Hi guys, I was driving along the road a few minutes back with my seat heater on. Smelt a faint burning smell and felt my leg burning!!

Just one spot on the base of the driver's seat had seriously overheated. It was on the right hand outside edge, and had left a small scorch mark on the seat. See pic below, just above the seat controls.


The rest of the seat, both base and back, were working as normal, just this one particular spot that got too hot. Is there a fix for this?? My current solution is to turn it off and not use it, in case I set the car on fire!! (Tried searching but all previous threads refer to the heaters not working.)

Regards, Andy.

 

Thats not good, I would think that the whole seat bottom element and cover should be replaced. If your car is still under warranty I would take it to the dealer and have them replace the seat cover and element. Actually I would insist that the seat back cover also be replaced so that they match.

 

After seeing that photo, it's official. I'm pulling the fuse on my seat heater. No sense on taking the chance of watching my car go up in flames just for the convience of having toasted buns. It aint worth it.
There's a photo in the gallery of a yellow roadster burnt to a crisp, (actually several coupes as well) and I thought it was probably because of the seat heaters, but dismissed it.
Not this time.
Thanks Andy for your "heads" up on the "butt" warmers.

 

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately no warranty! I think I'm just gonna replace the whole seat, will be easier and cheaper than trying to fix it! (In fact, I'm now kicking myself as someone offered me a pair of SRT6 seats a while back for £200!)

+fire, I have to admit that I was pretty concerned by the quick time that part of the seat heated up to an untouchable temperature - I was a bit worried the car was gonna catch fire, so I stopped out the front of a police station!!

 

Oh wow! I always like my heated seats but I thought they got way to hot and after seeing this I don't know if I wanna use mine anymore either! I imagine you had your heated seats set on high when this happened. Maybe if you keep it on the low setting you might be fine.

 

Too bad you live in the UK.
I was going to recommend that you find a Crossfire owner in your area who still is under warranty, swap out your seats, have them get it covered under warranty, and then switch the seats back.

BC.

 

Still going to use mine, the wife likes 'em to much to quit. I'm a warm butt junkie!

 

Cody, the seat was on low at the time of this happening - and I'd only had it on about 2 minutes (half a mile from home!)

Blade, I think I'll struggle to find someone with one still under warranty over here. Hopefully I should be able to pick up a seat for about £100, it will be cheaper than getting my one fixed!!

Larry, you're welcome to my seat if you like it really warm!!!!

 

My Wife likes em too Larry, but it's just not worth taking a chance of losing the car over it.
We keep the car in storage during the winter months, so it's not like there really is much reason to use the heater during October, or late April.

 

Larry, you're welcome to my seat if you like it really warm!!!![/quote]

Well thanks for the offer but there is warm then there is the wrong kind of warm.

 

We drive mine all winter long off and on as long as there is no snow on the ground or any of that sloppy stuff. This year might be different though with my wife's new Challenger in the stable.

 

Going off topic for a sec.+fireamx I have been meaning to say I really like your hood, don't know if I would do it to mine, but neverless I really like it.

 

Thanks Larry. I know it's not for everybody, but I couldn't be happier with it. Most everybody tells me it looks better in person.
Good Luck with the Challenger, I'd love to have one of those in my stable.

 

Somewhere I saw a set of photos showing that the "hot point" mode of failure, like we just saw, was the result of a really poor connector design-not the elements themselves. Upon disassembly, inspect the area under the burn mark. It may be a melted connector.

 

Somewhere I saw a set of photos showing that the "hot point" mode of failure, like we just saw, was the result of a really poor connector design-not the elements themselves. Upon disassembly, inspect the area under the burn mark. It may be a melted connector. The element may be just fine.

 

I'll remember to keep my car locked if we are in the same area Cutter. Dishonest is as dishonest does.

 

Are you coming to the Colorado Crossfires event next year?
If so, I will remember to pull my Slim Jim out of storage so that I can steal the coins that are stuck in your seat.

I'll even leave you a Hershey's Kiss on the passenger seat, just so that you know it was me, because, you know, I need the crap that's inside your car.

Man, and I had gone through the whole 12 step program to get away from my life of crime. You just had to remind me that I'm a hardened criminal, didn't you? First, my parents hearts when I was born, and soon, the change in your car.

People like you make this world so much better.

BC.

 

"People like you make this world so much better."

You are correct. I shouldn't have said anything. As soon as I wrote what I did I tried to delete it but couldn't figure out how to it. I'm sorry for say'n anything. It was none of my bizz. Again I'm honestly sorry.

 

I'm sorry that you got the impression that I am some form of criminal running around loose, instead of interpreting it the way I had actually intended, as one forum member helping another forum member get their defective product fixed by the company that created the defective product.

I wasn't saying that it should be done for a worn out seat cover due to normal wear and tear. This issue is one that should be fixed by Chrysler, as it is a safety hazard, and has probably been an issue for a long time, most likely originally noticed by a previous owner inside of the warranty period, but was ignored, because they simply said to themselves "I just won't use the seat heater, because my dealer is incompetent, and they will most likely break something else on the car while trying to fix the heater."

So now its up to the new owner, who had their seat damaged the first time they tried to use it, not knowing it was having a problem, to shell out money for a new seat.

There have been countless reports of faulty seat heaters over the years.
Usually they fail in a way that they don't burn the occupant.
Rare ones like this lead to injury.

What if the person who was in the seat was wearing a skirt, and was injured by the seat heater? That just doesn't sit well with me, for some reason.

I would much rather have Chrysler replace the faulty parts than for someone to be injured due to no fault of their own.

BC.

 

Thanks for all the responses guys. It definately would have set fire to the car or me if I hadn't turned it off and got out!!