Anyone have this issue happen to them before?

On the driver's seat on my 2010 1500 the seat heater seems to be partially malfunctioning. The leftmost side (under the outer side of my left thigh - nearest the door) doesn't seem to heat up any longer. This seems weird because I thought the heater element was a grid going across the whole seat and that it would either all work or none of it would work.

Since most of the seat is still heating I doubt whether this is a case of something becoming unplugged under the seat and it definitely isn't a fuse. I'd hate to have to have the whole heating element replaced since that involves ripping off the whole upholstery and it is probably pretty expensive. So if anyone knows what might be wrong please let me know.

Thanks,
Rob

 

Not sure of a solution, however replacing the heating kit is rather easy. The cushion can be pretty much untucked and rolled back to gain access. Easiest with the seat removed completely though. Probably less then a hour time total.

 

Does the leather just unclip from the frame? It doesn't require hog ring clips or any fancy stretching/smoothing?

Thanks,
Rob

 

http://starparts.chrysler.com/info/default/k6860447.pdf

Rob, check out this link, I helped a friend a couple years ago install the heated pad kit into his '09 Ram Sport. The instructions were exactly the same as this link. I remember cutting the hog rings, the kit came with replacement parts. The back part of the seat is pretty much just velcro holding together. You definitely need to remove the seat though from the truck.

Hope that link helps. The '09 instructions represent to current models, unless they've changed something with the later models.

 

Wow, those are great instructions! Thanks!

Rob

 

I have enough info to replace the heater element now. But I'm still curious about how mine failed. Does anyone know enough about the heater element to say how it could be that just a 'strip' of the heating pad could stop working?

Thanks,
Rob