Seat Heaters - BTDT

[Mitchell]

The driver's seat heaters in my 2001 A4, are burning my butt, no matter what
setting I put them on.  Even at setting # 1, within 10-15 seconds, I feel
like it's just about to burn right through my pants, and I have to turn it
off immediately, or risk 2nd degree burns.  What's strange is, if I'm not
sitting on the seat, and I just put my hand on the leatherette, it doesn't
feel so hot.

I haven't dove into the Haynes manuals or anything, to see what it could be,
but my thinking is along one of two lines.
1)	I'm not sure how the 6 different heat settings actually works, but
if it's like an old fan speed controller, where when you have 3 speeds, it's
actually slowing the fan by running it through some heavy resistors, then
perhaps it's this temperature controller that has gone bad, and is now
always running it at full blast.  Is there anything in the electrical side
that I should be looking at, that controls the temps, or is it controlled by
some kind of thermostat/sensor?
		
2)	Since it only feels really hot when I'm sitting on it, I'm thinking
that my car is just getting old, and the padding/foam inside the seat,
between the outer cover and the heating element has worn out or gotten very
thin, so I'm not sitting much closer  to the heating element, which is why
it feels like it's burning when I sit on it, but it doesn't feel so hot when
I simply press my hand on the seat.

I haven't been able to use the heaters at all this Winter, because I can't
leave it on for more than 10-15 seconds.  But I would like to get to the
bottom of this, as I used to enjoy it in the Winter, especially when getting
back in from skiing, to have a nice warm seat on # 1 or 2, for the ride back
home.

p.s. The burning problem does not seem to affect the heating on the
backrest, only on the lower seat cushion (which I presume sees the most wear
on the seats, due to weight).  

I'm hoping it's something easy to fix, like a temperature controller or
resistor pack.  I hope it's not the heating pad itself, as that I believe
would require removing the whole seat, covers, etc.   I know, I could
probably get away with swapping the driver/passenger parks, but I would
still only have 1 heater.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Mitchell Segal