seat heater burned through leather and into coat!!

[stupidloose]

My inlaws stopped in yesterday in a panic. The drivers side heated seat had overheated and literally burned a hole through the leather seat and melted into my mother inlaws coat.
I have never heard of a seat heater malfunctioning in this way. The element was visible right beneath the burn hole. I told them to contact the dealer, but in the meantime, I pulled both 15 amp fuses for the front seats until I find out whats going on. Have any of you heard of this happening before? And why wouldn't the fuse had blown first?

[billr99]

My inlaws stopped in yesterday in a panic. The drivers side heated seat had overheated and literally burned a hole through the leather seat and melted into my mother inlaws coat.
I have never heard of a seat heater malfunctioning in this way. The element was visible right beneath the burn hole. I told them to contact the dealer, but in the meantime, I pulled both 15 amp fuses for the front seats until I find out whats going on. Have any of you heard of this happening before? And why wouldn't the fuse had blown first?

Not sure of the years involved but I believe there was a service bulletin that referenced a need to lower the upper temperature from its default. Per VIDA the current default is 40C. With that said, however, that does not preclude the idea of a broken wire shorting. I've had that happen which blew the fuse but also left a slight burn mark on the foam.

Cheers,

Bill

[granlund]

I have heard about this before. Some 10-15 years ago, there was a series of news articles in Sweden where seat heaters caught fire and burned through the seat cover. After investigations by Volvo, it was discovered that it occurs from when a person standing outside the car, reaching in for an object via an open door and supports him/herself by placing a knee on the seatpad. The pressure from the knee breaks and shorts the heating wires and then causes the fire when the seat heater is turned on.