Heated Seat Issue

[BlueOval2010]

The driver side heated seat has stopped working on my 2010 Sport. I push the power button and it illuminates for a couple seconds and then cycles off. It fails in both hi/low heat selections. Passenger side works fine, so the fuse is ok. I removed the seat and exposed the pads and they appear fine. Both pads tone continuity so there are no breaks. Will a faulty switch or other component cause the failure? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Side note: removing the driver seat without a helper brought images to mind of wresting with Jimmy Hoffa's body.

Thanks!

[PublicHair]

Are you sure there isn't a seperate fuse?

[BlueOval2010]

We'll, I never though about that, good idea. I'll see what I can find. I may fab a little patch cord to jumper the power from the passenger side to the driver side. That will narrow it down a bit. Weekend project!

Thanks

[sledhead]

same problem for me except that the seat seems to work intermittently (doesn't work 90% of the time). curious if you've had any luck troubleshooting your problem.

[akirby]

It could be a broken element that still makes partial contact without a load on it. You could try testing the resistance between the driver and passenger side. That's a better test than continuity. Also try sitting on the element while testing if possible.

[BlueOval2010]

I finally gave up due to bad weather. My garage is not heated and it turned nasty here. I have figured out that leather seats are brutal when it's -10 outside. I take a towel from the house and throw it on the seat in the morning. Thanks sledhead and akirby, both are good suggestions. I think I'll just install a new heating element and take my chances.

[fusionff]

Light on for 2 seconds, then off, agree on the broken element. I had it happen, the same 2 second illumination, and this is what I found:

 

 

Part number for it when looking ---> 6E5Z14D696AA (both driver and passenger seat use the same part).

 

Edited July 14, 2017 by fusionff

[sledhead]

thanks for all the great advice. looks like i'm changing the heating element. is this a do it yourself job? i'm a mechanical guy but have learned in the past that some jobs best be left to pros. removing the seat seems doable but taking off the leather and replacing it may not be as straightforward. any advice from anyone that's done the job appreciated.

[cbdallas]

My advice about removing the seat: Put a few layers of towels over the door sill to protect them from the seat track, just in case you lose your grip on the seat, or don't clear the sill on your way out.. Tilt the steering wheel upward to the highest & most retracted position. Remove the headrest. Remove the mounting bolts. Move the seat to where it's centered over the track (fore & aft) & tilt the seatback as far forward as it will go. Unplug the power cables and lift the seat out, pivoting left while moving outward.

 

Before I traded it in, I swapped out the seats in my Focus ST for a set of leathers out of a Titanium, and learned the hard way about removing & replacing seats. I scratched the hell out of my driver's door sill getting the factory seat out. Once I adopted the above method, the new driver seat went back in without a hitch. Same for the passenger side.

 

As far as removing the old element, there's not really not much to it. (the bottom cushion is FAR easier to strip down than the backrest). Flip the seat over where you can access the bottom of the seat and start unhooking the fabric from the frame. Work your way from the rear to the front. In the case of my ST, once the fabric was unhooked, the entire bottom cushion just lifted right off the frame. Remove the cushion and peel the leather off it. Peel the old element off the foam & replace. I'm guessing from the picture FusionFF provided that the orange strips are peel & stick adhesive. Good luck! It's can be like a wrestling match with these heavy power seats.

[fusionff]

thanks for all the great advice. looks like i'm changing the heating element. is this a do it yourself job? i'm a mechanical guy but have learned in the past that some jobs best be left to pros. removing the seat seems doable but taking off the leather and replacing it may not be as straightforward. any advice from anyone that's done the job appreciated.

 

Well, the whole process took me a few days, as first I wanted to verify that the seat pad was the problem. Once I found the burnt element, I then ordered the part and had my seat in my house while I waited for the heating element to be delivered to my local Ford dealer (saved some $$ on shipping that way). The part (# 6E5Z14D696AA) was about $95. I drove my truck in the meantime. But it should be a total of a couple of hours, and that's not rushing it at all. It wasn't really too difficult, the most difficult parts are carrying your front seat, and those wire hog ties (more on those later).

