help with heated seat needed

[haviland]

My '17 Expy's heated driver's seat was great (one of my favorite features in a vehicle) until it wasn't. It went to cold instead.

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the problem, but I never used to hear the fan when I activated the heat on the driver's seat. When I heard the fan kick on when I turned on the heater this time, I heard the blower immediately and thought this is different. It was, cold instead of hot.

Warranty expired. Anyone ever have this issue? Any ideas on fixes for a guy who wants no part of disassembling the dashboard? We have a lot more winter left and I'm gonna miss a warm seat!

thanks,

Peter

 

[ManUpOrShutUp]

Heated seats or heated/cooled seats? It won't involve taking apart the dash, but it's likely to involve taking apart your seat.

 

[haviland]

Heated and cooled.

Taking apart the seat? No prob. I have a Sawzall and a Stihl saw.

Seriously, is there much to it?

thanks

 

[ManUpOrShutUp]

Heated and cooled.

Taking apart the seat? No prob. I have a Sawzall and a Stihl saw.

Seriously, is there much to it?

thanks

They're not especially complex, but they are prone to failure and there's a bit involved to change out components. You can get a digital copy of the service manual from eBay to guide you along.

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[haviland]

I ordered the shop manual you suggested, but I'm still not sure if it is a hard copy or not. It says it will be here next Thursday, so it seems weird that if they are sending it digitally it would take that long.

In any event, thanks for suggesting the manual and I hope I can figure it out once I get it.

Peter

 

[cbbco]

I just had the same thing happen today on my 2017 Expedition.

 

[haviland]

Yesterday I looked under the front passenger seat and saw an electrical box and some attached wires and plugs. I wiggled all the fittings I could see and tried to push them together more securely.

Today the heated seat actually heated. I just hope it lasts until the weather turns warmer so I can do a better job of securing the wires.

 

[Frank Swygert]

Sonds like you just had a loose connection. There is a heat/cool seat controller that I was going to point out, looks like you found it. Older models have a controller under each seat, like my 05.

 

[haviland]

Yeah, here it is a week later and the seat is still working fine. I guess it never hurts by trying the simple stuff first.

 

[Mark Buckner]

I am assuming the newer models use the same or very similar system as my 2012 for heated/cooled seats. The same module creates both heat and cool, depending on the polarity of power applied. The module that controls this is located under the passenger seat, as you discovered. It is prone to failure at the molex plug. The ground connection overheats when in use and eventually melts the connection in the plug.

Ford sells a replacement plug pigtail that you can splice in to replace the melted one. I did this on my Expy last fall. It involves removing 4 bolts with a torx plus bit (regular torx is sloppy and may ruin the bolt) to pull the passenger seat. Flip it over and prop it up somehow and begin the snip-and-splice routine. The part for my truck is Motorcraft WPT928; yours is probably a different part since it is so much newer, but you can look at it on The Amazon to at least see what it looks like. You also need a way to properly crimp the butt connectors (includes, along with heat shrink tubing).

The only hassle is that the replacement part is used for a variety of applications, so the wires are not color coded - all black - so you have to be very careful to connect them to the right wire. I used electrician's numbering labels, two of the same numbers on each wire, then cut in between, jsut to be safe. Then numbered the wires on the replacement plug accordingly.

I found numerous YouTube videos on how to do it, some better than others. Hopefully there are some out there for your '17.