Seat Heater burn

[alan]

I have an 06 X5 3.0. It is cold in Florida!! Turned the seat heater on, and soon thereafter, noticed a real pain in my butt! The left bolster of the driver seat bottom started smoking and was too hot to sit on! Turned the seat heater off and then noticed the foam core of the seat had hardened and shrunk and there was a scar on the leather.

Called the dealership. It is 5 months out of warranty, and I figured I would have a fight on my hands for the $1400 repair. I took the car in, told them the story, and offered to show them my butt. (They declined). I had already searched the NTSB website for recalls and complaints. There was a 2004 5- series recall for seat heaters burning up, and several complaints about 06 X5s. I pointed this out to the service manager, and he was incredibly gracious. He said they would cover it for free as long as I didn't show my ass ;-O. Yay BMW (for a change).