heat seats not hot

[stev214]

Good evening I have Toyota  Auris hybrid and find the heated seats are rubbish you switch on I'm within 60 seconds they turn off And don't bother coming back on again has anyone else had this trouble as Toyota to say this is normal  for the heated seats car is a 5/7/ 2016 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Two duplicate threads deleted - no point in posting a new thread more than once, as it just dilutes any responses.

[stev214]

sorry about that when was posting came up error

 

[eygo]

try having the ignition on, then press and hold both heated seat buttonsat the same time it should make a beep

this will put the heaters into manual mode so you turn them on & off.,this works on my IS

don't get me going about johnsons

[stev214]

try that but my switchs is  hi off low but still same 

thanks 

[Phall Curry Lover]

Same buttons on mine so can't hold them down. Mine randomly turns on and off and never gets really hot. Wonder if it's something that's controlled by the hybrid system, but how crap if that's the case. 

[eygo]

do you have leather seats or cloth seats ???

when i had my CT with fabric seats the heaters could cook your backside

i now have an IS with leather seats and the heaters are'nt as good

[chrismorrow]

There is a service bulletin for this issue, had mine sorted other week, they replace the whole unit inside the seat fabric by the looks of things. Il post it up here tomorrow. All I did was ring my local dealer and quote new part numbers and they sorted the rest 

[Devon Aygo]

As Chris says above there is a Technical service bulletin for seat heater issues:

Ref:  BO-0056T-0916

DESCRIPTION OF PHENOMENON

Some customers may experience and report 1 or more of the below phenomena

 Seat heater is not switching ON at cabin temperatures 16°C - 20°C

 Seat heater ON/OFF cycle is too long.

 Once the seat heater switches OFF (target seat temperature achieved, it doesn't switch ON again.

PRODUCTION CHANGE

The seat heater thermostat has been changed.

Cars built from 1st June 2016 have been fixed

Cars built before this need the drivers and passengers seat base foam incl heat pad replaced with modified units.

[ColdAuris]

On 16/07/2016 at 0:05 AM, stev214 said:

try that but my switchs is  hi off low but still same 

thanks 

Stev214 were you able to get your your not so hot seats fixed by Toyotausing the service bulletin info from Devon Aygo?

We just bought a 2014 model with exactly the same issue of the heated seats only ever being on for a sort while at the start of a journey. ☹️

[Rocky2483]

Yes my seats do this too, they are very hit and miss.

When you say 'Technical Service Bulletin' is that a free service offered by Toyota (similar to recalls when I owned Renaults) or do you have to pay?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Aside from DVSA recalls, Toyota highlight issues which may affect their vehicles either by the issue of Technical Service Bulletins (TSB) to their dealerships or via a Voluntary Customer Service Campaign (VCSC).

One can raise a query with one's dealer re whether one's vehicle is affected by a TSB.

One can also use Toyota's recall checker to establish whether one's vehicle has any outstanding recall or VCSC - https://www.toyota.co.uk/owners/vehicle-information/recall-checker-info.json#/iframe/https%3A%2F%2Fforms.toyota.co.uk%2Frecall-checker

In both instances TSB or VCSC work is free of charge to the owner.

[Devon Aygo]

The existence of a TSB is not entitlement to a FOC repair, a TSB would only apply if you take the car to a dealer and actually have a fault related to a TSB and then it would only be FOC if the car is still under warranty, occasionally if the fault is unusual/exceptional in its content an example being the head gasket/oil consumption issues on early AD engine Toyota may apply a warranty extension over and above the standard manufacturers warranty.

The function of a TSB is to speed up diagnosis/repairs in circumstances where an issue may have been found or better repair method is available, saving a dealer from running through sometimes lengthy diagnostic processes and getting repairs completed as quickly/simply as possible.

[Chriss27]

Had my 64 reg hybrid excel go in yesterday for the fix. They fitted new units but couldn’t get them working at all now😧 so although they did use to work for a short period they are now totally dead

[Sherry-57]

On 10/21/2017 at 5:03 PM, Chriss27 said:

Had my 64 reg hybrid excel go in yesterday for the fix. They fitted new units but couldn’t get them working at all now😧 so although they did use to work for a short period they are now totally dead

So, what did you do, Chris? Did they fix it in the end? 

I've just bought a 63 plate Auris Hybrid Excel, which is exhibiting the same issues mentioned here. Car comes with a 3 month warranty - although not sure what, if anything, that will cover for this issue.

[Chriss27]

Hi Sherry, yes they did not have all the parts first time if I remember rightly. It was fixed after a second go and after that the heated seats worked as they should. It was fixed under Toyota warranty as per service bulletin earlier in thread. Hope you get it sorted.  🙂

[Kineticsteve]

On 10/2/2019 at 4:37 PM, Sherry-57 said:

So, what did you do, Chris? Did they fix it in the end? 

