RichieB5

Problem: drivers seat heater not working. I could hear a relay click in the dash when switching the control on, but never any heat. From what I read, this meant a faulty seat heater. Fair enough.

I just installed some nice UrS4 seats in the car with supposedly working heaters, and same problem. Relay clicks, but no heat. I noticed when turning on the working passenger side heater, I can actually see the voltmeter drop ever so slightly at the same time the relay clicks, however there is no drop with the drivers side.

Now judging from the 4 connectors on the drivers seat, I was wondering if anyone knows off hand which pins/connector is the one for the seat heater in order for me to check continuity before checking anything else...

Any other recommendations? Thanks all!

4Driver4

In addition to the replacment process for the bottom seat element it has the process for checking the elements for continuity.<ul><li><a href="http://s-cars.org">s-cars.org</a></li></ul>

boxerfan

This job is more time consuming than hard .... I would suggest not buying a new pad,
because it is an easy fix and usually easy to find the break. What happens is there is a
partial break in the heat pad wiring ... the first step to knowing you have a problem is
where the partial brake becomes a hot spot ... you can feel it. The best way to going
about this repair is to take the seat out / four bolts ... and a couple of electrical fittings.
I have just re done the seats again as I has a couple hot spots and a relay failure.
Every thing is V good now ... I love it and the wife loves the seats too. I am now the
heated seat master ... :-)

Tips and Tricks

to check the heated seat relays ... very easy ( there are two )
- turn ignition on / turn everything off / you need it very quiet
- from the off position turn the drivers seat on .. as you are moving the switch you should
hear a click from the relay. Relay is near your left knee. ( now do the same for the pass
seat ) no heat take the seat out.

-take out and work on the pass seat first ... so you can still drive the car

- once the seat is out four bolts / 2 electrical connectors . Don't undo the electrical plugs
until all the bolts are out ... this way you can move the seats back and forth.

- turn the seat on its back ..find the electrical plug ( see Below for PLUG info ) that goes up into the rear of the seat. This wire will have six connections on the plug ... two are for the bum / 2 back heater. 2 are ?
do a continuity test .... if as you say you are not getting heat to the bum you shouldn't get continuity when you test. Think of continuity like a circle of wire without a break in it. If
you don't have a meter get one. Go to a radio shack .. if you don't know what I'm talking
about the guy will know. ( just in case your electrical knowledge is short )

-once you have determined the seat pad is not heating , do this ( most of the time 90% its
the bum pad that is broken )
- stand the seat up on your bench or kitchen table :-)
- go to the back of the seat ... there is a kick area that is black .. this slips into a channel,
pull it our of the channel to expose some of the back of the chair. On the L an R side of
the chair search for a wire ( not electrical ) This wire goes around the entire bottom of the
seat. ( it pulls in all the fabric and keeps the seat taunt. )

- now unscrew up/down/fore/aft switch panel for seat.
- look for a black cap the size of a quarter, pop that off ... behind it there is a big phillips
screw ... undo that ( there is one on the other side )
- there are now 2 or 4 black plugs that need to be pulled out around the bottom of the
seat
IMPORTANT in the center front bottom of the seat there is a shark tooth clip ( I just
invented that expression ) you need to bend this down so that you can get the wire lined
fabric loose.

- now that the fabric is loose along the bottom of seat .... start to pull the fabric from the
front towards the back. Now the fabric is lightly glued along the front of the foam pad ...
you will have to gently pull it off .... now the fun part , on my seats 87 5000CDqt there
were seat rods 4 going horizontally fore and aft and 4-6 going horizontally Left to right.
These Rods are in the seat fabric and the seat cushion it's self ... the two metal rods are
held together by wire clips ... these will need to be snipped.

/ = clips
+ = seat cushion

the rod below is sewn into the fabric
________________________Fabric______
___fabric rod________________________________________
_/___seat rod ______________/___________________/_____

+++++++ seat cushion +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


- Now you slowly cut / snip the clips away working from the front to the back.

- once this easy job is completed ..not / you should see the defective pad. If you can take
it off the seat it will be easier to work with. First inspect the pad ... if you see any area that
has a very small brown marks ... this is possibly where the wire has broken.

Seat element pad testing for continuity

note - take a sharp pen knife and very gently nick off the a small amount of black
insulation at position 2 of diagram below.

a) check continuity from 1 - 2 ( the continuity tester I have just beeps when there is
continuity ) If you get continuity move on to ( b )

b) check continuity from 1 - 3 good move on to ( c )

c) check 1-4 / no continuity /// so now you know the break is between
3 - 4 ... keep going using the same process above until you find the break

1 +_________________________________________________ __
__________________________________________________/
\_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________/ 2 (half way point
\__________________ 3 __________________________ of element )
(-) 5 ________________ 4 ____________ Break __________\


... again this happens 90% of the time to the *** heating element.

Now you have found the break
-Cut about half an inch of the broken wire out.
- clean up and solder together ...using as little solder as you can.
- tape with small amount of electrical tape
- now check from 1 - to 5 to see if you get continuity if you do then put seat back
together if not go back to ( C )

JUST BEFORE YOU PUT it all back together plug the pad into the other end of the
electrical plug that comes out of the floor ... check to see if you get a consistent heat.
What you are feeling for is HOT Spots ... if you get a HOT spot cut and repair.

when you get good at this /// like I have :-) you can do this with the seat in the car.


