Demon possessed heated seats!

[Daturbosix]

so my 05 escalade drivers side heated seat turns on and cycle off then on randomly. some days it does it, some days it doesnt. doesnt seem to be related to a bump in the road or anything like that.

anyone experience anything like this?
and it id ONLY the drivers seat.

 

[Daturbosix]

maybe someone can tell me how to just disable them?

 

[Tonyrodz]

Just unplug the switch.

 

[Daturbosix]

does that panel pop off or gotta yank the whole door panel off?

does it share a circuit, thus not being able to just yank a fuse?

 

[NotJLB]

I have this problem, too, in our 2003 Escalade . . . the driver seat heater has a mind of it's own . . . comes on by itself . . . goes off . . . cycles.

So, here's what I found googling:

1. It's common, and GM knows about it.

2. Here's the TSBs for the 2003 Escalade, and you can search for others for your vehicle:

2003 Cadillac Escalade Seats Service Bulletin 157155

• Action Number: 10006580
  Service Bulletin Number: 157155
  Report Date: Jan 01, 2004
  Component: Seats
• Summary: Drivers or passengers heated seats turn on by themselves. *mr

2003 Cadillac Escalade Esv Seats Service Bulletin 157150

• Action Number: 10006580
  Service Bulletin Number: 157150
  Report Date: Jan 01, 2004
  Component: Seats
• Summary: Drivers or passengers heated seats turn on by themselves. *mr

2003 Cadillac Escalade Ext Seats Service Bulletin 157149

• Action Number: 10006580
  Service Bulletin Number: 157149
  Report Date: Jan 01, 2004
  Component: Seats
• Summary: Drivers or passengers heated seats turn on by themselves. *mr

3. I contacted the local dealer when I found those TSB, to see if they would still honor them for a 2003. They said they'd get back to me. I'm still waiting.

4. If you are like me, you will just disconnect the heating element connectors under the seats. Mine's the driver's side, and there's a pad in the the seat cushion and a pad in the seat back. There's a big(er) gray-ish connector, then the seat cushion pigtails off of it with a smaller green connector. I assume disconnecting the gray -ish one would do, but I disconnected both of them. Here's a video showing where to find them:

(You don't have to lift the seat to get to the connectors.)

Now that I see how that posted, the gray-ish connector is the one you can see in the upper left. The green one is under the lower right rear, and mine was duct-taped to the seat frame.

By the way, in mine the heated seats share a fuse with Ignition.

Also, by the way, we have discovered that will disable the passenger seat warmer, too.

 

[NotJLB]

2. Here's the TSBs for the 2003 Escalade, and you can search for others for your vehicle:

2003 Cadillac Escalade Seats Service Bulletin 157155

• Action Number: 10006580
  Service Bulletin Number: 157155
  Report Date: Jan 01, 2004
  Component: Seats
• Summary: Drivers or passengers heated seats turn on by themselves. *mr

2003 Cadillac Escalade Esv Seats Service Bulletin 157150

• Action Number: 10006580
  Service Bulletin Number: 157150
  Report Date: Jan 01, 2004
  Component: Seats
• Summary: Drivers or passengers heated seats turn on by themselves. *mr

2003 Cadillac Escalade Ext Seats Service Bulletin 157149

• Action Number: 10006580
  Service Bulletin Number: 157149
  Report Date: Jan 01, 2004
  Component: Seats
• Summary: Drivers or passengers heated seats turn on by themselves. *mr

3. I contacted the local dealer when I found those TSB, to see if they would still honor them for a 2003. They said they'd get back to me. I'm still waiting.

To follow up on this, in case anyone happens to find it through a google-search, the dealer never contacted me. In their defense, which he really needs for failing to help a customer, that's a TSB, not a recall. So, essentially, it is GM admitting they know about the problem, and they are telling the tech what to do about it. But they are not telling customers to bring it in for a fix.

It is a common enough problem that there is plenty of talk about it on the Internet, thanks to Al Gore, of course.

 

[NotJLB]

Anyone figure out how to do this without also disabling the passenger seat heater?

I don't care if the driver's seat heats or not, but my passenger cares about hers.

 

[ivin74]

so my 05 escalade drivers side heated seat turns on and cycle off then on randomly. some days it does it, some days it doesnt. doesnt seem to be related to a bump in the road or anything like that.

anyone experience anything like this?
and it id ONLY the drivers seat.

My SUV started doing the same shit yesterday, has anyone found a fix? Today I'm going to disconnect the switch as a temp solution.

Can replacing the heat switch fix the problem?

 

[LEDFoot]

I deal with this periodically, Sometimes it will just cycle forever, sometime the switches work fine.

However, even when the switches work, only one side of my seat gets hot, and painfully so so I am suspecting it is all due to a bad heating element in my seat.
Incidentally, pulling the door switch makes no difference, the heat still cycles, I just can't see it or attempt to control it.
The seat heaters are controlled by the BCM, the switches control the BCM so disconnecting the switch may not be even a temporary solution unless you feel better not seeing the indicator lights flash.

Since my seat cover is cracking pretty bad too I am considering pulling the seat and replacing the covers and heating elements while I am at it. But that's not that high on my todo list unfortunately.

Backstory, my vehicle has had a lot of electrical issues due to it being a theft recovery and whoever rebuilt it frankensteined parts of wiring harnesses from multiple vehicles and just connected them with electrical tape in giant tape-balls. I have fixed most that I was able to find, Soldered and shrink-tubed more than I can count but I still have some lingering issues.

 

[NotJLB]

My SUV started doing the same shit yesterday, has anyone found a fix? Today I'm going to disconnect the switch as a temp solution.

Can replacing the heat switch fix the problem?

Did you read Post#5?