Heated seat burning!! -Canada-
 

Anyone else have this issue?! Just started today. Went to go for a quick errand and turned on the heated seat, it felt very hot so I touched it with my hand and the seat is melted and there's a small hole! And I can see through the hole and see a yellow flame/light. I would love to get this taken care of before winter hits and heated seats are a life saver in our cold, canadian winters.

With that being said, has anyone had/fixed their issue?! It's a 2006 BMW so obviously out of warrenty:dunno:

Either swap out the leathers or find a used seat with heating and put it in. Not many options really.

You can't swap the heater element - I looked into this and it is a pad that is stitched throughout the various sections of the seat. Your only option is to replace the seat with one from a wreckers. I did this for my rear seats. Front might be a bit more involved as far as remove/replace.

Careful about buying a seat from a junk yard. The car might have been in an accident with aiirbag deployment. The seat module will record that and you will have a SRS fault. If the seat belt tensioner had fired you will need to have that replace.

Correct. I was simply referring to the seat base. I would keep the rest of the stock seat if it's in tact.

I wonder how much a new seat from BMW would cost me. if possible

Mine's doing it too. The problem appeared two years ago, and it's only on the left bolster, near yer rib cage area. What I've been doing is just running the heater for a while, then turn it off. But yeah, this one little tiny spot gets so hot that it can burn you. Then I noticed that the leather is shrunken and hardened in that area.. which is what leather does when it's exposed to extreme heat.

My theory is that there's a slight fold in the heat pad in that area and it's triggering a micro short in the heater wires in the pad.

So the heater pad is stitched in? Hmm.. I worked with a leather upholstery place when I upgraded my Z3 Roadster's leather seats to Nappa (came out awesome btw)... but I remember working with the seat heater pads. There's two; Seat base and seat back. But they just set 'free' on the seat foam. I'd say, if they're stitched in on an X5 seat, all you need to do is take the car to an upholstery place and have them remove the seat, pull the leather cover, unstitch the pad, replace the pad, and the leather cover. I'll bet they're totally used to having to pull pads and restitch them in place. Upholstery guys are the unsung heros of the car tech world. They gots special skills!

Yeah. I found the heating element/foam on ECSTuning and it's $520USD. So about $600+CAD for me to get the new foam, and then finding an upholestry place to remove it and fix it all. Hmm, could be a $1000 job. yikes!:rolleyes:

can someone show me pics of the sport seat vs comfort vs standard? i have no idea which ones i have....

The heating pads don't have wires, they have carbon mats. They fail where people sit on them as they get in and out, usually the door side bolster.

Even for an upholstery guy, it's a big job (I took it to a local guy that had been doing it for 25yrs+ He confirmed and said if I really wanted to blow a lot of money he would do it, but better to hunt the wreckers). You have to cut all the stitching between all the leather panels and separate them . I took a wrecker rear seat apart and it was a messy job. To put it all back together and get it sewn correctly is a hope, prayer and a nice bill at the end.

Anyone else?
I emailed BMW Canada. They just told me to take it to a dealership. Called dealership, they have no TSAs or warrenty / recalls etc on it. So sounds like I'm shit out of luck. They said to bring it in for a diagnostic, at $149/hour. Damn it. What do I do now?!

guys
i found the bottom part of the seat here https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E53-X5...eats/ES262599/

but is it possible to just have that part replaced? or at least unplug the bottom heater?

A wild guesstimate. You're looking at least 3+ billable hrs from a upholstery shop.
Good ones ain't cheap - it's just as bad $$ as going to a dealer. It is what it is. Good luck.

Are ya'll doing the ~stepover~ over the bolster.
Mine at 110-120K was still just fine...

I am researching the hell out of this. It seems like some places say the heated element is attached to the bottom foam/assembly itself while others are saying it's integrated into the leather. I don't need the backrest area fixed, just the butt part. I just want to fix this and sell it so I can leave the country

The back needs to come off in order to access the seat bottom
You got hog rings to deal with, etc, etc. Just sell it as is.
Either DIY but any decent upholstery shop worth their bacon aint cheap

Ugh yeah. I'm struggling to sell it without evening mentioning the seat yet, kjiji buyers are the worst.
Trying to find one a used one in Canada somehow.

You can replace the seat heater pad with an aftermarket one. I did mine, didn't cost much but it is not an easy job.

For that price, why don't you just buy whole used seat? Much easier and cheaper this way.

That is a bit pricey but it looks like an improvement on the original design which is nice to see :) Trouble with buying a used seat is your back to same situation.

Ok guys.
Today I found a seat at a wreckers.
It is a comfort seat, not sure what year it's from.
HOWEVER, there are a few differences when compared to mine.
1) It does NOT have the power adjustable headrest, mine does.
2) It does NOT have the flap/pocket on the back of the backrest, mine does.
3) Headrests are a bit different. Mine has a 'swoop' at the bottom front.
4) You can also see that the top part of my seat is longer. Like the distance from the top 'stitch' to the top of seat is longer

With that being said, do you think the plugs/harnesses will work if I directly swap the seat into my BMW? Will anything screw up? I took a picture of the harness at the wreckers so I could compare it with mine when I got home and for some reason my phone didn't save it (stupid technology).

I can get the seat for $200. I don't think it will be a huge job to swap it out but I also don't want to waste $200 if the power / harnesses are different. Thoughts?

First pictures is mine, second is wreckers
http://i1350.photobucket.com/albums/...pss8vs2gvo.jpg

http://i1350.photobucket.com/albums/...psndg2btee.jpg

When I first bought mine years and years ago, my left seat would burn my ass on the side bolster just because that's where the most wear naturally was. BMW quoted $4200

Yours looks like comfort seat and wrecker is base seat. I wouldn't buy it unless you get both so they match. Mine has same thing you are describing with getting really hot if I don't put it on lowest setting. I just leave like that and it doesn't bother me.

Depending on the year, the seat belt receptacle may have to be swap with the receptacle that is in you X right now. I believe the later cars use a seat belt receptacle that accepts a thinner seat belt insert. Had to swap out the receptacle when I installed comfort seats in my X. Check that the seat belt work before buckling (pun intended) everything up.

I found a set of comfort seats on Craigslist. Are you sitting down, paid $80 US for both seats. :bustingup

No rips or cracks on the seat and the heating element works on both seat.

^^^^ oh my god you lucky sob.
I've found some more seats but they're out of town so including shipping would be about 500 for a single seat

Here's a shot of my 80 bucks comfort seat.

[IMG]http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/p...pskg9uvpjo.jpg[/IMG]


You can also remove the base from the wrecker yard and use the seat back from your to make a useable seat.

Are all vehicles build for the US and Canadian market equiped with the OC3 airbag occupancy driver seat mat or was this a special option (or dependent on the year)? Saw this on ETK: the OC3 heater mat is available without the upholstery.

I'd like to know more about the seat mats as well as I have that problem as well with my E83. As far as I can tell OC3 is just a code for reworking the seat. It seams to apply to a lot of different models and I think could be about 3 different things. A replacement mat, some stiffeners to put on top, or a different seat module. Very confusing! Can anyone shed some more light on this ? Is the heater built into the occupancy sensor mat ?

Someone sent me a PM about this post and taking a heating element from a heated seat and transferring it to a non-heated seat. Their account isn't accepting PM's, so here is the answer - I wouldn't recommend it. The stitching is integral to the seat base leather. Better off to find a seat with the elements that matches your colour. I tried to pull one apart completely and it was not an easy task. I took it to an upholster guy and he laughed at me for even asking :)