It's starting to cool off in Ohio, and I turned my seat heater on. The lights on the button came on, the seat started to heat up, and then I noticed a slight smell in the car, and noticed the seat heater lights had gone off. I turned it back on, and the heater button went off again when I moved the wires from the frame going into the seat, or when I put my weight on the right side of the seat.

I figure it must be a short in the wiring, or the heating element is overheating and shutting off, before burning up. The good news if that when I push the seat heater button now, the seat does heat up some, and then the lights go off. However, this is not the area of my anatomy that I would like to think as burning and on fire-- at least not in response to a car seat!!... I think I'd better call the dealer and get the seat fixed.

Anyway, has anyone else had problems with the seat heaters? Was it an easy fix or did it require ordering parts and taking apart the seat? Did it take more than a day to replace?

Thanks!
Mr. Kolda Beahind

 

I think you have a problem. The heated seats in my MCS will stay on indefinitely and I have no smell when in use, the only problem I have is that they don’t get very warm. I currently have heated seats in my wife’s BMW X5 and my Chevy truck and they both get much hotter then those in the MCS, the MCS is lukewarm at best. As far as taking more then a day to fix, I haven’t had a repair yet that was completed in one day, more like two or three.

 

Jerry, I just wonder if you have a problem too. We have a 3 and an X5 with heated seats and my MINIs seats heat up comparablly to those ones. Actually I am impressed by the BMW/MINI heated seats. The ones on our last infiniti, now those were pathetic--gave off no heat at all.

Steve, get your checked out too. Mine have no smell and the lights constanly stay on.

 

>>Jerry, I just wonder if you have a problem too. We have a 3 and an X5 with heated seats and my MINIs seats heat up comparablly to those ones. Actually I am impressed by the BMW/MINI heated seats. The ones on our last infiniti, now those were pathetic--gave off no heat at all.
>>
>>Steve, get your checked out too. Mine have no smell and the lights constanly stay on.

Thanks for the news on the similarity in seat heating between the MINI and BMW. I would image mine have some sort of problem as they don’t compare to my other cars current and past history.

Jerry

 

Thanks. I'll call the dealer tomorrow. Last winter, when I used my seat heaters, they stayed on continuously and were plenty warm. I hope it's not a long repair. The service here in Columbus has been outstanding. I make an appointment, and they have my car in and out in 1-2 hours from when I drive in (of course I've only had minor repairs, adjustments, and oil changes). With my luck, it will be the one repair that they have to ship the car back to GB to complete... it will be like one master technician in the world, like Sir Mini Winston Downing, Master Tech who works on these seat heaters...

Has anyone else had seat heaters repaired or replaced? Was it a big job? Are you all still driving rental Neons, waiting for Sir MW to get to it? I can see it's going to be a 'not much sleep' night for me....

Later

Ben Warmer and
Kolda Behind

 

Just spoke with the dealer and he said this is the first seat heater problem he has heard of. I generally like to be creative, but not creating something a technician is fixing for the first time.
Has anyone else had a problem with the seat heater? Anyone able to share the benefit of his/her experience? If not, I'll be going in next week and will let you know what is involved.

Thx
Kolda P. Terrior

 

As it gets colder I hit the driver seat heat button and it turns on for a while then it goes off. I hate to think that the seat might need to be replaced to get the heater to work again.

I am way out of my warranty coverage (75,000 Miles) and this could be a costly repair.

Motor on..........................

 

I haven't had a problem with my heaters, but I had a slight tear in my seat cover and they ended up replacing the whole bottom of the seat. If I were to guess...unless it is a problem with the wiring under your seat or a switch problem, I would say that they will end up replacing at least the entire cover or possibly the whole seat. Also, don't be surprised if it takes at least a day or two to get the parts once it is diagnosed.

Oh and Jerrygee...as someone else said, you might also have a problem with your heaters. Mine are so hot on my '05 MCS that I can only have them on high for maybe 5 minutes max and on low for 10 or 15 minutes before I have to shut them off.

 

I am seconding this idea...on the highest setting, it feels great, but then a bit too intense for me...mine must be too effective

 

I had "the fix" done on mine because they were not getting hot enough.

They still don't get very hot.

 

It is funny that you posted this. I have recently discovered that when I activate my drivers seat heater, the lights come on and just when the seat starts to heat up, the lights go out. When I try to re-activate the heater again, the lights come on and go out again with no warm up time. I have since taken it to Classic in Mentor and they found there appears to be a short in the seat cushion.

When no one is sitting in the seat, the heater stays on until you turn it off, but when a person is sitting in the seat, the heater pre-maturely turns off. I have a new seat cushion on order to see if it fixes the issue. I do hope that does the trick because it is starting to get cold here in Cle-town and I appreciate my heaters.

On another note, I have read quite a few blogs (including this fourm) of other MINI owners saying their heaters aren't warm enough. Since the day I brought Newt home, my heaters have always been VERY warm. In fact, I can only stand to have the "2 lights" for a very short time before my "****" is on fire! We'll see if this holds true with the new seat cushion. I hope so. Thanks for reading.

 

Both the 03 and 05 heaters were/are very effective and stay on as long as the button is pushed for us. Never had them turn off on their own, nor any kind of smell associated with the heated seats - if anything, when they are on for awhile, I think they may cycle on/off, or hot/warm, in heating. Not sure about that though, would have to test it but I don't know if I could tolerate the high setting for long to do it!

Both cars had the full leather seats, fwiw.

 

Mine broke and fixed itself over the weekend.

I would press the button and both low and high lights would come on. 15 seconds later the low light would go out. Seat didn't get hot at all.

I try the next day and it's working again.

Luke

 

I had a problem on the passenger side seat.. It is similar to what you guys describe... No heat at all after I press on the button, but the indicator lighting light up differently. If I turn to the high heat.. 2 lights turn on about 3 to 5 sec. then it switch to 1 indicator light, but the indicator light up different then low heat (low heat the light is on the right side, but it light up the left one).
It can be fixed if I restart the car ('Restart'? not a Windows problem) every time. Did anyone experienced similiar scenario?