I have them and they work as advertised. I have some chronic lower back problems (small-nonexistent dics) which the heated seats work wonders on the longer drives... My problem...my butt gets really warm...to the point of of being uncomfortable... IE sweaty... Its great in the winter...but in the warmer months....no so much.... So I was wondering. Is there a way to shut-off the butt warmer, but keep the back warmer. IE a plug to unplug, a jumper to install, adding a resistor in place of the warming pad.... I was thinking of pulling the seat covers off and just putting the butt portion of the seat heater in the seat back... Any Ideas????
I'm plenty handy... Just trying to do the least amount of "disassembly" and wondering if anyone has done any research on this...
We once had a 20002 Bravada with heated seats - the switch on it was neat in that the first press turned the system on and then it cycled through seat bottom, bottom and back, then the heat levels. Often wondered how they did that but it was really neat.
All else fails, in the olden days of driving, open mesh and round wooden beaded seat covers were the rage in warmer climates to prevent having your butt melted and stuck to the vinyl seats in non air conditioned cars. Perhaps you can find something along the lines of that at an auto shop or wally world.... use the seat portion only, not the back section and avoid damage to your car or yourself by attempting to modify things with it too much. Roland
hoping someone has a wiring diagram... that would make life really easy... I'll have to check aldata at work...
trent, kinda of a moot point now that I'm looking for a new ride... I checked the diagram and it doesn't show two separate elements for the seat. So if I get another prius with the heated seats I'd have to do some diagnostic work with a multimeter to see if I could modify it...
Just wondering: if you disconnect 50% of the heated area would the remainder be getting significantly hotter?
If the two elements were in series it would be bad to disconnect one. The remaining element would get much hotter. If they are in parallel and you disconnect one the circuit would just use less power. Does anyone notice that the heated seats tend to cycle on and off every few minutes when activated ? In my 2010 they definitely stop working after several minutes then come back on a few minutes later over and over. It seems like they may be over heating and shutting off then come back on after cooling down or use some really primitive thermostat. The Prius seat heaters are pitiful compared to the GM seat heaters I have used.
First, look at the Toyota schematic (electrical road map) for the heated seats, and see if the lower and back heating elements have separate connectors. If they DO, then it could be as simple as just placing a SWITCH between the lower heating element connectors. Ask your Toyota Service Manager if he can help with showing you how the heating elements are wired, ie: the schematics.
