[s-cars] Seat Heater....weird stuff going on

[jpb3]

Guys,
Now that winter is approaching here in the mid-Atlantic I have turned the
bun warmers on for the first time since last spring. When I bought the car 2
years ago I would turn therm on to setting "3" and have a nice warm rear,
anything below 3 and I wouldn't really feel it. Now two days ago when I used
them again I turned to 3 and felt nothing. My first thought was "damn
element broke!" but after cranking the dial up to 6 I felt it immediately
and proceeded to have the notorious "swamp ass" dilemma within a minute. OK
cool I thought, the element isn't broken at least. I turned the dial back to
5 and then 4 and noticed a cooling of the rump. Yesterday I started the dial
out in position 4......nothing...switched to 5.......nothing....went to
6...ahh there is the heat again. This time when I backed it off to 4 it just
cut off it seems, and when I switched back to 6...hello heat but no setting
below that seems to work. Today 6 didn't work at all either so now I am left
with a cold bum.
 Am I correct in thinking that this may be the "dial" contraption that has
finally given up or is this a symptom that the element was on it's way out?
Anything else I should consider?
 Thanks,
 John