Ventilated seat not cooling on bottom?
 

I have an '09 X5 with the active ventilated seat package. I know the airflow is usually kinda weak. But I usually notice at least a little cooling. For some reason, this past few days, I can feel some cool air on my back, but it actually feels like my seat bottom is heating up instead of cooling. I can put my ear to the cushion (not while driving :wow:) and hear the fan blowing, but it feels like the seat is getting hotter, not cooler.

Has anyone else experienced this? I think I read somewhere here that the air blowing through the seats just comes from the cabin, below the seat, but the air in my cabin coming through the seat shouldn't feel hotter than the air on my back.

Any thoughts?

Have you checked the settings in the "climate" section of iDrive?

I'm not sure how it fully works (yet), but I know that there are ways to adjust where the heat is distributed (color of the seat on the screen).

Actually if anyone can explain exactly how that works that would be great.

Yes, thats correct. You can check the CLIMATE area for Active Seat section. There will be a picture of a seat, and a bar graph on the bottom to determine where you want cooling. Either in the middle, or a preference for the back cushion or the bottom cushion.

Also check this, if you have 4-zone climate control, the settings for the 2nd row seating can affect the temperature of the air that is pulled in by the seat fans. We were on a trip and one of my daughters cranked her thermostat to 80º -- after awhile I could feel warm air on my back.

Yep, I knew I could look in the iDrive climate settings and adjust more/less to the back or bottom cushion. This seemed weird though, I always keep that in the middle and it really felt like the bottom cushion was actually heating up, not even staying neutral. I turned it on/off a few times and it seemed like maybe this last time it started to cool a little. So I'm not sure if something's not working correctly or what. (and the rear seat climate control was off, but that's a good tip).

I'll see how it does over the next few days and take it in for service if it keeps up. But my fear is that a tech will turn it on, hear the fans blowing and say, "It's working fine."