How are your heated seats?
 

How happy are you with your heated seats?

I LOVE THE EBW (ELECTRIC BUN WARMERS).

I wish my 3rd gen had them. (How weird would that be?)

I rate them excellent; they work almost too well. I only have'm on about 3 minutes before I have to shut'm off. Only gripe is that my right elbow likes to flick the switch whenever I shift into 2nd. Slowly teaching myself to have my elbow somewhere else.

something is wrong with mine then. i can barely feel any heat at all. the dealer told me they are only seat warmers nothing more.

Same here - I haven't brought it to the dealer yet though, I was planning on it.

but wait now. you live in FL and i live in NJ. it's like 10 degrees F here right now. maybe it's not cold enough for yours to get warm because of the ambient temperature.

Mine works fine.

define fine? i told my dealer they weren't hot enough and he said Mazda said they are seat warmers and not supposed to get hot.

Mine seems to warm up in about 3 minutes, the back more than the seat. The seat never gets very warm, the back moderately warm, never hot. It seems to cycle on and off of its own accord.

Lexus btw has a dial where you can vary the amount of heat which works very well.

it does seem to cycle on and off of its own accord.

I would say mine get warm, but not hot. I actually prefer it. I've been in cars where they get pretty hot, and I don't like that Electrical heat feeling.

Wahoo!

We have an Audi with seat heaters as well - Audi uses a 6 setting dial. On 6, those will really roast - waaay too hot. The RX-8 heaters are about equal to the Audi's 2 or 3 setting (out of 6).

It's also been noted that the RX-8 heaters seem to vary depending on the temperature dial - set the cabin temperature dial to full hot, and the seat heaters are hotter. I noticed something along that line in August - tried the seat heaters just to check them, and they seemed not to work at all. Of course, the dial was on full cold at the time!

Regards,
Gordon

The times when I've tried using them it's been around 50 degrees - not 10, but surely cold enough for seat heat to be noticeable - and they seemed to do absolutely nothing.

i am highly impressed with the seat heaters. i love how the back heats up as well, not just the seat only. my back felt nice and relaxed when i had them on.

just the other evening, i jumped from the 8 to drive the miata on a pretty cold night...and i was shivering in the miata.

santino

Mine seem to be too smart for their own good. 45 degrees outside? Nah, not coming on. 36 degrees? Maybe if you sit there long enough your body heat might save me from having to heat your frosty ass. 28 degrees? Hey, the DSC just told me it's slippery out there, how about a little back heat?

The dog's car (a Subaru) has two settings, mildly toasty and fry your ass. They come on when you press a switch. Such a novel concept. That's what I want in the RX-8. Anyone taken a look at the wiring diagram to figure out how to make them work when you want them do not when it deigns to work?

Wow, I hadn't heard that! Can't wait to try it out.
I wish the seat (butt aspect) was warmer. Nothing like hot buns on a cold morning.

the colder it is, the warmer they are. I didnt think they worked at all until recently when the temp is dipping into the teens

I'll second the Doc's assessment (at least as far as the 8 is concerned:))

Mine work perfectly. The colder it is outside, the warmer the seats get. I usually have to turn mine off because it gets too warm for me. The wife loves the heat and so she leaves hers on until the whole inside of the car gets warm.

mine work good.....they don't get hot like a heating pad does, but they get very warm to where by the time the floor heater has warmed the inside of the car, i'm turning the seat warmers off because i'm getting to warm...coldest day i've had them on is about 28 degrees F

so has anybody who isnt too pleased with how hot they get gotten the dealer to fix them?

Here in N Florida only had a few days when they were needed but they worked great. Almost like a heating pad in the part against the small of my back.

Having never been a passenger in my car, I can only speak to the issue of the driver's side seat warmer. Mine heats up nicely even though it's never below 28°F in Houston (well almost never). I've flipped it on when it was as warm as 50°F and I can't tell that it's any different than on those 30 degree mornings. It heat the small of the back area quite nicely!! Almost like a med-low setting on a heating pad. If I leave it on, it does cycle off-and-on. I'm not sure if that cycling is related to the overall heat setting in the car. I've never checked.

