[torkles]

When I turn the driver's side heated seat on, it turns on and stays on for a few minutes, the seat gets nice and toasty and then the heated seat turns itself off. The heated steering wheel, passenger seat, and rear seats all stay on indefinitely but the driver's does not. I ran the carly code reader and pulled an internal code:

8029A5
:Temperature sensor pad heating field: open or short circuit to minus

I'm guessing this means the heating pad that's in the seat is toast and needs to be replaced. A quick parts search shows the pads to be about 125 bucks a piece and a total pain in the ass (pun intended) to replace.

I'm hoping that the temperature sensor is a different component that can be replaced without having to replace the whole pad? Or that the fault being triggered is a result of an open or short circuit somewhere other than in the seat pad. Does anyone have any experience or advice on how to troubleshoot this issue? Or do I already know the answer.

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by torkles

When I turn the driver's side heated seat on, it turns on and stays on for a few minutes, the seat gets nice and toasty and then the heated seat turns itself off. The heated steering wheel, passenger seat, and rear seats all stay on indefinitely but the driver's does not. I ran the carly code reader and pulled an internal code:

8029A5
:Temperature sensor pad heating field: open or short circuit to minus

I'm guessing this means the heating pad that's in the seat is toast and needs to be replaced. A quick parts search shows the pads to be about 125 bucks a piece and a total pain in the ass (pun intended) to replace.

I'm hoping that the temperature sensor is a different component that can be replaced without having to replace the whole pad? Or that the fault being triggered is a result of an open or short circuit somewhere other than in the seat pad. Does anyone have any experience or advice on how to troubleshoot this issue? Or do I already know the answer.

BMW has made a decision some time ago to not make a large number of parts repairable in the field. This is just another example.

The fault is pretty clear what has to be done.

[torkles]

Thanks guys. That's what I was afraid of.

It works, the seats get hot. So that's better than not working at all.

[Michael Schott]

Originally Posted by IK6SPEED

BMW has made a decision some time ago to not make a large number of parts repairable in the field. This is just another example.

The fault is pretty clear what has to be done.

I had to replace the seat cover on my GTI driver seat due to wear on the bolster. I let the dealer do this and they, VW and I shared the cost. It took 2+ weeks and was a huge PITA for the dealer. Much of this was because the heater element in the seat back is glued in place. They contracted the work to an upholstery shop. This is not a easy job. Ultimately the cost was $1000.00 of which I paid 25%.

[Michael340i]

In the F30/31 the seat heater elements are glued to the foam cushions, and can be pulled off carefully after you've removed the leather, but be sure not to damage the foam or there is an additional load of cost added to the job. The real pain in this job is removing the leather then refitting it without any wrinkles.

The driver and passenger seat pads are identical, depending on how much you love your passenger you could just swap the leather/heater elements/foam pads, keeping them all together. That would be much easier, and your driver seat will then be perfect

But, having done all this to install heated seats, in your position I think I'd just keep pressing the button until the car gets warm.

[torkles]

Originally Posted by Michael340i

In the F30/31 the seat heater elements are glued to the foam cushions, and can be pulled off carefully after you've removed the leather, but be sure not to damage the foam or there is an additional load of cost added to the job. The real pain in this job is removing the leather then refitting it without any wrinkles.

The driver and passenger seat pads are identical, depending on how much you love your passenger you could just swap the leather/heater elements/foam pads, keeping them all together. That would be much easier, and your driver seat will then be perfect

But, having done all this to install heated seats, in your position I think I'd just keep pressing the button until the car gets warm.

Fortunately the seat stays on long enough to get nice and warm, so that's the solution I'm going to go with. My guess is it's 'overheating' and then turning itself off as a safety precaution. That's better than not working at all, but not as good as it getting to the right temperature and then staying that way. Swapping the passenger seat pad to the driver's side would only make my wife roast my ass. Not a better option, but it is good to know that they are the same pad in case I decide to take this project on at a later date and need to order parts.

