CT Maxima

It's cold in the northeast today. I tried out the heated seats and heated steering wheels on my Max.

The heated steering wheel worked fine.

The heated seats did not work. The switch enables selection of either "low" or "Hi." Neither position worked for either seat.

Has anyone else had this issue?

JHOVAMAX

There are 2 controls for the seats, one does HI and LOW the other does Hot and Cool. You want to make sure you have the "circular" one all the wa to the right so it gives off heat. If you have it to the left then its cooling your seat and if its in the center then its "off". The farther right you have it the more hot Air that comes through it.


I would jsut make sure that the above is set correctly before worrying too much, I know I ahve used my heated seats and steering wheel without issues.

BTW I am sure you did this, but just in case Manual page 233 and 2-34 is where the seats are discussed.

Compusmurf

Wish mine had cooled seats.... Heated ones work, tho don't get alot of use here in Florida.

CT Maxima

I am a little confused. I though that the heated seats operated similarly to the heated steering wheel: Resistance heating.

I also thought that the circular switch controlled the heating and cooling of the driver's seat only and only by the climate control air system.

NismoMax80

iTrader: (6)

warranty

lightonthehill

The circular switch does indeed control only the driver's seat, but is only on cars with the Premium package. The front passenger seat in Premium cars, and both front seats in non-Premium cars use the normal flip switch, where the middle position is off, the bottom position is low heat, and the top position is high heat.

If neither front seat heats, the problem is not in the switches. I would check the fuse first. Better yet, have the dealer check the fuses, and if they are fine, then he can proceed with his diagnosis until he finds and fixes the problem.

Digital

iTrader: (1)

+1

CT Maxima

I am back from the dealer after two visits to fix the heated seat issue.

First off, my Max is has the premium package. The two front seats are heated. My driver's seat works fine: it heats very noticeably. The passenger seat does not work. This is the reason for the warranty visit.

Nissan's intervention was to change out the rocker switch that controls the passenger seat heating. This did nothing to cure the problem. Then they did a circuit analysis and found that the seat was getting current to the heating components. Their conclusion was that there is nothing wrong with the passenger side heating.

The driver's seat is obviously heated. You can feel it with your hand and more importantly, your butt. The passenger seat does not feel warm to the hand nor to the very important butt. In fact, it is virtually impossible to sense any heat coming from the passenger seat.

What has been the experience of other Max owners? Do you have a passenger seat that genuinely heats?

madlaw1071

The passenger seat on BOTH of my Prem/Techs heats quickly and noticably to the touch on low or high.

Yes, we actually had a cold snap here in south FL last week.

maxed

Both the premium and non-prem SV that we've had toasted your buns on both sides. Getting out of the passenger side door at -26C was another matter.

CT Maxima

Thanks for your replies.

It makes sense that both seat should heat.

The rub of it all is that the dealer had another premium SV and it too did not had a passenger seat that did not heat.

lightonthehill

The passenger seat in my premium heats noticably. This time of year, my wife uses it every time she sits in it. After a short while, she wil turn the control from 'high' to 'low'.

fate167

for the heated seats try checking the manuals for fuses or when you turn on the heat turn off ac button and see.

fate167

attention all 09 maxima with light colored paint, try when applying armoral must not drive with the wheel damp of amoral will stain the rear lower splash guard if anyone had this problem please let me know what to use to remove the stain thanks.

CT Maxima

I suggest you move this thread to its own heading. Others with this problem will not know to visit this thread. This thread is about heated seats that do not work.

Mastermind1

Both of the seats heat well in my 7th gen Premium package Maxima.

MM1

mls277

are they gonna fix it?

CT Maxima

This is going to end up to be a saga. The short answer is no. Based on their analysis of the circuits, the passenger seat is performing as designed. It's heat generation is non existent but so long as the circuits are working, it must be what Nissan engineering had in mind. Of course I will not put up with this.

There is conflicting data. This dealership had another Maxima on their lot that exhibited the same imperceptible heating rate in the passenger seat. This underscores the dealer's holding that very low heat is the Nissan design. On the other hand, posters on this Board have advised me that their passenger seat heat well. When presented with this new data, the dealer held firm to his circuit analysis and replication of the phenomenon via the other Maxima.

There is very little one can do when faced with such stupidity. So I initiated a contact with Nissan USA. After some explaining, I managed to get to "level 2" (it's almost like a video game) and talked to a representative who understood the problem. She ignored the circuit analysis and "two cars having the same issue" headfake. The passenger car seat is designed to heat as well as the driver's seat. It is a manufacturing defect if it does not.

To get it fixed, she suggested that I go to another dealer as she believed that the first dealer is lame in terms of heated seats. So I went to another dealer and that is when the $hit hit the fan. The other dealer was in the running to sell me my Max. Their pricing was nowhere as good as the other dealer. Because I did not buy the car at this second dealer, they refused me warranty service.

