Remote Start / Heated Seats Issues

[hzhardy]

[hzhardy]

Thus is out of a current escalade. I dont remember seeing ducting going into the seats on my fil's highcounty.

[TxTruckMan]

When reading my owner's manual it clearly said that the seats only come on at a low setting when remote started (and it has to be enabled from the settings menu). Like somebody else said, the top of the leather is probably still cold, but the internals are heating up for when you get in and turn them on. I'd do a comparison to the rear seats to see which are colder.

[Dnt]

I got in touch with a GM insider and got this information back today. We are all screwed if we want the heated and cooled perforated seats to be warmed on remote start. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN with the new design. I tried a bath towel earlier just stuffed it under the head rest and let it lay on the seat back and bottom while I let it run in remote start. Slight improvement with remote start the seat surface felt slightly warm. Going to go check out the Fords this weekend and see how they have theirs setup. Might be industry wide problem if they are using the same supplier. However if Ford has it figured better then I think we should challenge GM to step up to the plate and make an improvement.

 

I am in research so I talked with some of the engineers who designed this, and here is the short of it:

 

· There is a difference between heated seats and ventilated heated seats, whereas the heated only seats have a tighter grid (they have no ventilation holes) so they are more effective. This is the main issue, as you need air paths where the heater grid cannot be for the ventilation, which are present for the heated seat option only.

 

Other things to note:

 

· During a remote start, power is going to the heated seat if the DIC option is selected and the ambient is below 10C.

 

· The seat controls to a grid temperature. It feels cold to the touch during a remote start as the foam above the grid is not compressed and little heat reaches the leather. But if you sat in the seat during a remote start (I know, that is dumb), then you would know the seat heater is working.

 

· The dash light does not come during on during remote start, and once you press the engine start button to drive off, you also need to press the seat heat button. The default running condition is off, even if the default remote start condition is heat on.

 

· I suppose if you put a 10 inch by 2 inch foam block in the seat, then set a full 5 gallon water jug on the foam, that the seat would then be warm. The foam would stop the heat transfer to the air and the foam would be compressed to allow the heat to reach the leather.

 

· Certainly the use of the configurable DIC option of Heat on during remote start (this is the factory default) is helpful, it is just that it is not able to feel warm right as you sit down

[Bobtorious]

I got in touch with a GM insider and got this information back today. We are all screwed if we want the heated and cooled perforated seats to be warmed on remote start. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN with the new design. I tried a bath towel earlier just stuffed it under the head rest and let it lay on the seat back and bottom while I let it run in remote start. Slight improvement with remote start the seat surface felt slightly warm. Going to go check out the Fords this weekend and see how they have theirs setup. Might be industry wide problem if they are using the same supplier. However if Ford has it figured better then I think we should challenge GM to step up to the plate and make an improvement.

 

Good info. I traded a 2012 F-150 Platinum (it had heated and cooled seats) for my Sierra - so I can attest to the heated seats in it. They were significantly better than my Sierra's seats. In the F-150, you could tell that they were on and had felt like they had been on at the highest setting during remote start, unlike the GM where you wonder if they're really on. So it is possible.

 

I still like my Sierra better than the F-150 though!

[02SierraZ71]

dont have the time to read the above, but the remote start with heated seats doesn't work

 

the only people who think it works are gm apologists who live in a warm(er) climate than those of us in the cold zone where we know the f'n heated seats dont f'n work with remote start

 

[kelub]

dont have the time to read the above, but the remote start with heated seats doesn't work

 

the only people who think it works are gm apologists who live in a warm(er) climate than those of us in the cold zone where we know the f'n heated seats dont f'n work with remote start

 

Eh... really? Not very constructive. I hope that was an image of the pill you took after stating that anyone trying to have a constructive conversation about the topic is an "apologist." Maybe take the time to read the information before posting snarky comments about the information you didn't bother to read?

 

 

I am in research so I talked with some of the engineers who designed this, and here is the short of it:

 

· There is a difference between heated seats and ventilated heated seats, whereas the heated only seats have a tighter grid (they have no ventilation holes) so they are more effective. This is the main issue, as you need air paths where the heater grid cannot be for the ventilation, which are present for the heated seat option only.

