salituro64

The seat heaters are affected by the heater thermostat? I thought they worked on their own thermostat that goes on/off at approx 96 degrees.

dwill9578

I live 40 mins North Of Boston, it was 7 out this mouring, it did not like turning over but after a two minute warm up and a mile or so and it's up to temp? I actually thought cause it was a rotary and ran hot it heated up faster, guess it's just mine????????????

Omicron

WTH are you talking about? And, why are you typing with like 10 spaces between each word? FYI, the forum software removes extra wasted spaces...

Omicron

Yup, they are - AND they also cycle on and off as you mention. But to get them to come on "full power," you need to have your thermostat dialed all the way up.

rx8cited

According to the Factory Service Manual, it ain't so. The seat warmers are controlled only by the seat warmer power switches and the warmer's built in sensor that turns on the heating element if sensor temp less then 82 degF and off if greater than 99 degF.

And besides the Factory Service Manual information, the Owner's Manual does not mention any connection between the climate control temperature **** and the seat warmers.

Where did you get your information from Omi? You started this rumor last fall and continue to propagate it.

Omicron

Empirical evidence.

My seat heaters didn't seem to be functioning - barely tepid - last winter until someone suggested the relationship to the temp control. So I tried it, and poof, my buns are now toasty warm whenever I want them to be.

I think that there IS a relationship between the temp control know and the heaters, published or not. I believe it's like an AND switch, eg IF (temp control set to warm) AND {(temp less than 82 degF) AND NOT (temp GT than 99 degF)} THEN (turn on seat heaters).

Paul_in_DC

This is not the case. My seat heaters work independently of the cabin heater.

denisem

I have a 10 -15 minute wait for warm up in 25 - 30 degree weather. I thought about taking it to the dealer to check... I did switch the air to recirculate rather than fresh and it seemed to warm up quicker.

ÜberJumper

For god's sake! Park it in a garage! Ice on an RX-8 overnight! THAT'S CRIMINAL!

k, just being dramatic, my heater seems ok to me, in fact, it gets so hot I have to keep it around a medium setting. Coldest morning here so far at just under freezing.

RX-GR8

yep if i have just floor selected it is nowhere near as hot as the air coming out if the setting is top vent only. all other cars i have had used the floor selection as the heat selection. the only way to get the defrost to come on was to push the defrost button.

Omicron

Perhaps in your car. In my RX-8, they definitely do not get as hot as they can unless the thermostat is turned all the way up. Maybe this is something variable in the ECU programming, and varies depending on which flash level one's car is on... hmmm....

yamajj

i really need to stop driving my "8" until i read the owner's manual to find out all these little nuances. i'm not saying these things are bad, just different from all the other cars i've ever owned.

my heater does fine, but then it really hasn't gotten too cold here. ok, we have had a few days in the teens, but i drove my other car. i have noticed the compressor running while i knew only the heater was selected. thnx for the heads up on the lower level heater and a/c relationship. this may also be a good explanation of why my gas mileage is averaging 16mpg. (i'm not concerned about mileage very much)

i'm still trying to believe the price of the spark plugs.......$31.68 a plug......are you kidding me?

yamajj

StewC625

Does anyone else have any idea what this moron is saying?

???????

Stew

Omicron

I asked that same thing a while back, although I didn't directly call him a moron. :D :p

yamajj

i haven't a clue. after trying to decifer it, my only thought was: please step away from the crackpipe, sir.

yamajj

StewC625

OK, moron was a little harsh.

What is this ALIEN is saying?

Here's my translation:

-- If all of you fine people that own RX-8 like the performance characteristics of your automobile

-- you should make sure you enjoy driving your automotive investment to the maximum possbility

-- no clue what he means here - perhaps he meant "time" instead of "tire" and then this line translates to: you should not waste your time worring about such folly as to how long it takes your car to warm up or whether the seat heaters are tied to the thermostat control

-- if you are going to buy a Mazda RX-8, please take good care of it, lest it winds up on some towing operator's flatbed headed to the dealership for repairs.

Funny, translated, he still doesn't make sense, especially in context with this thread.

yamajj

:D stop it.......people are starting to wonder what i'm doing because i'm laughing outloud. (i'm supposed to be working)

yamajj

StewC625

Occupational hazard, isn't it?

