HOW TO: Fix your heated seat

there's some hope for the frozen-assed few astounded and terrified by the op's thorough and impressive method; did the following last night, warmer works like new:

 

undo rear seat anchor,

reach in to tug cloth warmer unit back out one inch or so,

feel for stat in cloth,

resolder the broken wire(s),

tuck back in,

reattach anchor.

 

>1 hour

Follow up on this method. Did the seat heater fix described in this post, and took some pics for those who may be too intimidated to attempt this. It is actually quite an easy fix and wont take too long if you are capable of doing good wiring.

First, unbolt the seat, unplug the connectors (which takes a majority of the time), and take the seat out of the car.

Second, pry off the seat cover anchor off the back of the seat. A large flat head scredriver will help with this. The cord you see in this picture is the wire harness for the seat heater.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/jrroszko/2005%20Legacy%20GT/FSM%20Pictures/2010-01-10181350.jpg

Next you need to reach inside the seat cushion and pull on the seat heater attached to this harness. As you pull it out, the design flaw will become dead obvious. The four larger-gauge wires never seem to cause problems, but the signal wire is a weaksauce 24-gauge-excuse-for-a-wire soldered to an 18 gauge wire, without any reinforcement. This picture shows the seat heater pulled out and the broken connection.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/jrroszko/2005%20Legacy%20GT/FSM%20Pictures/2010-01-10181629.jpg

Now this next part is tricky. Pull the small signal wire out of the heater cocoon enough that you can work with it. Now CAREFULLY strip this wire back enough to twist it. You will need a small length of jumper wire maybe a few inches long to reconnect this wires without stressing the little signal wire. Here is a picture of the wires twisted together. I was not able to perform a traditional linear twist and solder as the signal wire strands are way too flimsy, so I had to twist them parallel to each other. Here is a picture of the wires twisted together and soldered.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/jrroszko/2005%20Legacy%20GT/FSM%20Pictures/2010-01-10184332.jpg

Here is the final product, soldered and heat shrinked. Stuff the heater back in, reinstall the cover anchor, and your ass will once again be warm!

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/jrroszko/2005%20Legacy%20GT/FSM%20Pictures/2010-01-10185248.jpg

Well done, Boostin! But I'll add that you got lucky tugging on the harness wires (I saw early on that my white wire to black excuse-for-a-wire was also culprit) -- but I yanked all of them out despite hardly pulling from it, and had to figure out where they attached from the shape of the soldered terminals); better to tug from the relatively strong cloth ends of the unit.

I also did this without removing the seat; a little uncomfortable/cramped area, but I'm kinda small, and I decided beforehand that I wasn't even going through the seat removal for this fix if I could avoid it.

Oncle -- I scoped both sizes at ACE one day; they have the tool as well, both pretty cheap (well, cheap for ACE).

Wow this is great! My heated seat just went out on me four days ago....wondering how much it cost to get it repair at the shop? I wish I can do it but just doesn't have time to take things apart right now...maybe when spring comes up

At the dealership, I was quoted $110 for the part and $70 for labor.

At the dealership, I was quoted $110 for the part and $70 for labor.

That's very cheap and worth paying for. Unless of course the dealer monkey scratches the hell out of your interior in the process...

Well done, Boostin! But I'll add that you got lucky tugging on the harness wires (I saw early on that my white to excuse-for wire was also culprit) -- but I yanked all of them out despite hardly pulling from it, and had to figure out where they attached from the shape of the soldered terminals); better to tug from the relatively strong cloth ends of the unit.

I also did this without removing the seat; a little uncomfortable/cramped area, but I'm kinda small, and I decided beforehand that I wasn't even going through the seat removal for this fix if I could avoid it.

 

Oncle -- I scoped both sizes at ACE one day; they have the tool as well, both pretty cheap (well, cheap for ACE).

Modified my original post. Actually, when I did it, I reached in the seat and tugged on the cloth from the seat heater, not the wires. I only pulled on the wires for the last little bit.

That's very cheap and worth paying for. Unless of course the dealer monkey scratches the hell out of your interior in the process...

Agreed. Especially considering the -20f temps around here. I saved 70 bucks doing It myself. Not easy but not impossible. Just need patience.

