Hello - newbie to this forum here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just picked up my '06 X5 3.0 w/80K miles from a BMW dealership in the area. The car was not CPO but did come with a 90-day powertrain warranty.

The problem I'm having is that there seems to be a short circuit or potential serious problem with the heated seat/steering wheel system. The other morning I was driving to work and before pulling out the driveway, turned the heated seats on to level II. Shortly after, I thought I'd put on the heated steering wheel with the outside temp below 30F. The green LED didn't light up. I thought nothing of it as I hadn't read the owner's manual yet so didn't want to play with it while driving.

About 3-4 minutes after turning on the heated seats, I started smelling something burning, almost like plastic burning. Then I saw smoke rising from the left side of the bottom seat cushion bolster. I turned off the heated seats and pulled over immediately. I found a burn mark about 1/8" in diameter in the seat. Feeling the seat cool down, I proceeded driving to work, not using the heated seats.

Later that evening on the way home, I turned on the heated seats to level II again to see if maybe this was a fluke. I didn't attempt to turn on the heated steering wheel. It worked fine all the way home!

This evening on the way home from work I turned on the heated seats, again to level II and attempted to turn on the heated steering wheel but to no avail as the LED didn't light on on the steering wheel. Within about the sme 3-4 minutes, I began smelling the burning smell again. I undid my seat belt while at a light and looked down and I could see an intermittent spark visible through the hole/burn mark that had developed a few days earlier.

My only conclusion is that something is definitely wrong and after reading the manual, there is nothing special about turning on the heated steering wheel as long as the key is in ignition position 2, or started. So i have to conclude that because the heated steering wheel is not coming on, it's shorting something out with the seats as well.

I have reported it to the NHTSA so far. I haven't contacted BMW NA yet or the dealer but I don't expect the dealer to do anything about it.

ANY IDEAS?