 

Now I removed my seat to verify that there was a burnt wire in the heating pad before ordering one, so if this is you're only vehicle, your seat will have to be put back in while you wait for the part. But it's pretty much guaranteed that the seat pad is your issue. Even if there is no visible burnt element area, a crack will cause the same error and failure of the pad.

 

Watch the video at the bottom of this post, it's not a Fusion, but the repair is very similar. You can repair yours by soldering the wire if you want, but I just put in a new pad. I figured another spot will just burn out too, and didn't want to do this repair again.

 

Here we go:

 

1. Raise the seat to make access to the rear screws easier.

 

2. This is when I disconnected the battery and pulled the RCM (Restraints Control Module) fuse. It's inside the cabin, above where your left foot would be. I can't remember which # it was at the moment, and it may be a different fuse number in your Fusion anyway. We're dealing with seat airbags, and it's better to play it safe. Then I waited before proceeding, to let any remaining power in the airbag system discharge. Airbag systems can have up to 20 minutes of backup power supply.

 

3. Remove the seat, as seen at :30 seconds into the video.

 

4. There are two plugs to undo before removing the seat, same as in the video. I just tilted the seat back a bit to access the plugs. Remove the seat and place it in your work area. Recline the seat all the way back to make it easier to access the rear portion of the seat.

 

5. You'll now need to peel back the leather to access the heating pad. It's not exactly like in the video, but you'll need to remove the side plastic pieces of the seat, same as in the video. You don't need to unplug any electronics. The front, I believe is simply held in by a clip, and it simply flips loose. You don't need to remove any other screws, you'll basically see what is necessary to fold back the leather. You don't need to remove much at all, the guy in the video removes a lot of unnecessary stuff.

 

6. The metal hog ties holding the leather to the seat are the same, there are 3 across, if I remember correctly. And there are two rows of them, and they are probably the most difficult part of the job. You'll need two pair of needle nose pliers to undo the metal hog ties. Undo them from the leather seat cover and leave them attached to the seat bottom. You'll be reattaching them later.

 

7. You'll then need to unplug the seat pad, which runs through the seat and disconnects under the seat. The seat heating element is held onto the seat cushion by a couple of strips of adhesive. The new pad has the adhesive rows already in place, and you'll simply peel the paper off to reattach it in the proper position on the seat cushion. Make sure to run the cable through the hole before sticking it down, and plug it back in.

 

8. Now the pain in the a$$ job of reattaching the leather to the seat with those hog rings. It is a little time consuming, but you'll get it done. Stretch the leather back over the front and sides, and reattach the side plastic pieces.

 

9. Replace seat back into your sweet Ford Fusion, put RCM fuse back in, reattach battery. Now enjoy your heated seat once again.

 

And don't forget a few frosty beverage breaks.

Edited January 13, 2014 by fusionff

[sledhead]

thanks so much for the advice and the step by step instructions, puts a better perspective on the scope of the job. i started with a call to my local dealer and he stumped my right away when he asked which element i needed - seat or backrest? i guess you can't do any prep work til you find the culprit and then order. i assume both should be checked as i would hate to replace the seat element and find later after re-installation that the backrest element was bad too.

[BlueOval2010]

Another tip - pick-up a pair of hog-ring pliers. Those little buggers get nasty.

[lcushing]

I am having the same issue as I have seen in "MANY" posts when you look up heated seats on the Ford Fusion. The drivers side only, the seat was getting much warmer than usual for about a week, then worked one morning for part of my trip, turned off car, came back and only the light came on for a brief second and then off, and NO heated seat ! Drivers side only. I have seen several posts regarding this exact situation. Is there a recall? The repairs I have read are beyond my ability. Could it possibly be a fuse or is it the seat? I also did have a rear passenger that morning behind the drivers seat. Any help or suggestions? I was just getting used to my new "used" car with seat heaters

[Mikey14SE]

The problem is (was) most likely the thermistor (temp sensor) in the cushion element. If the resistor goes bad and the heated seat module senses a (false due to the faulted thermistor) high temp from the thermistor, it immediately shuts off the affected seat. This is why one side or the other will work but the opposite side wont. Also why the affected seat will turn on momentarily, then shut off due to the circuit fault with the thermistor. Can happen on either seat, but typically its the driver seat, for obvious reasons.

