JMD RX-8

Now that winter has arrived I like to start the car in the morning and let it run for 5 minutes. I turn on the seat heater hoping that when I come back out I'll have a nice warm seat to sit in. Unfortunately, the seat is stone cold until I sit in it, and then the seat heater seems to magically turn on and get warm in a minute or two.

Is there some device that only lets the seat heater work if there's someone sitting in the seat? Is there a way to bypass it?

guy321

Oh, god forbid your *** be cold for a minute!!

Heh


I don't know.. why don't you try leaving a booksack or something like that in the seat to provide some weight?

StewC625

If the heaters are like the ones in my Acura, there isn't actually a weight sensor in the seat that turns the heater on, but instead, it's the weight of your *** on the seat, putting the leather into contact with the heating pad that "turns it on."

In other words, without a load in the seat, compressing the seat layers together and encouraging heat transfer, the heat pad just sits there and warms, but doesn't really transfer much heat. When you sit down, the cold leather contacts the heater, warms, and then transfers the heat to your butt.

I'm guessing these work in the same way - turning them on in advance does make it warm much more quickly, but it won't feel warm to the touch unless you sit in it.

truemagellen

you probably already did this but you need to put the temperature dial on heat before the Butt warmers start heating up

as for the 'weighted needed' theory...it sounds ver very plausable...someone who has pulled apart a seat will be able to see how things setup
I'll test this later and give you a report

salituro64

What temperature dial? There is only a switch for the seat heaters.

truemagellen

the temp dial for the Thermostat

in otherwords your heated seats shouldn't come on if your AC is blasting in the summer and you nocked the switch on :p

azben

my driver side heater works a lot better than the passenger one, anyone else experience this

RX-GR8

tell your wife or girlfriend to sit in the seat while your're waiting.

RX-GR8

neither of mine work very well.

AKS4

Then once its warmed up you can literally tell her she has a hot...... :p


Yeah, I noticed my Audi does the same thing, it was blistering cold the other day, so I let it warm up/defrost windows and set the heaters on. seat was cold still after 1o minutes of thawing/scraping. the weighted theory seems to be plausible. also why sometimes the heat is warmer in certain spots (i.e. where the seat construction is contacting the heater)

RX-GR8

maybe thats why me seats don't get warm enough. i don't weigh enough. :o

8's enough

mine are warm when i get in after warming up the car.

RX-GR8

there goes that theory! :D

StewC625

coupla good bean burritos from Taco Bell, and my seats get plenty warm.

merlin00gt

Something to think about... the Mazda 3 has a weight sensor for the passenger seat. It's for airbag deployment. The theory is that if you have a carseat in the front seat, and it weighs under ~60lbs, the airbag will not deploy. At least that's what I read in the manual. I don't know if this transfers to the 8, or even the drivers seat. : /

NomisR

That's just for passenger seat though, I doubt they'll do the same thing for the drivers seat for air bag deployment since you're suppoes to have a driver in the car at all times when the car is moving. If you don't, you're in big trouble. :D

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

No sensors, no magic. The seat warmer is just a cheap electric blanket with a switch and a thermister that keeps the thing from burning up.
Schematic:

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

Diagnostics:

93rdcurrent

Or getting warm for about 15 min. in my case. Neither of my seat warmers work very well and their performance seems intermitten. In other words sometimes they seem to work better than others. I am always jealous of my wife's 325xi which has 3 settings for the seat warmers and they heat up in about 45 seconds! Mazda are you reading this?

Tayninh

Mazda is not reading this. They busy in their rooms counting all their yen.

Ninja

I don't see a controlling signal from the A/C Temp guage... I think that means it doesn't exist.

I also don't see the thermister in the wiring diagram so I guess it must be integrated with the seat warmer unit. Bummer because while my seats get pretty toasty they also cool down a bit too much before starting to heat again when on for a while. I wouldn't mind having some kind of temp adjustment on them.

93rdcurrent

I have an appt. on Monday at the dealer to deal with the heated seats (or lack there of) and the rear-defrost button which self-destructed a while back in the cold. No I didn't push the button too hard.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

Only in our hopes and dreams. :p

Look at the second page of the diagnostic. It shows the location of the thermistor.

G8rboy

It would be nice if they worked that way, but they don't.

8's enough

i took mine to the dealership and complained that they didnot work probally [intermitting]they tested mine and said it was working right . when it gets to a certain degree it will shut down and cool off the staart all over to protect the leather.