I seem to have heated seat problems. I was driving around with a passenger and they wanted to test out the heated seats, so we both turned them on, and in about 2 mins, my driver side seat felt like my back was on fire, meanwhile, there seat was still cold. We left it on for a few minutes and still nothing, we figured something was wrong.

So when I left later that night from there house I left the seat on for about 20 mins until I got home and the seat was still cold.

So I took it to mazda today and left it there in the morning. I picked it up at lunch for them to tell me nothing was wrong, its working fine.

They told me you can only feel the heated seat if you sit in it, not by putting your hand on it.. i dont think that is true, because you can feel my driver side seat really hot when you touch it.

I'm going to try tonight and test out the passenger side again, but I still don't think its working properly.

How long before your seat warms up? Does the car have to be driven around a bit and warmed up before it starts working really well? I seem to have no problem at all with the driver side, it warms up like there is a fire under my *** and on my back.. but no luck with the passenger side.

One good thing was they also did the fuel tank recall while I left my car at the mazda dealership and they upgraded to the newest flash, even though the lady at the front desk didnt know which one it was and I didnt have time to ask too many people to figure it out.

Well if anyone has any suggestions, im all ears!
Thank you

 

well it depends. I dont think you can feel it with your hand, i've never been able to anyways. For me, the drivers seat heat up pretty quick, a minute or two, but then cool down and kind of stay luke warm.

If they say your seat heater is working, it probably is, since the heat isn't that strong where a t-shirt or somethig thin like that so you can feel the heat. I doubt you would feel anything if you were wearing a sweater.

 

I think I have the same problem. For some reason my passenger seat's heat is much weaker than the driver seat's. I turned it on for a friend when sending her home on a cold night, and she only felt a little heat for the lower back after 5 minutes. I put my hand on the seat after she left, and I felt only what I think was body heat.

 

Hmm...my RX8 has heated seats but they too seem week. My Saab 900 Convertible had heated seats and those would get so hot that your bum would start to sweat..... my 8's heated seats seem very weak when compared to other (non-Mazda) seats....maybe this is a warranty item for me too.

 

First, where do you live? I'm curious what the outside temperature is there.

My seats heat up in a few minutes, but only if it's cold enough. They're like the thermostat in the house - you can turn it on, but over a certain temperature they won't come on at all. (Like during the summer - if it's 90 F outside, hitting the heated seat button does nothing.)

But in winter they work okay. They're not blazing hot, but warm enough for me.

However, I do complain about the car's heater, specifically the foot wells. The warm air isn't aimed directly at my feet, and I have cold toes most of the time I'm driving in the winter.

 

I'm very interested in this too because when I was shopping for the car I was very interested in the heated seats, and when I tried them they didn't seem to do anything. I was assured that this was because, being May, the weather was too warm to feel the seats. I wasn't really convinced, but I tried the heated seats in a number of their cars (all Mazdas), and none of them seemed to be doing anything either. Now, in my friends' cars (Audi and VW), the heated seats are VERY noticeably hot-- that was what convinced me I *really* wanted heated seats. I'm waiting for winter for the real test, but so far I'm pretty pessimistic about how good these heated seats are...

Krankor
05 Shinka 6MT

 

Omicron pointed out last winter (and I tend to agree) that the seats seem to have some thermostatic tie to the climate control temperature controller - the hotter that **** is set, the warmer the seats get.

As far as the rest of the info:

1) They aren't has strong as other cars I've had with heated seats.

2) Every car I've had with heated seats, you cannot feel them unless you're sitting on them - they work by conduction, and they usually have an airgap built into the heat pad - no weight on seat, no heat to the surface. This is to save the seat materials from premature aging from heat.

3) Every car I've ever had with these (and this is my 5th), I've noticed it takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes to begin to get noticably warm.

That's my experience.

 

firstly,

my seat heaters work great...both sides, and i have never had any problems at all. for the life of me i cant figure out why yours arn't working right on the passenger side. if they use seperate heating devices, maybe just the one is out and/or bad. the mazda service techs should know this. if they dont, take it to a different dealer. it should be noted though, that the seat warmers are effected by how much that dial is turned on the console.

cleoent,

feeling the heat from the seat isnt a problem, even with a hooded sweatshirt on. i havn't tried wearing a full-on winter jacket, but i can definitely notice a change in seat temperature with anything else on me. the seat warmers are actually pretty powerful, alot more than expected!

 

The owner's manual says,
"NOTE
The thermostat regulates seat temperature by turning the current on and off."

