Janobala
Active LVC Member
My driver seat seat warmer does not work on my 2000 LS, the button used to glow with a orange light, currently it glows green, passenger side still glows orange, does anyone know exactly what this is indicating?
Seat warmer green light.
- Thread starter Janobala
- Start date
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
https://www.google.ca/search?as_q=L...light.+site:http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/
The wire element in the seat bottom or seat back (or both) has broken.
The wire element in the seat bottom or seat back (or both) has broken.
1LoudLS
Dedicated LVC Member
Joe, do you know if there is just a simple 12v+ and ground wire under the seat that drives the original heater element? would you also know how exactly the switch knows that the element is broken, like is it measuring the resistance of the element or possibly monitoring the temperature?
my cousins 01 LS has a broken element, and I was thinking about just using an aftermarket carbon fiber heating element to replace it if it would work. I just put a set made by metra in the wifes 08 escape and they were very easy to work with and I like the ideal of them not having a wire heater element that can break so it doesn't happen again. my only concern with this is the LSs system, it obviously knows then if the wire is broken, so I don't know if the non OEM element would work or if something was different enough to make the controls think this pad is burnt out too.
my cousins 01 LS has a broken element, and I was thinking about just using an aftermarket carbon fiber heating element to replace it if it would work. I just put a set made by metra in the wifes 08 escape and they were very easy to work with and I like the ideal of them not having a wire heater element that can break so it doesn't happen again. my only concern with this is the LSs system, it obviously knows then if the wire is broken, so I don't know if the non OEM element would work or if something was different enough to make the controls think this pad is burnt out too.
Janobala
Active LVC Member
Okay that's what I was thinking, just worse case scenario it being the whole element... Was just seeing if maybe anyone knew about a common minor issue that could cause it such as a fuse or something. Is it hard to change do you know? Or should I consider replacing the whole seat?
FDR
Dedicated LVC Member
Interesting... my 02 just had two green-tinted lights in each button; one for button illumination and one for seat warmer indication, with a barrier in between.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
It should be just +12V and ground to the element. There is only a heating element in the seat back. The seat bottom has a heating element, and a temperature sensor. The connections for the temperature sensor are separate from the heating element. My assumption is that the electronics that drive the elements detect the current flow through the element and in your case they are detecting little to no current flow and that is why it is disabled. I don't know if the current flow in the replacement element you propose would be close enough to the expected values that the system would be happy with it.
1LoudLS
Dedicated LVC Member
great, thank you, that is exactly the kind of info I was looking for.
so far a couple of dealers around him told him either $300 or more to fix it or that they couldn't even get the part to be able to do the repair...
so it looks like for the price I can get these complete kits, I will be throwing a set of aftermarket elements on there (also cause I have to do the same thing to his wifes continental too). I think i will at least see if the OEM controls "like" being hooked up to the new elements first. do you think that if I meter both elements (of course from the working OEM side) that if their resistance was similar that the current COULD be with in an acceptable range? then again, I really have no ideal how the carbon fiber resistances change due to heat and if they are even close to similar to the metal coil.
I do see one difference right away from that diagram, the OEM elements are ran in series with each other vs the ones I installed being ran in parallel, so more that likely I'll probably just have to use the switches that come with the kit, I would just like to keep of original look (but then again, this is not you average good condition LS you usually find on a site like this...)
so far a couple of dealers around him told him either $300 or more to fix it or that they couldn't even get the part to be able to do the repair...
so it looks like for the price I can get these complete kits, I will be throwing a set of aftermarket elements on there (also cause I have to do the same thing to his wifes continental too). I think i will at least see if the OEM controls "like" being hooked up to the new elements first. do you think that if I meter both elements (of course from the working OEM side) that if their resistance was similar that the current COULD be with in an acceptable range? then again, I really have no ideal how the carbon fiber resistances change due to heat and if they are even close to similar to the metal coil.
I do see one difference right away from that diagram, the OEM elements are ran in series with each other vs the ones I installed being ran in parallel, so more that likely I'll probably just have to use the switches that come with the kit, I would just like to keep of original look (but then again, this is not you average good condition LS you usually find on a site like this...)
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
No, not very difficult. Here's the details on getting the seat cover off and back on: http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/forum/showthread.php?54278-Changing-your-seats-leather-How-To
I would imagine that any used replacement seat that you get will likely have the heating elements broken already.