Hi!

As long as I've had my 855 (about 2 years now) the drivers side seat heater hasnt worked. Not the first Volvo I've had this problem with! Couldn't be bother to look at, let alone fix.

BUT......was fishing some kiddies toys out from under the seat, and saw 2 wires: red and red/white. One of them was broken. So attached new terminal to broken one, and tried to refit. Having trouble, so pulled on the plug in the seatto try to bring a bit closer to me, and it came off! Thought I'd broken it, but it seemed to be magnetic. So put the connectors on to it, refitted and the seat heater works! Just five minutes........

Is it really as simple as that??

Other posts I've (half) read mention thermostats, and adjustments, and fires!!

No point it working if every time I use it, I'm expecting to catch light......

Any thoughts?

Kev

I just got a recall notice for my 850T5 (1997) regarding seat heater elements. I don't have the details handy but I am positive it was a Volvo factory recall notice.

You fixed the common problem of a t-stat wire that breaks from seat cushion movement. If your car is part of the recall, the recall eliminates that t-stat with a temp controlled relay instead that only works at lower temps and keeps the element cooler too.
The supposed fires were caused by the lower element wire overheating in a spot and burning which only happens briefly once, once that wire overheats and burns through it then loses continuity and can't work again, the element is then NG thus safe but the seat heater won't work. The recall doesn't fix/replace bad elements but they're tested with an ohm meter to know if they're good or not. If one is bad, it's up to the customer to have that replaced, Volvo isn't picking up the tab.