did have the foresight to use a much thicker stranded wire for the jumper. After repeated flexing the stranded wire began to fail which increase resistance and caused the area to heat up, causing oxidation, more resistance and eventual failure.

I connected the wires and I have continuity again so I guess this was the only break.