Seat Heater Wiring Confusion

[gprocket]

I pulled the seats in my '91L to work on a couple of projects - restitching the leather, dyeing the carpet etc. I also wanted to check out the seat heaters that didn't seem to be working. The wiring diagram looks pretty straightforward with 12VDC passing through a big resister (the heating pad) and ending up grounded to the seat frame. There is also is a thermostat in the system to cycle the heat.

But when I look at the actual wires I find a lot of differences (extra connectors, different colored wires, etc). When I meter it all out it appears that everything would work except that there is a red wire with connector that is not plugged into anything. I think it should be ground (G182) but I don't see anywhere where it should go. Everything looks factory and I've checked three seats so far and they all have this.

Any ideas?


Any ideas where the red wire with the black connector goes?

[ChazzyD]

I don't believe that one connects to anything. I have recently taken apart a driver seat that had an inop seat heater. What I found, was the heating pads both had continuity and no open circuit problems at the thermostat either. The problem was the two wires that travel up to the backrest pad had completely been severed from the exposure between seat bottom and seat back. So you may want to check that, which can be repaired without completely removing the leather, but will still be hard to get to, unfortunately. Hard to test these things in the summer though, because they will not come on unless it is cold enough outside.
Charles

[Alfisto Steve]

Not same as Red Rover come over game we played yore ago but i don't see wire in wiring diagrams. I wonder what the it is for, too.

[gprocket]

Isn't that odd? And it is the same for the two cars that I have pulled seats. Everything seems to check out with the heaters but as you point out, it is difficult to check when it is 90 degrees out. The wiring diagram is nothing like the actual seat. I would guess that the seats were purchased fully wired and at some point changes were made that were not picked up on later revisions.

I don't have it with me to look but as I recall, the heater wiring went in to and out of the blue control box. For that matter, I don't see control boxes in the wiring diagrams I have for the seat motors. I believe I read elsewhere on the forum that at some point the boxes were eliminated altogether.


For those curious, here is a picture of the seat pad with the heater...

[Craig]

G'Day Guys,

I think somebody once mentioned that the red wire by-passes the thermal cutout in the seat.

Caveat: I don't have heated seats and can't remember what this thread is about

[ChazzyD]

Craig, you are right, that is exactly what it does, just confirmed that with the lower seat foam that I have. The red wire runs up past the thermostat and joints to the other side of it with the grey wire. A test wire, serving the purpose of taking the thermostat out of the circuit or eliminating it altogether. So now you can test them in 90* weather!
Charles

[Craig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChazzyD Craig, you are right, that is exactly what it does