Heated Seats

My 2005 1500 LT has developed a minor electrical glitch in the heated seats.    The passenger side heated seats work fine.

My drivers seat turns itself off in a matter of less than a minute.  Nothing has shorted out because I can press the switch and things come on initially.  I noticed a few weeks back that the seat seemed to be overheating.  Even in the lowest setting, it would get so hot on my back I'd have to turn it off.  So it seems this has been progressive.

About June of this year, I had to replace my locking actuator (related to the auto lock/alarm) in the drivers door.  The heated seats were working immediately after that fix.  I purchased that part new from Chevy.

Can someone point me in the right direction on this.  Is this something in the switch on/in the door or can I repair this without disassembling the door panel again? 

Thanks.

Do a search at the upper right of page. There was a very recent seat problem just like this that turned out to be a short/bad contact. The seat overheated and did some burning at same time. There are pics with the thread.

I'm guessing a short in the heating pad in the driver seat. Replace it.

I would be willing to bet your driver's side seat back heater element looks like the one I replaced in my truck:



Notice the burned area at the top of the element.



Mine behaved just like you are describing.

I replaced both the driver's side seat back and seat bottom elements with replacement elements from Dorman.

No problems since.

2nd vote for the Dorman unit.  I have replaced both the back and bottom drivers seat elements.  The Dorman one works every bit as good and has been working for 5 years.

Thanks folks.  Have a day off today, searching for Dorman!  I'll let you know.

Noted some comments on various places about the Dorman heaters being wired for the passenger seat even though they are labeled universal?  Some users repositioned the sticky tape - others say don't do that since the heater is supposed to be unidirectional.  One guy recommended re-routing the wire.

Any input on this?

I used a dorman on my driver's seat with no issues.  I don't remember if there was a different one for driver vs passenger seat...  i would assume they are the same so long as you get the right one (back rest or seat element)

Mike2005 said:

Noted some comments on various places about the Dorman heaters being wired for the passenger seat even though they are labeled universal?  Some users repositioned the sticky tape - others say don't do that since the heater is supposed to be unidirectional.  One guy recommended re-routing the wire.

Any input on this?

Click to expand...

If you compare the pad to the original, it does appear to be made for the passenger side only because of where the pigtail comes out at the bottom corner and the sticky tape on one side.

No need to reroute any wires or mod the pad in any way.

I just flipped it over and everything matched up just fine.

The seat gets plenty hot, so much so that I never run it on high.

No complaints two years later.

I'll do it the same if I ever need to replace this one.

Dorman seat pads on the way!!