Seat Heating shutting off by itself?
 

Kind of an odd hiccup this morning. We were going to the market this morning, my mother and I in the back seat with the heated seats on for both sides.`As many of y'all know, it's been chilly outside lately.

A couple minutes into the ride, both sides shut off by themselves. Some kind of automatic timer? Or perhaps just an electronic hiccup? :dunno:

Don't know if this is the reason, but if the computer senses a battery charging issue, it will shut-off the heated seats to prevent discharging the battery.

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If the energy management system requests a power reduction, the heating power can be
reduced or switched off in three stages:
1. Heating power reduction from level three to level two.
2. Heating power reduction to 50% of level two.
3. Switch off seat heating.

Rear SiH Seat Heating without FKA
If the SiH button is pressed on the rear center console seat heating operating unit, the
seat heating and the backrest heating are directly actuated by the relevant modules in the
control unit.
If the energy management system requests a power reduction, the rear seat heating can
be switched off via an overload-protection relay.
Rear SiH Seat Heating with FKA
If the SiH button is pressed on the FKA control unit, the operating status is transmitted to
the driver/front passenger modules via a PWM signal. These control the seat heating and
the backrest heating.
If the energy management system requests a power reduction, the heating power can be
reduced in three stages:
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Ok, that sounds pretty feasible (dad's X5 does not have the FKA, the rear climate control). So it just shut them off to reduce power drain- no "step reduction" without the climate control.

Can't help but wonder though, does it draw that much power? New battery too.

Could be a flaw in the overload relay, or a flaw in a seat heater elements as well, e.g., if a seat heater was shorted in a spot, it might draw too much current and the overload relay might pop after a while (I assume it probably has some sort of current overload device, such as a thermal overload switch that automatically resets).

Just guessing...

I am having [ocassionally] similar problem with the heating of steering wheel. This only happened ~ 3 times, and everytime during very long drive (after keeping it on for 2+ hours). Not a big deal given it is already warm in the car by then, but I can't imagine power management unit would complain at that point - after all the engine has been running and charging the system for quite some time...

Dont have time yet to take it for service, wonder if anyone else have/had this issue, and if it was resolved for you?