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Re: Heated driver seat not working,suggestion?[240-260/1982] posted by Don Foster on
Monday, 18 May 1998, at 7:19 a.m.
Tony ---
I've fixed several of these on my various 240's. The seat is heated by two elements, one in the back and one in the seat; they're connected in series, so a failure in either element means no heat.
You can determine which element has failed by measuring the resistance in each element. The element with infinite resistance is open.
The lower element (the one you sit on) has a small thermostat, about 3/4" in diameter. Sometimes these fail, but more often the resistive wire breaks, and usually it's where it connects to the thermostat. If the wire is broken, it can be resoldered, but it's likely to break again soon because of increased tension. (This happened to me 3 times on the same seat until I realized that everytime I sat on it, the flexing put extra tension on the wire.) I suggest you add a 2-3" "pigtail" between the resistive wire and the switch to provide for flexing.
An afterthought.... Before you tear into your seat, be certain you actually have 12 volts going to the element when the heater is switched on. If not, you might have a wiring problem elsewhere.
Good luck.
--
Don Foster