Seat cooling performance
 

I just got my lexus from dealership. They were fixing problem with cooled seats. That feature did not work for me before.
they told me about tsb L-SB-0001-15 . Some parts were designed bad and they replaced them.
it works better now for seat but no airflow goes to the back. Is it like in your car? Should I expect ventilated seat back ?
(2014 es350)

What years were covered by this TSB? I feel hardly anything when I turn on this feature.

I have a 2014 also. Yes, there is some “channel” thing under the seat that can get crushed, I guess, That’s what the TB is about. For airflow, however, it works the same as the AC system. That is, if the AC fan is currently blowing medium, then the seats are blowing medium...and it is hard to feel anything. The only time I feel air is when I get into my hot car after work and the AC is blowing max and I can feel air in the back of the seats. The fan speed for the seats is useless, basically, again, as the airflow goes along with the AC a fan speed. It seems to work well, but only when the whole system is full on,

I had to have a seat repair done when I purchased my 2014. I was able to get photos of the seat bottom and the seat back (driver seat) while the covers were all off. These might help you see what is under there. The thing that can get crushed and restrict airflow to the seat bottom is that black, rubber-looking item from the fan to the center of the seat in the first photo. The airflow is very low and the only way to check it is to hold a thin strip of tissue just at the seat surface and turn the fan On and Off and see if the tissue moves. I suppose one could use smoke but I don't plan on holding a lit "anything" anywhere near one of those seats! :eek2:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...dc28e846f.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...0a0a59b45.jpeg

Thanks for the pictures. The back seat clearly not expected to be ventilated as seat. The tsb was about that weak thing you pointed.

I've found that you don't really notice when it's on, but you do notice when it's off. So it's having an effect, but it's not like standing in front of an AC vent.

Not really surprising - I also find that the seat heaters are pretty anemic. Whoever tests this stuff for Lexus must have really sensitive skin. They'd probably feel like they were on fire in any of my other cars.

my experience is a little different.. My ES is a 2013 and the cooled and heated seats work really well.. I live in Louisiana so I don't have many ocassions to use the heated seat setting, but the few times I have, it worked great... as far as cooling, it's not like cold a/c air, more of a slight "cool" breeze.. Both always seemed to work well in my car.

Roland

Same here.

If you look under the seat you’ll see an HVAC outlet...presumably for the back seat passengers’ feet. All of the front seat fans pull air from the space under the seats so there is no direct connection between the HVAC and those fans. That’s why the seat “cooling” is really more of a general ventilation dependant on the air temperature under the seat.

As far as heating is concerned, obviously I live where we can get some seriously cold winter temperatures and I (and my wife) find the seat heating just about perfect. I remember test driving an Avalon in the winter and the salesman (not a Toyota/Lexus dealership) was sitting in the back. After about 10 minutes he was complaining he was getting too hot...the back seat heaters had been left on “High”! I don’t think I’d want seat heaters that are capable of burning your butt.:sai:

I think that the performance of the heated seats (and ventilated seats) may vary somewhat depending on the model year of the Generation 6 ES.

For the 2013 ES that I previously owned, the heated seats put out a huge amount of heat. Even on below 0 days, within seconds of turning on the heated seats, lots of heat came from the seats, and the heat was at such a high level that, after only a few minutes, even at the lowest heat setting, I needed to turn off the seat heaters because the seats were too hot. For my 2017 ES, the level of heat is significantly lower. It takes a bit more time for the seats to heat up, but, once they are on, they can be left on, and the amount of heat seems to be just about right.

Similarly, for the 2013 ES, with the ventilated seats, even on the highest setting, there was very little air flow. With my 2017 ES, there is significantly more air flow, especially to the seat back.

So, I think that, as the Generation 6 run progressed, Lexus may have made some unannounced adjustments with regard to the heat level of the heated seats and the air flow level of the ventilated seats.

I am disappointed that the seats in both my 2014 and now 2017 ES are just ventilated as opposed to being air conditioned. The seats in my 15 Roush Mustang get so cold I have to turn them off after just a few minutes of operation. The Lexus seats do a much better job with the heat feature as compared to the cooling.