Good morning,

Just want to see how many MINI owner experienced this to their heated seat. It happened in my 2005 MCS. The heating elements burn/melt holes in my leatherette seat covering. This happened after 1-2 minutes of switching on the heated seat. This burned a hole in my dress pants and shirt. Please see photos. :

http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...t=baac7a42.jpg

http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...t=882835d3.jpg

 

Yikes! We have a 2012 and my friend jokes the car has 3 settings. Low, High, and Sear.

 

My says "toast". :(

 

I'd like to see those pictures. Not there anymore...

 

Yeah, my Coupe is like that. Does anyone know if the dealer can adjust the heat level?

 

Adds new meaning to the term "hot ride". I have not heard or seen anything like it on NAM before. I would contact MINI USA and ask them questions. It will probably not get you anywhere but it cannot hurt to try.

 

I messaged MINIUSA. Hopefully they will do something about this "HOT" ride. I will post back when I hear back. Thx.

 

You have a 7 year old car, what are you expecting them to do about it?

I also think the seats get too hot, even on the lowest setting. There was a resistor kit introduced sometime in '09. but my car already has it! The dealer says they checked my seat temps with an infra red thermometer and mine were actually cooler than some others they checked!

All I know is that about 2 minutes on low is it for me. I like the ones in our Audi much better, they go from just a very mild warm to very toasty in 6 increments, and it's easy to get a comfy setting

 

And I didn't get the heated seats because I didn't want to become steril Never thought about going up in flames! Thought that was limited to the secondary MCS water pump electronic control unit...

 

MINIdave, I understand it's a 7 years old car. I am totally fine if the heated seat totally not functional. BUT, this is not the case, this is a safety issue both to the owner of this vehicle and also other motorist on the road.

 

I put it in the "it does not hurt to ask department. " It is clearly a major malfunction with a part that should not fail so catastrophically. Sometimes a manufacturer wants to study these parts to learn why they failed and are willing to pay for a replacement to do so. Besides, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

Mini did offer a resister kit to address their heated seat problem. They offered one kit for those that complained about not enough heat (never heard of anyone needing that), as well as a kit for those with too much heat - that's the one that I got. It dialed it down but not as much as I'd like. I still only use the low setting. I wouldn't doubt that they're still available. I think I got mine from Classic Mini.

 

Mine had the same problem. Luckily it happened under warranty and the seat was replaced.

 

Old thread new post. I thought I was alone and I just googled this and found a slew of similar threads. This must be a factory defect of some sort.

I have a 2008 which is in the last month of warranty. Had the same problem and dealer replaced lower seat. Just noticed that both front seat back bolsters are starting to wrinkle and a hole has formed on the driver's side. I've been testing the seats and I think the heat get too high. It also degrades, shrinks and crumbles the foam inside the seat... I find bits of foam under my seat weekly after vacuuming.

Waiting to hear back from service advisor about bringing it back and getting it looked at and most likely replaced under warranty as they have a precedent replacing the seat bottom 1 week ago.

Mike

 

Yeah, the dealer tested the heat temp. in mine and said it was normal . Just wait until the fall and this will be an active thread again.

 

Oh man.... I wish I hadn't read this! The heated seats are my favorite option on my new 2012! I'll be re-checking here often, I guess, but so far, no problems at all. Not too hot and they work fantastic but never thought about interior damage....

 

Just because one or even a few people have a problem with their car is no reason to assume your car will have the same problem.....so stop worrying!

I think my seats are too warm also, and I only turn them on for a few minutes on really cold mornings, then turn them off again. The dealer tested mine and said they are well within spec - I think MINI needs to re-evaluate their spec!

The "fix" people are speaking of is a resistor put into the wiring for the seat heater, supposedly all cars after a certain build date either in late 2008 or early 2009 have this resistor already in it.

I bought an extra resistor, so I'm going to double up and see if mine become more liveable this fall. Last year our winter was so mild I didn't even use them.

 

I have had a small cigarette style burn mark in my passenger seat for about 2 years now. Not burned through, more like a 1cm round divot. I first noticed it while I was stationed in Guam, and thought I had left something on the seat which may have reflected and focused the sun onto the back of the seat resulting in the minor burn. Guam is close to the equator and interior car temps get pretty high... So a hot interior combined with some focused sunlight, plausible melting damage scenario.

So I'm driving home this morning, and I smell plastic burning. I think it's coming from outside, but it's not dissipating. So I do a cursory glance about the car and to my AMAZEMENT, the melted spot is now clearly a hole, with about a normal lit-cigarette amount of smoke streaming out of it. I look down and notice the passenger seat has somehow been turned on and is on HI. I immediately turn it off and roll down the passenger window to try and cool the car before a fire starts. Somewhat counter-intuitive because you don't want to fan a fire... But I felt cooling was more important.

After about a mile I close the window... The smell is lingering but less persistent and the smoke completely stopped. Result... Cigarette on seat style burn in the seat back with an actual hole in it rather than just a divot. It wasn't the sun in Guam! It was a faulty heating element! Boo!

 

This happened to me when I retrofitted some used heated seats in mine. After a day of ripping the interior apart to install the wiring, I turned the seat on and it burned through the seat cover!

It is a manufacturing defect. There is something like hot glue that is supposed to cover the wire where in connects to the heating element. On some seats, this protective coating does not cover the bare wire leaving it to corrode. Ultimately, the resistance becomes too great at that junction and it burns through the seat.

Took mine to dealer after it happened, and they were just going to charge me for new seats. Ended up putting in aftermarket seat heaters using the factory wiring.

You could probably fix it by trimming the corroded wire, re-soldering, and encapsulating the joint in hot glue to protect it from corrosion.

 

Can I do this repair without remove the seat and the whole seat cover? Is this piece located in the front or rear of the seat? thanks!

 

The connections that corrode for the seat heaters are near the back of the seat bottom and bottom of the seat back. However, I don't think you're going to be able to fold back the seat cover enough to access those points with the seat still in the car. Even if you could, with a soldering iron in there to fix it, you'd risk burning through seat cover.

Pulling the seat out really isn't all that bad - disconnect the battery, disconnect the connectors, then 4 torx bolts and you're done. Taking the seat apart to remove the covers is a little more involved, but I have a how-to with pictures which helped a lot. PM if you want a copy.

 

That would be awesome. I'll pm now.

 

Got it - just sent it over.

 

A few more pictures of where the joints had corroded. The silver braid wire is the heating element - it doesn't seem prone corrode. Where the wiring harness attaches to the heating element, you can see the exposed copper which is the culprit. The joints that didn't corrode are properly sealed with some kind of silicone or plastic encasing.

 

Where did you purchase and what kind of after market kit did you get? I assume it comes with a how to diagram as well?

Thanks!