It is said: "Hell have no fury like a women scorned." Well, I learned about the fury of a scorned dealer and it can rival that of a scorned women.

There is no doubt that the seat will be repaired. The methodology is up in the air at this time. So, as I said, it will be a saga. Stay tuned.

jano1975

I had a similar issue and the dealer told me there was a thermostat in the seats. mine were malfunctioning and the seats shut off as they thought it was too hot. hope this helps.

maxud

Sorry to hear about your problem CT. I will check my passenger seat when I will drive with my wife.
As a side note on my premium package (rotary control) heated seats, I swear that it gets so hot it actually burns my butt. I have tried to figure out which of the 3 settings is the lowest, but even the manual is not clear about it. Then again, I am pretty sure that I got a defective drivers seat all together. There is a topic on that in the forum....
Good luck getting it fixed.
Refusing warranty service is akin to breaking dealers agreement with Nissan. I would contact Nissan corporate about it asap. Every Nissan dealer should service every Nissan car out there, no matter where you bought it. The chargeback goes to Nissan as long as the car is under warranty.
Max

LtLeary

I am glad I am not alone here. While my passenger seat works fine, the driver side will only work at temps above 50 degrees!! And even then intermittently. I've had it in 3 times for the Cooling portion on the seat (they have that working now) but the heating isn't there (when it is cold out!) I would be very interested to see how many of us are having issues in these seats as well!

Chas69

Nope, your not alone. I have a SV Prem. that I got at the end of Oct. Since I've had it the drivers side heat has not worked properly. The cooling works fine and the passenger side heats fine. Most of the time the heat shuts off within the first minute of operation. When it does heat up it barely gets warm and then it only stays warm a couple minutes. If I turn it off then right back on it will get warm again and then it usually shuts off within a minute. The light on the **** goes out and will not come back on until you shut the car off. I’ve taken it in 4 times, the second visit they replaced the control module. But the other times they said they couldn’t find a problem.

LtLeary

Well, I'm taking it back in tomorrow. Hopefully a TSB has been issued that might straighten this out. My luck, they will keep it all day and then call at 530 to tell me they have to order a part again. They have replaced the controller before to get the cooling working.

bk2k3max

Sorry to hear about you guys butts being overcooked or not maintained at a bun warming temperature, I know some of you have already done this but for the others who haven't and if you're having problems with dealerships and cannot get the proper care your car needs please use this:

Nissan Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 685003
Franklin TN 37068-5003
(800) NISSAN-1 (or 800-647-7261)
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.,
Eastern / Central Time / Pacific Time
Monday through Friday

Buenas Suerte

CT Maxima

This report is another chapter in my saga to get my passenger seat heating device to be repaired by Nissan.

Nissan USA's representative contact the dealer concerning the seat. The dealer's opinion is that the seat has very low thermal output to protect the in-seat pressure sensor that is a part of the air bag system. The rep's advice was for me to take the car to another dealer! This is like getting a second opinion on a medical ailment.

I went ballistic. With the entire Nissan design team available to this rep, why would he tell me to go to another dealer? Why did he not research the issue first and determine the design parameters of the seat? He accepted the performance opinion from a dealer in Wilton CT rather than call engineering in California. Unbelievable!

I further told him that I went to another dealer, who promptly told me to get lost. This, he said is not possible with the dealer network. LOL!

There seems to be a weakness in the Nissan system and I have uncovered it.

More later, as things develop.

jano1975

I have had problems similar to your weith my 09. the dealers are useless... they always tell me nothing is wrong and so I called nissan. they sent out a regional rep that basically after 1 minute of looking at my car stated that " looks like the tech are doing a good job and there doesn't seem to be a problem" now I know I am not crazy and that it is not just me. ( obviously as there are multiple people here with similar issues) Makes me have little confidence with the entire company. it would seem that customer service is not in there company moto. This is my first and last nissan for that reason.

jano1975

on another note trying another dealer does not work either. I have tried 3 for my issues. same answer all the time... seems to be a corporate thing.

LtLeary

Well I was able to demonstrate to the shop forman my problems with the front seat. They now have it at the shop and gave me an Altima to drive until they resolve the issue. I did ask that he advise of any TSBs as he did his troubleshooting. I did find it a bit disconcerting that he did not know how to operate the heater controls (he thought the passenger control was the right control) but perhaps this model with the Cool/heat seat is too new to this dealer (eventhough his folks worked on this a few times already.) I'll advise more of the solution after (optimist here) they get it resolved.

lightonthehill

I am sometimes a little dissappointed in similar situations. But then I realize I am ONLY interested in one particular car, while they have umpteen (14? 15?) models, and several years, sometimes several generations, of each of those models to be concerned with. And mechanics do move around. He might have been working on Suburus last year. These driver seat HVAC controls on the '09 are different.


edit - I have been suspicious that maybe some of these seat heating problems will eventually be traced to a group of faulty thermostats (there are thermostats inside of both front seats).

