Seat heaters do not work - help!

carbuff

carbuff

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Aug 14, 2014
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2020 C8 HTC
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Edit - seat heaters now work, but barely get warm....

Anyone with a C7 in the Vancouver or lower mainland surrounding area? Need your help please.

My dealer tells me my non-functioning seat heaters work fine. I say they do not work at all. Seats feel stone cold.
Dealer says seat heaters never get seats "warm" like on other cars, but that is normal on the C7.

I say the only warmth the seat gets is from the heat transfer FROM my body sitting on it, not from seat heater.
Empty passenger seat feels cold after 30 minutes with seat heater on.

Do your seats get warm? Hot? Could I come over and measure the seat temperature on your car with an infrared remote thermometer gun (measures temperature of seat surface).

I need some ammo proof before I take the car back for repair to another dealer.
 
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Unfortunately I am in Ontario. However, my seats just get warm. I like the fact that they are not so ridiculously hot like my other vehicles and assumed that was by design as the car is not a winter car.

It takes a bit for them to warm up but it is comfortable enough that when turned on, you can leave them on.

Let us know how you make out.
 
Yes, they do take longer to warm up (than in my 2012 Camaro).
Yes, they don't get anywhere near as warm.... BUT...

They DO work.

You can check mine out if you want.
 
You can check your manual but I'm pretty sure that the heaters won't activate unless someone is actually sitting in the seat. They probably activate with the air bag systems to keep from burning out the element. Try sitting on the seat and see what happens.
Rob
 
Just a thought but if you can borrow or buy an infrared heat meter you will quickly have an answer as to whether they heat or not. I think you can buy them pretty inexpensively but a lot of people who heat with wood use them, maybe you know someone who does.

Lots of other uses for the meter if you do buy one. I think Princess Auto sells them.

Good luck.
 
My C6 you can cook a steak in 10 minutes .They probably re configured the C7's because In my opinion the C6 was set a little high .

If you sit in the seat and ya don't feel any seat warmth after 2 minutes your dealer is wrong .
 
The manual does NOT say anything about having to have a person sitting on the seat.
But it does say the ignition must be on for them to work.
You could also check the fuses... for the driver seat it is fuse 11; passenger is fuse 19.
 
The seat heating eliment is not activated by a passenger sitting on it. Its active of you activate it in the instrument panel.

If you have an Automatic transmission C7 then it should heat up the seats as well when you use the remote starter as long as you selected the correct setting in your Intellilink setting.

Best of luck and let us know if you are able to figure it out.
 
LOL nascar03! Yeah, maybe you had to pay extra to have it activated.

Thanks everyone for the imput.

Found another 2015 that I will test out with the infrared thermometer gun (found one of those) this weekend. Will report back on my findings.

Problem will be, if the seat needs the weight of a body to turn on the heaters. If so, one can not tell if the body is heating up the seat, or vice versa. Would throw the temperature meter readings off. Can anyone confirm if indeed you need weight on a seat to make it heat up? My dealer says this is possible, but not sure.


Thanks ntmd8r, may take you up on your offer, depending on what I find out this weekend on the other 2015.

It is definitely weird. Many Owners on other C7 forums report the same problem as mine. For others, the seats heat just fine. Weird problem.
 
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ojamali said:
The seat heating eliment is not activated by a passenger sitting on it. Its active of you activate it in the instrument panel.

If you have an Automatic transmission C7 then it should heat up the seats as well when you use the remote starter as long as you selected the correct setting in your Intellilink setting.

Best of luck and let us know if you are able to figure it out.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the confirmation that weight is NOT required on the seat for it to heat up. On the C7 that you sell, do you notice real heat from the seat heaters? Does every car you sold heat up noticeably? Or is there a huge variability between different cars? I am wondering if we got a dud heater....
Heat that you can tell is coming off the heater for sure, instead off a person's body?

My dealer is telling me the seats do not " actually heat up, they only take the cold edge off" and that heat "is not noticeable" because "the seat heater is just a fan blowing warm air underneath the seat, and not an electrical grid heater like on older Corvette models".
 
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No seat heaters that I"ve had (so far) have required a person on the seat to activate, and all heaters, whether strong or weak, have given off enough heat to be noticeable by touch.

C.
 
@carbuff:

I havent actually tested heated seats to that extent in various C7's as we dont drive them around usually. My last trip was in late October to gas it up before delivery and I vaguely remember using the heated seats. As far as I can remember they heated up pretty quickly.

As for what your dealer is telling you that there is a fan blowing hot air I think thats just BS. Heated seats have heating elements in your seats which will activate when you initiate the heated seat button or if you have programmed your vehicle to heat up the seats when on remote start (Climate and Comfort settings in IntelliLink) and outside temperature is cold. The cooled seats function with a fan that blows air through the leather seats.

According to the owners manual if you do not feel it getting warm or feel it getting too hot then you should have it inspected due to possible risk of burns etc.

Best of luck!

Seats and Restraints -- Section 3-7

Heated and Ventilated Front Seats

Warning

If you cannot feel temperature change or pain to the skin, the seat heater may cause burns.

To reduce the risk of burns, people with such a condition should use
care when using the seat heater, especially for long periods of time. Do not place anything on the seat that insulates against heat, such as a blanket, cushion, cover, or similar item.

This may cause the seat heater to overheat. An overheated seat heater may cause a burn or may damage the seat.

A ventilated seat has a fan that pulls or pushes air through the seat. The air is not cooled.
 
Can't speak for the C7, but any GM vehicle I had someone had to be sitting in the seat and seat belt done up. Ignition on and running, I couldn't program them to come on with remote start either, which is too bad.
 
So today, for the first time in 1500 km, I noticed the driver and passenger seat get luke warm, with a passenger in the car. So it appears that:

1) the seat heaters actually turned on for the first time (great news) and
2) the passenger seat does need a passenger in it. Go figure.81wayne makes an interesting observation.
. But in the c6, I would turn on the passenger side when picking up takeout food, to keep it warm for the drive home. Worked great! No seatbelt.

Just picked up a IR temperature gun, and will be doing some tests 2morrow....
 
I can now confirm that NO weight or seatbelt required to run seat heaters.

IR temperature gun shows parts of seat cushion and back get luke warm. Not very wam, but at least a few degrees warmer than stone cold.

Most anemic seat heaters ever!

As a sidenote, where is the block heater cord on these cars? The C6 was under the hood next to the master cylinder. I can't find it on the C7.
 
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