My heated seats get REAL hot faster than any other heated seat I have ever used, but then the heat does back off for a while. If I leave the switch on, the seat will eventually get real hot again so they seem to cycle on & off(or to a lower temp).

I kinda like the way the heat works except for the asinine position of the switch. I will soon be installing a couple small LED's in the dash that will alert me when either seat is turned on(I bought the LED's, I just haven't had time to do it yet).

Some Ford Explorers have an even stupider switch setup(If that's possible). In an Explorer I was checking out at work last week, it used the same switch as an Escape but it was on the side of the seat & instead of facing up like the Escape the switch is pointing sideways towards the driver/passenger door. At least with the Escape setup, I can look down & see if the driver seat switch is turned on, in the Explorer you would have to get out & have the door open to see it.........

~John

 

Somebody else posted this same observation here a while back. I haven't been able to figure out if it is 100% true, but it does seem that it may work that way to me also.

~John

 

Going by the wiring diagram, the seats do not have any sort of timer.

The switch on the seats themselves, controls the full current draw of the heater. For some reason, even though there is a relay, the switches do not enable/disable the relay. The relay is 'on', whenever the ignition key is 'on'.

The switch is lock-on and lock-off (ie, not momentary), and if pressed 'on', will stay 'on' forever (until pressed again). It does not reset back to 'off' when the ignition key is turned 'off'.

There does appear to be a thermostat built into the heating element itself. I guess kind-of like an electric blanket. So, if the heating element reaches a pre-set temperature, it will cycle 'off' until the heating element cools off enough to allow it to cycle back 'on' again.

BTW, the '08 seems to be designed completely different. The difference is a lot more than simply moving the switches to the center dash.

 

I was playing with my heated seats on the way to work this morning. It was not freezing cold out, but the temp when I left was around 30º

I have a 22 mile drive to work & turned on just the seats as I left my driveway(I did not turn the vehicle heat on at all). The seats immediately became quite hot & stayed very warm for probably 5 miles, then seemed to cool off.

I left the seat switch on & as I got to around five miles from work, the seat again became very warm & then the heat backed off again as I arrived at work.

~John

 

Sounds exactly like a properly working thermostat.
If you use cabin heat, in the 2005-2007's there are heating ducts in the floor under both driver and passenger front seats, to provide heat to rear passengers. The more heat you provide by this means, the less the seat heaters need to cycle.

Everything I've read sounds 100% like it's a properly working thermostat.

 

The heated seat buttons in my '08 FEH are with the rest of the climate control buttons and have LEDs to indicate they are on. They only have one setting, "ON", and get butt-burning hot very fast. According to the manual, they shut off after 15 minutes. But we've never been able to take more than about 5 minutes of it, even when it was near zero outside.

It's a small detail, but it's one of the few things that has been a disappointment about owning a FEH. Other makers' designs (Subaru, VW/Audi) include a 4 position switch and a thermostatically controlled setup. You can set it on '1' or '2' and leave it, and they stay comfortable all day.

 

Terry, good to know. Both funny, and sad.

Would you say the seats are good enough to keep the casserole hot on the drive to Grandma's house? Could be a new "feature"!

Enjoy your car and don't let the little things bug you.
We are pioneers after all.
Hybrid's rock overall!
Cheers,
-John

 

Ya those seats are hot as heck. Like eating a jar of jalapenos.

Hybrids do rock, although I could not wait to be rid of the 2004 Prius I owned from '03 to '05. Toyota supposedly makes a great product, but mine was a lemon. 42 MPG is great, but taking it to the shop for 2-3 days every other month does not rock. I guess I got "the bad one".

I'm glad Ford has kept the FEH. The previous version was not up to my desire for a calm and quiet ride and also good in mountain driving, but the 2008 is a HUGE improvement, enough to get me to buy one.

I'm going to the Western Slope tomorrow with 4 guys, 4 bikes on the roof and all our gear for camping and mountain biking, and both passes from here to glenwood are snowy. It will be interesting to see how it handles that.

While I do wish it had electric A/C, any other complaints I have, including about the seat heaters, are minor.

 

Yea, on the 08's, the dash buttons connected up to the computer, and the computer turns the seat heaters 'on' and 'off'. It would be trivial for the computer to time out after 15 minutes.

 

That would have been the one new feature that would have pushed me over the edge, to do a quick-trade for a new one.

That, and possibly having a separate rear traction motor, so that the AWD models have a little-to-nothing hit on their mpg when the rear wheels aren't needed to drive.