Hello,

 

As per bio I'm roadtripping through North America in my 1999 Legacy Outback. When I was in British Columbia, the seat heaters were really useful early in the mornings, and only came on when I switched them on. Now I'm in New Mexico, they've decided to stay on all the time and it's really not ideal!

 

Because I don't need seat heat for now, I'm happy just to disable it. Sadly, per the manual, the same fuse guards the seat heaters *and* the cigarette lighter/accessory socket, which I don't want to lose the use of. I found connections under the seat (see pic) but am not sure which one to pull - I guess one is the heater power and the other is the switch and/or a feedback to a thermostat. Can I just pull both? Will the disconnect confuse and then damage any relays &c? Alternator burnt out in Cali a few weeks back (middle of the PCH!) so I'm slightly cautious on the electrics, perhaps needlessly.

 

Further on, any ideas why the switch no longer controls the heater would be most welcome.

 

Thanks, from someone who's backside is slowly broiling! // Tom

 

PS: For pointless conjecture, why on earth wire the heaters and the socket together when there are two empty spaces in the same fuse rack??

On my 2002 Forester, each seat-heater also has two connectors.

One connector is for the heaters.

And the other is connected to the heater-relay.

I think that you can safely disconnect both connectors without a problem.

But I'm betting that if you disconnect the relay connector (white on my vehicle), then the heat will go away.

If so the problem is probably with a faulty heater-relay.

Seat heater is the blue connector.

 

The white connector goes to the seatbelt latch. You can unplug that too but then your seatbelt warning light won't work and in some states that won't pass safety inspection.

Thanks fairtax, so everything related to the seat heat is within the blue connector and disconnecting that will be as if I don't have seat heaters. Awesome, thanks again // Tom

You should also try pulling the switches out of the console and unplugging those. Two screws under the console lid and that panel just pops up.

 

The switches may be damaged or sticky from something getting spilled on the console.