Power620

I have a 09 with 1120 miles on it, I'm having same problem. Sometimes it will work sometimes not, after you turn car off and restart it will come back on for who knows how long. This does not look good for getting it fixed.

Guardian613

I have a new maxi and nothing but problems for me, i have the prem with heated and cooled seats but for the life of me the driver seat does not heat up. been looking at the manual to see if the driver side gets turned on by another switch but can't seem to find that. going to the dealer to get it checked out. got a ipod classic 120gb that does not even get seen by the car but that could be apples auth chip at work... all and all til it brakes in and give me better gas milage "I.e i don't fill up evern 2 day " this car is rocking my world sorry to the people that don't have one

LtLeary

Well, don't know if we are getting any closer or not. In my case, we were able to tie the functioning of the heating to the cabin temp...if the cabin is warmer than 40-50 F then the heater works..otherwise, (when you really can use it) it works for about 1.5-2Min and then goes into "safe mode" thinking that it is over 110F. I wonder if there is a sensor for the AC side of the seat that functions as a "low temp" indicator to keep the AC side from working that is impacting this???

They are stumped and are calling in the big guns at corporate to see what they should do next (as we had replaced the controller a few months back when the AC side wouldn't work!) It may mean a new new seat to break in (and I just got this one comfortable )

LtLeary

If I could get a few folks to try this, I would be very interested to hear the results.

If your climate controlled seat heater is not working (it lit up for about a min or two and then went out without warming up,) bring the cabin temperature up to around 70 F. Turn off the Max and restart. The heat control should light and stay lit; Your bunns should start to get toasty and stay toasty for the duration of that trip.

I have noticed that as long as the cabin temp stays up the heated seat works fine. If I stop and have dinner and the cabin cools back down again, I have to repeat the procedure. Fortunately, here in Florida, the number or days I need the heated seat to work are few..but on the other hand, not having the cool days impacts my ability to test!!!

The above works for me. I hope to see if this is typical behaviour for you folks as well. If might help Nissan come up with a fix if they can find a way to recreate the problem!

TIA
Lt

sp33dracerman

did you check your fuses?

lightonthehill

If the seats come on each time we start the car, but don't stay on, I wouldn't think it could be fuses or fusible links, because once these blow, they have to be replaced before the seat heaters can ever come on again.

This must somehow be connected to either the thermostats in the seats or the thermostat used in the cabin temperature controls mentioned by LtLeary. We know the automatic climate control will not allow the heater fan to blow at anything but a low speed for a minute or so when the system is first turned on, no matter how high we may turn the setting. That is to prevent tons of cold air coming out the vents when the engine has not warmed up yet, and has no hot air available.

I know the thermostats that control the heated steering wheel will not allow the heaters to come on unless the wheel temp is below 68F, and turn the system off once the wheel temp reaches 86F.

There are enough electronics in this new Maxima to equip a mission to Mars. I'm not surprised we seem to have a glitch. If the seat heaters work perfectly in milder climates (like where I am, south of Atlanta, and where LtLeary is down in Florida), and the problem seats are in colder climates, that should tell Nissan something. If we find they work in colder climates once the cabin temp reaches a comfortable level, that should tell Nissan all they need to know to pin this down.

Nissan will have these heated seats working fine by summer.

LtLeary

I hope so...I will be out of warranty by then!!! (I average a little over 1K per week and already have over 18K on my 09!)

The Shop Forman I've been working with got a reply back from corporate that essentially said "Working as designed." Well, being an honorable man, he didn't take kindly to that answer and is pursuing it with some renewed vigour.
Hopefully, I'll have more to report next week.

Lt

CT Maxima

Lt. Leary,

At least you have an honorable Shop Foreman. At my dealership, my foreman saw that my seat did not heat, tries to convince me that it works a little and then blames the poor heat output on the need to protect the in-seat pressure sensor. When I point out that the driver's seat heats well and it too has a pressure sensor, he said it was different.

I too hope to have more to report next week.

lightonthehill

My wife and I rode around today, mostly checking out things to make sure they worked correctly. We paid particular attention to the seats. She said the passenger seat heats so well she has to turn it to 'low'. I know the driver's seat toasted my buns. It heats both the part of the seat my buns rest on (but not the thigh extension, of course), as well as the lower half of the seat-back. I switched the driver's seat to air conditioning, and ended up with cryogenized privates. The seat got really frigid. So we know these seats work as they are supposed to in some cars. As info, the temp here was 65 degrees Fahrenheit. I have a feeling the ambient temp may enter into this situation in some way.

maxud

I too had my wife drive the car with me as a passenger to make sure that Passenger heated seats worked. It was about 38F degrees yesterday when we drove, and both seats' heaters worked. I have a premium (rotary dial for driver + switch for passenger).
Good luck to you guys getting it fixed. I can certainly relate to frustration of this seemingly idiotic situation. You have a seat that clearly does not work, yet the dealer tells you it is PERFECTLY normal.
Max

mls277

I hope it all gets fixed.