I noticed this AM my heated seat wasn't getting hot.I came home and checked out youtube and other sites.The light for the knob is lit so it's not the fuse (I checked it anyway).Both seats aren't working on heat or cool,Both lights are on knobs though.I'd hate to have to take both seats out and check the connections.Any ideas guys??
Heated/Cooled seats.2016 Platinum
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My heated seats barely work as well. I am not sure on this but I feel that as the seats get worn in, the foam cutouts for the vents deform and restrict air flow to your behind.
I may be wrong but I have noticed both my seats have decreased in performance. I also did notice when they were new, they only heated certain strips of the seat which makes me believe that's where the foam cut outs are.
The climate control on these seats is beyond abysmal. Its unfortunate.
I may be wrong but I have noticed both my seats have decreased in performance. I also did notice when they were new, they only heated certain strips of the seat which makes me believe that's where the foam cut outs are.
The climate control on these seats is beyond abysmal. Its unfortunate.
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Just curious, but have you cleaned the air inlet screen?
No,I haven't.I didn't know they had one.How in the hell would you get to it when you can't see under the seat?? BTW,I love your screen name.
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Have the seat as far forward and high as it will go. Very easy access from the rear footwell.
Have a good day.
Ok,I'll try that.Thanks again.
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I have had that screen name for a looooong time. I'm 74 now and have been retired for 15 years, and loving every minute of it. The Murano is my wife's ride, I get around in a 17 Maxima.
I'm 55 and plan to fully retire at 62,
Hopefully my health holds up.
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Just an observation I've made over the last two years with this 2021.. . whether driving or parked idling, as soon as the RPMs go above 2000 for a couple of seconds the seats get very hot. I started noticing that everytime I accelerated fast up a long hill the seat would become very toasty, and concluded that the alternator spinning faster during that time was likely creating a surplus of power that the power-hungry heated seats system was able to take advantage of.
I've driven for miles under 2000 RPMs and could never figure out why the seats weren't even really warm yet. They needed more power.
Try it... works 100% of the time for me.
I've driven for miles under 2000 RPMs and could never figure out why the seats weren't even really warm yet. They needed more power.
Try it... works 100% of the time for me.
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I don't experience that at all... However, I usually don't need them for more than several minutes, they get too hot for me, even on low. I'm comfortable once they've warmed up and I have turn them off.
Your alternator has a voltage regulator -- what does the voltage look like when this occurs?
Your alternator has a voltage regulator -- what does the voltage look like when this occurs?
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I'm not an electrical guy, but I assumed that many of the vehicle's electronics are running off the battery and the alternator. I kind of envisioned a faster-spinning alternator providing a more robust supply of energy that certain electronics may be able to exploit during that time. Maybe the system has to monitor, delegate and prioritize which electronic demands are met first, and seat heaters may be way down on the list. But when the car is accelerating and the alternator is producing 1.21 gigawatts of power, everything gets what it needs to operate immediately at peak performance. 
I could be wrong...
I could be wrong...
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Seats getting hotter seems to indicate a problem with voltage regulation. Higher voltage could lead to more heat.
The question is whether the original heat is due to low voltage or correct voltage....but either way, it seems to me that the voltage regulation system in the vehicle is not working properly.
The question is whether the original heat is due to low voltage or correct voltage....but either way, it seems to me that the voltage regulation system in the vehicle is not working properly.
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I had postulated a very lengthy and detailed "what if" scenario, but it just became too confusing and wordy to follow, so I'm going to try something short(er) and sweet.
Forgoing any degree of correctness and accurancy in the following, what if the newer models are wired a little differently? What if certain power-hungry electronics are wired to a special circuit where they can utilize excess power being generated upon faster acceleration? Maybe the voltage regulator diverts excess power to such electronics (when they're on) during higher RPM events so they can work optimally without being as big a draw or drain on the entire system as during lower RPM events. Maybe the seat warmer will gradually get up to temp over the course of 30 minutes of slow driving as the alternator is merely keeping pace with the battery, but as the RPMs increase the "system" realizes it doesn't need all that extra power the alternator is providing right then, and it sees the seat warmer is on and capable of accepting 20 amps instead of the 10 amps it's been being given, so it throws some extra juice to the seat wamer to have it work at maximum load until the seat's climate control sensor determines the seat is up to temperature and begins the cooling cycle.
I found an interesting experimental study about car alternators...
