Mystery Heated Seats

[JeffyDub]

Me and my local Ram dealer are stumped on this one...

I bought a used 2018 Outdoorsman 1500 Eco last August, have been driving it every day for work since. This year, now that the weather is getting colder, my drivers seat has been automatically turning on seat heaters that I never knew I had. According to my dealer when they ran the Vin, my truck was never equipped with heated seats, but they exist and an icon pops up on my screen to tell me they’re on when I start my truck. Other than that I have no way to control them.

Has anyone else encountered something like this or have any ideas as to what’s going on? It would be nice to at least have control over the heated seats turning on or off, but even my dealership has no idea how to do that.

 

[chrisbh17]

Check your build sheet here (input your VIN but all letters need to be capitalized):

https://fcacommunity.force.com/RAM/s/equipment-listing

Can try to get a window sticker here (paste the link into a new tab, then paste your VIN after the equal sign), but Im guessing the dealer already tried that it doesnt see heated seats on it:

http://www.chrysler.com/hostd/windowsticker/getWindowStickerPdf.do?vin=

LMK what you find, always intrigued when this happens.

BTW with an AlfaOBD setup Im pretty sure you can enable the soft controls on the head unit , the hard buttons you would need a replacement button panel for under the radio area.

 

[wallacemf]

Maybe the previous owner installed them. My drivers seat comes on automatically when I remote start it, and the temp is below 40-ish. I think the heated steering wheel comes on as well.

Your switch panel should have buttons to turn them on and off, you don’t have that?

 

[JeffyDub]

Check your build sheet here

Yeah I’ve ran the Vin for the factory options and heated seats are nowhere to be found. The original window sticker was actually under the back seat when I bought it last year so I was able to check that too!

 

[JeffyDub]

Maybe the previous owner installed them. My drivers seat comes on automatically when I remote start it, and the temp is below 40-ish. I think the heated steering wheel comes on as well.

Your switch panel should have buttons to turn them on and off, you don’t have that?

I’ve got no switch panel buttons, nothing I can find in the multimedia screen menus to control the seat heat at all! They only come on when the temperature is cold enough. To confuse things more... they didn’t come on all last winter either, it’s only started in the last month but I’ve owned the truck for over a year.

 

[chrisbh17]

I’ve got no switch panel buttons, nothing I can find in the multimedia screen menus to control the seat heat at all! They only come on when the temperature is cold enough. To confuse things more... they didn’t come on all last winter either, it’s only started in the last month but I’ve owned the truck for over a year.

Is your steering wheel leather? If so, does it warm up too?

If you look under your drivers seat, you should see a small metal "box" with wires going in and out. That is the heated seat module, which will confirm what you are feeling

AlfaOBD should be able to finish the job of whatever went wrong at the factory lol The soft buttons would be under one of the "apps" on the head unit...I think Settings will get you there, or there is a Comfort "app", I forget which.

I seem to remember another forum member that ended up with heated seats that shouldn't have been there. Same deal as you....no controls, but the seats got warm anyway!

As far as why it works all of a sudden, another mystery, unless you happened to get a BCM flash from a dealer (through a recall, update, etc)

 

[Ricks Ram]

I’ve got no switch panel buttons, nothing I can find in the multimedia screen menus to control the seat heat at all! They only come on when the temperature is cold enough. To confuse things more... they didn’t come on all last winter either, it’s only started in the last month but I’ve owned the truck for over a year.

What radio is in your truck? If you don't have the 8.4" I'm pretty sure the radio cannot display the seat icons. Upgrading to the factory heated seats is a popular mod done by many people including myself. That is probably what the case is with your truck if it's not in your list of options for your Vin#. The drivers heated seat and heated steering wheel will both come on if the temp it °40 or less You haven't mentioned the heated steering wheel. Does it come on automatically as well and does it work? This is called the auto on comfort system and the controls to turn it on and off should be in your settings menu if you have the 8 4" radio. I'm not sure if it would display on the 5.0 radio. In any case if you can shoot a pick of your radio and control panel we can probably narrow it down to what's going on. Another thing to note is if the seats were upgraded to the heated version anytime the dealer flashed or updates your BCM for any reason it will revert your BCM back to the stock settings and you will lose any changes or modifications made to the BCM by the previous owner and have to use the Alfa tool to change them back.

Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

 

[chrisbh17]

What radio is in your truck? If you don't have the 8.4" I'm pretty sure the radio cannot display the seat icons. Upgrading to the factory heated seats is a popular mod done by many people including myself. That is probably what the case is with your truck if it's not in your list of options for your Vin#. The drivers heated seat and heated steering wheel will both come on if the temp it °40 or less You haven't mentioned the heated steering wheel. Does it come on automatically as well and does it work? This is called the auto on comfort system and the controls to turn it on and off should be in your settings menu if you have the 8 4" radio. I'm not sure if it would display on the 5.0 radio. In any case if you can shoot a pick of your radio and control panel we can probably narrow it down to what's going on. Another thing to note is if the seats were upgraded to the heated version anytime the dealer flashed or updates your BCM for any reason it will revert your BCM back to the stock settings and you will lose any changes or modifications made to the BCM by the previous owner and have to use the Alfa tool to change them back.

Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

Good call, I did not realize he bought it used. Could be from a forum member for all we know

I thought the Outdoorsman started like a Big Horn so it automatically had the 8.4 but that is not the case apparently.

 

[JeffyDub]

What radio is in your truck? If you don't have the 8.4" I'm pretty sure the radio cannot display the seat icons. Upgrading to the factory heated seats is a popular mod done by many people including myself. That is probably what the case is with your truck if it's not in your list of options for your Vin#. The drivers heated seat and heated steering wheel will both come on if the temp it °40 or less You haven't mentioned the heated steering wheel. Does it come on automatically as well and does it work? This is called the auto on comfort system and the controls to turn it on and off should be in your settings menu if you have the 8 4" radio. I'm not sure if it would display on the 5.0 radio. In any case if you can shoot a pick of your radio and control panel we can probably narrow it down to what's going on. Another thing to note is if the seats were upgraded to the heated version anytime the dealer flashed or updates your BCM for any reason it will revert your BCM back to the stock settings and you will lose any changes or modifications made to the BCM by the previous owner and have to use the Alfa tool to change them back.

Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

Ive got the 8.4” display, no digital controls for heated seats to be found. When I fire the truck up when it’s cold out, I do get the popup seat heat icon above the “Apps” tab at the bottom of the screen, so the seat heat is integrated with the display in some way. No heated steering wheel in my truck either (that I know of). I’ll have to look into this AlfaODB you guys are talking about, see if I can solve it using that tool.

 

[chrisbh17]

Ive got the 8.4” display, no digital controls for heated seats to be found. When I fire the truck up when it’s cold out, I do get the popup seat heat icon above the “Apps” tab at the bottom of the screen, so the seat heat is integrated with the display in some way. No heated steering wheel in my truck either (that I know of). I’ll have to look into this AlfaODB you guys are talking about, see if I can solve it using that tool.

Does your window sticker show the 8.4 as an option it came with?

 

[JeffyDub]

Does your window sticker show the 8.4 as an option it came with?

Yes, it was factory installed, although there are a number of aftermarket add ons I’ve discovered that the previous owner installed in the short time he owned the truck, so I’m suspecting the seat heaters were one aftermarket modification that just got half-assed installation.

 

[chrisbh17]

Yes, it was factory installed, although there are a number of aftermarket add ons I’ve discovered that the previous owner installed in the short time he owned the truck, so I’m suspecting the seat heaters were one aftermarket modification that just got half-assed installation.

Not so!

