Driving home on an especially cold night recently i put on my seat heaters because my air takes alittle while to heat up. All of a sudden my leg stared to burn and there was a funky smell. I looked down and saw a smoking hole in my seat! What can i do?

 

What year car? Still under warranty? Sounds crazy...and dangerous!!

 

Get out of the seat. Turn off the seat heater. Get a fire extinguisher ready just in case. Go to your nearest Mini dealer and have it fixed. (assuming of course that your car is under warranty.)

 

OP provides location as Tampa FL

low temps there recently have been in the 60's . . . not long ago would be at least 70's

Houston, we have a problem . . .

maybe he DID use his heaters . . .

or . . .

 

Its an 03 MSC with 125k so its WAY out of warranty! But ok I'll admit I'm a bit of a wussy when it comes to the cold. haha But I've decided not to ever use it again. ever.

 

You are wise.

 

I would file a safety complaint. This has 'accident waiting to happen' written all over it. If enough people complain, it could result in a recall.

 

This also just happened to me on the back of the lumbar support of the driver's seat.

My local dealer basically said "electrical fires happen" and wasn't willing to help cover the repair and because I'm way out of warranty didn't think MINI would do any thing about it either.

I don't think it's reasonable to expect a car to have an electrical fire when it's 8 years old. This is a design flaw - lots of other cars made by BMW have the same problem - just do a quick search.

I'm definitely filing a complaint.