blue flash

a'm i the only one who complains about the heated seats as soon as you back&as/ get warm the damn thing shut off .i know it a safety feature but give me a break .i've had my 8for 3months now and that's the only real bitch i have about it

Omicron

The seat heaters are tied into the heating controls, specifically the temperature setting dial. Have you tried it turned all the way to hot? This did the trick for me...

blue flash

tried everything even ask the dealer he said the mazda 6's do the same thing it's a safety feature so it does'nt damage the leather

G8rboy

Are you sure? It was my understanding that they had their own thermostat that measured cabin temperature... which is why they work good when it's below freezing, but barely work when it's above 40 or so. My heater dial was pegged at hot all winter long, and the seat heaters still varied quite a bit based on cabin/ambient temperature.

mmmdowning

No problems here. Not sure how they are wired but, its been fine with me.

Nubo

Try a search. I know this topic has been discussed several times. I don't know if any solutions have been proposed though.

rx8cited

Omincron,
Time to squash this rumor. I see no evidence in the seat warmer wiring diagram of the seat warmers being controlled by or even being connected to the climate control temperature dial.

Each of the front seats has has it's own thermostat (located in the seat at butt sensing position ) which is supposed to close the heat warmer circuit (assuming the seat warmer switch is on and the car is on) when my rear is less than 82 deg F and open the circut when it's more than 99 deg F.

You should be able to have warm buns and cold air coming out of the vents at the same time if you want :D. I've verified that my seat warms up even with the climate control temperature dial set to cold and the fan is in the off position.

rx8cited

Omicron

Ok, if you say so. But I do know that my bun warmers seemed to cycle till I set the temp dial all the way to hot. Since it worked for me, it's not a rumor in my eyes... er, buns. :D

rx8cited

Okay - here's a theory that explains what you're buns are observing above:D.

Intially the car is cold, including the guts of the seat where seat warmer thermostat is.

We turn on the seat warmer, it puts out heat, the seat warmer thermostat gets hot and cuts off, but the core of the seats are still cold and air in the car is still cold, so in no time the seat warmer themostat gets cold again, seat warmer turns back on, .......... the cycling you observed.

Now if you turn up the climate control to put out mucho hot air, the cabin gets cooking faster, and eventually the guts of the seats get warm from the hot cabin air and the seat warmer - so the seat warmer cycles a lot less frequently as the cabin warms up compared to if the heat is not cranked up high.

Now if you tell me you had the dial up all the way to hot, but you had the fan off and no hot air was coming out of the vents - my theory won't hold.

rx8cited

G8rboy

I had seen that in the wiring diagram as well. Looking into it more, I found the section in the workshop manual that discussed troubleshooting the seat warmers (Page 09-13-9). The test for the heaters' thermostat (one in each seat) is to use a hair dryer to warm up the thermostat and monitor the continuity between the two wires.

I'd be interested in finding out if the thermostats can be safely replaced with ones with slightly higher temp thresholds... I think you could safely go quite a bit above 99F without risk of damaging the leather or risking fire.

2001F4S

My manual recommends a large mexican meal rather than the use of a hair dryer.

G8rboy

Yet another reason 99F is far too low

md_guy

I thought I noticed the same thing, but I wasn't sure whether it was a coincidence. I just noticed it a few weeks ago, and then it started warming up around here so I haven't had much opportunity to experiment lately.