2003 yukon denali electrical woes - sporadic unlock via fob not working, heated seats question

[Fless]

I think you should be able to disconnect the driver's bottom element under the seat. Then try your test cycle again with the passenger seat on, and see what happens when you turn on the driver's seatback element.

 

[CBIII]

I think you should be able to disconnect the driver's bottom element under the seat. Then try your test cycle again with the passenger seat on, and see what happens when you turn on the driver's seatback element.

Will do! Thanks! I went ahead and ordered the seat element anyhow for JIC.

 

[BigDogYJ]

any updates here? I have an 04 Yukon with same behavior. I put a new bottom element in the driver seat but no difference. I haven't tried to unplug the back element to isolate it. But passenger seat seems to be functional. Just curious if unplugging the element made a difference for you. I'll need to get the keys from my wife to take look at ours. thx

 

[BatsTDK]

any updates here? I have an 04 Yukon with same behavior. I put a new bottom element in the driver seat but no difference. I haven't tried to unplug the back element to isolate it. But passenger seat seems to be functional. Just curious if unplugging the element made a difference for you. I'll need to get the keys from my wife to take look at ours. thx

went and messed with it. the button closest to me lights itself and the other button up and blinks out immediately. The other one lights up itself but clicks off immediately also. The passenger seat can cycle its settings fine but when I hit either button on the driver's side it kicks the passenger's off immediately also. I have a driver's bottom element in my amazon cart currently. Thoughts?

I had a similar issue with my seat heaters. Neither the driver, nor the passenger would work. The heater system is tied together, so if there's a short or fault with the driver's side, it takes out the passenger too.

You can use a volt meter switched to the continuity setting to test which seat and heater pad is bad. The seatback heater hooks up to the bottom heater through a green connector plug. In your case, the passenger seems to be working fine, so you can focus on just the driver's side. Most likely it's the bottom heater pad since it gets the most wear and tear.

I pulled one from a junkyard and took a gamble. Fixed the issue.

 

[CBIII]

@BigDogYJ I replaced the seat element in the seat last winter, along with a new seat pad and cover from theseatshop and it resolved the issue. The bottom was definitely shorting out.

@slypher25aussie My passenger side would work fine independently, but when I'd turn driver's side on, it'd kick passenger off too. fixed now.


A lot of updates happened on this as I started to have issues with a battery draw. I wound up replacing the ignition module (incorrectly...), removing head unit, gauges (had it rebuilt since some gauges weren't working), VATs, and the remote start/keyless entry that was having issues.


TL;DR - replaced driver seat's bottom and heated seat worked. Due to chasing ongoing electrical issues, I now have a new BCM (Now I have an airbag light on because dealership didn't update the BCM/impact module restraints), ignition module, battery, remote start/keyless entry system and rebuilt gauges. Been going good since spring.

Thanks everyone for the help and sorry for the super late response here. Hopefully this was helpful for someone