mikeh

my 2006 suburban seat heater turns on by itself, ill shut it off and it will come back on 5 mins later.. this is very distractive driving, and its burning my back!
any ideas on a fix or wheres the fuse?

blueinterceptor

Check the switch assembly. My 03 did the same

89YellowJacket

My 03 Burban does the same thing. The driver side seat heater comes on by itself and randomly cycles through different heat settings. If I push the buttons on the door to shut it off or change heat levels, it will cycle back on. The seatback gets very hot. No heat felt in the seat bottom.

Any thoughts?

73shark

mikeh & 89YellowJacket: Welcome to the forum.

The switch would be what I'd check first.

hotseat

I know it's been a while but did you ever find the solution to this problem? I've replaced the door switch on my 2004 Avalanche (a $150 part) as well as the module under the seat (a $400 part) but it still comes on by itself. I've unplugged the seat because I simply cannot drive with this problem but now I can't adjust my seat and the passenger seat heater doesn't work. They must be connected somehow.

Deirdre Cooke

Hot Seat. I did fix my driver side seat heater problem on my 03 Suburban. It turns out there was a short in the heating element in the seat. I replaced it myself. If your seat heater comes on randomly and cycles through the heat settings, you likely have the same problem. When it does, whichever element (back or bottom) gets hot, the one that isn't getting hot needs to be replaced. I ordered a seat bottom heater on Ebay for about $75 and replaced it myself. It is a bit tedious, but I'm not overly mechanical and was able to do it myself. You will need inverted torx bits because you have to remove the whole car seat from the truck, disconnect the electrical circuits under the seat and then remove the leather from the bottom seat cushion. It is a couple of hour job. I found a video online on how to replace the leather on your seats. Just google for a video on how to change out the leather. It will show you how to remove the 4 seat bolts, disconnect the wiring and remove the leather. It also shows how to stick the new seat heater to the foam. The job wasn't bad and will save you a couple of hundred bucks. My seat heater has worked like a champ all winter. Best of luck.

73shark

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the DIY info.

40native

Seat heater should NEVER be able to come on by itself even with a short in the element. First logical thing to check is of course the switch. If that checks good then somewhere there should be a relay the switch operates because these switches aren't designed to handle the amount of electric current the element will take. If I was a betting person, my bet would be a faulty relay. You may have fixed your problem here by having everything unplugged to replace the element and doing that and plugging everything back in may have corrected your problem without you realizing it.

jameswh0

Hi... I'm new to the forum and wanted to know if there's an easier way to replace the seat heater switch in my 2007 Tahoe LTZ other than taking the entire door panel off. Any suggestions or ideas?

in2pro

Welcome to the forum...
From the description below, it looks like the only way to access the retaining screws is from the back side, requiring door panel removal...
I would suggest getting a few extra panel retainers from your local auto parts store to have on hand should you damage any beyond reuse... also Harbor Fright has plastic panel removal tools that can really make the process go easier....
Do it right and do it once...