I have electric seats in my tahoe and the heater in them only works part of the time. The rest of the electronical parts of the seat still work fine when the heater in the seat wont come on. Any suggestions what is going wrong.

 

Verify you are getting power to the heating elements
Verify that the switch is working and no flaky
Check the connections to the heating elements
Check the heating elements resistance ohm them out and see if they open up when you (or someone) sits in the seat.
I would check this one first then go down the list of other issues.
Your heated seats being 10 years old the heating elements are probably wearing out

 

Is the heating element a part that I would have to get from the dealer. Do aftermarket dealers manufacter this part.

 

I am sure there are aftermarket parts available, but with factory parts you know they will fit and work right out of the box.
I search of the web should net you a few aftermarket replacements, I have had good luck with www.1aauto.com for aftermarket parts, I do not know if they carrry the heating element for seats, but you cuold check.

 

Hey, just wanted to say thanks. 1aauto.com had the heater element for my seats.

 

Sweet! no problem! so take some pictures of your install / replacement process if you can and post, maybe you can save someone else a few minutes of head scratching...

 

Going to bring this issue up again and hope someone has solved this and can list off parts and maybe any install issues that arose.

The driver side heating element is out on my 1999 Chevy Tahoe Z71 4DR 4X4. The passenger side still works. I thought it could be the relay but swapped those between the two seats and the passenger side still works while the drivers side does not. So both relays are good. I checked fuses and they all appear good. The power connection (there is only one) to each seat provides power to all the other features of the seat including lumbar, tilt, move, etc.

The 1aauto site did list a heating element but not sure if this is a direct install replacement or if there are any hoops to jump through. Can anyone elaborate on this and any steps, tricks, info, or caveats for doing this.

Here is the link I found:
http://www.1aauto.com/1A/SeatUpholst...PS00001/288690

 

i had the same thing wrong on my 99 tahoe the heated seat elements are part of the seat cover and you have to get them from gm here are the parts numbers the top is 12476174 and the bottom is 12476178 in grey color