2000 Suburban seat heater
chevychev
12-12-2011, 10:46 PM
The specifics: This post is for a 2000 Chevy Suburban LT with leather heated seats. This isn't a reach out for help - it's one to help you with a similar problem since I just solved it.
The problem. A couple of years ago the drivers side heated seat stopped working - well kind of. The back part still worked (which we didn't even know we had until the seat-part stopped). I figured it was some kind of "open circuit" situation because the light for the seat heater still came on and the back portion still worked. I considered this problem a "nice to have" but living in Minnesota in the winter nice to have's make a big difference.
I didn't know how the design worked exactly but figured it was similar to other resistive wire applications where you apply voltage across a resistive load and size the load for the temperature you want to attain.
Tackling the problem: If your problem is anything other than what I have described this is probably not the post for you. The seat heater indicator still came on and the back of the seat still had heat, but the actual seat did not. Unlike earlier versions chevy stepped up their design on the seat covers. Removing the covers was intially my biggest concern but looking through other posts and seeing how it was put together those concerns were put to rest. If you have powered seats you will have to remove the 4 screws and remove the 2 electrical connectors to the controls - this was slightly difficult as there is very little service loop on the wiring harnesses. On the seat cover there were no rings to deal with just a plastic strip along the bottom of the seat cover. You simply unroll the strip a half turn and the seat cover can be pulled up to expose the seat.
There are orange strips that attach to velcro on the seat nesled under the seat foam that are used to keep the seat cover in place - just pull those up to lift the cover up on the seat. On my vehicle there was a red web that was supposed to help secure the white pad containing the seat heater element in place on the seat. Very nice design but with 194,000+ miles the cyclic load on the seat had caused the adhesive to fatigue and the element had shifted left and forward enough to disconnect 3 of the 4 wires that are used to apply voltage across the element. On my vehicle the three wires were connected to their destination with a band and soldered - again nice design but shift happens.
I wasn't entirely sure which wires went to where so I pulled up the seat cover on the passenger side for comparison. On the passenger side I had to remove some trim which entailed taking 4 screws out (don't foget the one in back you have to enter the rear passenger door to get to - there's also a hidden on at the top rear of the powered seat controls). The same 4 colored wires were evident on the passenger side:
1 yellow which was connected to 4 bare wires I presume supplied voltage to the array of elements.
2 black with red stripe wires that connect to different points in the array
1 black wire which I assumed was ground.
I appologize that I did not ohm out any of the array so don't ask.
Confident in what needed to be done now I went to work with a wire strippers, soldering iron and heat shrink. I opted to use logic and chose to connect the shorter black/red wire to the closest small gauge black wire in the element and the second to the next closest point. I say they are small gauge because my home wire stippers go down to 20 gauge and still weren't small enough. Likely they are 24 or 26 gauge. The yellow wire connects to 4 different wires that have been stripped and twisted together. Don't forget to put the heat shrink on before you solder the wires! After soldering came the test - everything worked just as I wanted so I started securing the element back in place. I used some 3M fast-tack trim adhesive because I had it handy and felt it would do the job. I only glued the edges and once it was back in place I put the seat covers back on and put the trim back on the passenger side.
All in all not a bad hour and a half's work. It would have been less if I had found a post such as this one. Hope it helps.
The problem. A couple of years ago the drivers side heated seat stopped working - well kind of. The back part still worked (which we didn't even know we had until the seat-part stopped). I figured it was some kind of "open circuit" situation because the light for the seat heater still came on and the back portion still worked. I considered this problem a "nice to have" but living in Minnesota in the winter nice to have's make a big difference.
I didn't know how the design worked exactly but figured it was similar to other resistive wire applications where you apply voltage across a resistive load and size the load for the temperature you want to attain.
Tackling the problem: If your problem is anything other than what I have described this is probably not the post for you. The seat heater indicator still came on and the back of the seat still had heat, but the actual seat did not. Unlike earlier versions chevy stepped up their design on the seat covers. Removing the covers was intially my biggest concern but looking through other posts and seeing how it was put together those concerns were put to rest. If you have powered seats you will have to remove the 4 screws and remove the 2 electrical connectors to the controls - this was slightly difficult as there is very little service loop on the wiring harnesses. On the seat cover there were no rings to deal with just a plastic strip along the bottom of the seat cover. You simply unroll the strip a half turn and the seat cover can be pulled up to expose the seat.
There are orange strips that attach to velcro on the seat nesled under the seat foam that are used to keep the seat cover in place - just pull those up to lift the cover up on the seat. On my vehicle there was a red web that was supposed to help secure the white pad containing the seat heater element in place on the seat. Very nice design but with 194,000+ miles the cyclic load on the seat had caused the adhesive to fatigue and the element had shifted left and forward enough to disconnect 3 of the 4 wires that are used to apply voltage across the element. On my vehicle the three wires were connected to their destination with a band and soldered - again nice design but shift happens.
I wasn't entirely sure which wires went to where so I pulled up the seat cover on the passenger side for comparison. On the passenger side I had to remove some trim which entailed taking 4 screws out (don't foget the one in back you have to enter the rear passenger door to get to - there's also a hidden on at the top rear of the powered seat controls). The same 4 colored wires were evident on the passenger side:
1 yellow which was connected to 4 bare wires I presume supplied voltage to the array of elements.
2 black with red stripe wires that connect to different points in the array
1 black wire which I assumed was ground.
I appologize that I did not ohm out any of the array so don't ask.
Confident in what needed to be done now I went to work with a wire strippers, soldering iron and heat shrink. I opted to use logic and chose to connect the shorter black/red wire to the closest small gauge black wire in the element and the second to the next closest point. I say they are small gauge because my home wire stippers go down to 20 gauge and still weren't small enough. Likely they are 24 or 26 gauge. The yellow wire connects to 4 different wires that have been stripped and twisted together. Don't forget to put the heat shrink on before you solder the wires! After soldering came the test - everything worked just as I wanted so I started securing the element back in place. I used some 3M fast-tack trim adhesive because I had it handy and felt it would do the job. I only glued the edges and once it was back in place I put the seat covers back on and put the trim back on the passenger side.
All in all not a bad hour and a half's work. It would have been less if I had found a post such as this one. Hope it helps.
Legasus233
01-17-2012, 02:23 PM
The problem you describe is IDENTICAL to the problem I am having and I also live in MN! I pulled back the leather to find 3 loose wires, one yellow and two black with red! One black wire was still connected though (the one closest to the door is the best way I can describe it. I am so excited that this worked for you cause I didn't want to have to buy over $200 in replacement parts! Anyway, I think I can handle the soldering, etc, but my main question is, did you remove the heater pad and unplug the green wiring harness from the truck (located behind the seat) before working on this?
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