Driver Heated Seat Not Working?

OK, I found the unit on my truck and it is well away from metal. It's tied to the frame with a "push pin".

Should be no shorts to the frame as it sits. I made sure the unit was fully plugged in and not loose.

 

Just found my burned out module today. No warranty. And it snapped off the plug, going to be expensive I imagine.

 

I've seen this before with blower motor resistor harness plugs. What happens is the gauge of the wire is insufficient for the current on the high setting and the heat at the connector actually melts the wiring. The wire in the harness should be a larger gauge for the higher settings but it's not, all 4 wires are the same size and that's why its melting/burning.

 

Time to turn it to Med. That's the orders for the wife.

NO HI...!!

 

No, not expensive, free! You have to open a case with Toyota

 

Even without warranty? Toyota up my way hasn’t been easy to work with. I’m waiting on a reply because the parts desk couldn’t find the part number in the system.

 

You don’t deal with it on a dealership basis you have to call Toyota Corperation and open a case I put all the information in the beginning of this thread. That’s the only way a recall is ever going to be produced.

 

Actually the information is over on this thread near the beginning
Go to post #92
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/factory-heated-seats-failure.528038/page-12#post-22270470

 

Did this work for you? I pulled the connector completely off and am replacing the wiring harness on both ends. Of course this happens when temps go below zero.

 

I heard that it draws more power than the red wire can handle, so it will go again......But maybe not is you do not use "HI"...

That is worth a try....?

 

yes, work good but i don't use HI

 

I have the same issue. Driver's side seat warmer doesn't work but the passenger side works. I have a 2016 TRD Sport. I know Toyota is a good brand and Tacoma has one of the highest resale values on the market (And we pay high lease/finance for that very reason) but I've taken this truck to dealerships for recalls, issues, repairs (Lately my steering pump is leaking), more than any other vehicle I've owned.

 

I recently picked up my first Tacoma. Drivers side heated seat didn't work. I found this thread and found that I also had a burnt prong on the connector going into the amp. I swapped over the working amp from the passenger seat and ordered a new replacement amp and that fixed it but within a week I also burnt up the connector on that amp.

Turns out (as others have mentioned), its not the amp itself failing, but the undersized Molex connector. Both of my amps with burnt connectors still work just fine! You just need to solder wire leads to the pins of the connector.

Here's what I did:
-Unbolt the seat and carefully tip back against back seat, making sure not to put any tension on the wiring harness coming out of the floor. Removing the seat is super easy (4 bolts) and makes accessing the wiring much easier. You may need to adjust seat back angle to get it to sit right without pulling on wires.
-Remove the old amp and disconnect the plastic connector.
-You can carefully pry the cover off the amp with a small flathead screwdriver to get to the top face of the connector.
-I sanded down plastic on the top face of the connector until I sanded down to pins using my benchtop belt sander. This allowed me to access the pins from the top for soldering so I didn't have to reach in from the front of the connector to try and solder.
- I soldered 4 short (like 2 inch) 18AWG wire leads to 4 of the 5 pins on the amp. Look at the connector that is still in the truck to know which pins you need. Dont mix this up. Lots of flux helps the solder flow onto pins nicely. Pro tip: pre tin the ends of wires and each pin separately first, then solder wires to pins.
-pop the cover back on the amp and go back to the truck.
-ONE BY ONE cut each wire off of the plastic connector in the truck and connect to the leads you soldered on the amp. Its IMPORTANT to do this one wire at a time so you don't get them mixed up (you can always look at passenger seat wiring for reference if you do). You also don't want to cut all four at once since your snips will short the power and ground wires (This might be a good time to suggest disconnecting the battery before doing any of this work ).
- I used wago lever nuts to splice wires from the leads on amp to the harness on the truck so I could remove them easily later if needed

$10 Lever Wire Connectors Compact Splicing Wire Connectors Fast Connection Terminal Electrical Connectors 2 Conductor for Quick Connect 28-12 AWG (60 Pack)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076ZNBYHL/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?pd_rd_i=B076ZNBYHLp13NParams

Double-check connections, reconnect the battery and give it test!

Hopefully, this saves someone from buying a new $80 amp like I did.

 

Did you get anywhere with Toyota Canada? I believe I have the same issue. Going to check the connections now.

 

Posted this in the other thread but will post here as well.

 

to all Tacoma owners in Canada

You need to file a report with Transport Canada. Toyota doesn’t seem to care about this potential fire hazard.

 

And all of you US guys need to do the same at TOYATA USA also.

 

And to NHSTA.