 

· The seat controls to a grid temperature. It feels cold to the touch during a remote start as the foam above the grid is not compressed and little heat reaches the leather. But if you sat in the seat during a remote start (I know, that is dumb), then you would know the seat heater is working.

...

· Certainly the use of the configurable DIC option of Heat on during remote start (this is the factory default) is helpful, it is just that it is not able to feel warm right as you sit down

That makes a lot of sense to me. I remote started about 8 minutes before leaving this morning and was paying close attention to the seats; again, the seats were definitely cold, but they weren't as cold as they usually are when I *don't* remote start, and within ~30 seconds of sitting down (after starting the truck and flipping on the heated seats) I started to feel warmth - which is a lot faster than I normally do when I don't remote start & turn on the heated seats. That can take 2-3 minutes before I can feel any discernable heat. (I don't have cooled seats, only heated.)

 

This is personally my first vehicle with heated seats, and *my* first GM vehicle (we bought my wife a Traverse earlier last year, and I had my dad's Avalanche for a few months after he passed away) so I can't compare it to anything else. If past models were able to fully heat the seats in remote start mode, I'm not sure why these wouldn't too. It'd be nice to get in and sit down into warmth.

[Dnt]

dont have the time to read the above, but the remote start with heated seats doesn't work

 

the only people who think it works are gm apologists who live in a warm(er) climate than those of us in the cold zone where we know the f'n heated seats dont f'n work with remote start

 

Jeez Loueez too bad you have trouble reading but do not be ashamed there are a lot of people in the US that do not read very well. I tend to agree that it does not work very well in remote start at all but I think you will find that the seats are ON they just will not heat unless your arse is in there LOL. Piss Poor design from GM on this. I stopped by the Ford lot on the way home and had the sales dude fire up a 2014 Lariat with heated and cooled seats, they were nice and warm and toasty in about 5 minutes WITHOUT anyone sitting in them. Kinda like what I expected from my 2014 GMC Sierra SLT Z71 4x4 and those Fords are kinda cute I might have to look at those a bit closer.

[SLESierra]

Subject covered in January issue of TechLink

 

http://sandyblogs.com/techlink/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/January-Techlink-2014-F.pdf

[2016 Sierra Owner]

Subject covered in January issue of TechLink

 

http://sandyblogs.com/techlink/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/January-Techlink-2014-F.pdf

The newsletter you posted a link to has been posted in another thread. However it's wrong. It states the seats will come on at the highest setting when remote started. That's just not the case with what people are seeing here. Unless the info stated is for trucks being built after a certain date.

[Batcat]

For grins I decided to checkout some Cadallac and Buick forums to see if this is an issue with these luxury cars. And to my amazement there are complaints there as well. Sounds like they were reading our GMC mail. Its disappointing enough to have this with my $51K truck, but how would you like to be one of those that bought a $70K plus luxuray vehicle and have this issue. Looks like GM has this remote start/heated seats dilema across their lineup. And they were also complaining that the steering wheel does not heat during remote start. Heard that before. Man-o-man, somebody at GM didn't think this through very well

[Dnt]

It will be interesting to see how well the cooled seat feature works in remote start, if we ever get some summer warmth so we can test it. These dang sunspots are way down and we are going into a new ice age we are going to NEED these heated seats to function properly come on GM SAVE us. .

[pm26]

And they were also complaining that the steering wheel does not heat during remote start.

How horrible!

[Dnt]

How horrible!

Yes that is correct the heated steering wheel does NOT come on in remote start. BooHoo YES HORRIBLE what is the world coming to?

Pink Floyd another brick in the wall - "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat" also misheard repeatedly as "How can you have any pudding if you can't see your feet" I kinda like this Bose radio system although some have said it is not very good. I guess it is all from perspective since I have never been into the tunes and fancy audio equipment scene. Got my new BedRug installed yesterday I love it. Pics attached .

[lrymal]

... Looks like GM has this remote start/heated seats dilema across their lineup....

Well, I'll have to join the club. Mine don't heat during remote start, either. Doesn't get cold enough in East Texas to really use that feature, though, so I never noticed, but we have had temperatures in the 20s. But, in the meantime, from the manual:

 

Remote Vehicle Start

..........

If the vehicle has heated seats, the

heated seats will turn on during

colder outside temperatures and will

shut off when the key is turned to

ON/RUN....