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Re: Driver side heated seat element replacement - '99 SE Posted by DnstrDan [Email] (#1361) [Profile/Gallery] (more from DnstrDan) on Sun, 8 Nov 2015 21:01:31 In Reply to: Driver side heated seat element replacement - 04 Aero, bill h., Fri, 6 Nov 2015 11:14:38 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
I overhauled my driver's side seat this past summer: replaced the memory switch, fixed the broken plastic side cover, patched the leather, and fixed the broken seat heating element.
First, confirm that the heating element is in fact the culprit by measuring the resistance between pins 1 (RD/GN) and 2 (BK) of the disconnected four-wire yellow connector. It should be no more than a couple of ohms. Anything significantly higher is indicative of an open circuit. Assuming this is the case, go ahead and remove the seat from the car. If you disconnect the battery before demating the airbag harness connector, the airbag warning light trip can be avoided.
There is an excellent post on Fixmysaab.com concerning the seat disassembly (see link below), so I won't go into that. I opted to repair the defective seat heating element instead of installing a new pad. The break was easy to find: in my case, I just looked for the "cigarette burn" in the foam pad. Then, I repaired the break with a splice after teasing out the loose ends of the nichrome wire.
For the splice, I used 18 AWG insulated copper wire of sufficient length to provide stress relief. Because nichrome wire is difficult to solder, I used tiny metal ferrules as solder terminals on each end of the splice. After cleaning the ends of the exposed nichrome wire with very fine sandpaper, I ran each through a ferrule, crimped it fast, and then doubled back the end of the nichrome wire and braided it with the copper wire. I then silver soldered each copper wire braid to its ferrule. It's been four months since I made the repair and it's still working.
NOTE: to properly perform the continuity test, the bottom and back seat heating pads must be electrically mated - they are wired in series. The value I measured was 1.3 ohms.
After reinstalling the refurbished seat into the car, I got the persistent airbag fault light. I expected this, because I'm limited for garage space and had to be able to move my car across the lot with the seat out (that was fun). I intended to get my mechanic to clear it with a Tech2, but it eventually cleared itself after hundreds of driven miles.
Here are some links that may be helpful:
- 900 BB http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/bb/900/index.html?bID=252794
- Quasimotors 9000 procedure http://jope.fi/saab/www.quasimotors.com/heated_seat_repair.htm
- Soldering NiCr wire http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/29244/soldering-nichrome-wire
FixMySaab 9-5 Seat Heat Repair
_______________________________________ '04 9⁵ Aero Sedan (m/t) '04 9⁵ Aero Wagon (a/t) --- '99 9⁵ SE (LPT) - donated in '20
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