Good afternoon. I'm still learning things but I'm stumped. I've read the manual and I've tried different things. According the the manual, to engage the heated seats, you touch the seat icon. I've tried that in the home screen as well as the climate screen, and in neither case do I get the red bars. I've tried the up arrow (which supposedly controls the heated ventilation) and I get the red bars both from the home screen and the climate screen.

Does this seem to point to the fact that the seat heater is inoperative, or am I doing something wrong?

Also, should there be a way to engage the seat heater as well as the heated ventilation at the same time? Since they both use the same red bars, would there be any way to tell if they were both on?

Winter is on its way in Eastern Canada and my **** is getting chilly

Thanks in advance for any insights.

 

I think I may have solved my own problem. It appears I do NOT have heated seats after all. Apparently, the Premium model has heated ventilation INSTEAD of heated seats. By looking through the manual, if there is a heated seat icon, there are no arrows for the ventilation (and vice versa).

 

Jon,

Mine is a 2011 Premium and as far as I know the same in this regard as a 2010 Premium. When you say "heated ventilation" I presume you are referring to the climate control system, AKA cabin heater/AC. This is completely different than the seat heater/cooler system. Now to the controls and display. If your car has heated seats you should have on both screens mentioned a seat icon, one left and one right. There will be a red up arrow just above the seat. If your car (like mine) has both heated and cooled seats there will be a blue down arrow just below the seat. These controls and the three segment display (red for heat, blue for cooling) just to the side are for the seats only, they have nothing to do with the climate control. To heat the seats you touch the red up arrow, touching the blue down arrow repeatedly to get the desired level (of 3) of heating (red bars) or to turn off (no color). To cool the seats you touch the blue down arrow, touching the red up arrow repeatedly to get the desired level (of 3) of cooling (blue bars) or to turn off (no color). The climate control is set to the temperature desired and is dual zone so the left and right sides of the cabin may be set to different temperatures. Temperature may be adjusted either up or down for each side using the hardware (not onscreen) buttons found lower on the right side of the console. The screen will show only the temperature set, with no red bars.

 

Thanks - This is what I thought. When I said "heated ventilation", I did mean the seat heater system. It seems the Premium doesn't have heated seats, but rather has the heated/cooled ventilation seats.

 

I'm not sure what you are talking about because as far as I know there is no difference between heated / heated ventilation. I have taken the seats apart. There are little fans in the seat that blow either hot or cool air but they aren't linked to the climate control system. There is a heater/cooler in the seat. If you have the seat icon and can turn the heat on then you have heated seats. There isn't another heated seat option. Clicking the arrow up to the 3rd setting should push out more heat vs. the 1st setting.

If you aren't getting heat/cool air then it's because there is an issue with the ducting in the seat which is fairly common. The plastic ducting gets brittle over time and breaks apart. The air then dumps into the back of the seat and never gets to the passenger.

 

I copied the following from the "Quick Start Guide":

Ventilated seats
There are three settings each for heating and
cooling. Touch the up arrow for heated
ventilation and for raising temperature.
Touch the down arrow for cooled ventilation and for
lowering temperature.
The first touch of either arrow will initiate the
maximum setting.
The setting will be indicated by the number of
illuminated red or blue LED’s.

Heated only seats (not shown)
There are three temperature settings. Touch the seat
icon to initiate.
• First touch - maximum heat.
• Second touch - intermediate.
• Third touch - minimum.
• Fourth touch - heating off.
The setting will be indicated by the number of
illuminated red LED’s

According to pictures in the Owner's Manual. if the car has heated seats, the seat icon has small bars running through it and there is no up arrow or down arrow. The heat is controlled by touching the seat icon. If it has heated/cooled ventilation seats, there are no bars running through the seats, and there are up and down arrows for controlling the temperature and heating/cooling.

At least, that is what I seem to have figured out.....

 

OK, I think I see where your misunderstanding comes from. There are not two different kinds of heated seats. The heated seats in the "ventilated" heating and in the "heated only" options are exactly the same thing (with exactly the same amount of "ventilation"). They are calling it "heated only" to show that on this car there are no cooling seats. There are three possible choices of equipment. First, in certain non-North American markets, is a car with no heated seats at all. Second, on base model North American cars, is a car with heat only in the seats. Third is a car with both heat and cooling in the seats. Regarding the touch screen display, the difference is that with heated only you have four possible positions (3 heated with different fan speeds and off) whereas with heated and cooled you have seven possible positions (3 heated with different fan speeds, off, and 3 cooled with different fan speeds). I hope this clears it all up for you.

 

One question. Are you sure that the heated option on cars with heated and cooled uses ventilation?

On mine cooled uses a small fan in the seats to blow cooled air through the seats. But it seems like the heated does not use the fans and just has a heating element in the seat base and back which heats via conduction through the seat (not ventilation)

 

BritCars....I think there is a difference between heated and heated ventilation. But I could be wrong....

 

Heated only seats use heating coils (don't know if they have fans). Ventilated (Climate) seats use the Peltier effect to heat or cool air passing over the same element made hot or cold by the direction of the current through it. Fans blow the cabin air over the element and through perforated seat covers.