drivers heated seat not working, cooling ok

[NAiLs00]

Update: 22-Feb, 2021

drivers heated seat not working, cooling ok

Update: 22-Feb, 2021 https://www.explorerforum.com/forums/threads/drivers-heated-seat-not-working-cooling-ok.485663/#post-3878387 I've been doing a little digging around, but can't find a good/definite conclusion as to what could cause ONLY the heated seat to not work on a single seat. The...

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I've been doing a little digging around, but can't find a good/definite conclusion as to what could cause ONLY the heated seat to not work on a single seat. The passenger heated and cooled seat work fine, while on the driver's seat, the cooled seat works fine and the heated seat does not.

Basically when I turn the heated seat on, you hear a click and the fan spins up. 5-8 seconds later, you hear another click and no more fan. You can turn the heated seat off on the SYNC display (it always shows that it's on unless turned off), try to turn it back on, but nothing. It'll only retry once the car has been power cycled. The cooled seat works great, but it will cease to work if you turn on the heated seat and try to flip back.

I did a factory reset on SYNC, which actually allowed the heated seat to work for about 30 seconds before shutting down. I heard the click, fan spin up, continued to hear the fan, and then it kicked into high gear and was working.... then the dreaded relay click that says it turned off.

I do not know if I should be seeing something on the dash pertaining to codes, but the dash shows nothing. I do not have any scan tools at present, either.

Oddly, I swear this has only started in the last two weeks. I also recently had a BLIS warning on my vehicle that said cross traffic and blind spot monitoring have malfunctioned from a blocked sensor... it was only slightly wet outside. I restarted the car, since I was only 800 feet from my destination, and the BLIS errors went away. I've only ever seen this once on this vehicle, but it was resolved by restarting it. I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or what, so I wanted to mention it.

I'm kind of stumped. Any feedback is appreciated!

-Brian

 

[Adrian Gitch]

I recall reading a thread on here where some owners have had to had there's reprogrammed by the dealer and then it worked fine. I've also read on here that it could be the element for the driver's seat.

 

[NAiLs00]

Peter -

I see my post was merged with this one, but they're totally unrelated. OP has heated seats only, which are heated with a heating element, while I have heated & cooled, which is done completely different.

I originally ran into this post, but that OP stated they replaced the blower assembly. They didn't mention whether or not their cooled seats worked, in which mine do. That's where I don't think that's the proper solution for me.... unless the heating element is inside?? I haven't found enough information on the part (8A5Z-19N550-C) that was referenced in that post, to understand what it all does... aside from being a blower.

I'm going to keep digging around. I found some stuff on the F150 forums with the same issue. If I find something relevant, I'll update my post.

If this is going to cost me too much to fix, I'm not even going to bother. I'm looking to trade my '15 Sport for a '21 or '22 ST... just depends if Ford gets their crap together with the '21.... and I want Sync 4.

Edit: Found a couple posts on the F150 side that say to replace the aforementioned blower. I'm guessing the heating element is housed inside.

Part number? Seat blower? - Ford F150 Forum - Community of Ford Truck Fans
2015 TED unit replacement andpart umber? - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

Are there any codes that are stored and wouldn't be shown on the display? Like if I grab an inexpensive OBD2 scanner and check with FORScan, will it pick up anything?

 

[NAiLs00]

Well, kept reading around and found people with the same issue.... replacing the blower fixed it. Ended up ordering a blower and hopefully will hopefully have it before the weekend. If that's the case, I'll hopefully get it installed on Saturday and will update my post.

 

[peterk9]

Great news and yes, please followup. Thank you.

Peter

 

[NAiLs00]

Alrighty, got the part, swapped it out (took me 15 minutes tops) and no dice. The relay still turns off. I guess on the bright side, my original one was cracked on a severe weak point, but unfortunately the new one didn't correct the issue.

I did disconnect the seat control box, which I believe is the box that controls the climate controlled seats. Only had it disconnected for about 6-7 minutes before I had to get rolling. Couldn't leave it disconnected, since the seat stops functioning altogether. I did do another master reset on Sync, but no dice.

I'm pretty stumped. Ran into tons of forum posts that stated this would correct the issue, but it most certainly did not.

Edit: I'm mistaken, I didn't disconnect the actual control module, however I did look for the notorious melted pin.... which mine are cleaner than clean. Hmmmm..........

Edit 2: Left the module disconnected for an hour, got promising results initially, but it turned off after about 30 seconds as opposed to the normal 5-10 seconds. Fan spun up, slowed down, then spun back up before the infamous relay click.

I'm stumped... can't find a whole lot. I'm not sure when/if I should ask for any reprogramming. So, at this point, I have disconnected the battery and am hoping the 8 hour trick does something for me.

