Heated seats not working

[Jullian is not my name]

On 1/9/2018 at 10:17 AM, calgator73 said:

2014's use a Peltier module for heating and cooling. ( basically the same module heat and cools by reversing the polarity) they suck. That's why they did away with that for 2015 and up.

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Calgator, are you positive about the heating being done using the peltier?  If so, why is there a heating element in the seats (part 23223775 is for driver Seat Back Heater w/ Ventilated seats).  If you're speaking from personal experience and are sure, that would be helpful, but if you are not positive (and I have my doubts since I have this seat) then I think you may be misleading others.  I'm preparing to replace my elements, and would rather have reliable info.  I have a 2014, and I am about 100% sure the heating is done using heating elements that can be selected for the seat bottom or back and can also say I do not hear a peep from the seat ventilation system when in heat mode.

[calgator73]

Calgator, are you positive about the heating being done using the peltier?  If so, why is there a heating element in the seats (part 23223775 is for driver Seat Back Heater w/ Ventilated seats).  If you're speaking from personal experience and are sure, that would be helpful, but if you are not positive (and I have my doubts since I have this seat) then I think you may be misleading others.  I'm preparing to replace my elements, and would rather have reliable info.  I have a 2014, and I am about 100% sure the heating is done using heating elements that can be selected for the seat bottom or back and can also say I do not hear a peep from the seat ventilation system when in heat mode.

I am positive as to what the dealership told me when I had problems with my heated and cooled seats. I was pretty ticked off that my 2007 Denali at better heated seats than my 2014 Silverado. I also made the comment to him that the cooled seats seem to take an awfully long time and blew a lot of hot air out the seat back. He brought the technician up to me and he explained that this was something new for the Silverado and that there was really no known fix for it. I know sometime in late 2014 on a different Forum or maybe it was early 2015 they made a running production change to change it over to heated and ventilated seats versus heated and cooled seats. I will try to do some research and show you the original thread not that I owe it to you but people feel like they're internet Warriors and everybody is wrong and out to get them. Cheers

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[calgator73]

Here's a thread:
http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/applications/tapatalk/index.php?/topic/175640-Cooled-seats-tip

The cooled function is peltier... the heated function on cooled seats is different though from what I've found. There is a modulator that regulates the current. That didn't exist prior to 14 on these trucks. In 16 they changed the cooling to ventilated.

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[jjmmbd]

I tried the thread and it said it did not exist.  Is there any way you can copy and past for me.    If I am reading this correctly, what you are saying is it is a module, not the entire seat like the dealership told me.   It is just very odd that both seats went out at the same time.

 

[jjmmbd]

Yes they charged me for the diagnostic and told me they didn't know the problem so would have to replace both seats for an estimated $1200 plus labor.   It is terrible if Chevrolet knows this is a problem, and not making it right by customers.  It was an expensive truck.

 

[calgator73]

I tried the thread and it said it did not exist.  Is there any way you can copy and past for me.    If I am reading this correctly, what you are saying is it is a module, not the entire seat like the dealership told me.   It is just very odd that both seats went out at the same time.
 

Try searching for cooled seat tip. I will try to find more detailed information regarding the actual module that runs the heated seats.

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[jjmmbd]

Thank you so much

 

[calgator73]

I'm not diagnosing this but I believe this is the right control module.  23192138

 

Here is something to help you diagnose this.

 

https://gm.oemdtc.com/3607/front-heated-seats-2014-2015-cadillac-chevrolet-gmc-vehicles

 

http://www.silveradosierra.com/interior/2014-sierra-heated-seats-stopped-working-t497625-10.html

 

Best of luck...sorry for being short earlier.

[calgator73]

 

[Jullian is not my name]

Thanks for all the updates calgator, those are helpful for me.  I've got a feeling my seat control module might be the culprit since I also have a problem with the power adjustable pedals.  I'm going to check my wiring and see if I can check the heating element before I decide to start ordering parts.

[Jullian is not my name]

Thanks to the info on PIT5434A (Diagnostic Tips - Front Heated Seats), I was able to determine that both of my driver seat elements are bad.  Using a heated seats wiring diagram, I found that there are 4 wires attached to each Seat Heating Control Module (which is part of each of the blower assemblies).  I started with the driver back element.  There's a Black, Brown, Red/Green, and Green/Blue.  Black is the ground, Brown is the controlled 12V power that switches on to power the element, Red/Green is the B+ (12V power source going to the blower assembly), and Green/Blue is the data line that goes from the seat control module to the heated seat control module.

 

Start off by removing the hard plastic back panel from the seat.  You remove the bungie clips from the bottom, then carefully lift the bottom of the panel high enough to disengage the lower retainers from the seat frame.  Then the tilt the panel to one side, then the other, to disengage the upper retainers.  (note that I followed a bulletin PI1091 where it shows how to do this).  Once the panel is out of the way, the seat back blower is easily accessible.  There's only the 1 plug with 4 wires going to it.  In order to check the resistance on the seat element, I would HIGHLY recomend picking up a back probe kit.  I tried improvising and it never worked well.  So, checking resistance on my multimeter, I could see that this element was at 31 ohms instead of the 7 or so it should have been.  I was also worried that the brown power wire wasn't ever being switched on (I had a suspicion my seat control module was bad).  So I tried checking that on my multimeter, but that did not work.  As PIT5434A says, the voltage keeps switching between on and off constantly, and suggests using a simple test lamp.  So, doing that, I could instantly see that I was indeed getting power over the brown wire.  And even selecting between high/med/low, I could see the switching on & off change rate with the test light.

 

So, now I know that my heating elements are bad.  The next part is going to be the hard part, removing the seat appolstery and replacing the heating elements.  I have not seen ANY info online about doing this for the 2014 -  2018 trucks.  If anyone out there has any info they could provide on the steps, it would be hugely appreciated.  I'll probably order the parts soon, but might be a while before I dig into this project, but I'll update this post once I've done it.

[calgator73]

awesome on getting it isolated! I have no idea on removing the seat covers. I'll do some digging but it might take a bit.

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[Jullian is not my name]

I just finished a how to write up on replacing the seat heaters on the 2014 to 2018 Sierra Silverados.  It got moved to the How To Section here:

 

[jjmmbd]

Thanks so much for the information.  

[Sierra Jon]

Good stuff guys thank you