My new to me has the passenger heated seat not working. I'll probably give Boostin's method a go when I get some free time.

Question for the broken heated seat people. The light for the heated seat doesn't come on, is that likely to be this same pulled out wire that is a design flaw? 2005 LGT Limited Cold Weather.

My new to me has the passenger heated seat not working. I'll probably give Boostin's method a go when I get some free time.

 

Question for the broken heated seat people. The light for the heated seat doesn't come on, is that likely to be this same pulled out wire that is a design flaw? 2005 LGT Limited Cold Weather.

My light came on when mine was broken. That white wire does not control the back portion of the seat. If I were you I would check the fuses.

Does someone have part numbers on the heating elements handy? How much should I be looking at $?

Did Original poster do anything to stop the element from sliding forward and tearing the wiring? I honestly would not be surprised if I did something similar, I am rather skinny and have marks in both my cars where my boney rear end plops.

So that time it got really hot, it was literally burning. Now I need to decide do I order one, and finish tearing the seat apart or say no way I'm not taking a chance of a fire.

Anyone had this problem? Anybody think Subaru should assist here rather than expecting me to just replace it?

http://inlinethumb13.webshots.com/27468/2612792990052327601S600x600Q85.jpg

Question for the broken heated seat people. The light for the heated seat doesn't come on, is that likely to be this same pulled out wire that is a design flaw? 2005 LGT Limited Cold Weather.

Same thing happened to me. Neither of the lights come on, and the seats do not heat up... I replaced the fuse, and nothing. Although the fuse I pulled was a little burnt at the teeth of the fuse, yet the little connector in the middle didn't melt.

Any help, anybody?

Bump, this is the prime time for me to do it before mother nature puts her winter jacket on again.

My thoughts exactly, now if only I could find time...

Bump, this is the prime time for me to do it before mother nature puts her winter jacket on again.

Me too.

I hope my heated seats never break! hahahaa

Thanks for the writeup though, I'm sure will help some people.

So that time it got really hot, it was literally burning. Now I need to decide do I order one, and finish tearing the seat apart or say no way I'm not taking a chance of a fire.

 

Anyone had this problem? Anybody think Subaru should assist here rather than expecting me to just replace it?

I had a similar problem, but it wasn't as well-developed as yours. Since I work in the electronics industry, my failure analysis would say that the heating wire got broken from repeated flexing via contact from the metal bar and stitched leather (see second photo). Over time, individual strands broke one at a time, until it developed a hot spot because all the current was being carried by fewer and fewer wire strands, until there were no strands left. The burn marks are from the last moments (but could be as much as hours) before it failed completely.

I was able to cut out the burnt/broken section, and solder in a short piece of 22AWG fine stranded wire. I don't have a picture of the solder rework, since all I did was cut out the burnt part, stripped off the plastic insulation from the existing wires (I used the 26AWG slots on my T-Stripper), and used plenty of liquid flux to help with soldering.

Instead of hog rings, I used a trick I came up with a few years ago for fixing broken buttons on furniture and mattresses - zip ties.

This is before I cinched down on the zip tie:

I still had to take half the seat apart to find the broken heater wire, and this picture was on the way to buttoning everything back up:

Total repair time was under 3 hours. And I saved myself at least $90 in a replacement heater pad.

Yay, I finally have butt warmth again

Thanks for the info wac. I was hopeful I had the wire pull out issue as it is an easier fix. No such luck however. I pulled the seat out and disassembled the bottom cover just up to the middle crossbar in order to pull the element out. Sure enough I also had the burned mark on the fabric, but the wire was still there. I did as wac suggested and cut out the section of suspect wire and soldered in a new 22AWG piece. I put it all back together (with the zip ties, another great tip) and enjoyed the seat all the way into work again today

-Rob

Some pictures of my fix;

I decided to put a dab of hot glue on the solder joints to help with strain relief. Of course, I had to use red sparkly glue. I certainly put too much glue down (perhaps hypnotized by all the sparkle?). Now I have a couple small bumps under the leather. Hopefully they squish down a bit over time. If not, I will have to redo it.

-Rob