))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) IMPORTANT added info ***************

This is MY first write up ... it's good to read as it has some other testing info

tools needed
-soldering iron / solider
-exacto knife and small scissors
- needle nose and reg pliers
- phillips screw driver and a slot
- meter for continuity test.
- electrical tape

General info
the seat has to be moved first to the rear most position to get at the front bolts. Don't
forget to at this time to unplug the heated seat plug..shoud be attached to the base of the
seat.( this is
where you do your testing from ) and also the seat motors plug. The seats are bolted to
the floor on the front by two bolts .. the rear legs are on rails.
Now after the bolts are out move the seats forward by hand to expose the two rear rail
stoppers. The rear stopper that runs along the middle of the drive tunnel is long .( unscrew
using a
Phillips s driver ) Slid seat out of rail ...be careful not to lose the white or black rail inserts
that are attached to the seat feet, sometimes they fall off .... they stop rattling and help
movement
along the rail.
Once test are complete ( test can be done in the car, but repair is best done outside of car
)
Heater 1 seat, bum
Heater 2 back

Testing plug Heater 1 Seat and Heater 2 back
Plug is found under seat
looks like this

---(1) ** ---(2) --- (3)
---(4) ** ---(5) --- (6)

** space in plug between connectors

-to check the Heater Seat 1 (bum) check continuity between 2&amp; 6 ( yellow strip (black)
&amp; Blue strip (brown ) )
-to check the Back heater 2 check continuity between 1&amp;4 brown/blue &amp; brown.
- 5&amp;3 is for the temp button in the seat ( temp sensor )

Heater 1 seat

- take cover off of seat controls , up , down, sideways etc
- pop hinge covers of L &amp; R
- unscrew hinge screws L&amp;R ( you need to do this so that you can get the fabric up off the
seat )
- now go to the back of the seat ... you will notice a skid plate fabric at the bottom of the
seat ( black ) this sort of connects to the fabric of your seat ( leather, gray fabric etc )
Both of
these fabric are shoved into a small channel to hold the upper and lower .... pull this apart.
- now at the L &amp; R near the hinges .. there is a wire that runs along the base seat inside the
fabric of the seat .... loosen off both sides .... looks like common bailing wire.
- start from one side of the seat and work your way around the base. What you are
looking for is clips and plugs than hold the skirt of the seat down. Be careful as there are a
couple
metal clips that you could miss. undo all these.
- now pull the fabric up over the hinges , front and sides.
-NOTE fabric is attached to small straight wire rods. These coat hanger size rods or
wires go horizontally in both Longitude and latitude directions.

this is what it looks like

note there are two rods that hold the seat fabric to the cushion.

top of seat
-----------------------------------------------
fabric is attached to rod below
L .................................................. ................. Right

L................................................. ....................right

the Rod above is kind of attached to the cushion
the two rods are held together with small circular clips
This system of little rods goes along the pleat lines of the seat.
-Okay now start and peel the front of the seat back and you will come to your first Rod
this will be held by about four circular clips. Take the pliers or needle nose and you have
to twist
them off.
-Once you have finished the first lateral rod you will have to work on the longitudinal
rods.
-now that you have the fabric off the seat you will see the white pad that the little wires go
though..... before you start cutting away at things look for a small brown stain ( burn
marks )
that is where the brake is usually, not always.
-attach your meter at rear of the seat you will see two wire attach your meter to one of the
wires ... that is the circuit of the heating element. Work your way up this wire until you
have no
beep ... ( using the little metal probe to genitally break the surface of the wire ) look for the
break in this area ,, most of the time it is a fold where one of the rods has been.
-Fix with a small amount of soldier . Too much solder is bad = it creates a higher
resistance and thus More HEAT to that area. Trust me my wife's *** can attest to that !!!
Now the fun part take all those nice little wire clips and straighten them out and make them
round with a gap so you can get them over the rods ... the first couple are a real bitch but
you
will get the hang of it. Work from the back to the front.
This job can be about a three to five hour job ( for your first seat )
just do the revers to put the seat back together.
To do the BACK same sort of procedure as seat.....

Cheers to David.

5000CDQturbo

&lt;long&gt; and boring ... but it should help :-) Dave

RichieB5

Ok, well I just repaired my drivers side 200 seat in about 1 hour, now I just read the s-cars.org write up on how to do the fix on the S4 seats and I've officially decided I don't want to muck up my S4 seats so cold bum it is!

Thanks for the help guys!!!

Mister Bally

I had to repair my driver's seat on my '87 5000CS Q five times during it 278,000 mile, 18 year life with me. It failed once under warranty so the dealer replaced one element and gave me the bad one.



I quickly found the hot spot and break. For my first problem, I replace the bad element with the old, bad, now repaired, element. I usually repaired the break with "wire wrap" wire which is about 30ga. I used this wire to extend and move the problem area. I suspect that most of the problems were caused by the thousand of entry and exits into the seat. I weigh 175# so I am not the biggest strain on Audi seats. Every subsequent break was somewhere else in the pad.



Great, detailed procedure you have written.