Seat heater repair success?

[Frank Stadmeyer]

Doyt,
It worked for me.
I repaired my seat heater at the beginning of the winter and it's been
working ever since. Granted I only use the car on weekends, but it's every
weekend. I was leery of the fix but I took the seat apart, found the break,
twisted the wires together and soldered them together.  I was surprised at
how well the solder flowed after reading some of the reports of difficulty.
The repair never got hotter than the rest of the seat and seems to be
fine.  Maybe it was the solder I used but I don't remember it being
anything special, just electronic type.  I made sure the iron tip was well
tinned and clean and that was about it.

HTH

At 11:18 AM 3/13/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Two years ago, after reading everything in the archives, I took apart 4
>front seats and found  at least two breaks in each seat element. I then
>twisted and soldered each break. None of the repairs is functional today.
>Right away, each seat developed hot spots at the repair points, and the
>heating elements failed soon after.
>
>The hot spots were so hot that you would want to remove your hand after a
>short period of testing.
>
>My conclusion/hypothesis was that the Nichrome(?)resistance wire didn't
>take well to soldering, and some form of twisting/crimping/clamping alone
>would have been a better way to try doing the repairs.
>
>I'd like to hear from people who have repaired (not replaced) seat heaters
>and have had them work without hot spots for long periods after the repair.
>There is adequate information about taking out the seats and getting off
>the seat covers, and getting them back on again. But I don't remember much
>about reports of long-term survival after the repair attempts.
>
>
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>At 07:26 AM 3/13/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>>I am trying to replace a seat heater and have been offered this part #
>>4A0963555B.  I cannot get my family Bible to recognize this #.
>>
>>I want to use it on seat and back rest of a SQ in case my soldering
>>abilities cannot match the element breakage I expect to find.
>>
>>Anyone?
>>
>>Colin

Frank