Omicron

:D ROTFLMAO Stew!!!! That was funny man! :D

Ok, so back to the topic of the thread...

Some more research shows no connection of the seat heater circuit into the ECU or even CAN bus... so in theory, turning up the temp control should not have any effect... even though it sure seems to in MY car.

So another couple of thoughts. First is that my partially blocking off the rear floorwell heater vents has somehow affected the sensitivity of the "between 80 and 99 degF" control to the better, maybe because of the proximity of the seat heater thermostat to the ducting under the seat. If the ducts don't get as warm or blow hot air up into the underside of the seat, then all the thermostat reads is the heat of the seat's heating elements. In other words, maybe the duct is causing the thermostat to think the seats are warmer than they are. At any rate, I blocked off my ducts about the same time I "discovered" the temp control helping make the seat heaters warmer, so it may be connected.

Second possibility is that the seat thermostat tolerance varies from car to car, as we've discovered other components do on this car, like the MAF for instance. So while one car really is letting the seats get up to 99 degF, another car due to the tolerance range of the seat thermostat, may only let the seats get to, say, 90 degrees.

So here's what I'd recommend: Try partially blocking off the underseat vents, as I did, and see if it helps. If not, take the car into the dealership and have 'em look at fixing the heaters. They (or you) should be able to measure the temp of the seats with a digital thermometer or temp probe on a digital multimeter to find out if they are operating to spec.

Hope this helps.

Atacdad

concerning heating up quickly...I've noticed that leaving the controls on VENT results in more, hotter air than the traditional "on the floor" heat. I have one theory with two components. The floor setting seems to be restricted...I don't get as much air flow when directed to floor (as an aside, it gets alot noisier too...like the intake is the defrost area at the base of the windshield). Secondly, the floor setting turns on the air conditioner as well (Dry the air)...which probably results in a colder base air charge that the heater core is trying to warm or vice versa....same result...air is not as hot.

RotaMotion

This is my major SoapBox issue with this car. Otherwise, I love it.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/when-c-compressor-running-47152/

This is just so stupid. I don't want to drag down my MPG when I turn on the Heater.

BTW, I used to have a Ford that did the same thing. In the owners manual it stated that the AC, theoretically, wouldn't turn on once it was really cold out (not an exact quote.)

Maybe we should get a poll going on where this rates on the Annoy-o-Meter for others. For me it's a 10.

RotorGeek

My seat heater has always been shity, but since we got some cooler weather i can tell you the heated seats are really working. When it was 80-88 degrees in the morning the seats could be barely felt. Now that it is 55-70 degrees it is now cycleing on and off and is alot hotter. I think it is controlled by the outside temp guage.

Omicron

Interesting possibility... although there is no indication of that in the wiring diagram. I think it's more possible that you just wouldn't feel the seat heaters if it's that warm out, plus the in-seat heater can sense the higher ambient temp too.

rx8cited

No indication of that in the wiring diagram? As I said before (and it's in the Factory Service Manual), the seat warmer sensor will not turn on the seat warmer unless the seat warmer sensor temp is less than 82 deg F. If the ambient temperature is 80-88 degrees F, I can imagine the seat warmer sensor temp getting up to 82 deg F really quickly if the car is sitting in the sun. In that case you won't feel any additional heat when you turn on the seat warmer since it's not going to energize the heating element.

Hellbreed

Omicron, I'm going to have to agree with you and you should stand by it regardless of what the manual or diagrams show. My experience has been that the seat warmers has varying heat depending on the Temp control, Fan control and the Ambient temperature which I believe to be the biggest contributor.

My car gets fairly toasty and I rarely go over the second setting on the fan control but when I change it from position 1 to 2 my seat does get warmer within a couple of mins. ALso, a couple of weeks ago it was -24 C (-11 F) ambient temperature in the car and my *** was HOT! I had not felt that kind of heat from the seats since the cold weather started. Now that the temps are back to 0 C (32F) the seats are warm in the morning.

Sorry RX8cited, my *** disagrees with you on this one. Unless there is something different in the Canadian version there is something in the 3 controls that contribute to the heated seats.