 

I noted you said the driver seat was getting a lot hotter than usual for a while beforehand, which could indicate a failing thermistor, as it is used to regulate the seat temperature. The module effectively shuts the heater off, then back on as needed to regulate the temperature, though the indicator stays on.

 

That sensor is part of the heater element, and that could be why replacing the element has fixed the problem. A lot of times, if you have a scantool that will read the DTC's there will be an overtemp DTC for the affected seat as well.

 

Also FWIW, the heated seat module has 3 power inputs to it, but 2 fuses. The high current fuse (higher amp rating) does the powering of the heater elements, and it has one output from the SJB that splits into 2 circuits to the module. The lower amp fuse is the logic power for the module.

Edited December 1, 2014 by Mikey14SE

[drolds1]

We need to repeat this from time to time. Recalls are issued for safety-related malfunctions. They might be mandated by NHTSA or done voluntarily by the mfrs. There have been some recalls for heated seat issues but those were for overheating and causing a fire or seat fabric not meeting flame retardant standards (Toyota).

 

There's no safety issue here, hence no recall. While it may be aggravating, Ford's not going to pay to fix your 7-year old car. They occasionally will pay for a certain repair out of warranty to garner goodwill. In that instance they usually call it a "customer satisfaction program."

[sledhead]

Went to my mechanic to have a oil change done and he did a scan for any DTC's and found code B1032. He didn't go into a lot of detail but mentioned that it points to the passenger side seat where my issue is with the driver side not working. This confuses me even more as i was going to try tackle the job over the holidays. Any additional info for this code appreciated.

[kegobeer]

Isn't B1032 for SDARS satellite antenna short? I don't know what that would have to do with your heated seats problem, unless the antenna is routed under there and might have been damaged in some way.

[Mikey14SE]

Depends on which module it was pulled from. Downfall of using a cheap scantool and not an actual IDS. If it came from the HVAC module it is for the control circuit on the passenger side between the HVAC module and the heated seat module. Also depending on the extension it could help determine short to ground, short to power or open. Might have been set from playing with fuses and stuff.

[fusionff]

Went to my mechanic to have a oil change done and he did a scan for any DTC's and found code B1032. He didn't go into a lot of detail but mentioned that it points to the passenger side seat where my issue is with the driver side not working. This confuses me even more as i was going to try tackle the job over the holidays. Any additional info for this code appreciated.

There are two reasons for a B1032 error code:

• B1032 SDARS Satellite Antenna Short
• B1032 Right Front Seat Heater

Regardless of what the scanner shows, if your passenger side seat heater does works, and your drivers side seat heater does not work, then you know where to start. I would (not saying it's the easiest option) order the seat pad element from Ford and then after the part arrives, pull your seat and see if there is a broken or burnt element in the seat pad. You could always return the part if you don't find anything. It beats giving Ford 4 or 5 hundred dollars for the repair.

[snake2332]

 

Well, the whole process took me a few days, as first I wanted to verify that the seat pad was the problem. Once I found the burnt element, I then ordered the part and had my seat in my house while I waited for the heating element to be delivered to my local Ford dealer (saved some $$ on shipping that way). The part (# 6E5Z14D696AA) was about $95. I drove my truck in the meantime. But it should be a total of a couple of hours, and that's not rushing it at all. It wasn't really too difficult, the most difficult parts are carrying your front seat, and those wire hog ties (more on those later).

 

Now I removed my seat to verify that there was a burnt wire in the heating pad before ordering one, so if this is you're only vehicle, your seat will have to be put back in while you wait for the part. But it's pretty much guaranteed that the seat pad is your issue. Even if there is no visible burnt element area, a crack will cause the same error and failure of the pad.

 

Watch the video at the bottom of this post, it's not a Fusion, but the repair is very similar. You can repair yours by soldering the wire if you want, but I just put in a new pad. I figured another spot will just burn out too, and didn't want to do this repair again.

