Strange thing happenen last night. Coming home at 1AM with a few people.

It was really icy and cold. Took off and had the heated seats on.

Few minutes into the drive, I smell a bad electrical fire ... no warning on the gauges, no smoke, car runs fine.
I though that since my outside of the car was practically frozen solid, the engine heat was not escaping properly and was coming into the cabin through the vents ... I know ... stupid.
Smell continues, pretty heavily for the 30-40 minute ride. I just don't see anything wrong ...

Pull up to a friends home and kind of forget about the whole thing. Getting back into the car sometime later to head home ... smell is gone. OK

Then this morning, I see that on the passanger seat a pretty nice chunk of the seat melted between one of the seams ... how? I have no idea ... someone was sitting on it last night on the ride back when this smell/burn happened. Tried to contact the person today to see if her coat was ok, as I am sure it is damaged but no response back yet.

So what do I do about this? Anyone had this happen before? ... looks like I won't be able to turn on the heat on the passanger seat until I have this sorted out ... seems like a dangerous situation.

 

Are you sure it was something to do with the car or could it have been something that the person had in their pocket, maybey? You might want to check before drawing on conclusions.

 

Also from the NY/NJ area, very cold last night and today.

Bring it to the dealer and have them check that out. Heated seats should never melt the seat.

I have heated seats in my MCSa and Volvo V40. They get warm never hot.

Hope everything works out.

 

not really sure yet ... but looks like it melted from the inside out, if you know what I mean.

it was a lady sitting in the seat with a coat on, nothin in it that could cause that.

i mean she was hot ... but not that hot (sorry, but could not resist)

 

My dads seats get so hot that they burn sometimes... They are too hot!

 

This is definitely possible with heated seats. We have a 2003 ML, and the driver's seat burned through due to a faulty element - have it checked out!

 

Just to add in,
my friend has a BMW 545 with heated leather seats and the element burned through!! Dealer replaced seast under warranty.........

 

lurch70,

This is not a new issue with the heated seats. It was first an issue with the '02 cars as far as I know. There is even a technical bulletin (sorry, don't know the number) about it and there are some resistors that can be placed in the heater circuit. Whatever it was that happened, it is a warranty issue which would include replacement of the seat fabric.

I had the cold weather package on my "02 MCS and have it on my "06 MCS, in both cars it has worked as designed. But, the high heat level does get quite warm and I almost never use it. I usually double click to the lower heat setting.

 

VW's have had the same issue only there were daily threads about seats having holes burned through them. One guy had a mark left on his jeans

 

thanks everyone ... I have contacted the dealer, waiting for a reply on the issue.

 

was anyone smoking in the car that night? my brother used to burn back seats with his cigarettes in my old bimmer.

 

Seems to me that with that kind of damage to the seat, that she would have started to do a little dance over there.

 

Sound like a warranty issue, seats should not get that hot. See this TSB posted before:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...light=hot+seat

Hope that helps

 

by insulating the seat more, not letting the heat out. I don't know what kind of heaters the Mini uses, but some are using a resistive sheet that gives much more even heating. I saw some on eBay, and almost bought them for my Mustang convertable. But then I'd have to take the upholstry off to add them in, but heated seats in a rag top on a cool evening or day, MMM MM Good!

Matt

ps, my 02 gets pretty toasty on high, but I've never had them get too hot.

 

yes, she did tell me to turn off the chair heat as it was very hot .. and some other people have complained about it before ... looks like it finally went bad.

still not sure if it caused any damage to the coat she wore ...

the drivers seat has a good 5 inch piece of it looking like its ready to rip as well ...

 

I got a hunkaaaaa hunkaaaaaaaaaaaa burning Love Yah.The burning seats brought back memories of high school.Sorry.Ps no problems with burning in my car but seats on a couple of members cars have had repairs to the heat pad insert and report the seat doesnt heat up as much after repair so maybe Mini has had a problem with this.

 

I turn it on the high setting until my seat is warm, then turn it to low.

High is pretty damn hot, but I like it that way, warms them up quicker.

 

My Minis Hot Dang hot.I like it like that

 

just as a follow up ... my dealer replaced the complete bottom section of the seat ... heater element and new seat cushion/cover

also had the drivers side bottom cover replaced as well as it was beginning to crack.

A+ for MINI warranty service once again!

 

And several years later I now just experience this...drivers side seat heating coil burned right through!! I am new to this forum still and don't see how to post my pics of this but happened in my 2003 just this morning! Burnt into my jacket and luckily not through. The electrical smell was horrible! Sad...after all this car and I have been through the past 11 years it has to be like this...

 

Talked about Here: Look at the last post.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...seat-burn.html

If you need a new seat pad let me know your year and interior type.

Make sure you don't continue to use the heated seat button.

Thanks