Now, in terms of butt-warming: I've never noticed it. It's quite possible that the system is pumping some heat to the bottom of the seat but if so, it's a lot more subtle than the back-of-the-seat heater. That might be related to the difference in thickness (insulating capacity) between a shirt (on the small of my back) and pants. Not sure. I'm glad the heaters are there and I'm satisfied with how well the driver's side one works.....

Mine work, but it's definitely more of a "warm" as opposed to a "hot" sensation. I feel them more along the back than the butt, but they're definitely noticeable.

If you're coming from an Audi or Mercedes, they'll probably seem a bit feeble, but they get the job done. At maximum setting you could probably cook on the Audi heaters.

Mine work fine but I would love to have seperate settings to choose from. I really like my seat warmers here in Spokane. I had not noticed that the dial setting affected the seat warmer but now I am going to check it out since there have been times that I noticed that the seats felt warmer than others.

Mine work well but I would prefer a switch with a two-level setting. I need one setting when I am wearing a jacket and want to avoid burning my buns off. I need a second, higher setting when I am wearing a long coat.

Some people might argue a "shorts" or "no pants" setting is also needed but I'm not sure that is a really big problem for US spec cars :).

Mine are nice and toasty -- seat and seatback right up to the shoulder blades. Had heaters also in the Recaros I installed in my 2gen, and like the cycle-on/ cycle-off feature on these seats. It's also nice to be able to keep the cabin temp cooler to avoid drowsiness while the seat heaters take care of keeping me comfy.

I'm jealous. :(

They are just O.K.. Warm is about all you get. I don't like the single setting. I think they should have high and low. Your ass burns in the brides Impala. Needless to say, she thinks they stink in the 8.

OK, so I checked the workshop manual. There's a thermostat in the seat cushion near the rear part of the squab (the thing you sit on). A connection is made when the seat temperature is less the 82F (28C). So, if your seat is cold to the touch, the "seat cushion warmers" as they're quaintly called should work. Of course if you've got toasty buns, then Mazda's logic is that you don't need any more heat down there. Next time the car is cold, go for a drive (interior heat off) without a passenger and turn both heated seats on. See how warm the passenger seat gets compared to the driver's seat. If the passenger seat stays cold then you might want to check the heated seat fuse and relay (check your manual for locations).

Mine hardly get warm. The dealer has a test, detailed in the workshop manual to check the thermostats. I think an ambient outside temperature of 28F is enough to warrant warp 10 seat heat. I didn't get that at all but was stuck in a Zen meditation of "did I warm the seat or did the seat warm me?" ;)

Good luck RX-GR8!

Seat heaters
 

I have seat heaters in our 4 different cars incl my new RX8. A VW Beetle will cook you. Our RX8 seat heaters are similar to 2003 Ford Explorer and Jeep Liberty.

thanks for the info. i tried your idea of turning both heaters on and the passenger seat was barely warm. Could hardly tell and ambient temp was around 28. the drivers seat was warm but not that arm. it was hard to tell because i had a heavy winter coat on but touching by hand felt just warm. did you take yours in to have the dealer test them yet or are you going to try to fix them yourself? since mine get somewhat wamr its probably not the fuse but could be the relay or thermostat itself. i wouldnt bother but there seems to be a wide range of temps people are reporting.

If I can find the connector that the thermostat is connected to then I might try the test from the workshop manual. The way I see it there are three possible problems:

1. thermostat is stuck open
2. seat warmers are faulty
3. ambient heat in car is causing seat warmer thermostat to stay open

With 3, I wonder if the difference between people with good seat warming performance and not is that they tend to have their car interiors warmer? One theory might be that the rear seat floor heat vent outlets were heating the seats and turning the thermostat off. I guess another test would be to drive without heat for a while with the seat warmers on and see if they work more effectively.

My bet is that it's faulty thermostats. If I can't prove this by testing I'll have my dealer look at it, but you know how that goes - "no fault found". If there were toasty bunned RX-8 owners in the area I'd also try a side by side test with a thermometer (don't sit on it kids!)