 

Here we go:

 

1. Raise the seat to make access to the rear screws easier.

 

2. This is when I disconnected the battery and pulled the RCM (Restraints Control Module) fuse. It's inside the cabin, above where your left foot would be. I can't remember which # it was at the moment, and it may be a different fuse number in your Fusion anyway. We're dealing with seat airbags, and it's better to play it safe. Then I waited before proceeding, to let any remaining power in the airbag system discharge. Airbag systems can have up to 20 minutes of backup power supply.

 

3. Remove the seat, as seen at :30 seconds into the video.

 

4. There are two plugs to undo before removing the seat, same as in the video. I just tilted the seat back a bit to access the plugs. Remove the seat and place it in your work area. Recline the seat all the way back to make it easier to access the rear portion of the seat.

 

5. You'll now need to peel back the leather to access the heating pad. It's not exactly like in the video, but you'll need to remove the side plastic pieces of the seat, same as in the video. You don't need to unplug any electronics. The front, I believe is simply held in by a clip, and it simply flips loose. You don't need to remove any other screws, you'll basically see what is necessary to fold back the leather. You don't need to remove much at all, the guy in the video removes a lot of unnecessary stuff.

 

6. The metal hog ties holding the leather to the seat are the same, there are 3 across, if I remember correctly. And there are two rows of them, and they are probably the most difficult part of the job. You'll need two pair of needle nose pliers to undo the metal hog ties. Undo them from the leather seat cover and leave them attached to the seat bottom. You'll be reattaching them later.

 

7. You'll then need to unplug the seat pad, which runs through the seat and disconnects under the seat. The seat heating element is held onto the seat cushion by a couple of strips of adhesive. The new pad has the adhesive rows already in place, and you'll simply peel the paper off to reattach it in the proper position on the seat cushion. Make sure to run the cable through the hole before sticking it down, and plug it back in.

 

8. Now the pain in the a$$ job of reattaching the leather to the seat with those hog rings. It is a little time consuming, but you'll get it done. Stretch the leather back over the front and sides, and reattach the side plastic pieces.

 

9. Replace seat back into your sweet Ford Fusion, put RCM fuse back in, reattach battery. Now enjoy your heated seat once again.

 

And don't forget a few frosty beverage breaks.

 

Thanks for your steps. I did this job Saturday on my 2010 SEL AWD, driver's side. Took me about 4 hours with no special tools or experience doing these sort of repairs. Little bit of a pain, but not too terrible. If I had to do it again, I would do this:

 

• Remove the 4 plastic shrouds over the 4 mounting points of the seat. These generally pull straight forward/backward away from the seat, though you'll need to pull up on them a bit to get them out, especially the rear ones. They're pretty tight!

​

• Loosen the 4 bolts, moving the seat forward and backward as needed. You can probably remove the bolts completely but I left them threaded in a little to help hold the seat while I did the next few steps.
• Recline the seat pretty far back so you can remove the head rest, then remove it and incline the seat pretty much all the way forward.
• Move the seat pretty far forward to best access the 2 electrical plugs beneath it. I wouldn't put it all the way forward because you won't be able to move it again after you remove the plugs. I ended up having mine almost all the way forward and still managed to get the seat out of the car, but it would have been easier if it was maybe 70% of the way forward or less. Right in the middle might be best, I don't really know.
• Disconnect the positive terminal of the battery. I believe it's a 5/16" bolt on the battery cable. Side-note: I looked at my tripometer prior to this since I use it to track my distance between oil changes (I don't like solely relying on the computer telling me when to change the oil), but the tripometer reading didn't get cleared when the battery was disconnected. Nice!
• Disconnect the fuse if you want to. It was called the Restraints Control Module in my manual, like fusionff said in his post. I didn't remove it because I like to live dangerously, haha. But seriously, if you disconnect the battery, that should be good enough. If the fuses were easier to get to, I would have pulled it, but they're kind of a pain to access and I'm lazy.
• Beneath the seat in the back, you'll see two plugs to remove: A small yellow one and a big black one. For the smaller yellow plug, pull it down out of the two holes and then disconnect it.
• For the large black plug, you'll need to rotate it. To do this, remove the plastic black plug holding it in place. You'll also need to push down on the little metal tab that is sticking up through a hole right next to the weird aluminum plug thing (see pic), then rotate it clock-wise. The gray frame/hinge thing is what ejects the plug, so push down on the tab holding it in place and fully rotate the frame downward to eject the plug. I managed to break that little tab off of the gray frame since it's not very strong and it was cold when I was doing this, so the plastic was weaker.

