Heated seat repair pics

Tried out my heated seats today after fitting my uprated thermostats,and repairing two broken wires.
Ive now got a nice ass toaster to sit on,perfect weather for it too :flame:

Anyway,for those who havent done a seat repair before,here are a few pics that i couldnt find when researching this job.

First pic is of a long nose plier angled at 45degree that opens up those nasty hog rings with ease


And here's a pic of the cable ties i used, instead of the hog rings.
I cant feel the cable ties when sitting on the seat now.



This next pic is of the new and old thermostat i replaced.
The lower one is the new one,and note that the upper part (that i'm pointing to with a screw driver)got cut off as it was just a mounting bracket from the look of it.Also if left there,it would have touched both sides bypassing the bi-metallic strip inside the unit !


And here is the thermostat placed in the seat.
I had to dig a bit extra foam out as it was a couple mm higher than the old one.
Note that i only made a narrow cut in the thin material that covers the heater coils/cable,as i didnt want all the rest of the zig zag of cable springing out.


Here you can see where the cable tends to break, in the crease of the seat near the front.
Again i only lifted up a small amount of the thin covering material,in order to repair the break.


And this is after cutting out the broken and fraid seat cable,and soldering in some new stuff. This is slightly thicker and longer,then heat sink applied over the joins.


Hopefully these photo's may come in use for those about to have a go at this job for the first time.

p.s. I also had to repair a break in the upright squab/back rest.
So check for continuity in both base seat and upright before starting.

What stats did you use and where did you get them, please?

dogsbody said:

What stats did you use and where did you get them, please?

Click to expand...

Here you go, didnt take to long to post either:

5 pcs Temperature Controlled Switch Thermostat 45℃(N.C) on eBay (end time 09-Dec-10 15:34:54 GMT)

Magic, thank you, I've ordered mine straight off your link.

Again, thank you.

brill write up Andy, been keeping an eye out for your pics on this subject, been putting mine off for too long now! suppose ive got no excuse now!

Cheers Guys

Ive still to do my passenger seat this week hopefully.

Couple extra points:

Torx bolts= You need a t40 and t45 for the seats. When you come to get at the torx bolts (at the front of seat i think) between the frame with the electric motors on and the frame bolted to the seat,its a right squeeze to get a socket extension (with torx bit)in there. But i managed to lever just enough room to get at it,may seem tight but it is possible

Also with the uprated thermostats,in order to keep the original spade ends on the wiring loom,i had to trim the male spade ends on the new stats width wise. I did it using a small flap disc on a grinder,but a dremmel would be safer if you have one !!

Good luck,its well worth doing..

right you've got me bothered about doing my seats now! im gonna order a couple of new stats now!

Are there really 5 thermostats in that kit, or am I just being dim?

These are definitely warmer than the standard ones?

Guy

what wire did u use? is it suitable for replacing longer stretches of wire?

No they come in a pack of 5

Ive no idea what the standard heated seats feal like, as mine havent worked up to the last week.

All i can say is that now ive put these uprated stats in,the seats get as hot as is needed now
Even the missus with a coat on can feel the warmth !

I done the passenger seat today, took about 3 and a bit hours.

The old thermostat (from new)that i took out had 240v marked on it,the same as the new one's i installed.

The wire i used to replace the broken bits, was just slightly thicker than original. Infact it came from an old alarm system i saved to re-use the wire, as i'm a tight wad like that
And it was the right colour to !!

I also repaired my seats aswell today ihad two breaks in the passenger seat and three bteaks in the drivers seat. I also found burn marks on the foam section where one of the wires had broken in the drivers seat!



Having found both wires broken where the wires are sandwiched between the two metal rods i decided to cut short the metal rod that goes through the seat cover to reduce the risk of further damage.



As you can see i also used the cable tie technique to put the seats back together it works a treat and saves loads of time.

Good work.
Looks familiar

So, is the wire breaking a common fault then?? My seats dont work either, thought it was down to expensive computery, hopefully mine have got broken wires... oh well add it to the list of jobs to do, reminds me must start fixing my heater matrix o rings Cool how to. Love these kind of write ups always makes the jobs look less scary

mattfletcher said:

So, is the wire breaking a common fault then?? My seats dont work either, thought it was down to expensive computery, hopefully mine have got broken wires... oh well add it to the list of jobs to do, reminds me must start fixing my heater matrix o rings Cool how to. Love these kind of write ups always makes the jobs look less scary

Click to expand...

Yea if you dont upgrade the thermostat,then its near enough a free fix bar your own labour

I was lucky that the bolt that holds the o ring joint together came apart easy,so that wasnt a bad job either !
Cost for that was just over a quid for 2 new o rings,happy days

I am thinking if I do mine I may run a few sets of wires to reduce the risk of one brake taking out the system in the future!

I would really recommend making the metal rod shorter then the wires do not pass between them. I think if you asked people who had repaired ther seats the majority would tell you this is where there wires had broke aswell.



Cushion!

Hi Guys,

The link above and the text relates to the pack of 5 sensors. The data sheet says that they are mormally open. Other info suggests that they should be normally closed.

Does anyone know the diference and which it should be?

Cheers

Steve Ashworth said:

Hi Guys,

The link above and the text relates to the pack of 5 sensors. The data sheet says that they are mormally open. Other info suggests that they should be normally closed.

Does anyone know the diference and which it should be?

Cheers

Click to expand...

Hi Steve, you want the normally closed. (nc)

Which means that the bimetallic strip inside the thermostat transmits power until it heats up to whatever its rated to,then curls up thus breaking the power circuit. When the heat in the strip reduces to the predetermined (lower) amount,it then joins the circuit back up again.

quick question ?
is there any risk of the tie wraps melting through
causing a fire

HU5SH said:

quick question ?
is there any risk of the tie wraps melting through
causing a fire

Click to expand...

Good question,not one i can answer though

I can say that i have had my seats on most days since i did this job in November, and not detected any burning smells as yet

Would imagine that cable ties would just melt,but i guestemate that the elements dont get hot enough to do that.
Dont hold me to that though