I've just bought a 63 plate Auris Hybrid Excel, which is exhibiting the same issues mentioned here. Car comes with a 3 month warranty - although not sure what, if anything, that will cover for this issue.

Did you buy it from a dealer or 2nd hand dealer. 
 

[FROSTYBALLS]

On 10/2/2019 at 4:37 PM, Sherry-57 said:

I've just bought a 63 plate Auris Hybrid Excel, which is exhibiting the same issues mentioned here. Car comes with a 3 month warranty - although not sure what, if anything, that will cover for this issue.

Regardless of the 3 month warranty, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the dealer has an obligation to repair faults within the first six months - see  https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act  -  especially the sections on 'product quality' and 'the first six months'

[Toyota4lyf]

On 10/6/2019 at 7:06 PM, Chriss27 said:

Hi Sherry, yes they did not have all the parts first time if I remember rightly. It was fixed after a second go and after that the heated seats worked as they should. It was fixed under Toyota warranty as per service bulletin earlier in thread. Hope you get it sorted.  🙂

Hi Chris

I'm having this exact issue. I gave the dealership the bulletin and they are only changing the heating element on my 14 plate auris hybrid. When you say they didn't have all the parts the first time round what did you mean? I did say to them seat base foam including heat pad but they showed the bulletin which just said to replace the heat element. Going to see how it goes hooefully its sorted!

[Chriss27]

I think they ordered the wrong part from memory. Hope you get it sorted 

[Gerg]

Just as background: I have taken one of these seats apart apart just to see 'what is what'.

The heating element is inside a fabric layer that sits between the seat foam and the seat cover.

At its rearmost point, so not directly underneath where you sit, there are 2 circular thermostats - one for each temperature setting, as shown here :-

The thermostats, once triggered by the correct rise in temperature, take too long to cycle back to an 'on' state, so the seat is allowed to cool off too much.  Rather than change the 'faulty' thermostats only (which would be fiddly as they are soldered into the wiring), they are replacing the complete heater/thermostat arrangement. 

As far as I can make out, it seems as if the wrong thermostats have been specified or supplied to the seat manufacturer, rather than an electrical failure.

As this is a standard sized component, I investigated if an 'off the shelf' thermostat would work in this application, but the on-off-on temperature range (hysteresis?) of generally available components is too great - they would give the same problem as the original thermostat, if I remember correctly.

Perhaps someone else knows more on this?

HTH. 

[Toyota4lyf]

@Gerg just picked the car up now from Toyota. I feel there is little improvement, albeit the pattern as you described still remains. The heat comes on for maybe 20/25 seconds and then cools off for about 2/3 minutes before coming back on. They did this before the fix, but sometimes wouldn't turn back on. I'm beginning to think they're just designed like this. @chrismorrow how did you find them after the repair? Did they constantly somewhat stay on? Or did they still cool down too much before turning on?

[Toyota4lyf]

4 hours ago, Toyota4lyf said:

Hi Chris

I'm having this exact issue. I gave the dealership the bulletin and they are only changing the heating element on my 14 plate auris hybrid. When you say they didn't have all the parts the first time round what did you mean? I did say to them seat base foam including heat pad but they showed the bulletin which just said to replace the heat element. Going to see how it goes hooefully its sorted!

Did the heat constantly somewhat stay on @Chriss27 or was it a heats up and then cools down for a while before heating back up (after the repair). At least my air con is working 🤞

[Gerg]

We have the heated seats on a 2013 Auris Excel.  We bought the car privately and out of warranty. The seats have not been looked at by Toyota.

The duration of of the initial warm up phase depends on the ambient temperature in the car, from our experience anyway, so in winter they stay on much longer before the thermostat kicks in. We have noticed that if both seats are being sat in, the two seats warm up, turn off, and then turn back on again (over a a few minutes) in almost perfect synchronization, and further heat cycles are similarly in phase.

If your seats have just been 'fixed', then I would  probably expect to be able to see where the technicians fingers have disturbed the (inevitable) dust, that will be around where the seat cover clips to the metal seat frame.

[Toyota4lyf]

3 hours ago, Gerg said:

We have the heated seats on a 2013 Auris Excel.  We bought the car privately and out of warranty. The seats have not been looked at by Toyota.

The duration of of the initial warm up phase depends on the ambient temperature in the car, from our experience anyway, so in winter they stay on much longer before the thermostat kicks in. We have noticed that if both seats are being sat in, the two seats warm up, turn off, and then turn back on again (over a a few minutes) in almost perfect synchronization, and further heat cycles are similarly in phase.

If your seats have just been 'fixed', then I would  probably expect to be able to see where the technicians fingers have disturbed the (inevitable) dust, that will be around where the seat cover clips to the metal seat frame.

When you say turn on/turn off do the seats still stay warm? The issue i find is that in any other car with heated seats the temperature is somewhat maintained wheres this feels like on then off as if it was never on. I'm not happy about the repair but not sure where i can go from here.