I just bought my truck and it has heated leather, well the passenger has heated leather i have cold hard leather, anyways when i press the button the light blinks on low, theres no heat or anything, i read on an old post on here that it means my seat has shorted out, is that true? whats the best way to go about fixing this problem? im on a very limited budget as im still in highschool so any low budget, but not hackjob ideas would be great.

 

Unfortunately after you mentioned "limited budget"....that probably doesn't involve heated seats. Blinking light is showing an error code and it could very well be shorted. I looked at one recently with the calf poo brown leather interior. Two types of seats were built. One with the bladder built into the lower seat material which was $900 and no longer available. If I recall the other was no longer avail either, but I could be wrong on that one. I'd have to refer to "the good book" to give you more details.

 

wow, well i just got a paycheck i forgot about today so i have a bit more then i thought and i would love to get my heat back, but 900 is a little on the pricy side haha. would i be able to buy an aftermarket pad and wire it in?

 

my solution 2 words : seat covers, less expensive and will not break down .

I hate leather seats

 

IIRC , you can buy just the heater pad to put under the seat cover. They are still around 80 bucks though. It's been awhile, I could be wrong on the price.

 

5073 081AA 1 33, 34 *DZ Left, Cushion, After 11-16-00, Peel and Stick Pad
5073 082AA 2 33, 34 *DZ Left, Back, After 11-16-00, Peel and Stick Pad


My bad.....they are 114 for one and 107 for the other - lower and the back.
Double check your build date, but these wil fit I'm almost positive either way. May have to use something to hold them in if built before the date shown. IIRC the early seat cushions didn't have the velcro to hold these pads in- only difference is the original pads was "sewn" in. You can carefully cut that old pad out if that is the case. You can also leave it in, but the heater will not be as efficient.

 

My '06 manual says that the blinking "low" lamp means that a circuit for that element is open. If you're real lucky, you might just have a loose connection. It's certainly worth checking out. The open circuit might also mean a burned out element and that's the more expensive fix.

Dan

 

I wasn't cool enough to get heated seats , I had a firend with a the same problem. He found new (well used) seats at a junkyard and just swapped them. Like was already said, it was just too expensive to get work done on them

 

Don't go waste your money on new heating elements until you dig a little deeper. On all the ones I have looked at it is just a break in the heating wire somewhere. Take the seat cover off of your seat and you will see the really thin wire running around in it. Look for a burnt spot, use a razor blade to expose the wires in the burnt spot, cut wire, solder together, cover with heat shrink. Problem fixed. On one of my seats the connector that connects the bottom elements to the lower back elements had broken from a passenger getting there foot wrapped up in it so I just cut the connector out soldered/heatshrinked the wires together and eliminating the connector. I have fixed both my passenger and driver sides seats this way in my ram, and also my old grand cherokee. A friend of mine was having similar problems and on his the wires just came undone right on the edge of the seat where they enter the seat cushion, probably from jumping in and out of the truck constantly. The only cost to fix was about an hour of time, and some solder and heat shrink tubing. Take a look in there before you buy new elements or cushions.

 

Thanks alot for the ideas, how hard is it to remove the seat covers?
There was snow on the ground this morning and it was around minus 10C so im getting more motivated each morning haha.
And vzdude, where are those prices from? my truck was made in jan 2000

 

Dealer prices. Jan of 2000 build it will be a crapshoot if they will work. Have to check the connectors. If they will plug in, they will work. Even if they don't, you can still rewire the plugs.