Heated seats not working

[gundog10]

I have a 2014 Silverado 1500 LTZ Z71 with heated and cooled seats. The seats barely get warm on high. My last 7 vehicles have had heated seats that all worked fine. My wife's 2012 Impala LTZ will run you out if you leave it on high. I just got on this forum to see if I was the only one having problems. 3,500 miles and ready to take it in for service and have the seats checked. Quiet, firm ride, great handling truck.

[robsieb]

Maybe a bit off-topic here but I'm having a similar issue but with a different setup. My All Terrain has heated seats but no A/C. The heat works fine when you get in and manually turn it on but I've found that even though I have the option enabled under vehicle settings they seem to not heat at all when using remote start. At first I thought it might be that it just hadn't been running long but I let it run the and shut itself off after the first ten minutes and then restarted it remotely to give it another 10 minutes, went out and seats were still cold. Just curious if anyone else has seen this issue?

[2016 Sierra Owner]

Maybe a bit off-topic here but I'm having a similar issue but with a different setup. My All Terrain has heated seats but no A/C. The heat works fine when you get in and manually turn it on but I've found that even though I have the option enabled under vehicle settings they seem to not heat at all when using remote start. At first I thought it might be that it just hadn't been running long but I let it run the and shut itself off after the first ten minutes and then restarted it remotely to give it another 10 minutes, went out and seats were still cold. Just curious if anyone else has seen this issue?

Ok here we go again. Thank god for copy and paste I can reply like this over and over. (This should be made a sticky by now. lol) The seats in these new trucks are NOT like what you expect from previous years or other manufacturers. Thank GM for that. They do come on but, at a very very low setting. Think of it as a preheat. Once you get in and turn the key hit the heated seat button and they should get warm within a minute. However at really cold temps it may take a little longer.

[philbun]

The back portion of my seat gets hot. But I have been questioning the bottom part working or not. I can't really tell if it's working or not. Is there a way to tell if they are working. I touch the bottom and it feels a lot cooler than the back.

[LSTech]

I have had the truck 3 months. The Heated seats performance was ok but not stellar. Last few drives my wife and I noticed they were barely on. Today it's -25 c and driving around for a 1/2 hour and my butts numb. Booked to have it looked at this week. Chevy should just stick a couple steering wheel heaters in the seats cause they work great !

[fuzzkh]

We all need to complain to GM about this. I just had a "chat" session with a guy at GM customer service. All he asked is what would you like me to do about it. Maybe I'm hyper sensitive today because of how cold it is (-5 at the moment). But we all spent a lot of money on these new vehicles and the seat heaters are very poor at best. Call me a wimp. I don't care

[supersierra14]

So, I have a 14 Sierra, with heated seats. Right now, when set on 3 bars, my butt is on fire! Seems like 1 bar is just right. As for the remote start heated seats, they will not heat up like they are on 3 bars...maybe like a 1/2 bar. I hate to hear that people are having these issues. I feel really lucky right now.

[philbun]

I wonder if the people having problems like myself all have the heated and cooled version.

[fuzzkh]

I've wondered the same thing. In order to get air movement through the seat for cooling, the heating element is too far away from the surface to be effective. However, that doesn't explain why it's so intermittent in my case, and why sometimes the back works and other times it doesn't. Also, this isn't the only vehicle that's been manufactures with heated and cooling seats. Others have both that work.

[pm26]

I think that GM is being purposely conservative about their seat heaters and this is why they utilized a programmable module to conrol the heat cycle. Some manufacturers, like VW actually had a runaway heated seat issue where people got physically burned on their butts by too hot seats, and some seat covers were literally scorched. It was funny, but not for VW who was slapped with multiple law suits. So I am not surprised that manufacturers are careful about controlling the heat output of these heaters.

[rjgvt]

So, I have a 14 Sierra, with heated seats. Right now, when set on 3 bars, my butt is on fire! Seems like 1 bar is just right. As for the remote start heated seats, they will not heat up like they are on 3 bars...maybe like a 1/2 bar. I hate to hear that people are having these issues. I feel really lucky right now.

 

My truck works like yours. I just picked up my 2014 GMC Sierra 1500 Double Cab Z71 this past Friday. Truck has the heated cloth seats, no cooling. Temp was -12*F when I picked it up and was under 0*F all weekend. My heater works great on my seats. High setting heats up quick and I usually set it to 2 and then 1 after a bit. Dealer had ordered several SLE's with Value Package, 5.3L, 3.42, Z71 and heated cloth seats. The heated seats are one of my favorite things I like about the truck since we are in an artic freeze right now.

[1kwik72]

FYI the heated seat systems in these newer vehicles are a lot more complicated than most people realize. With as much electrical crap that is on these things a high current draw item like a seat heater needs to be monitored very closely. I can see where the original posters issue may have been corrected by replacing the battery. It may not make sense to some but GM has been using load shedding strategy's in their vehicles for years. It has become more aggressive in the last few years when they started putting amp clamps on the battery cable to measure battery current draw/charging in real time. Basically look at it this way you have 150amps available from the alternator to run every electrical device on the truck. With the advent of electric power steering assist, the hotrod infotainment system, the inverter that runs the 110V outlet etc etc etc. The body control module PCM and other modules will monitor the charging status of the vehicle if the load is too great and the battery starts to discharge the various modules will go into a load shed strategy turning off low priority functions until the load can be managed. This can be aggravated by low speed driving where the alternator does not produce full output.

 

Does it suck that they have to "choose" like that yes. Under most circumstances the truck will operate normally but put it at -20° turn everything on with a cold alternator and battery at idle and guess what the computer is going to do as it was programmed to do and make sure the battery gets recharged first before your butt gets warmed.

