2005 Silverado heated seat issue

[Bboozer]

My 2005 Silverado heated seats on the driver side will not stay on. After just a few seconds it turns off. The passenger side works fine, but if I turn on the driver side, then it shuts off both. Any ideas?

[davester]

a short/open circuit or the temp sensor for the seat has failed? I've read that the actual heater elements are what typically fail.

[Bboozer]

Any suggestions as to how to fix it? I don't have much experience, but I am learning as I go... Just added LEDs to replace burned out steering wheel controls and looking to fix something else now

[davester]

If this is a long-term truck for you [that you plan to own for an extended period of time], invest in the service manuals (helminc.com or ebay/amazon and you might find them a little cheaper). The manual will describe how to test for what's wrong with the seat heater, as well as how take apart the seat [and LOTS of other stuff, the manuals for my '04 Sierra is 5 manuals taking up just over a foot of shelf space].

 

If not, then google around and you should be able to find a decent procedure for doing it. You MAY find instructions included with the heater element.

[Mortgage Paul]

Same here. Normally the element breaks, leaving a gap in the circuit......like handlebar warmer elements on Honda Goldwings, Snowmobiles, Quads stuff like that..

 

How did you do the steering wheel lights? I have a couple burned out, as well as radio and heater/ac control module(I guess that whole module has to be replaced?

[Bboozer]

I followed a thread on here on how to remove the switches from the steering wheel and replaced the burned out bulbs with LEDs and resistors, it was a pain to solder them since I am not good at it. And as was stated on other threads I had to remove the airbag and reroute the wires to get enough room to plug them back in. But they are a little bright now... I don't know if I needed to use larger resistors or what. You could replace them with the regular bulbs.