Topic: Aftermarket Heated Seats

[Stehle]

Hey guys,

Original owner of my vehicle installed heated seats. Based on the appearance of switches they appear to be either Dorman or other similar eBay brand.

Previous owner had disconnected the heated element from the switch because he told me it stayed on permanently. I plugged both (driver and passenger) seats back in and this does in fact appear to be the case for the driver side. Passenger toggles fine with the switch.

I don't have a problem with the seat being on all the time during winter, but would like to resolve it for spring / summer.

My first guess would be that the driver side switch is bad. Can a switch go bad and stay 'open'? How can I test this with a multimeter? It looks like the original owner sealed the switch into the console with black silicone (or something similar....) so I'd like ideas to test the switch before I go removing it. Also, any ideas to remove the switch without messing anything? Would a heat gun for the silicone be applicable here?

Cheers!

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

You need access to the back of the switch. It will likely be a 2 or 3 pole switch, depending. You'll need a multimeter that can test either continuity, or OHMS.

If it's a 2 pole, easy, throw a lead on each contact, and see if there's infinite, or 0 resistance. Flick the switch a few times to see if that state changes.
If it's a 3 pole, one pole will be ground (usually the middle one) and the other two will be varying power, which means you'll see <infinite ohms resistance, but it won't be wide open. Alternatively, it could be a single power, with 2 ground. Regardless, it should be easy to test with a multimeter, however you'll need access to the back of the switch, whether that means removing it, or popping the entire piece of trim out.

Do they look like this?

[Asstuna]

Silicone is used to seal exhausts. The heat gun will destroy everything around the silicone before it melts. I'd suggest an alternative to heat... One which won't destroy plastic.

[Stehle]

I have a multimeter that can test ohms.
I do have very small access to the back of the switch through the center console, but since the back of the switch and wire  is shrink wrapped I was thinking if it's possible to somehow test the power/switch through the connector under the seat that hooks up to the heating element?

Yes, that's the switch you posted.

Lucky for me someone just posted a center console on kijiji this morning so if there is no way to remove the switches from this console then at least I got a line on a new one. Any suggestions other than heat?

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

You might be able to use the cable, but at that point you might as well pull the shrink wrap off regardless. There might be a short in the cable, which is why it's stuck as always on.

The shrink wrap might've just bent one pin up against another if that's the case.

As for removing silicone, a box cutter/exacto knife, and a lot of patience.