 

The problem is we are at the end of our rope with the 12.6V battery and 14V charging systems. Manufacturers have been working toward higher voltage systems (36V / 48V charging) to give them some needed headroom to run all of the crap we have had them add to our vehicles. The problem is the infrastructure that supports the current 12V system is dug in pretty hard and resistant to change. Just think of all the companies that make small stuff like light bulbs and LED lights. If a car manufacturer pulled the plug on 12V first off they would need someone to build the new stuff and imagine the fall out from the 12v guys who were left behind.

 

It is coming I was in training classes on the stuff 5 years ago and they said it should be here by now. It just is moving very slowly.

 

i guess what I am saying is when the GM engineers say it is "working as designed" i get it....... it sucks but I get it

 

Craig

[pm26]

FYI the heated seat systems in these newer vehicles are a lot more complicated than most people realize. With as much electrical crap that is on these things a high current draw item like a seat heater needs to be monitored very closely. I can see where the original posters issue may have been corrected by replacing the battery. It may not make sense to some but GM has been using load shedding strategy's in their vehicles for years. It has become more aggressive in the last few years when they started putting amp clamps on the battery cable to measure battery current draw/charging in real time. Basically look at it this way you have 150amps available from the alternator to run every electrical device on the truck. With the advent of electric power steering assist, the hotrod infotainment system, the inverter that runs the 110V outlet etc etc etc. The body control module PCM and other modules will monitor the charging status of the vehicle if the load is too great and the battery starts to discharge the various modules will go into a load shed strategy turning off low priority functions until the load can be managed. This can be aggravated by low speed driving where the alternator does not produce full output.

 

Does it suck that they have to "choose" like that yes. Under most circumstances the truck will operate normally but put it at -20° turn everything on with a cold alternator and battery at idle and guess what the computer is going to do as it was programmed to do and make sure the battery gets recharged first before your butt gets warmed.

 

The problem is we are at the end of our rope with the 12.6V battery and 14V charging systems. Manufacturers have been working toward higher voltage systems (36V / 48V charging) to give them some needed headroom to run all of the crap we have had them add to our vehicles. The problem is the infrastructure that supports the current 12V system is dug in pretty hard and resistant to change. Just think of all the companies that make small stuff like light bulbs and LED lights. If a car manufacturer pulled the plug on 12V first off they would need someone to build the new stuff and imagine the fall out from the 12v guys who were left behind.

 

It is coming I was in training classes on the stuff 5 years ago and they said it should be here by now. It just is moving very slowly.

 

i guess what I am saying is when the GM engineers say it is "working as designed" i get it....... it sucks but I get it

 

Craig

There is one serious problem you run into when you start introducing 36 and 48 Volt systems in vehicles: possibility of electrocution. DC voltage around 35 Volts starts to get hazardous to humans because at this voltage and higher voltages enough potential is available to break down the skin resistance and induce a potentiall lethal current flow through human body. Note that only 50 miliamps (1/20 of an Amp) is required to induce heart fibrillation in some people. This will not happen with 12 Volts or even 24 Volts because this potential is not high enough to break the skin resistance to allow any significant current flow through the body.

 

You cannot get electrocuted with a 12 Volt battery, no matter how large just by touching both terminals at the same time. However, 10 ordinary car batteries connected in series for the ouput voltage of 120 Volts is a lethal electrocution device that would kill a human instantly if one touched both free terminals at the same time.

 

Why people do not get electrocuted by touching for exmaple spark plug wire boot when the engine is running, where voltages as high as 20,000 volts are present? It will not hurt you because although the potential is high, there is not enough current available to do any damage. Similarly, static spark voltages are as high as 50,000 Volts, but the current available is negligible, so not hazard. To get electrocuted, you need both the voltage above the required treshold, and high enough curent capcity to induce the lethal curent flow (may be as low as 50 miliamps).

Edited January 8, 2014 by pm26

[1kwik72]

 

There is one serious problem you run into when you start introducing 36 and 48 Volt systems in vehicles: possibility of electrocution. DC voltage around 35 Volts starts to get hazardous to humans because at this voltage and higher voltages enough potential is available to break down the skin resistance and induce a potentiall lethal current flow through human body. Note that only 50 miliamps (1/20 of an Amp) is required to induce heart fibrillation in some people. This will not happen with 12 Volts or even 24 Volts because this potential is not high enough to break the skin resistance to allow any significant current flow through the body.

They will go to it at some point they have been working on it for a while. I agree with you regarding the higher voltage and potential of shock. That brings up one of the reasons they are looking at going with the higher voltages. They will be going with higher voltage & lower current draw components (same wattage) which allows them to run smaller gauge wire reducing the mass of the wiring harness improving fuel economy. Not that I would be looking forward to working on stuff with smaller wires as some of them are pretty fragile as it is. But from an engineering standpoint it makes sense, there are just a bunch of hurdles to clear before it becomes a reality.

 

In the mean time we have to deal with them stuffing 10lbs of you know what in a 5lb bag.

 

Craig

[LSTech]

UPDATE to original post. Forget the voltage shedding theory.... the fricking things are broke & don't work !

 

Truck in for service 01/10/14 - issue with seat heat not working confirmed - dealer ordered new BCM

 

Truck in for service 01/31/14 - BCM did not fix - dealer ordered new heated seat modules - Special order ETA unknown ( translation - no parts available )

 

02/12/14 - Called dealer for update - dealer still has no idea when parts may be available or even if the modules will fix it .

 

Trying to go up the chain to get some answers - hate the fact I paid extra for a feature that lasted less than 6000 km's

 

Too many changes - been with Chevy too long should have gone with the competition. Then I could have other problems Should have gone with last years model...