Someone told me you can access the heated seat pad without having to remove the seat and rip off the seat covers? That would be great if its true. Thanks in advance! Brett

I suppose it's possible to take the upholstery bar out of the back of the seat bottom without removing the seat, especially if you knew where it was from having already seen it with the seat off. And I suppose you could move the seat back forward enough to clip off the hog rings, allowing you to roll up the seat back upholstery far enough. Then you would be able to slide the heating pads out and work on them. But why would you want to do it this way? It takes all of about three minutes to remove the four bolts and take the seat out, and it would be much, much easier to work on with the seat out. And even if you were able to take the cinching bar out of the back of the seat bottom enough to be able to take the heat pad out, I would think that it would be extremely difficult to successfully clip it back into the seat frame just by feel, without being able to see what you were doing.

If are attempting to repair a currently inoperative seat heater, the thermostat is in the lower heat pad (under your butt between the upholstry and the foam seat cushion).

The thermostat is a small dime sized silver disk in the middle of the pad, and 90% of the time they are at fault for preventing the heater from working. Sometimes it's as simple as reconnecting the push-on connections to the thermostat (they frequently pull off), or replacing it with a donor unit from the scrap yard. A new thermostat from the dealer is not cheap, and the price would convince most people to find a local parts yard for a replacement (my local yard charges $1 or less). They can be checked simply nough using an Ohm meter, and the passenger side units from donor cars are usually in decent condition. Under no circumstances should you ever bypass the thermostat, since it is a continuously variable voltage regulator and only passes enough current to properly warm you up. A straight short puts you at risk of blown fuses or an electrical fire.

I would strongly advise pulling apart a seat in the parts yard before attempting it on your own car. From behind the front seats, you can unclip the retaining bar that keeps the seat bottom upholstry in tension to the back of the seat. Lift up the upholstry a bit (that you just loosened), and put you hand into the seat (going in from behind the seat) until you can firmly grasp and pull out the lower heating pad. There are small cleats/dimples that are holding it in place on the foam cushion and you may need to lift it gently upwards before it will slide out. Try this a few times and get yourself an inventory of 3 or 4 good thermostats (test them in the yard while you're there). Also try putting the seat back together after you've removed the thermostat from the heater pad.

As mentioned before, when reassembling the seat, life is a lot easier with it removed. Being able to see what you're working on has definate advantages and can be facilitated with a 13mm socket wrench and the time it takes to remove 4 bolts.

God bless,
Fitz Fitzgerald.
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'87 Blue 245, NA 231K

It's NOT true. You cannot reach the pads with the covers on. The good part is that it's usually the seat cushion pad that has a broken wire (the seat and back pads are in series), and it's relatively easy to pull the seat cover off. Unfortuneately, you cannot do this with the seat in place because you cannot remove the 2 "D" rings that hold the sides to the frame along the P/B lever cover. So... you'll have to unbolt the seat (13mm), and lay it back or take it inside.

My 3 yr old son and I just did this yesterday, and I am thinking of writing something up on it, I took LOTS of photos.
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JohnG 1989 245 MT @216,500