2001 P38 Heated Seat repair - Anyone want to earn a few quid?

Dear All

Hello again, Firatly thanks for all your help so far, I bought a Sync Mate and EAS kicker and now the car runs as it should, yay. Next job is the heated seat fix...now I've had a look at the RR.net article, and looked around the net, and on paper agree it does look pretty easy...however I've never had a go at soldering and I have a horrible premonition of a garage full of seat bits, a fire and a wife saying I told you so:blabla:. Is there anyone out there who want to earn a few quid (not sure how much tbh, but I'm sure the collective will help with that) to sort out this 'easy' fix. I'm based in Egham, TW20. Car is a 2001 4.6l Vogue.

Cheers
Rich

if you want you can come round to my place and we can do it together, its not going to be that hard is it, I have soldering gear, I'm in Stanwell, no charge though ok?

Hi Richard,

I just did both the seats on my 2001 Vogue, though I fitted new elements. The reason they fail is because the wiring route is bad. Two wires run between the metal bars that the hog rings use to keep tension on the seat cover. Hard to explain in words, but becomes clear when you see it. The new elements are modified so they route away from the tension rods thus avoiding a future failure of the same type.

Personally I suggest you buy new elements if you want the repair to last. Others may well have a different view. Should you decide to repair by soldering up the break then fine, but it's the least of your worries when it comes to actually doing the strip down and re-assembly. Don't get me wrong it's not at all a difficult job, just rather time consuming. I took the easy way out and bought a pair of hog ring pliers and a pack of new hog rings rather than try and remove and refit the original hog rings. I took a few pictures while it was all apart which I can upload though not now as I don't have them with me.

I could help or even do it, but I'm in Essex and I'm not bothered about any cash either. Though you'd have to come to me as I have to have access to my tools.

LW...

Lone wolf where did you buy the hog rings and pliers from as this sounds like a much better/easier way of doing it.

cheers
Steve

Hog rings and the pliers are a quite big outlay just for the few rings your gona use, I got some from work for free to do some fencing in the back garden, I was goina buy them, but for what they are there silly ££

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Edma-0412...t=UK_Hand_Tools_Equipment&hash=item4ab1383775

Cheapest ones I could find and then you need the rings as well, I have self loading ones, you can put about 50 rings in them

I got these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Edma-0411...t=UK_Hand_Tools_Equipment&hash=item35b730ec45

What do they do, i have never heard of them, sounds like something you use to put a ring in a pigs nose

they hold the cover on the seat... look like a ring that goes through a pigs nose...

whilst were on it...

is anyone near PORTSMOUTH - CHICHESTER and surrounding areas, who can fix and be willing to help and earn some pennies ? my drivers seat doesnt work, passenger does , could do with it being fixed

as above, someone who knows what they are doing will be a lot quicker than my attempting it not having a clue or even a soldering iron

polsta said:

whilst were on it...

is anyone near PORTSMOUTH - CHICHESTER and surrounding areas, who can fix and be willing to help and earn some pennies ? my drivers seat doesnt work, passenger does , could do with it being fixed

as above, someone who knows what they are doing will be a lot quicker than my attempting it not having a clue or even a soldering iron

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and if someone near North Wales wants to do mine

You know guys sometimes you just have to try and DIY things, you have a RR you have to DIY that's part of it, everyone is here to help out if you get stuck, I mean its already broken right? so what's to lose???

polsta said:

whilst were on it...

is anyone near PORTSMOUTH - CHICHESTER and surrounding areas, who can fix and be willing to help and earn some pennies ? my drivers seat doesnt work, passenger does , could do with it being fixed

as above, someone who knows what they are doing will be a lot quicker than my attempting it not having a clue or even a soldering iron

Click to expand...

Same here. Plymouth area. ??????

dougdotcom said:

What do they do, i have never heard of them, sounds like something you use to put a ring in a pigs nose

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I havent tried this myself,but have read that people have replaced the hogrings with cable ties

JohnP38 said:

I havent tried this myself,but have read that people have replaced the hogrings with cable ties

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Re-fitting the hog rings can be the most difficult and frustrating part of the job. You've got to pull the two parts of the fabric together then fit the ring then, because they're so close, it's more difficult to fit the next one. If you use cable ties you can fit them all very loosely until you've got them all in place then pull them tight and trim them off. It's a LOT easier and you never see them as they're under the bottom back of the seats.

I always consider the cost of tools such as the hog ring pliers in comparison to how much easier the job will be with the tool verses without it. Also I keep my 4.6 Vogue in as good a condition as I'm able to. That means I tend to use LR parts or upgraded parts only occasionally buying after-market if it's a non-critical component.

Now having bought hog ring pliers and repaired both my seats I can confidently say it's a very simple job. Without the pliers it's still a simple job, but it will take a lot longer.

This is what my hog ring pliers look like with a new ring ready for installation.



I just don't understand why you would want to try and run one of these cars expecting to not spend any money on them. After all what's £10 - £15 for a pair of pliers when it costs £120+ to fill one of these machines up with fuel?

If anyone would like to borrow the hog ring pliers from me that's cool, your welcome to them.

LW...

You spend £30 on something that's never gona have a use again (unless your seat ****s up again) or you use cable ties, and there just as good, if not BETTER, you have to improvize, the results are the same the quality of the work in my opinion is better, you have improved on it, you just haven bodged the job like some cowboy, the quality of the finish is no less, some people throw ££ at things and still wonder why its not right, use some grey matter and think the job first before you start spending your hard earned cash, we are not all loaded, people on here are on a shoe string, these cars cost time £ and effort, that's why this forum exists, otherwise we will all be taking them to the stealership !!!

Come to think of it, my botty has been feeling rather cold recently -anyone in notts who can fix this for me ?? (the seat that is )

I think we should have an Xmas get together, and we turn up with hog pliers, and fix 40 peoples heated seats, at £50 a pop

Dopey said:

I think we should have an Xmas get together, and we turn up with hog pliers, and fix 40 peoples heated seats, at £50 a pop

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Name the place and i am there !!!

39 to go.....

And I'll bring the sandwiches, mince pies & cakes !