I was driving yesterday, a hot day, put on the ventilated seats on full (the button with the fan, not the button with wavy lines, at 3 'green bars') --
Seat bottoms felt fine, but the seat back for both driver and passenger become very hot. The very top of the seat (just below the headrest) seemed cool, so i think the heat was only at the 'mid back'.

I've used ventilated seats before without a problem.

Is this normal in any way? Have others experienced it?

 

Never experienced it. There is a fan at the bottom of the seat that simply blows the cabin air through the seat.
If you feel warm air - your own body must be heating it.

 

I live in Dubai where the temp reaches 50 C and I experience this everyday. For me, the ventilation works best when set on 1 bar and when the car is running. Although not as cold as AC.

 

Thanks for the 1 bar suggestion.

I came across this thread from last year:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...t-heating.html

Looks like it is a problem some people experience. I wonder if my seats or defective, or if it's just the way it is

 

I have the same issue on my '15. Sometimes I can barely feel the ventilation on the bottom portion of the seat. It gets rather uncomfortable when the bottom isn't ventilated while the top is just getting hot... on a hot day. Are you planning on bringing it to the dealer?

 

I've experienced the same thing, but thought it was just me. I'll probably bring it in to the dealer if it becomes more consistent.

They will have to reproduce the problem so they can address it.

Crazy how this is a thing.

 

i experienced this yesterday! the heater for the seat backs seemed to be on. even when the vent switch was selected. i dont know how to describe it to the dealer, hopefully it happens again and i can drive it straight to the dealer

 

I turn the AC on floor full blast and it seems to make a slightly noticeable difference. For how loud the fans are (even on the '16 with the quieter fans) , they really don't seem to move much air. The main issue is that if your body is blocking most of the vent holes, there is no circulation in that area and it blows out the uncovered holes. So you tend to only feel it on the edges.

 

Very true and I think this alone is responsible for problems perceived here.
When I test my seat ventilation - I don't sit down, I have ventilation ON and while standing next to the seat I run my hand over all the holes and can feel both air movement and its temperature.
Your body being a fairly warm object can skew everything.

 

the seat back feels like the heating element is on. not just residual heat from the sun. i was driving around at 8pm ish, and my seat felt abnormally hot

 

Test it in your garage, at night, away from the Sun. If your heating element is ON it will show regardless if it is sunny or not.
You can always remove the fuse from the seat heater to do more testing.
I don't think it is terribly difficult to settle the issue once and for all.

 

I don't have ventilated seats, but I do recall this subject in the RC (350 I think) forum. Try a search and see what they say over there.

 

The Auto setting for the A/C normally directs cold air to the dash vents in summer
and warm air to the floor vents in the winter. The ventilated seats pick up floor
air so consider tapping the A/C mode button (button with various arrows) to override
the standard setting of dash only and instead get dash and floor. Now the seats will
pick up additional cold air for your backside.

 

15 here and experienced this problem. It is actually very hot lol. At least we know the seat warmers are working great.

This is the first time ive had ventilated seats and not sure of these. If the problem is with us sitting over the holes then it seems very ineffective. I will also say the air output is very poor for being able to hear the fan when its on 3 bars.
Circulating some ac to feet does help some but still needs a lot more air cause i cant even tell the difference if its on or not sometimes.

 

I've noticed this for a while now too. Took my 350F to the dealer last week for oil change and told them to check it out. They told me its the motor in the seat generating heat, and "there's not much we can do about it".