[delorean175]

Originally Posted by torkles

Fortunately the seat stays on long enough to get nice and warm, so that's the solution I'm going to go with. My guess is it's 'overheating' and then turning itself off as a safety precaution. That's better than not working at all, but not as good as it getting to the right temperature and then staying that way. Swapping the passenger seat pad to the driver's side would only make my wife roast my ass. Not a better option, but it is good to know that they are the same pad in case I decide to take this project on at a later date and need to order parts.

Very interesting, I'm having the exact same issue and my car is the same year, model, transmission, and configuration as yours minus some of the mods. Odd but most likely a coincidence. I guess I'll go with the same solution you chose lol.

Actually, I'll see if it overheats on the medium and low settings. If it doesn't overheat and auto shut off on the lower settings I'll try coding the HI temp setting a little lower and see if that changes anything.

[delorean175]

Originally Posted by Michael340i

In the F30/31 the seat heater elements are glued to the foam cushions, and can be pulled off carefully after you've removed the leather, but be sure not to damage the foam or there is an additional load of cost added to the job. The real pain in this job is removing the leather then refitting it without any wrinkles.

The driver and passenger seat pads are identical, depending on how much you love your passenger you could just swap the leather/heater elements/foam pads, keeping them all together. That would be much easier, and your driver seat will then be perfect

But, having done all this to install heated seats, in your position I think I'd just keep pressing the button until the car gets warm.

That sounds like a total PITA of a job to retrofit the seats. I've been grappling with the idea of doing this for my wifes 07 x3. But the thought of messing up the re-installation of the upholstery has been discouraging me.

Would you happen to have any pictures of how the upholstery attaches to the seat cushion? On my e28 the leather literally hooked to the metal frame. Also there weren't any hog rings to mess with either.

[Newman1]

Originally Posted by torkles

Fortunately the seat stays on long enough to get nice and warm, so that's the solution I'm going to go with. My guess is it's 'overheating' and then turning itself off as a safety precaution. That's better than not working at all, but not as good as it getting to the right temperature and then staying that way. Swapping the passenger seat pad to the driver's side would only make my wife roast my ass. Not a better option, but it is good to know that they are the same pad in case I decide to take this project on at a later date and need to order parts.

Could you try coding the seat temperature to be a bit lower? If it is indeed thinking it is overheating, perhaps having a lower set temperature could keep it remain on for a longer period of time, albeit not getting as warm as you want immediately. I've seen that feature in Bimmercode but never messed with it myself.

[delorean175]

Originally Posted by Newman1

Could you try coding the seat temperature to be a bit lower? If it is indeed thinking it is overheating, perhaps having a lower set temperature could keep it remain on for a longer period of time, albeit not getting as warm as you want immediately. I've seen that feature in Bimmercode but never messed with it myself.

I'll give it a try and see. I played with the low and med settings on the seat, it still turns off after a few mins. So I have a feeling coding lower temp settings won't do much. It's worth a try though. My car doesn't show any codes for the seat heater. What scanner did you use? I'm hoping I could at least pinpoint which heating element is the culprit so I don't have to replace all 3 elements.

[dmaxdmax]

I gave up trying to fix my broken heated seat in my e46 and just found a used one. Turned out to be much cheaper.

If you haven't explored junkyards in your area, I would...you never know.

[Eddien123]

Originally Posted by torkles

Fortunately the seat stays on long enough to get nice and warm, so that's the solution I'm going to go with. My guess is it's 'overheating' and then turning itself off as a safety precaution. That's better than not working at all, but not as good as it getting to the right temperature and then staying that way. Swapping the passenger seat pad to the driver's side would only make my wife roast my ass. Not a better option, but it is good to know that they are the same pad in case I decide to take this project on at a later date and need to order parts.

There's a threshold where beyond a certain temperature the system needs further confirmation that the seat isn't getting too hot which is likely why it's kicking off.

One question. If you click it back on right after it turns off does it give you a full 3+ minute cycle like before or does it just shut off again?

Honestly I think a cheap option would be to find a heated seat used or at a junkyard near by. A seat swap is much easier than trying to peel the seat apart.