Edit 3: Nada. The above reset allowed it to run for 30 seconds again, then it turned off. I am ready to give up, strictly because I am not interested in investing more money into it. I'm guessing this has to do with the control module. I'm planning on taking it out and opening it up, just to make sure nothing looks fried inside. I'm guessing I couldn't simply swap the one from my wife's Edge to my Explorer, eh?

 

[NAiLs00]

I recall reading a thread on here where some owners have had to had there's reprogrammed by the dealer and then it worked fine. I've also read on here that it could be the element for the driver's seat.

Totally meant to acknowledge this. I have this in the back of my head, though hoping to keep it on the last end. I'm not sure if my dealer is cool enough to do a quick reprogram for me or not.

On a potentially related note, it makes me wonder if something is whacked. When I remote started my car this evening, it sat for like 6 or 7 minutes before I got to it. My seat was warm on the bottom and cold on the back. So clearly the heated seat IS working, but only half of it is, and something is causing it to shut off when I actually want to use it. I'll end up using this as the basis of my next research. I was also going to take the seat cover off and see if something was shot with the fan on the back... worth a look if the cover slips off easy enough.

Peter - can we please split my thread back off of this one, as it is completely unrelated.

 

[peterk9]

If I recall correctly, the seats will turn OFF after you get in after a remote start. That seems to be normal. Others have mentioned the same thing.

Peter

 

[NAiLs00]

If I recall correctly, the seats will turn OFF after you get in after a remote start. That seems to be normal. Others have mentioned the same thing.

Peter

Correct, they definitely turn off after you actually start the vehicle. However the seat portion working but not the back, while remote started, is a real head scratcher. I don't really know what to think. Part of me wants to start pointing fingers at the back fan contraption, while another wants to point to the control module... but it doesn't totally make sense why I'd blame either.

Thanks for splitting this off, by the way.

 

[blwnsmoke]

Correct, they definitely turn off after you actually start the vehicle. However the seat portion working but not the back, while remote started, is a real head scratcher. I don't really know what to think. Part of me wants to start pointing fingers at the back fan contraption, while another wants to point to the control module... but it doesn't totally make sense why I'd blame either.

Thanks for splitting this off, by the way.

Without rereading everything, do both sides do it? If just drivers, possible to swap parts between the two to see if you still shut off?

 

[NAiLs00]

Without rereading everything, do both sides do it? If just drivers, possible to swap parts between the two to see if you still shut off?

Negative, just the driver's seat does it, and only the heat. Cooling is 100% fine.

I'm not sure if the parts are interchangeable between the seats for testing, as they do have different part numbers for left and right.

 

[NAiLs00]

Still haven't found a definite answer to this, but I'm still searching. I'm hoping to take the seat cover off this weekend and see if something is defective with the seat back fan's setup. I used cooling for over an hour last week, so the fan itself seems to be fine. Still baffled that the heat works when it's remote started, but that's what tipped me off to look at the seat back, since that doesn't work when remote started.

 

[Tbartl16]

Still haven't found a definite answer to this, but I'm still searching. I'm hoping to take the seat cover off this weekend and see if something is defective with the seat back fan's setup. I used cooling for over an hour last week, so the fan itself seems to be fine. Still baffled that the heat works when it's remote started, but that's what tipped me off to look at the seat back, since that doesn't work when remote started.

Did you find a solution?

 

[NAiLs00]

Did you find a solution?

Sorry, I didn't get an email notification that someone replied.

I actually wanted to bump this, because I have not found a solution, but I have discovered an oddity.

Back in December, it was actually relatively warm in Wisconsin (no snow, yet), but I noticed that my heated seat was working... WTF? I tried several more times over the next several days... and it worked just fine. My arse got nice and toasty on my entire 30 minute commute to and from work, and it was niiiice!!! Then it started to get a little colder and it would only intermittently work. I couldn't find any connection to say remote starting and it worked there, to not doing a remote start at all... it was just completely random. Now... it doesn't work at all. It still usually works on a remote start, but that too is not consistent. Is it weather related? I'm not 100% convinced, but that is what I noticed. I'll try it out tomorrow, as it's supposed to be about 40* and maybe that's a good indicator.

I'm thinking it may have to do with the seat back module, but I haven't a clue how to get the darn seat cover off to look at it. I was about to swap this with my wife's Edge that we traded in, since it used the exact same system, but I couldn't get the cover off so I never did it.

Still kind of looking for a solution, though I only plan to keep this vehicle for another year-ish. That said, I don't know how much effort I'm going to put into this, but it would be nice to know.