Land Rover and Range Rover Forum banner

Heated Seats Quick/Easy Fix!

1 reading
26K views 35 replies 10 participants last post by  93 RRC sable edition  
#1 ·
For all of those whose heated seats no longer work there is a VERY easy way to at least get the seat back toasty again.

1. Raise both seat rears up as far as they will go.
2. Push down on the leather at the rear of the bottom cushion and remove the retaining clip along the bottom edge of the seat to reveal the back of the bottom seat cushion.
3. Clip the black and red wires coming out of the bottom cushion making sure to leave enough wire to be able to crimp on to (in case you want to ever go through fixing all of the breaks in the bottom cushion)
4. Join the wires together with a barrel crimp.
5. Bump the fuse up from a 20 to a 25.
6. Replace the retaining clip.
7. Toast your kidneys with warmth!! :clap:

Total time:10 minutes at most

BTW, you probably want to check that fuse FIRST!

Bill
93 LWB Westminster
 
#3 ·
wow, good idea! how long have u had the heated seats working like this? which fuse do u bump up from the 20 to 25, does that fuse work anything else and if so would it damage anything that runs on the fuse? do u have any pics of your sets you took? also which heaters in the seat will work after connecting the red and black wires
 
#4 ·
I did the fix yesterday. I didn't take any pics, it is really straight forward. I guess one more step would be to pull the plug that the comes out of seat and runs into below the center console to check for continuity and make sure that it is a broken element in the seat bottom that is causing your problem. The fuse is the #1 or #6 in the row of fuses under the right seat. It is the one furthest to the left. The yellow one. The only other items on the fuse (as indicated in the manual) are the cigarette lighters. I don't smoke so I don't know if you use them it might blow the 25 fuse. I can run both seat heaters, cell phone charger and XM2GO with current set up. As far as I can tell all of the panels in the seat back heat up. I had on a semi thick fleece shirt this morning and had to turn the seat heater off after about five minutes b/c I was too warm.
 
#5 ·
Sign Guy said:
I did the fix yesterday. I didn't take any pics, it is really straight forward. I guess one more step would be to pull the plug that the comes out of seat and runs into below the center console to check for continuity and make sure that it is a broken element in the seat bottom that is causing your problem. The fuse is the #1 or #6 in the row of fuses under the right seat. It is the one furthest to the left. The yellow one. The only other items on the fuse (as indicated in the manual) are the cigarette lighters. I don't smoke so I don't know if you use them it might blow the 25 fuse. I can run both seat heaters, cell phone charger and XM2GO with current set up. As far as I can tell all of the panels in the seat back heat up. I had on a semi thick fleece shirt this morning and had to turn the seat heater off after about five minutes b/c I was too warm.
thanks for the info, well look at the seat soon. i dont smoke either but i do plug in my cell phone alot.
 
#7 ·
Here is a question I hadn't thought of and doesn't seem to have been addressed, since we are only working with half of the original heating matrix are we also only dealing with half the resistance? And if so, would that not cause there to be more currnet to flow through the remaining matrix of wires? Which to my understanding would cause the element to become hotter than originally designed. If my logic is solid does anyone know what grade/rate of resistor I would need to add to the wiring in order to mock the resistance created by the element in the seat cushion bottom? What brought this to mind is the fact the my seat back feels WAY warmer than the manuals stated 100F. ANY THOUGHTS????
 
#9 ·
I'm just going to continue to use my switch for a thermostat unitl the weekend when I have a chance to get the resistance in the seat back matrix and get a range of resistors that are in the vicinity to install where I jumped the wires going into the bottom cushion. If no one else can post what resistors should be used or what the correct fix should be by then I will post my results with pictures.
 
#10 ·
Sign Guy said:
I'm just going to continue to use my switch for a thermostat unitl the weekend when I have a chance to get the resistance in the seat back matrix and get a range of resistors that are in the vicinity to install where I jumped the wires going into the bottom cushion. If no one else can post what resistors should be used or what the correct fix should be by then I will post my results with pictures.
let us know wht u come up w/, i cant do that for sometime. the temp up in MN is -5F w/windchills! in the above link (rangerovers.net) they did the samething (override the bottom heater to the back) but did not talk about problems. does your switch auto shut off at all? do u have away to check the temp on the back seat?
 
