Well I decided to tackle my heated seats in the 2000 excursion diesel today, well one of them anyhow, the passengers side, in case i messed up i could leave it apart and my wife could still go to work i figure..

I would give this repair a rating of 4 out of 10 difficulty just because it involves soldering wires, although you might be able to butt connect them but i would not suggest it since the heating element wires are tiny tiny tiny!!

So here is my tools i started with did not really even need them all so i will name the ones you will need.. 1 Phillips screwdriver, 1 soldering iron, some flux (makes the solder stick), and some silver solder, a set of needle nose pliers, and a long flat tip screwdriver.



First lift up the recline lever and remove the phillips screw under that, then slide the flattip screwdriver under the **** and pop that off just pry a little and it will come right off, there will be another phillips screw under the **** remove that one also, now remove the plastic cover on the recline lever with the phillips screw in the center of the plastic, ok now to the back of the seat, remove the plastic christmas tree fastener holding the back on, now pull the cover over the recline lever and let it dangle from the front screws you do nto need to remove them but you do need to disconnect the wires from the switch to the heated seat to get the fabric off. this is a picture of the **** and lever plastic cover i took off also you can see the christmas tree fastner i broke taking out. ( these are laying in the door pocket for storage tell i was ready to reinstall)



Now look under the front of the seat there is a white plastic strip that hold the seat fabric on it just goes over a flat piece of metal so you can just peel it off and push down on the front of the seat cushion that will give it some slack, and it will come off with your hand , it goes on flat metal kinda like door edging.



OK now peel that seat cover back over the foam, you may need to use the needle nose pliers to remove the 3 hog rings in the first valley to the cushion to get a comfortable work area, you just use the needle nose pliers and rotate the rings and they will come off.. you will see the problem area pretty easy after its rolled back



OK here is my burned wires towards the center console side of the seat they were burned good along with the foam..





there was about 6 inches of total wire burned to crisps here they are removed



Now here is the other side of the seat, the wires look good so im going to leave them alone, beside i might want something to fix later on too..





OK heres the wires cut and stripped read to be tinned with solder and have my new wire soldered in



And heres it repaired and working good! nice warm elements again! i used i believe 12 gauge wire to repair it, could be 14 gauge though i just cut it out of a old harness i had laying around..



I gave it a little extra wire and pushed it down in the valley so it would not be so tight like the factory ones. putting it all back togeather is just reversed im sure you can figure it out.

Well hope you enjoyed my little write up.. now i will make my wife drive everywhere so i can enjoy the passenger side heat tell i fix the Drivers hehehe!

Ray

 

Great write up! Just what I have been waiting for. Reps Given.

 

Excellent write up. I haven't gotten around to tackling the driver seat yet. Maybe this weekend. I hope it is an "easy" fix like yours, b-uno, but I will find out. Thanks again.

 

well got the drivers working it was just a break in the heating element on the front of the seat.. simple solder and electrical tape and its all good..



im showing you in the picture what wires to check for resistance, if theres continuity its good, if theres no infinaty resistance it has a break in the wire.you can probe this plug after you disconnect it from under the seat and push around on the common areas on the seat with without taking it apart and somtimes you can see where the break is if you push in a certain area and the meter starts reading. both wires are lt blue with pink tracer. the red wire in this pic is just a wire from my meter to fit into the plug since the poker on that probe is busted off.






Good luck its pretty easy though, i suggest checking the resistance before removing the cover just in case its the controller instead..

Ray

 

Thanks for this thread guys. I recently bought a 01 f250 lariat. Heated seats didnt work but the light on the switch came on. I took the seat apart to look for the burn and found nothing. Like a rookie I THEN checked for continuity and found the they had resistance.... Popped the hood and noticed a large fuse was missing in the fuse box. Put in a 30 amp and both seats work great. Previous owner didnt like heated seats I guess. For the record, the light on the seat switch will light without the fuse under the hood in place.

My 99 Navigator hasnt had heat in the seats since 2004... Followed the procedure above for the drivers side and found the burned spot and repaired it. Works great, I will tackle the passenger side tomorrow.

Thanks for the good advice!

 

Great write up and pics b-uno. Repped..

 

Does anyone know exactly where the fuse is for the 2000 EX seat warmers ?

 

I can tell you where a 2003 fuse is located and such. But, that may not help you. I got my information from the PDF copy of the owner's manual I downloaded from;

https://www.flmowner.com/servlet/Con...e&ord=72805035

You might want to download one for your vehicle. It's free. There are also other documents such as the diesel supplement.

 

I wonder if I can just twist a new wire in there since I don't have a soldering gun?

 

Getting in and out will cause movement. Such movement can cause the twisted wires to become loose. Loose wires cause shorts. Shorts are a cause for blown fuses.

I would suggest that you pick up a good soldering gun, some thin soldering wire, and some flux. Or, I would expect that, you will be wasting the time you have already spent, along with the time you will -as yet- spend, doing this repair.

I have the two range w/ the light on the front. Oh, and some times an alligator clip, or two, come in handy to hold the connection stable while you are soldering.

I do not want to sound flippant here, but......
You decided to take this project on. If you want to feel confident of the repair, and your decision to do the manly thing, I would suggest that you need to follow through and do the repair the right way with the right tool(s).

And once you have the iron, or gun, you will find uses for it's use around the house.

Once you buy a tool it will be there, dutifully waiting, for the next time you need to put it into service.
Oh ya, pick me! Pick me! Pick ME!

 

SUBSCRIBING

 

perfect! i just noticed the drivers heated seat in my '00 limited doesnt work so i'll pull it apart here soon as i'd like to have it before winter! awsome write up b-uno

 

Thanks, I picked up a gun and haven't actually started yet because it has been in the 90s everyday........I'm getting fussy in my old age. I really don't want to do it twice
Pick me! pick me! ha ha.

 

you bought a 00 ex? sweeeettt! got a write up on it yet? what eng?

 

Ray, thank you for taking the time to post these pictures. I just repaired my seat today using your pictures as a guide. I estimate that you just saved me about $400. Thanks again. Doug. Tulsa Ok.