Forgoing any degree of correctness and accurancy in the following, what if the newer models are wired a little differently? What if certain power-hungry electronics are wired to a special circuit where they can utilize excess power being generated upon faster acceleration? Maybe the voltage regulator diverts excess power to such electronics (when they're on) during higher RPM events so they can work optimally without being as big a draw or drain on the entire system as during lower RPM events. Maybe the seat warmer will gradually get up to temp over the course of 30 minutes of slow driving as the alternator is merely keeping pace with the battery, but as the RPMs increase the "system" realizes it doesn't need all that extra power the alternator is providing right then, and it sees the seat warmer is on and capable of accepting 20 amps instead of the 10 amps it's been being given, so it throws some extra juice to the seat wamer to have it work at maximum load until the seat's climate control sensor determines the seat is up to temperature and begins the cooling cycle.
I found an interesting experimental study about car alternators...
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That is interesting!! Here's an excerpt from the abstract:
"...the rated output (of) an alternator is the amount of current that it is capable of producing at 6,000 RPM. Three different constant speed of engine which is 750 RPM as idle speed, 1500 RPM and 3000 RPM as cruise speed were taken as parameter. The speed of the alternator was measured using tachometer, digital multi-meter was used to measure battery's voltage, and AC/DC Clamp was used to measure alternator current output. The result shows that the faster the alternator spin, the more power it can produce. And when there is more power, the faster the charging rate of the battery."
According to that, I'm guilty of making some invalid assumptions. The greatest of these assumptions would be to assume that the voltage output of an alternator is relatively steady from idle on up, regardless of alternator speed. Maybe I need to take a digital multimeter and check voltage on my vehicle at various RPM. My practice has been to check it at idle, which should be lower voltage according to this statement.
And also, they stated that "...the rated output (of) an alternator is the amount of current that it is capable of producing at 6,000 RPM." Really??? I've never read anything about this before, and although this article cites alternator speed rather than engine speed, I initially thought that the engine would have to be revving pretty high to produce a 6000 RPM alternator speed. However, on page 3 there is this interesting statement:
"Typically, alternators have their full output rated at 6000 RPM but can continue to spin up to 12,000 RPM or more without any additional increase in output. The speed of an alternator is different for different type of car. The speed of an alternator depends on the speed of the engine. For a racing car, the ratio speed between engine and alternator is usually 1:1. For a drag car, the ratio is usually 1:2. And for street use, the ratio is usually 1:3."
A table on page 4 seems to indicate that the 6K alternator speed is achieved almost immediately when the engine speed rises above idle...and since 2K RPM is just above idle, a speed ratio of 1:3 would put the alternator at 6K.
I think I'll read that entire article carefully and perhaps learn more about this suddenly intriguing concept!
We've wandered off the topic of the seats, but I thought I'd weigh in on the electrical system. The alternator in a car is a very simple electromechanical device--think of it as the inverse of an electrical motor. In an electrical motor, you put electrical power in (voltage x current) , and you get mechanical power (speed x torque) out. An alternator is a type of electrical generator--mechanical power goes in, and electrical power goes out. Without the regulators in place, the voltage out from an alternator will be proportional to the mechanical speed input, and the current out will be proportional to the torque taken from the belt. The electronics attached to the alternator keep the voltage output from grossly exceeding the battery charging voltage. When your alternator's voltage regulators die, your battery soon dies afterwards from the overvoltage. Some of what used to be driven by the car's engine (such as the power steering hydraulic pump) is now typically done with electrical motor assist, so this does put more requirements on the car's electrical system.
I haven't read the literature, but I'm dubious that the engine control unit (or other car control unit) would meter out power to individual circuits that demand power (with existing technology, anyway). Cars do use a communication bus (CANBUS), so it's certainly possible for individual car modules (say, your earthquake subwoofer) to tell the system that it's going to max the bass out, so to have the engine control crank up the RPMs
Disclaimer: I'm not an automotive engineer, but I am an engineer. (But most of my work nowadays is driving powerpoints...)
I haven't read the literature, but I'm dubious that the engine control unit (or other car control unit) would meter out power to individual circuits that demand power (with existing technology, anyway). Cars do use a communication bus (CANBUS), so it's certainly possible for individual car modules (say, your earthquake subwoofer) to tell the system that it's going to max the bass out, so to have the engine control crank up the RPMs
Disclaimer: I'm not an automotive engineer, but I am an engineer. (But most of my work nowadays is driving powerpoints...)
