n240sxle91
Full Member
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2010
- Messages
- 33
Hello all,
I didn't see any of this information on the web, or here, but it might be out there somewhere. Anyway, I thought I'd post my findings/story here so others wouldn't make the same mistake I did.
When my driver's heated seat stopped working on my 2010 LTZ this winter I figured I could replace the heating pad myself. I looked at all the videos, checked the wires to make sure they weren't burnt, and decided it had to be a bad heating pad. I bought the parts (or so I thought), and got to work. I took the entire seat out of the truck, but when I got the leather cover off I didn't see any heating pads. I was confused, and after seeing the driver's seat side air bag I decided I didn't want to dig any further for fear of messing that up.
So, after returning the parts to the dealership I made an appointment at a trusted auto shop. They ordered the "right parts" and got to work. After they had the truck a few hours I gave them a call only to find out the "right parts" where the wrong parts. They said my Avalanche doesn't use a heating pad to heat the seats, it uses the same device (peltier) that cools the seats to also heat them. The front seats in the 2010 Avalanche with the cooled/heated option each use two peltier units. One is in the seat bottom, and one is in the seat back.
At some point Chevrolet switched to just ventilated / heated seats, so I'm not sure if other Avalanche years have the peltier units. However, if you have a 2010 I can tell you that replacing these units isn't too bad (not overly cheap though), and it's easier than removing the leather cover for the heating pad type of heater. If it happens again I'll for sure do it myself.
Hopefully this information helps someone out there!
I didn't see any of this information on the web, or here, but it might be out there somewhere. Anyway, I thought I'd post my findings/story here so others wouldn't make the same mistake I did.
When my driver's heated seat stopped working on my 2010 LTZ this winter I figured I could replace the heating pad myself. I looked at all the videos, checked the wires to make sure they weren't burnt, and decided it had to be a bad heating pad. I bought the parts (or so I thought), and got to work. I took the entire seat out of the truck, but when I got the leather cover off I didn't see any heating pads. I was confused, and after seeing the driver's seat side air bag I decided I didn't want to dig any further for fear of messing that up.
So, after returning the parts to the dealership I made an appointment at a trusted auto shop. They ordered the "right parts" and got to work. After they had the truck a few hours I gave them a call only to find out the "right parts" where the wrong parts. They said my Avalanche doesn't use a heating pad to heat the seats, it uses the same device (peltier) that cools the seats to also heat them. The front seats in the 2010 Avalanche with the cooled/heated option each use two peltier units. One is in the seat bottom, and one is in the seat back.
At some point Chevrolet switched to just ventilated / heated seats, so I'm not sure if other Avalanche years have the peltier units. However, if you have a 2010 I can tell you that replacing these units isn't too bad (not overly cheap though), and it's easier than removing the leather cover for the heating pad type of heater. If it happens again I'll for sure do it myself.
Hopefully this information helps someone out there!