Seat Heater burn

alan · #1 01-12-2010, 08:08 AM

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).

David Carr · #2 01-12-2010, 05:59 PM

I had the same problem just this morning. Got in, turned the seat on and several minutes later I smelled smoke. I actually have a small hole in the leather now. The car is fortunately under warranty and its going next monday. I hope it doesn't happen again! The good thing is that I'll have a new seat (or at least half of one).

prgsxr · #3 01-12-2010, 06:57 PM

i bet he offered to fix it , If someone does actually get seriously injured burnt from this they will be liable car out of warranty or not ,they know it's an issue and I am really surprised they haven't done a recall on these .
You guys are lucky you didn't leave the car warmimg up by itself for too long or it could be burned out

faz · #4 01-12-2010, 07:09 PM

There are other reported cases on this site as well.

Post a picture of your seat and your butt here.

(no, just kidding, just the seat will do!

)

mrBrigante · #5 01-12-2010, 08:11 PM

lol wow i turn my seat on all the time so no im to say a little paranoid guess we will have to wait and see

JCAPX5 · #6 01-12-2010, 09:18 PM

I also had this issue on our first X5, a 2001 3.0. it was replaced of course under warranty as I was still under New Car Waaranty.

Good luck with yours and it seems that they are taking care of you.

We should all post when we've got positive results from a particular dealer/Service Adviser!

grimps42 · #7 01-13-2010, 09:53 AM

I have encountered the same problem on my 05 BMW X5 whereby the heated seat coil has burnt through the seat causing a small hole in the leather, the location of this, is at the back of the drivers seat near the back support my body doesnt even touch that part of the seat due to the seat shape, the car has covered 50k and the leather shows no other sign of wear, can anyone tell me if there is a UK recall on this particular problem as it seems there was in the states.??

Martin

X5Sport · #8 01-13-2010, 11:17 AM

Any recalls for UK vehicles will be on the VOSA website.

VOSA corporate website

I can't see any recalls for seat heaters for the MY2005.

Don't expect BMW UK to play nicely either. They have just refused to supply a new auto transmission for my '05 E53 on the grounds that I had offered them no goodwill by buying an extended warranty from them and took my business elsewhere. Not that they ever offered me an extended warranty of course!!

As fas as they're concerned Warranty Direct can pay up. The box has less than 42k on it and BMW's bill was over £6,000 - they replace the box rather than strip & repair it.

disturbedk24 · #9 01-14-2010, 03:23 AM

your dealer fixing your car

my rear seats caught on FIRE and bmw NA told me to file a claim with my insurance

m5james · #10 01-14-2010, 07:25 PM

You lucked out. Mostly this happens due to people kneeling in the seat, and it puts too much stress on the filaments inside the seat. Sometimes it just happens for no reason. It's been discussed before, but it's not considered a recallable safety item since it's something that you opt to turn on or not, as opposed to say a wheel falling off due to bad lugnuts.