Seat Heater Problems: Troubleshooting & Fixes

Hello,
'When the driver's seat in my A6 (model 2000) was defective, I took the opportunity to replace it instead of repairing it, and I installed a leather interior with sport seats (from an A6 manufactured in 1998). So far, so good, but the seat heating on the driver's side isn't working properly. Only the front part of the seat cushion, for the thighs, and the side bolsters get warm, while the backrest either doesn't get warm at all, or only very slightly (it might just be body heat). Even on the highest setting (6), it takes about 15-20 minutes for the part of the seat cushion that does work to become lukewarm. However, everything is normal on the passenger side. The person I bought the leather interior from said that the seat heating worked for him (which I believe). Occasionally, the seat heating has also worked completely, i.e., the entire seat cushion and backrest (although not as strongly as the seat cushion, but noticeable and quite quickly), and that happens relatively quickly.'

I've already tried swapping the seat heater switch with the one from the passenger side, but that didn't solve the problem. While searching in the AKTE catalog, I found that there's a different seat heater switch for the A6 models up to the year 1999, and this might be related to the issue. However, if that's the case, the passenger side should have the same problem.

Does anyone have any ideas? Most of the posts in this forum so far have been about seat heaters that have completely failed.

Regards,
Mike.

Broken cable?

Have you measured the wires yet?
I would suspect a loose connection or a broken wire.
The heaters are relatively sensitive, so you should avoid, for example, resting your knee or elbow on them.

Hello,
gs

Hello,

I haven't measured it yet, but the thought of a loose connection also occurred to me. But where would it be? I assumed that everything is connected in series, so either everything should work or nothing at all. Or is there a flaw in my thinking? How would the very slow heating be explained then?

Regards,
Mike.