Heated leather seats not working......again

Does anyone have an idea how I might be able to track the problem myself. This will be the third time at he dealership.

 

Out of warranty I presume ?

 

Correct. I also am beginning to think the dealership is....... How do I put this lightly........ Completely freakin incompetent when it comes to fixing things.

 

They just totally don't work , work intermitently , what ?

 

When I turned them on in the past I would have to toggle the switch back and forth before the light would come on to say they were warming up but now they don't come on at all.

 

Loose connection in the switch ?

 

could be the switch is going bad... is there a relay? Also a good possibility.

 

Just bought my used 2009 Taco with 42000km from my cousin

Was a few weeks before I sat in the passenger seat and tried the heated seat. Nothing. This lightly used seat had no heat. The light came on and the relay would turn on but no heat. The truck being just over its 3 year warranty has left me with few options so I was wondering if anybody else has had this issue.

Tested the switches, relays, fuses, wiring and found that the wires running into the seat are showing a break. I have trouble understanding how such a lightly used seat could have a broken wire either leading into the heat back or within the heat circuit any ideas?

Has anybody ever taken the Factory leather seat covers off? how much work is that?
Can you buy replacement heat pads?
Is there something i'm missing?

First post on here, love the site
thanks for any help you can offer

 

This is basic electrical diagnosis.
Check and test switch
Check And test relay
Ohm out the heater grids to confirm there are no shorts.

 

poorly installed heating element could have been damaged by light use of the seat depending on how the wiring was routed.To my knowledge, any heated seats in a tacoma are dealer installed aftermarket in the us, but i am not sure about canada....Maybe it was dealer installed before you took delivery?

I just did a repair on my 2000 audi S4 seats and made a writeup, maybe it could help you out as far as how to find and repair any damage to your heating elements if you decide to pull the seats apart( FYI the tacoma seats are MUCH simpler to take apart than the audi). Here's a link to the writeup if you want to take a look:
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...writeup-for-a-B5-S4?highlight=oem+heated+seat

 

Tested the electrics and I'm showing a break/short in the seat itself. In canada you can order the leather package from the dealer when ordering the truck.

Thanks for the replies:

I'm going to head out to an upholstery shop in the next few days and see what they suggest, if I can't do it myself.

Its all very annoying to have happen on such a low used truck.

Does anybody have a wiring diagram of the heated seat system?

 

This place is in Vancouver and should have a heat pad that will work for you,
http://www.heatedseatkits.com/heatedseatkits/index.html

If you have a Princess Auto nearby you can pick up a set of hog ring pliers and hog rings.
http://www.princessauto.com/pal/sea...h=+&_DARGS=/pal/include/header.jsp.searchForm

Then search this site for leather install and should be fairly straight forward,

 

A dead short on the seat is common. You've got a break in the element most likely. You can solder it but its likely better to replace.

 

Sounds like the switch....

 

He says he traced the issue to the seat itself.

 

I have decided to pull the seat apart!!

I am going to Princess auto tomorrow to get the hog ring pliers.

I will take pictures and hopefully have some results

Thanks so much for the help Tacoma World its a great community.

 

So I got some hog ring pliers at princess auto and some hog rings cost around 15 bucks

Got the seat out and tested each circuit again:

The bottom pad showed no connection and the back pad was intermittent.

I cut the old hog rings out and peeled back the bottom seat cushion as far as I could without cutting the hog rings that attach to the metal guides in the seat.

Looking at the heatpad I noticed one of the two wires looped in and connected to a switch. (I thought I took a picture but after looking back on my camera It didn't work) The switch was activated when pressed on but this one was faulty unless really pressed hard. I hooked up my meter and pressed it with my fingers noticing it jumped to about half a full circuit. So I got my pliers out and pushed it hard and the gauge showed full circuit.

IF YOU DO THIS BE SURE TO PEEL BACK THE HEAT PAD AND CUT IN FROM THE BOTTOM SIDE JUST ENOUGH TO PULL THE SWITCH OUT AND CRIMP IT.
Not knowing this I cut into the top of the pad to pull the switch out and damaged some of the fibres that heat the seat. Although I still showed no breaks in the circuit the seat will not heat up on the bottom pad.

I only know this because after putting the seat cover back on I thought I would test both before putting the seat back in. The back pad was still shorting somewhere. I pushed on the back pad switch and hit it a few times until the gauge showed full break. I pulled the top leather off by cutting the 5 hog rings off the back and exposing the bottom of the heat pad. I pulled the pad off the foam and made a small cut on the bottom and pulled the switch out gently. Its about the 1 inch by a half inch big and it just takes a set of pliers and some pressure to activate it. I slipped it back in , put the leather back on and tested everything again. All good.

I installed the seat and turned the switch on and for the first time since we bought the truck we had heat. I wish I would have been more careful pulling it out on the bottom pad but Hopefully I can prevent somebody else from making the same mistake. I still find it a bit odd that my bottom pad shows full circuit and its not working but I will continue to think about it. I am waiting for a return call from the toyota dealership.

That brings me to the toyota "help"
My toyota dealer Destination Toyota, has no idea about anything with the leather seat option. They told me that they get installed by a third party at the ports when they enter Canada. They have no part numbers or references at the dealership, they couldn't tell me a supplier name or who even installed them. I am still waiting for them to get back to me with info on the installers.

Hope this helps somebody
Tron

 

I have a 2010 Tacoma and the heated seats have been a pain, the driver seat heater quit working within the first year and was fixed by warranty and now truck is 5 years old 55k kilometers and both seat heaters have stopped working......I am not impressed!
Seems hard to troubleshoot with all the wires etc.