Chrysler Repair: 2000-2004 Heated Seats, visual clarity, postal mail


Question
QUESTION: I have a unique vehicle using a '96 Concorde 3.5L drivetrain and wireharness.  I have recently acquired the later-model/next gen heated seats.  They are very nice and bolt right in to replace the well-used (and welding-burned!) '96 seats.  I have consulted a local Chr expert and his best information was inconclusive regarding wire-diagrams.  I am trying to energize the heated-seat portions of the seats.  After inspection, I have developed a theory that the heated-seat controls are integrated into the automobile's main computer?  After fiddling with the pig-tails, I believe I need the power adj to be energized and also did get a seat to warm up slightly, but the LED indicator never illuminated.  Am I going to have to figure a way to work in rheostats and switches or can the original equipment be tricked into working correctly and safely?  Thanks for your time and effort, GearheadGreg

ANSWER: Hi Greg,
There is a memory heated seat/mirror module located under the driver seat at the very front edge which is the center of this system. It does have a single wire 'programmable communication interface' connection to the bcm which I believe is related to memory mirror controls and the passenger seat controls. There are 3 locations in the '04 manual which discuss the various details/wiring diagrams for the system. It totals 20 pages which I can either xerox copy and postal mail to you which would cost me about $2.60 to do and which you could reimburse me for by sending back six 44-cent stamps after you get the pages, or I have it on CD and could copy a page at a time and send them as an attachment to an email (the visual clarity of that approach would be less than by a xerox, but would not have a copy/postage charge). So use a 'private' option follow-up question to either tell me your postal address or your email address depending upon your preference. I think with this information you should be able to get these working properly.
PS Please 'rate' my answer, and where you see the question about "voluneer of the month" consider a 'yes' answer. Thank you

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QUESTION: Hello, Rolland, and thank you for such a swift answer and opportunity for more info! (I will hit you back with a yes in the volunteer dept!) I was aware of the memory module, it has a 22-pin connector that seems to share 7 pins with the passenger seat(same wire colors).  The 15 other pins I assume integrate with another module in the car. The seat's memory adjustments operate fine without the 22-pin connector hooked up to anything.  Sounds almost as if I need a virtually complete wireharness and modules to spark the heat? Unless I wish to bypass all that and go with my own switches, indicator lamps, and in-line voltage resistance per seat, per setting. I'm not a novice and frequently negotiate weather "the juice is worth the squeeze".  I certainly don't want to burn up my nice seats for the sake of having done heated components for the first time.  I would, at this time, opt for the e-mail attachment: gluckinbill at yahoo dot com
Do you suppose the 5V circuit stepped down from 14.4V inside the memory-module that's under the driver seat, or in the bcm module?
Again, I appreciate the effort and time you've given.
GearheadGreg

ANSWER: Hi Greg,
The 5V for heating the seats is generated within the memory module. The bcm connection is purely some sort of digital communication, again I suspect it relates to the mirror memory feature. Let me send the wiring diagrams first and you can decide if the clarity is sufficient and if not then I can do the xeroxing. If it is, I can try the text pages next.
Roland.

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QUESTION: Hello again, Roland!

The seven diagrams were helpful, two a bit more than the other five simply because the five were of the motors and their wiring, but of coarse...the leg bone is connected to the knee bone...lol so certainly still helpful! A little cropping of the borders, expansion, printing and the images were just fine, perfectly legible.  Thank You!

After much ado, it would seem success is still evading me.  I wired everything up.  No life.  I replaced the Memory Module, then a little life began- however, no long-term success.  The Drivers LED (and ONLY the drivers) indicators will illuminate, either low or high position for about 16 seconds, and it seems the heat pads energize.  HOWEVER- if during this time a periodic usage of the seat motors occurs, then either hi/low setting&LED will stay on and heat up (not to full heat capacity).  Stop playing with the motors, 16 seconds later- LEDs turn off, seat gets cold, and they do not to work again until I disconnect the power supply and reconnect.  Also, once I choose either low or high, then it will not switch until power disconnection/reconnection.  I have also considered a B+ capacitor that may need to be energized for a while first before engaging the run/start B+.

So, there's the larger rd(driver) and rd/tn(passenger) B+. Also B+ are db/wt(both) and rd/gn(driver- truthfully I slightly wonder about this because there wire is honestly gn/rd but there's nothing else remotely close to confuse the colors).  The other 6 wires from the passenger are just a correlation to the drivers pig tail and not confusable.

I can not breath any life into the passenger seat (except the seat motors and the switch illumination, but that's just a light bulb so no bonus points there!) I have also swapped the hi/low toggle with the driver with no change in results.  I've also operated the drivers seat, same results passenger seat pig-tail unplugged.  So something seems like it is faulting and turning the Memory Module off.

I have wonders regarding the single wire vt/yl that goes to the BCM.  There would seem to be about 10 other wires come from the drivers pig tail that don't correlate with seat motors and aren't on the diagrams you provided.  Perhaps these are related to power mirrors.

Well, I know this has turned out to be a 'Doosie', and as much as I like a challenge to intellect, my solution still escapes me.  Perhaps you have some more info that could shed light onto this?  You patience and diligence are appreciated.

Thanks again,
GearheadGreg

Answer
Hi Greg,
I am not sure if the issue might be the vt/yl wire IF you aren't also employing the bcm in the circuitry. Also, I assumed that you have an issue with just the driver heat, not the passenger.
Let me send you about 9 pages of text from the '04 manual that describe how the seats work which may solve the problem. I'll do it by email again shortly.
Roland
PS Please 'rate' the answer/nominate, as before. 'Much appreciate that.