Bought a 2000 ls400. Heated seats worked fine in the winter last year. Previous owner (hes a CL member) had a shop reupholster the seats. Now none of the 4 pads work. He said its probably just not connected. Looked under the seat, everything seems plugged in and fuse is fine.
What does the connector look like? what else should i check?

 

Can someone post the a picture of the seat heater pigtail connector so I know what Im looking for? Which wire is power? (to check if theyre evne getting juice).
Just ordered the factory wiring manual, will be here in a week.

 

upholstery shops can be rough and often break the old heating elements, but a multimeter and wiring diagram will quickly tell you what the problem is, the typical resistance of a seat healer element is around 1 ohm, but can be half or double that, the main thing is that is should not be high or infinite (an open, i.e. broken wire/element) or zero (a short)

you also need to ensure the seat is getting power

this will help

 

also, the driver side heated seat button LIGHT just stopped worked about 2 days ago, but was fine before. (although no heat).

need a new button?

 

I would have no way of knowing without doing the tests I linked you to

 

For those with 98-2000 model with heated seats, how warm does your leather seat get?

I used it for the very first time yesterday and the switch / light is on but I honestly couldn't tell if it was even getting that warm.....so am not sure if it is working or not.

Should it get pretty warm that you can definitively tell when it is on or off? Would the light come on on the switch even if it was not actually heating the seat?

On my other cars in the past you can easily tell when it is on as it gets pretty warm...but considering my celsior is 15 years old perhaps the technology just wasn't to have as strong of seat warmer?

 

the technology in heated seats has not changed, it's a pretty simple simple design, it should work like your other car, you flip it on and nothing instantly, but in a few minutes you really start to feel the awesome warmth, and after about 20 minutes it should be be almost driving you out of there with heat - lol

if your seats are not quite warm after 10 minutes, then the system is fully or at least partially out, and you need to use the troubleshooting tips above in the link I posted if you want it working like your other car!

this is one car project where DIY can save you a lot of money! - troubleshooting heated seats is very straightforward, however if the problem is inside the seat itself, you may need the assistance of a good auto upholstery expert

 

The driver seat heater in my 2000 LS400 gets uncomfortably hot after no more than 10 minutes on maybe a 20 degree morning like we had recently. I've had the car since nearly new and the seat heater performance hasn't changed.

My LS400 seat heaters don't get nearly as hot as the ones in our Prius wagon - eggs could be fried on those.

 

From the sound of this I think my heated seats may not be fully working either

When I turn them on during winter it takes so long for them to heat up- the car motor is usually blowing warm air by the time I feel the heated seats. It's been bumming me out they don't heat up as fast or nearly as hot as the heated seats in our Cadillac.

 

well i found these under the passenger seat


All seem to be female plug,s but I didnt see any loose male plugs anywhere..? It was just a quicker check and didnt start digging under the carpet. Where are these supposed to plug into?

 

Does you car have an aftermarket sound system driven from an amp in a head unit or from its own separate amp? Without looking at my car or documentation, I'm "guessing" that the connectors you found under the front passenger seat are the ones that would normally plug into the OEM audio system amplifier.

The back end of the OEM amplifier where the connector ports are located is covered by the plastic HVAC grill on the floor under the back of the front passenger seat cushion.

 

yes all aftermarket. well damn...they looked like the seat plugs...the search continues.

 

take this PDF and blow it up to about 200% on your PDF reader

 

both of my seats went out, had local shop check everything out for $40, nothing found. I popped out panel in the dash with the heater controls and the plug had disconnected!. Plugged back in and both work fine now

 

^^^thank you for sharing!

I am going to check that out as I know the dealer I bought my car off of took the center console out to install a radio band extender (to use Japanese radio in North America).

They could have easily left the plugs off...

Now when yours stopped working were the switches still lighting up?