#12 ·
sven said:
I read somewhere that the cushion should be at 1 ohm when you test it. It was either the RAVE CD or rr.net.
i read the samething on rr.net.
also do u think that u need to change the fuse from 20 to 25? (just a thought). if u have one of those lazer pointer temp readers or etc then u could see what the temp of the seat is at.
 
#15 ·
sven said:
When I did mine, I didnt touch the fuses. Whatever was inthere is still in there.

I wish I had the fancy temp laser, but I dont. It does get hot but I wouldnt say it gets too hot.
do the heated seat have a auto shut off switch like the heated windows. my old saab and my moms bens have auto shut off switchs that would turn off when it got to hot.
did u do your like sign guy and rr.net?
this -15 up here is killing me (lol). rrc heating system/big windows is never that great when it hits 10F or below. i wish i could work on my heated seats!
 
#16 ·
campbell said:
Just to make sure... I clip the red and black, then join the four into one right?
No, you join the red and black together. The ones that did go into the seat base.
 
#17 ·
The fuse upgrade and the HOT seat panel was what got me thinking that all might not be well. As for 1 OHM wouldn't that indicate a broken wire. And the element would not heat at all. The reading I got on both seats for the resistance was .8-.9 ohms.

Anybody out there with both the elements working mind taking a reading on the main connector going into the seats? It is easy, just pull the carpet back from under the rear of the center console and the plugs are on either left or right.


I had to add in the red wire as it was not in the pic. You can also see where I stripped back the sheath to get better access to the wires.
 
#18 ·
I meant the red wire coming out of the seat cushion was added b/c it was not in the pic.
 
#19 ·
Nevermind the 1 OHM comment, .8-.9 is pretty darn close to 1, my:)homerthum) Voltmeter reads 1 at the far left when there is no connection. So if my resistance reading is correct then why would I be pulling more amperage than I should??
 
#20 ·
Sign Guy said:
Nevermind the 1 OHM comment, .8-.9 is pretty darn close to 1, my:)homerthum) Voltmeter reads 1 at the far left when there is no connection. So if my resistance reading is correct then why would I be pulling more amperage than I should??
that's a good reading (.8-.9). do u still have fuse 25 in? have u tried to put fuse 20 in then see what happens? is that pic taken from the side?
 
#21 ·
That pic is taken with the camera on the floor board behind the passenger seat looking forward. You can see the retaining clip in the top portion of the picture. I can run either the passenger or the driver with 20 amp fuse in, just not both.

Sven, you've been running this mod for a while, do your seats get to a certain temp and then modulate or do you just switch them off after they have been on for a while?
 
#22 ·
Cool idea :buttrock:

Basic electrics:

If the 2 heating elements are wired in series then doing this would subject the upper element 2 twice the normal voltage, more current and thus, more heat. This seems to be the case here. A resistor would have to match or be close to the wattage of the element to replace the missing wattage of the lower half. It would have to be a fairly big resistor like the ones used on old VWs to convert the original 6V system to 12V. Another way would be to go to a higher value resistor which will dissipate less heat but the seat will not get as hot.

I will try this and measure the amp draw of the element to find the needed value of the resistor.
I would just use it as is and turn the switch off when it gets too hot. Also don't run the passenger and driver at the same time. Don't change the fuse, you might melt wires!

Thanks for this idea! :drink1:
 
#23 ·
8895rrc said:
Cool idea :buttrock:

Basic electrics:

If the 2 heating elements are wired in series then doing this would subject the upper element 2 twice the normal voltage, more current and thus, more heat. This seems to be the case here. A resistor would have to match or be close to the wattage of the element to replace the missing wattage of the lower half. It would have to be a fairly big resistor like the ones used on old VWs to convert the original 6V system to 12V. Another way would be to go to a higher value resistor which will dissipate less heat but the seat will not get as hot.

I will try this and measure the amp draw of the element to find the needed value of the resistor.
I would just use it as is and turn the switch off when it gets too hot. Also don't run the passenger and driver at the same time. Don't change the fuse, you might melt wires!

Thanks for this idea! :drink1:
let us know what u come up w/! still cold up here and waiting to warm up to the 30's. but i guess this is good to wait and see what resistor u come up w/. my dad also said it would not b a good idea to up the fuse. do u think there is away to run the drivers and pass side at the same time?