I need to find a guy like this. I got a quote of $300 to repair the leftmost portion of the cushion. Mine just got a tear. I know that's outrageous, but have not had the time to look further yet.

 

Off road canvas seat covers, or Bone Yard of choice ($25- $30). But SWMBO will know that split is down there, even if covered by a $200 sheepskin.

 

Actually, my wife rarely drives this vehicle, and it ME that's OCD... I NEED it fixed soon, or I'll be in the hospital with a stress related condition. I don't like little things wrong with my cars, it drives me a little batty.

 

You have an oil spot on one side of the truck.

 

<p>DOH!!!

 

Dear D2 forum

Here's an update on the heated seat repair I did on or about Sept 2012

In Jan 2015, the driver side heated seat stopped working. The repair lasted a little more than two years.

I did the repair by soldering the broken wires together and then using a small plastic wire connector to protect the mend. The fix could not handle the daily wear and tear on the driver's seat.

Any suggestions on how to make a permanent or longer lasting fix for this?

Thanks!

Al
2003 D2 SE7

 

Suggestion is: Buy a new element and instal it.

And, I'll also post a follow up... I did repair my seat heater myself, found the continuity test to all be positive. Had the mentioned upholstery guy repair my seat, which actually ended up being around $200 for new vinyl (S Model) on the lower portion of the seat, along with new aircraft spec foam bolsters on both sides of the bottom. The door side was worn down from ingress and egress along with some torn vinyl. Also the J hooks were broken, which attach the fabric to the underside of the seat frame, which made access to the element easy... but did look natty.

Now regrettably the seat heater is intermittent and seems to only work when it's really really cold, sometimes. Now that I have a perfect looking and feeling seat I don't really want to rip into it again to fix that heater.

My biggest regret is that I should have just replaced the element while the seat was apart. Especially since it doesn't really cost that much money.

If anyone in Seattle is looking for upholstery work check out "Classic Interior Restoration" in Ballard... The guy does great work at a fair price, but he doesn't do seat heaters... And as a bonus he is just around the block from Lamorna Garage.

 

thanks Dave

Is it difficult to install a new heating element? Are there any posts in the forum that show how to do this job?

I got a quote from my mechanic and he wants $100 for the part (new heating element) and $250 labor to take the seat out and bring it to his upholstery guy. Probably a fair price since it will take anyone two hours to remove the seat, drive the chair to the upholstery shop, pick it up and reinstall. But the price just looks high for a stupid heated seat.

Is there a "short-cut" way to replace the heating element without removing the driver's seat?

Thank you

 

You can replace the element yourself without removing the seat if you are up for a few hours of work. I found reasonable instructions by google searching. The Rave also has a good seat assembly diagram.

Short version, carefully remove plastic trim around seat base, notice J hooks, which are long plastic strips sewn to the seat fabric which hook around the bottom of the seat frame to hold the fabric taut. These break and the stitching comes apart if you are not careful.

Once that is done you can peel back the squab (fabric covering bottom seat cushion) to reveal the element. recline the seat all the way to access the back of seat bottom under the upright portion where the wires go through.

Carefully unhook, or cut off the hogrings holding the squab to the crossbars in the cushion. It's easier to just cut them and use new ones when replacing the squab however I was careful enough to re use the existing ones. this can be tedious so that depends on how patient you are.

Once you get the squab back all the way (you don't need to completely remove it) peel the element off the foam and spray glue the new one in its place. Hook up molex connector and reverse process to finish.

This is where I took the seat out and went to the upholstery shop to have the broken foam bolsters repaired and new vinyl installed on the lower half of the seat. The only reason you have to remove the seat is because upholstery shop guys don't want to. The guy I used required that I remove and bring him the seat or he wouldn't do the work. Otherwise if all you need is the element and no fabric or foam repair you can do it in the truck without removal of the whole seat.

A new element is about $60 online.