If anyone from Ford is reading this, just wanted to share a suggestion about the heated seats that you put in the Escape...
You need to have a multiple settings (like BMW with low/med/high) or a thermostat (like VW's with a slider with settings from 1 to 10).

With Ford's on/off switch for the seat heaters, it feels like you have a choice between having it on high (about an 8 out of 10) or not at all. For me, turning on the seat heater immediately liquifies my digestive tract and almost immediately requires a pit stop.

If future models, can you make this seat heater adjustible so I can set it on a 3 (ie thaw my backside but leave my digestive tract alone).

(Sorry for the visual)

Yea, but it's fun to leave the one turned on for the passenger seat & then watch the reaction of an unsuspecting passenger as it gets smoking hot..... ;-)

~John

Pictures of a few of the modifications I have made to the truck:

http://www.pbase.com/jmorton10/inbox&page=all

TMI TMI TMI!!!!!

I would be happy if they just put the switch somewhere you could SEE it and REACH it. Did they fix it for the 08's??? As it is, the switch stays on even if you turn the vehicle off...and you have to open the door to see if the light is on.

I've never seen a vehicle with the seat heater switches NOT located on the dash or center console. Lazy and cheap is the only explanation here.

-Tim

2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid AWD
Black with Pebble interior
Premium Package with Nav & Moonroof



Current ODO: 22,909
Typical Drive: 20 min crosstown in heavy traffic (3.5mi there and back twice a day)


457 Gallons of gas saved
That's 9,150 lbs less CO2

Some of the older Explorers are even worse. I work at a car dealer & I was stocking in an older Explorer with heated leather the other day.

The switch/LED on that truck is not visible unless you actually get out of the truck & look at the seat sideways. That truck had the exact same switches as my 06 FEH, but instead of pointing up they point out towards the door & push in towards the center of the vehicle to turn on/off. The LED is not visible at all until you get out of the truck.........

I installed two LED's in the dash of my 06 to alert me whether the seats where on/off.

~John

Pictures of a few of the modifications I have made to the truck:

http://www.pbase.com/jmorton10/inbox&page=all

Yes, they did finally (they have been screwed up for years)

The 08's are on the dash.

~John

Pictures of a few of the modifications I have made to the truck:

http://www.pbase.com/jmorton10/inbox&page=all

I don't think different settings would make that much difference for me. In my Outback, I had three settings:

Low--too low to notice
Medium--closer, but still not warm enough
High--way too hot!

Driving the Outback, I spent most of the time toggling between medium and high depending on how warm I wanted to be. In the MMH, the seat warmer is about the perfect temperature when I want it warm. It cools down after a while, but a click on and off (of the relatively convinient dash button in '08) and it's warm again. I guess my point is that a poorly designed rheostat is just as bad (or worse) than a simple on/off switch...

Commuter car, grocery getter, and summer road tripper--average 10k miles per year.


Winter road trips and ski trips, bad weather commuter and my wife's "daily" driver--expected average 4k miles per year.

I don't have heated seats. But what is stopping you all from cutting and splicing a "dimmer switch" from your local hardware store?

Check the AMP draw ( volts is a non-issue ) of the car seat heater, and get a dimmer switch for your car that can take it. Put the FEH on "high" and leave it there, and turn the dimmer down to your perfect liking.

Who can tell me why that won't work?
( like I said, I don't have one, but if I did, I would at least try that )
-John

I agree. My wife drives a Jaguar & her car has different heat settings.

I basically do the same thing you do in either vehicle.....

In the Escape, I like how fast the seat heats up. I have driven tons of cars with heated seats & I have never seen a seat heat up as fast as the Escape does. Then, after it's hot I toggle it a few times which doesn't bother me a bit.


~John

Pictures of a few of the modifications I have made to the truck:

http://www.pbase.com/jmorton10/inbox&page=all

I'm not sure if that would work or not. The temperature is not a constant thing. They heat up to a nice temperature and then aren't actively "warmed" for a while--then they kick in again maybe every 15 minutes. I don't know if that is controlled by a thermostat or just some sort of timer. If it's a thermostat, your solution would work. If it's controlled by something else, you wouldn't neccessarily have the desired result.

Regardless, my experience has been that heated seats don't last long before you start having problems. I developed a short after about a year in the Outback and had the driver's seat unit replaced under warranty. If you were to mod the seat, I doubt Ford would warranty any problems....

Commuter car, grocery getter, and summer road tripper--average 10k miles per year.


Winter road trips and ski trips, bad weather commuter and my wife's "daily" driver--expected average 4k miles per year.