If you have the the temperature set low, your seats won't heat up. Of course, that doesn't explain why yours would heat up and the passenger's wouldn't.

I've also noticed that it feels a lot cooler with my hand than it does when I'm sitting on it.

 

Just a quick update... I actually think I fixed the seat myself. Before I took the car into mazda, I popped up the panel under the shifter and checked to see if the two connecters were pushed in properly. Both seemed to be snug.. but I wanted to make sure both were actually connected before I took it to mazda and wasted theirs and my time and both seemed to be connected properly, but I pushed them in as tight as I could before I dropped it in to mazda. Then I was told they were working properly. And now they seem to be ok, I tested it out last night with a passenger and the passenger seat actually warmed up. I didn't adjust the climate control once.. it's been on the coldest setting ever since I got the car... so that had nothing to do with it.

But I live in Canada (ontario).. so I thought i'd better get the seat warmers in proper running condition before this winter.

Thanks for all the suggestions though and possibilities. I'm just going to continue to test the seats to make sure they are working still.

 

Stick them suckers in your cupholders while driving.

 

This isn't true. If you look at the wiring diagrams, you'll notice that the two systems are completely independent. The seat heaters reach the same ultimate temperature whether the dial is set at max cold or max hot.

This should be read, “The thermostat (for the seat heater) regulates seat temperature by turning the current on and off." Simply meaning that when the seats reach a predetermined temperature, the current is switched off and on to maintain that temperature. i.e., there is no way to variably adjust the current like with a potentiometer. This supports my statement above.

 

I think the seats are thermostatic control and work off your car heater control setting. Your heater control has to be turned up for the seats to be heated.

OOPES, just read the previous above post. I may be wrong on this.

 

you'll barely feel the heat from the seats in the winter if your wearing a jacket/sweater but it does help.. It's not burn your back heated (like hondas have burn your back heat) but it'll help out. I find it works best when your actually sitting in the seat while it's warming up, takes a lot less time (ie, body heat


mrJynx

 

I have yet to test the heated seats since I bought my car in summer (June)

but in a month or 2 ... I should be able to tell if its hot enough
(actually not gonna be me, since I never tried the passenger seat myself .... My girlfriend will tell me)

 

Does anybody have a copy of this wiring diagram that shows the seat circuit? My drivers seat seems to shut off very early so I might have a defective thermostat. I don't trust my dealer to find it. Thanks. If you don't want to post it you can PM me.

Thanks!

 

I agree with Socr8tes, when I test drove my 8, I had the air conditioner on, it is Florida and even in the middle of September it was warm and my wife turned her seat heater on and after about 2-3 minutes she felt the seat getting much warmer.

 

I noticed in my 04 that I could not feel the driver's side seat warmer at all, neither to the touch of my hand nor my **** in the seat; and passengers noticed only a subtle warming. I tested a passenger by asking her (rx8=female passenger) to sit in when the seats were cold (ambient temp was about 10 F at the time) and let me know when she felt heat. I switched on only the drivers side and covered both switches with my hand so the passenger could not know this. The passenger noticed a slight warming after several minutes despite the heater being switched off. Perhaps this was just due to conductive heat transfer from body to leather.

I took the car to a dealer and was told that both seat warmers needed to be replaced. They are sending my car to a local upholstery shop to do the work which makes me a bit nervous, but less nervous than an ASE tech stitching them back up. I will post the results.

 

They don't have to unstitch the seats to replace the heaters, just unsnap the bottom fastners and take some of the padding out. However, it is difficult to get them back together and have them look right when done. They are doing the right thing.

 

than Mercedes, Porsche or for that matter any German car.

Our MB E320 had a 2 level setting and the high setting would burn your backside if left on too long.

Our Mazda gets warm rather than hot; two other Ford products we've driven seem to have the same setup on heat out put--warm not hot.

I'd guess it's a manufacturer decision as to how hot they want those seats to get

 

I had to have both seat warmers replaced in my car. They work much better now but you do need to sit on them to feel it.

 

Both of mine actually work well. But since my friends like to turn mine on when it doesn't need to be on. I switched the switches so if they turn mine on, it's actually turning there's on.

 

I finally took the car in to have the seats fixed. Both heaters had a short, it took 2 days for Mazda to get the car back from the upholstery shop. The seats are nice and toasty at the flick of a switch now. They heat up quickly, and you can feel it with your hand even if you haven't sat down in the seat yet. Now they work a little too well, after only a few minutes they almost get hot, but by that time I can just switch them off anyhow.