Trouble Shooting Heated Seats?

[leftovers]

I swapped in a set of B7 Recaros about a year and a half ago. The rear seats and front passenger work, but mine does not. I'm tired of mine not working, so I'm trying to figure out if the seat is the issue or the controller. My heated seats did work before the swap, which makes me think the seat is the issue. Also, there is some wear in the seat bottom, where I believe the previous owner kept his wallet. I'm wondering if that broke the element.

I found this information from Axis in a previous post:
"B6 S4 upper element 8E0 963 557 P, lower 8E0 963 555 AJ or B depending on what year your seats are from. ....when you put a multi meter on the heating element harness each element should read 5ohms if good...."

Yesterday I pulled the seat and measure the resistance values. There are four wires in the green plug. I measured every combination I could. There are two bigger spades and two smaller spades.

I measured 1.08 kohms between the two smaller spades:



I then measured .1 ohms between the two larger spades:



All other combinations yielded no resistance values. I haven't measured anything on the car side yet. I can, but I'm not sure what to check for. I'm assuming I should be able to measure 12v in the green plug on the floor between one large spade and one small spade.

Any thoughts?

[907DAVE]

Do you have access to a Vag-Com? You need to access the seats and check the temp sensor for proper operation, the heaters will not work unless they are reading correctly.

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[leftovers]

I do have access to my own vag-com. I can check it out later this week. Do you know where I go for that?

[907DAVE]

Get into the climate control and check for codes, next scroll through the advanced measuring to view the seat PID's.

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[Charles.waite]

Vagcom will show you values for the heated seats you just have to scroll through the measuring blocks in the HVAC module and find the right ones. There should be a temp sensor reading (should be roughly ambient temp when the seats are off) and there is a reading for the heated seat selector roller thingy on the HVAC panel showing the roller state and a corresponding temperature request.

As far as checking the wiring for the seats that's trickier and I'm not sure where to proceed really.

[leftovers]

So, it looks like I have one error:

01172 - Temperature Sensor; Driver's Heated Seat (G59)
29-10 - Short to Ground -Intermittent

[907DAVE]

Need to get a new heating element as the sensor is non serviceable.

When changing it be sure to have a heat gun handy to release the adhesive that holds it in place.

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[Charles.waite]

Short to ground doesn't necessarily mean the sensor is shot. It could be a snagged/torn wire past the main harness on the seat.

[907DAVE]

It could be. From my experience they typically loose resistance when the sensor fails - and the computer will interpret that as short.

OP, I don't have the sensor specs on hand but you can always compare meter readings with the functional seat before disassembly to verify the issue is in fact the seat side of the circuit.

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[leftovers]

Is there anyway to know if it is the lower element or the upper element? I'm assuming the lower.

Any chance this one would work?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111133825111...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The part number is 8E0-963-555-A compared to the 8E0 963 555 AJ or B that mine should have. It would just be nice to spend $50 on ebay rather than $300 on ECS.

[Charles.waite]

It could be. From my experience they typically loose resistance when the sensor fails - and the computer will interpret that as short.

OP, I don't have the sensor specs on hand but you can always compare meter readings with the functional seat before disassembly to verify the issue is in fact the seat side of the circuit.

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My thought is a sensor failure is normally open circuit but short to ground could be it too.

[Charles.waite]

Is there anyway to know if it is the lower element or the upper element? I'm assuming the lower.

Any chance this one would work?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111133825111...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The part number is 8E0-963-555-A compared to the 8E0 963 555 AJ or B that mine should have. It would just be nice to spend $50 on ebay rather than $300 on ECS.

You can probe the pins on the harnesses internal to the seat. Shouldn't be hard to isolate which element it is.

Btw the sensor isn't the same component as the element right?

[Axis]

If I'm not mistaking 8E0-963-555-A is the part number for the Euro sport seat, you might be lucky and they will fit the bottom of your Recaro.

They're made for seat with the leg extension.

[907DAVE]

The lower element has the sensor built into it. Best way to know for sure what to get as a replacement is to pull the seat cover and grab the part number off of it. Good time to get a visual on the wires too.

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