Air Conditioned Seats not Working How to Diagnose Air Conditioned Seats in Your Car Truck SUV

Air conditioned seats, did you even know that was a thing? Well, in this video, we're gonna show you how they work and what to look for if they're not working properly.

Unlike heated seats, there's no heating element, there's no refrigerant that's going through the seats that's coming from the AC system in your car, it's a totally separate system.

How this works is there's two fans, there's one in the seat base and one in the seat back. Those tiny fans fill up a small plastic bag that has holes in it that redirects the airflow to behind the leather seat where there's perforated holes, and that cools down the leather seat. So, it's airflow that's cooling down the seat, not refrigerant. It has nothing to do with the AC system.

To demonstrate how this works, we actually took a piece of plastic and put it on the base of the seat. The back of the seat has the perforated holes as well, but it's gonna show up a little bit better on the seat base. So, if we turn this on, we can see how much air comes out. Oh, all right, it's not like that. And you can see that there's actually airflow. To have an even better idea how this works, let's take a seat apart and look inside.

So, we took this seat back apart, and now you can see what's inside. There's a fan right here, and that's what's gonna suck the air in and then push it through. There is a little bit of a regulator right here, this regulates some of the airflow down. And then you can see the plastic bag that the airflow goes through. And then it goes to the front of the seat where the airflow goes through the leather.

The fan underneath the seat is pretty much gonna look the exact same as this one, and the problems are gonna be very similar.

Now, you can see how the basic system works, it makes it a little bit easier to diagnose. So, let's go over some of the problems that you might have with this system.

The first thing we wanna do is see if the system is working. Turn the key on, sometimes you need the vehicle running. And push the switch, make sure the lights light up. So, those are lit up, so that's good. And then check and see if you hear any type of fan noise. I can hear a fan noise coming from this seat, and I can also hear it coming from the base.

If you're wondering whether they're working properly or not, you could always check them with an infrared thermometer. And just check while they're running, and see if the seat where the perforations are are cooler than the sides of the seat.

And if the lights don't come on, and it doesn't seem like it's working, you can't hear the fan, you wanna check out the fuse. On this vehicle, it's underneath the glove box. There's a door that flips down. Take a look at the fuse, you can pull it out, see if it's burnt, or you can take a test light and test the two terminals.

The next step, you wanna go to where the fans are and check the connectors. See if there's any burnt terminals. Take a screwdriver, disconnect the connector. Just like that. And take a look at the terminals, see if they all look the same or if they're burnt. Then you could actually check for power and ground at the terminals.

There can also be modules underneath the seat that actually control the different fans. Sometimes those get hot and the connectors actually burn up. You wanna disconnect those, take a look at them, see if they're burnt up. If they are, they're gonna have to be replaced.

Something else to keep in mind, if there's a lot of dirt and debris underneath there, or you have paper, something that's gonna clog up the duct where the air gets sucked in, it's going to cause it to not work properly. It could even cause the motor to short out.

This is actually an air filter, and this is on all of them. You can actually replace these in some vehicles. You just twist it to the left and pry this out, and that's where the fan is.

Over time this bag could deteriorate and pop, and then the airflow is not going to work, or it could actually pop off. And if it popped off, then it's not gonna get to where it needs to go, and you're not gonna cool off your seat.

So, there could always be something wrong with one of the switch or one of the modules, but for the most part, you just need power and ground here. It's pretty simple system and make sure all these ducts are hooked up, and that's how it should work.

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