​

• Those 2 plugs and the 4 bolts are the only things you need to remove to get the seat out. Well, and the head rest. Now, put something around your door jam to protect it from scratches that might occur when wrestling the seat out. I used a blanket and avoided damage mostly. I figured out a good plan when putting the seat back in that would have kept me from getting scratches had I thought of it when removing the seat, which is: Put 4 leather work gloves (or something similar) around the 4 corners of the frame, like where the bolts go. I used some medium-sized gloves and they stayed on there pretty well and avoided damage.
• Put your steering wheel up as high as it will go, then wrestle the seat out of the car. I forget the exact angles and whatnot, but you'll figure it out. Hope you don't have back problems or else you might need a 2nd person to help you.
• I took my seat into the house to work on it where it was warm. I did all the work on the seat with it laying on its back.
• Looking at the seat from the bottom and the seat laying on its back, you'll be removing the top and left edges of the leather to access the heating pad. You won't need to remove the plastic on the right edge where the controls and lumbar knob are, luckily.
• There is a long plastic guide holding the leather on the "top" edge. Pull that off. There is another shorter plastic guide on the "left" edge, pull that off (guide #2 in following pic). There is a cloth part that goes over the seat belt receptacle that is held on with a little pocket that wraps around a metal tab - remove it from that tab and unvelcro it to free it up all the way.

• I believe you should be able to pull the leather back to the first row of the dreaded hog clips now. I simply separated them with two needle-nose pliers, trying not to bend them any further than required. Remove the two rows of hog clips, 6 clips total.

• Pull the heating unit off, trying to avoid ripping up foam cushion of course. The heating pad goes way back there to where it seems like you might have to take the seat cover off more, but just compress the foam as much as you can and pull the pad off. Naturally, you'll need to unplug the unit it from under the seat, remove the 2 clip-things holding the cord in place, and pull the cord through the seat as you remove the heating unit.
• Install the new heating unit, pushing the plug and cord through the cushion first. They included the 2 clip-things on the cord so you don't have to reuse the ones from the previous unit. I adhered the very back of the unit first, jamming it back there as far as I could, then the next two adhesive sections. I purchased part "number" AE53-14D698-AA and my exiting unit ended in AB. The new heating unit seemed a bit longer but still barely fit.

• Now for the most difficult part...put the hog clips back in place. I managed to do this with needle nose pliers, though I imagine a hog clip tool might have made it easier. I made sure the two narrow rows of velcro stuff was pushed in as I put the seat cover back on, though I imagine just sitting in the seat accomplishes this.
• Underneath the seat, put the two plastic guides back into place and the cloth part that goes around the seat belt receptacle. The longer guide kind of seemed like it snapped into place after I jimmied with it for a while.
• It should be ready to put back into your Fusion. Make sure you have protection on the 4 corners of the frame, and probably along the door jam of your car. Hope you vacuumed under the seat and washed off those 4 plastic shrouds while the seat was out. Mine was pretty dirty since my wife eats in the car during the warmer months since she speed-walks on her lunch hour and used to have to eat while driving since her supervisor was mean and wouldn't let her eat at her desk. Now my wife is the supervisor though and has an office, so HA!

Hope my input helps! All in all, not too bad of a job. Definitely worth it to save the $500+ that Ford would charge you. I got the heater for $73 shipped. My wife's butt had better appreciate the effort I put in, hahaha!

[BlueOval2010]

Nice photos and description. I changed my seat pad and of course that didn't fix it. The problem must be the seat back cushion. I'm not sure if I'm going to mess with it considering the air bag. If anyone has experience with that, a little advice will help. Also, if you have 2010 the parts guy said it is a split year and needed my VIN to order the correct element. At least I have a spare seat cushion element now!

