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covetsthesun's avatar
covetsthesun
Explorer
Jul 21, 2020

Mechanical Mystery...

2004 Chevy Silverado EC 1500 5.3L LT3 over 350kmiles. Passenger heated seat started getting wonky about a year ago. Local dealer thought it was the seating elements going out...so we replaced them a month ago. Still acting wonky...but hard to track down the problem.

Wonk Factor: Heat will work fine for an hour...and then quit. Hit the button to restart and maybe it works for another 15 minutes. Hit it again and the light flashes and goes right back off. This will happen several times untill I get tired of pushing buttons.

Took it back to the dealer and they "can't reproduce the issue". It worked fine all day yesterday. Today...back to full wonk mode. But. Learned something new. IF no one is sitting in the seat...it will work perfectly and stay on. It appears to only malfunction if someone is sitting in the seat. :h

Dealer wonders if it's a grounding issue...maybe it thinks it's shorting out and quits..but maybe it's grounding out instead.

To be fair...this truck has been known to exhibit some passive aggressive tendencies at times. I'm "Driver 1" and it will forget my settings. It never forgets DH's "Driver 2" settings...and has been known to toss some of D2 info onto D1. His country stations kick my classical to the curb.

It's a puzzle. Anyone ever see this before? The seats..DH is probably messing with my settings!;)

CTS
Tow Vehicles

30 Replies

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  • DownTheAvenue's avatar
    DownTheAvenue
    Explorer
    Jul 22, 2020
    Erratic electrical problems are almost always associated with a ground issue or electronic control boards.
  • covetsthesun's avatar
    covetsthesun
    Explorer
    Jul 22, 2020
    It's 68 degrees this morning here... and a seat warmer feels good on old bones. I've used the heated seats nearly year round...except on 90 degree days. The truck battery was replaced around 18 months ago. The passenger seat elements had been playing games for a year before being replaced a month ago. The new ones are doing the same thing, so it shouldn't be the problem. I'm going to have mech check pull the switch and look for corrosion. The dealer is concerned with a ground wire problem.

    Any other ideas I can give them? cts
  • covetsthesun's avatar
    covetsthesun
    Explorer
    Jul 22, 2020
    LIKE2BUILD wrote:
    It's the heated seat controller in the door panel just above the window controls. I had very similar erratic behavior in my wife's 2003 Yukon XL. The problem is the plastic joints aren't fully sealed and moisture gets past the seal on the window and drips onto the unit. Over time water gets in and corrodes the solder joints causing odd short circuits.

    Get a new seat controller (About $200) and before you install it, use 100% and cover all the joints in the body of the module.

    KJ


    We were wondering about the switch... the odd thing is that it seems to work if no one is sitting in the seat! We just discovered that yesterday. Of course...that could be just one more weird thing.

    I'll run this by our mechanic though...thank you! cts
  • Grit_dog's avatar
    Grit_dog
    Navigator II
    Jul 22, 2020
    2003silverado wrote:
    Maybe the seat warmers know its july in Missouri and they shouldnt be working that much?


    Bingo, or 350k miles = I wouldn’t spend $ to fix any minor Ancillary electrical accessory issue.
    Bet you’d have to give the AC a real workout to test a seat heater for an hour in the summer.
  • dodge_guy's avatar
    dodge_guy
    Explorer II
    Jul 22, 2020
    I'm not familiar with GM's, but when the lseats work and then stop working, no lights. Then it's usually the seat bottom element. If they did change them then it shouldn't be an issue. As someone mentioned, maybe you have a loose connection in the door module and it creating resistance and then shutting off.
  • 2003silverado's avatar
    2003silverado
    Explorer II
    Jul 22, 2020
    Maybe the seat warmers know its july in Missouri and they shouldnt be working that much?
  • Lynnmor's avatar
    Lynnmor
    Explorer
    Jul 21, 2020
    My Malibu seats started to get a mind of their own, replacing the old battery restored its common sense. A quick dip in voltage gives these systems a brain freeze.
  • LIKE2BUILD's avatar
    LIKE2BUILD
    Explorer
    Jul 21, 2020
    It's the heated seat controller in the door panel just above the window controls. I had very similar erratic behavior in my wife's 2003 Yukon XL. The problem is the plastic joints aren't fully sealed and moisture gets past the seal on the window and drips onto the unit. Over time water gets in and corrodes the solder joints causing odd short circuits.

    Get a new seat controller (About $200) and before you install it, use 100% and cover all the joints in the body of the module.

    KJ
  • covetsthesun's avatar
    covetsthesun
    Explorer
    Jul 21, 2020
    JRscooby wrote:
    My first thought is way too many FREDs


    Ok...I'll bite. FREDs????

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