We are going to repair the seat heater in a 2003 Acura TL Type S.
For this project, you just need a ratchet, a couple sets of pliers, a Phillips screwdriver,
a really small kind of flat head screwdriver or something, solder and electrical tape,
and then a soldering gun.
Ok the first step is to push your seat all the way back, which it almost already is.
Then take the floor mat out. And then there is two bolts right here that we are going
to undo.
These are easy to get out.
And once you get these two bolts off, put the seat all the way forward.
And in the back seat, take the floor mat out too. And the bolts for this one are under
these little plastic pieces that kind of snap off.
And there is two little connectors under here that you need to disconnect. There is like
a metal plate it is on and you can just snap it off. I'll do this one first. Ok and that
is the only thing that connects the seat to the car electronically.
To get the seat out, slide it all the way forward as much as you can it, taking off
the headrest makes it come out a lot easier. Just be careful not to scratch things up because
it weighs about 100 pounds.
I put some shop towels down just so you don’t scratch the leather on the concrete. I guess
you could bring this inside if you wanted to work on it inside but- I can't. There we
go.
Now we start taking things apart.
You need a Phillips head screwdriver to get out these screws holding the little plastic
plate.
This has a connector, that needs to pop out, get that from the back.
There's some Phillips screws right here on the plastic panels.
You’ve got to pop these little plastic tabs off so just take like a small flathead screwdriver
of something small like this little piece.
Ok and since this one has the controls on it, we’ve got to disconnect these. Ok.
After you get the
piece that has those control buttons on it you’ve got to disconnect this one too.
Like so. And then these this bolt, and there is one right here, take those off. There are
two on the other side that come off just like this
That loosens up the seat. This has a bunch of connectors that need to come off so, there's
like 11 or so.
This you have to remember to thread back through underneath.
And that pretty much frees the seat up. There’s these ones back here that connect to the back
the backrest part of the seat but I just leave that connected because that’s too much work.
Now we start working on getting the leather cover off and that involves removing the hog
clips which are these little things right here. And they go along the side.
To make it easy to get to the little hog rings I am going to turn the chair on its side.
Then I am going to use two sets of pliers. Ok so we’re going to turn the hog ring and
then just spread it open like that. Then take that off
There’s two clips right here, there’s three right here and there’s two along there
at the bottom. I’m going to flip it over so we can start taking the leather off the
cushion, now that we got all the hog rings off. Alright now we start taking the leather
off. It is pretty strong so you can… there you go.
Ok, now this is the heating element right there. You can see those are the little this
little pad right here is what heats up and those little wires get warm, that’s what
warms your seat. Ok now let’s go back underneath and get those little plastic things and we
should be able to get those off easier now. There we go.
When you start to fold the leather back you can see right here where the burn mark is
that’s where the element just goes out. So that’s what we are going to replace.
We’re going to replace the wire- solder on a new wire there. Like this one you can
see is fine. And to get this, to get this up where you can have room and work on it
to where it connects, there’s hog rings like usually there’s about 4 of them, 3
or 4 of them that are that hold a metal bar inside there and you just have to you just
have to you have to play with these. They are kind of difficult to get to.
There we go. And there’s three more like that. And there’s hog rings on the sides
too. And I think you only need to do the first one to be able to get enough room.
I’m going start stripping. I’m scared that I’ll mess this up. Be super careful
with this. Nice.
This is my solder. I got my I got my wire stripped up. And I am going to use the whole
length, even though it’s even though it’s like only 3 inches I am going to use this
whole length because this seat, that little metal bar pushes down on it and getting in
and out of the car causes a lot of motion so I’m going to use this just so there is
play. And I am just going to solder this tip right there and that one right there. Wow
that was quick, oh beautiful.
I am just going to put electrical tape over the solder. Ok, that’s basically it. That’s
going to tuck under here like that. And hopefully this one won’t burn out.
[music]
Alright we tested it out and it
works, it heated up so it was successful. Just remember you also have to reprogram this
because after you disconnect your seat it clears the memory so you have to reprogram
your memory seats. And that’s it.