Edited November 30, 2015 by BlueOval2010

[sneas]

On 11/30/2015 at 1:48 PM, snake2332 said:

Thanks for your steps. I did this job Saturday on my 2010 SEL AWD, driver's side. Took me about 4 hours with no special tools or experience doing these sort of repairs. Little bit of a pain, but not too terrible. If I had to do it again, I would do this:

 

Thanks for the all the detailed steps and photos.  

I know this is an old thread, but it saved me a whole lot of time today replacing the set heating pad in my 2011 SEL.

 

Here are a few notes to add from my own experience, for anyone new reading this thread:

 - I had trouble depressing the little metal tab to rotate the large black connector.  After using a mirror to look underneath, I pried against the aluminum rivet to bend it a bit.  That loosened up the bracket enough that I could more easily depress the tab. 

- To get the hog rings open, I used a single large needle-nose pliers.  That worked well to put both tips of the pliers inside the hog ring just and pull the handles apart to spread the ring open.

- An inexpensive hog ring pliers worked well to install new hog rings.  After some struggles, what worked for me was carefully bending each new ring most of the way closed before attaching it.  I left them open just enough to get over the metal rods. That made it easier to finish them off with the hog-ring pliers without slipping off.

 

[james1]

Hi, for a 2012 I get the part number AE5Z-14D696-D, wondering if there are any aftermarket options, a dorman product perhaps? Thanks. Hi, for a 2012 I get the part number AE5Z-14D696-D, wondering if there are any aftermarket options, a dorman product perhaps? Thanks. Lots of great tips in here appreciate the info.  

[BlueOval2010]

I looked into the aftermarket stuff too, but bought the Ford parts. The heat pad is a resistive electrical device, and my butt would be sitting on it so I decided the perfect fit part was the best way to go.

 

[Keegan]

Had the exact same problem myself.  Fixed it with the help of this thread, thanks guys!  Thought I'd add my own pictures/thoughts in case it helps anyone else.  

My exact symptoms:  Seat started getting unusually hot, only on the right side of my butt.  One day it got so insanely hot that I had to turn it off.  The next time I turned it on the lights stayed on for a couple seconds then went off.  The seat would no longer heat.  

My diagnosis:  One of two things happened I think. 

1.  The heater wires themselves are VERY fine delicate wires.  My wallet sits right where one of those fine wires is connected to a thicker wire used for going under the second row of hog ties.  Over time, that connection weakened to the point where the wire was nearly broken (but not quite).  That would increase the resistance of the wire in that spot a LOT, and would generate a LOT more heat than the rest of the pad.  Eventually that extra heat caused catastrophic failure of the wire.  Here's a picture of mine, looks just like the others:

2.  The spot I saw (little circular glue dot joining the two different wire types) is also a thermistor?  I don't know, but it's possible.  That thermistor failed and burned up?

 

 

^ Here is a picture of an intact glue dot, and the other end of the big wire (that had burned up).  Its either a wire splice or a thermistor.  Not sure.  

 

I was cheap and decided to fix the wires myself rather than buy a whole new heater pad.  I figure a new one is just going to fail in the same way again, so might as well try to make it better then it was.  The goal was to free up more slack in the wires, and hopefully minimize the stress that gets put on the wires from my butt.  

1.  Carefully cut away the burned sections of felt/wire, and peel apart some of the white felt to free up some slack in both wires.  

 

2.  I stripped the two wires about 0.5 inches back, and soldered them together.  (Sorry about the ugly solder joint, I'm not real good at that yet).  

 

3.  Wrap with electrical tape.  

4.  Cut away some extra foam to make little channels for the wires to hide in, well below my buttocks.  

 

5.  Put it all back together per the other people great instructions.  BE EXTRA CAREFUL TO:  make sure that the plastic bar and metal bar (that those awful hog ties go on are pinching the thick brown wire, NOT the delicate little black one.  You want that delicate black one to be safely tucked into a little channel of foam, not pinched by the weight of your buttocks.