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I've been following your issue.
Normally, an electrical circuit carries a steady voltage. The one thing that can change an electrical circuit load is resistance.
To me it sounds like you're having an issue with the grounding circuit for your seat. Something is causing an impedance that's being overcome by utilizing more amps.
Does the passenger's seat react the same way? Do the back seat heaters work or are they the same?
I would check three things.
The plug under the seat. Unplug and inspect for proper contact marks on the metal tabs. Feel the plug while you have the seat set to high and the seat is heating up. You should not feel any heat at the plug itself. If you do, you have a contact issue at the plug.
The switches that control the seat heating and cooling. Check the plugs at your switch for heat while the seat is on high. Swap the two switches, one might be having a high resistance issue, preventing full power to the heater elements.
Locate the common ground point for the seat heating circuit and verify that all the wires are solidly tightened down.
Sorry I can't help you more.
Good luck.
Have a good day.
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It’s probably the “feature” that causes the seat connector to burn that is likely causing the current and heat fluctuations. It’s just impedance changing what the regulator sees, as someone very briefly started hinting at previously.
You will likely have the burned and non-functional connector next. I’d turn it to medium at most, even new.
My wife claims the third go-around is now intermittent. They’ll continue to fail without some way of capping what the connector sees. I just hope the seat works the day I trade it in when my car finally gets here. She is now going to drive my new Pathfinder RC.
You will likely have the burned and non-functional connector next. I’d turn it to medium at most, even new.
My wife claims the third go-around is now intermittent. They’ll continue to fail without some way of capping what the connector sees. I just hope the seat works the day I trade it in when my car finally gets here. She is now going to drive my new Pathfinder RC.
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Without sitting in the pass-front seat to compress everything, it's impossible to tell if its getting the same heat just by pressing a hand to it.
On hi, the 2000 RPM range seems to be the sweet spot to make the bottom of the seat very hot and the lumbar area slightly less.
On lo, hitting 2000 makes the lumbar area hot but the bottom of the seat is much less.
I hadn't read that alternator study prior to my initial post, but it's pretty odd that 2000 RPMs plays a role in things, and that 2000 is when my seat gets hot. Yes the alternator is more or less a simple machine whose power output is regulated, but I think the complexity of what I was suggesting lies in circuitry and programming to divert excess power wherei it can be used a various times. Is possible there are capacitors somewhere that routinely store excess power and discharge that excess to systems that need it once maxed out? I'm guessing much of the wiring to things like heating elements can handle far more current than what's normally running through them, so an increase in current shouldn't be a problem if a system wants more if there's more to draw from.
I might check the seat connector one of these days. Are you suggesting that a pin might be corroded or have some wiring deficiency that's impeding the proper flow of current to the heating elements? If so, if reaching 2000 makes that compromised system heat better, wouldn't that only support the study that as the alternator spins faster and produces greater output that something is diverting some of that increase to the those elements? Or are you thinking that vibrations created by a more taxed engine is causing some kind of wire reorientation that's making things work unsual? If that's yhe case, it's very consistent with the way it works.
On hi, the 2000 RPM range seems to be the sweet spot to make the bottom of the seat very hot and the lumbar area slightly less.
On lo, hitting 2000 makes the lumbar area hot but the bottom of the seat is much less.
I hadn't read that alternator study prior to my initial post, but it's pretty odd that 2000 RPMs plays a role in things, and that 2000 is when my seat gets hot. Yes the alternator is more or less a simple machine whose power output is regulated, but I think the complexity of what I was suggesting lies in circuitry and programming to divert excess power wherei it can be used a various times. Is possible there are capacitors somewhere that routinely store excess power and discharge that excess to systems that need it once maxed out? I'm guessing much of the wiring to things like heating elements can handle far more current than what's normally running through them, so an increase in current shouldn't be a problem if a system wants more if there's more to draw from.
I might check the seat connector one of these days. Are you suggesting that a pin might be corroded or have some wiring deficiency that's impeding the proper flow of current to the heating elements? If so, if reaching 2000 makes that compromised system heat better, wouldn't that only support the study that as the alternator spins faster and produces greater output that something is diverting some of that increase to the those elements? Or are you thinking that vibrations created by a more taxed engine is causing some kind of wire reorientation that's making things work unsual? If that's yhe case, it's very consistent with the way it works.
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