Just a thought here... could it be that you turning the heat to full-on high AND the seat heater activating full force are both results of the same causal factor... that being the low ambient temperature? Have you turned the heat on full on days when the weather was warmer, just to see if it made the seat feel hot? Have you kept the heat setting low on cold days, just to see if the seats remain cool, or warm up just as much??

Btw, I'll be trying those things myself just to see if I can notice any correlation... but that's just out of my own curiosity now... I am satisfied with the operation of the seat heaters, but since this is a relatively easy thing to try, I gotta give it a go.

 

Great! More observations with attention paid to details can only help. While I do think external temperature is one input to the heaters, at this point I have personal "anecdotal" evidence that the heat dial setting seemed to have the effects you ask about in the situations described. However, my wishful thinking, response to hot air or cold air blowing, etc. may be coloring my opinions. Better tests might be to put the fan on zero first, then try the hot and cold positions on the temp dial to see how that changes seat performance. It's just my personal opinion again based on just my observations with no scientific method applied that multiple temp sensors appear to be in play: outside temp, seat surface temp, heater temp setting, etc. 'Course it could all just be me being way to optimistic and it's really just an intermittent seat heater.

 

Heated seats are fine for me in cold weather (< -10C). Around 5C they didn't seem quite as hot. I'm not a hot-*** specialist so I don't know why that is.

 

Haha!! Low 40's?

Around here, we get well below 0 on cold nights.

 

I hope you know that the thermo-sensor it is using is the same one on your dash that displays the OUTSIDE temp, not what is actually touching the seat...

 

Whoa! What a way to bump a NINE years old thread.

 

Colorado just got pounded for asking a beginner question in his first post, and was told to search and browse the site. Don't flame him for being a quick learner.

This was actually a very interesting rhread. Never saw it before because it was before my time. Resurrections can be good.

Ken

 

Yes, you are right, it is an interesting discussion.

 

It's alive again!!!

 

I'm happy with my heated seats. I kinda wish the car didn't have the option installed in it though. If I ever decided to change to racing seats I will have 2 useless switches. But nothing beats heated seats in the winter. So nice!

 

the shop manual says that there is a thermostat IN the seat. i had the bottom of my seat apart, and there is a 3rd wire on the circuit, so there is something besides the two heater elements, but i did not see the thermostat.

the wiring diagram doesn't show the thermostat, in the diagram power just is switched by the switch, and the heater is on

so there is some mystery there, but it does not look to be connected to the heater control, although the thermostat turns off @88F, which isn't that hot