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Demon possessed heated seats!
- Thread starter Daturbosix
- Start date
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eliminatethebug
TYF Newbie
- Joined
- May 6, 2011
- Posts
- 13
- Reaction score
- 3
Heated seats is my dream. But today, when I go on long trips, I have to use a portable heating pad, although it is small but very portable and convenient, who's freezing as I can read the Top article, here you will find a lot of information on how to keep warm.
corvette744
2004 Z-71
Im willing to bet its just one of the heating elements,you need to check the ohms on the wires.So raise your seat as hi as it will go,get an ohm meter and probe the connector- for the lower and upper at the connector.I would have someone sitting in the seat moving around-i had to do that when i found mine.Anything over 5 or 5.5 ohms its junk and needs replacing.Replacing the bottoms is easy the tops a little harder-and tops are more money.I cant stress the importance of pushing the seat or when someone is sitting in it to move around when testing-sometimes it wont show bad unless the burnt wires are touching.Thats how i fixed mine.I would not replace the heater element unless it shows high ohms-they are expensive to throw parts at it.Obviously test both seats upper and lower.
S33k3r
Full Access Member
If someone is having this problem (I can watch my heated seat lights turn on and off) should they start with the switch or the DDM? The heating elements work perfect so I am thinking I should start with the DDM. It sounds like the switch was redesigned so it wasn't as easy to turn on accidentally.
Short answer: I replaced my DDM with ACDelco part and the issue went away.
Longer answer:
My seat issues started with the heated seat not staying on, driver side only. Passenger side had no problem.
Replaced heated seat element with Dorman 641-105 in September 2018 and confirmed that the original was visibly burnt and creating an open circuit.
If I remember correctly the new issue started not long after I put in the new element. As a temporary workaround, I unplugged the heated seat element from underneath the drivers seat and just ignored the clicking of the relay as the seat would try and turn on and then immediately turn off.
At this point the symptoms were the heated seat would continuously cycle through power on/off. What I mean by cycle through is that I would see the 3 lights all turn on indicating the lower seat was on, then it would go to 2, then 1, then off. Then it would turn back on again and go through the same 3,2,1, off.
It seemed to happen only when it was raining and would happen only occasionally if at all when it was dry. Also, if I just left the heated seat plugged after a while (10 minutes maybe) it would calm down and not have any issues. I recorded some of the behavior over a two-month period just to confirm.
I took out the DDM and the memory switch, opened them up and did not see any obvious issues with the parts or circuit boards and both were completely dry. I decided to start with the memory switch and replaced it with Dorman 901-196 in September 2019. No change, the issue persisted. I did not have time to continue so I just unplugged the element again.
For the DDM I purchased ACDelco 15883319, my original part was 15186208. Be sure to check your RPO codes to get the correct part. I installed it in November 2020 and the on/off power cycling has stopped.
To summarize, it seems like I replaced my bottom seat element and then had to replace the DDM.
Now some questions.
Does anyone experiencing this continuous power on/off still have their original bottom heat element? Or if replaced, did you replace with the original GM part instead of Dorman? I am wondering if the Dorman has a lower resistance than the OEM leading to the failure that is causing this issue.
Longer answer:
My seat issues started with the heated seat not staying on, driver side only. Passenger side had no problem.
Replaced heated seat element with Dorman 641-105 in September 2018 and confirmed that the original was visibly burnt and creating an open circuit.
If I remember correctly the new issue started not long after I put in the new element. As a temporary workaround, I unplugged the heated seat element from underneath the drivers seat and just ignored the clicking of the relay as the seat would try and turn on and then immediately turn off.
At this point the symptoms were the heated seat would continuously cycle through power on/off. What I mean by cycle through is that I would see the 3 lights all turn on indicating the lower seat was on, then it would go to 2, then 1, then off. Then it would turn back on again and go through the same 3,2,1, off.
It seemed to happen only when it was raining and would happen only occasionally if at all when it was dry. Also, if I just left the heated seat plugged after a while (10 minutes maybe) it would calm down and not have any issues. I recorded some of the behavior over a two-month period just to confirm.
I took out the DDM and the memory switch, opened them up and did not see any obvious issues with the parts or circuit boards and both were completely dry. I decided to start with the memory switch and replaced it with Dorman 901-196 in September 2019. No change, the issue persisted. I did not have time to continue so I just unplugged the element again.
For the DDM I purchased ACDelco 15883319, my original part was 15186208. Be sure to check your RPO codes to get the correct part. I installed it in November 2020 and the on/off power cycling has stopped.
To summarize, it seems like I replaced my bottom seat element and then had to replace the DDM.
Now some questions.
Does anyone experiencing this continuous power on/off still have their original bottom heat element? Or if replaced, did you replace with the original GM part instead of Dorman? I am wondering if the Dorman has a lower resistance than the OEM leading to the failure that is causing this issue.
livingez_123
Full Access Member
And here I thought I was going crazy!
ivin74
05 NBS Nali
Forgot to follow up, last fall I changed the window switch and the flashing lights disappeared. I did not even changed the heating element.