I dont think there is any aftermarket solution that actually works with the stock setup (i.e. turn on automatically with temperature, integrated into the head unit [if even only at startup])

Pretty sure its a simple setting or two away from working as factory. Then purchase the correct button panel to replace the factory one.

 

[rotwiler]

I have a 2013 Outdoorsman, not apples to apples, but no heated seats or steering wheel on mine. Many do upgrades, but factory heated seats I haven't researched. I added a 2015 nav 8.4 vp4 radio and mine came with the non nav radio vp3. But, there are odd things Ram has done. My 2013, Ram deleted the xm and uconnect sprint cell module, they also didn't put a puck or sharkfin on top of truck, but when I added the 2015 nav radio, xm and nav had a signal, so there is a antenna somewhere. If they did a flash that caused it to work, you may be able to download the firmware update, put it in usb and should auto find the change and update it without a full firmware update. When I added a trailer brake oem box and switch my radio didn't show settings, usb stick I had with recent update I stuck in the usb in truck and didn't think anything was happening, 2 minutes later, came up on screen that update was completed and had trailer brake settings on the radio settings. Many dealers are clueless, I went to a Ram dealer to flash truck for trailer brake and they must have messed up or didn't flash correctly. Returned and told them it's not showing on evic or on radio and was told that in 2013 it didn't show like newer trucks, researched it and found out that's bs, went back and they flashed it and worked on evic, but not on radio until I put in the firmware usb. This was about 2 years ago, so wasn't right after the 2013s came out, you would think they would know this.

 

[Ricks Ram]

Ive got the 8.4” display, no digital controls for heated seats to be found. When I fire the truck up when it’s cold out, I do get the popup seat heat icon above the “Apps” tab at the bottom of the screen, so the seat heat is integrated with the display in some way. No heated steering wheel in my truck either (that I know of). I’ll have to look into this AlfaODB you guys are talking about, see if I can solve it using that tool.

Your heated seats are not aftermarket or they wouldn't work with your truck. Just to clarify, do you have any hard buttons at all to turn your seats on and off? They should be in the switch panel with the traction control buttons. I'm assuming you don't have the buttons. Ram never offered the heated seats without the heated steering wheel so if you end up purchasing a switch panel it will have the heated wheel button as well. What most likely happened is the person who installed them wasn't able to get all the codes enabled. There is a company who likes to copy everything we do here and sell it before they work out any bugs or a dealer was able to just activate the heated seat option on the truck which I have seen happen at one point but unlikely. So here is what we are most likely left with.

Someone most likely upgraded the truck and didn't get all the codes enabled in the BCM and if I'm understanding you correctly either removed the heated seat switch panel when he traded the truck in or never installed it. There is no way to know for sure at this point.

Since your truck is a higher trim level it most likely came from the factory with all the correct wiring for the heated/vented seats and heated wheel and the previous owner just plugged them in. That's a good thing.

Not sure if he installed the heated wheel and heated clockspring and just wasn't able to enable the codes or never bothered installing it but if your truck has the factory wiring you can install that too if you want.

The first thing I recommend is purchasing the Alfa tool and OBDlink MX and at least make sure all the codes are enabled correctly which is not hard to do. I'm betting they most likely aren't.

Once you enable the correct codes it should display the controls on the radio screen. This is where it gets a little tricky. I have seen many in the past install the heated seats with no switch panel and enable the proper codes and everything has worked correctly. I have also seen a few rare occasions where it hasn't. Since your heated seats seem to work because they are turning on I'm thinking you will be ok without installing the switch panel. I personally never use my radio to turn my seats on and off. It's much easier to just use the switch panel. If it were my truck I would install the switch panel. I am pretty sure if you installed the heated seat/heated wheel switch panel right now the buttons will work but you will have a heated wheel button that probably won't work. Now we get to the heated wheel. He may or may not have installed one but I'm thinking he probably didn't. You can install the heated wheel and clockspring as well and enable the codes and it should also work. Some people think the heated wheel is stupid but it's probably because they've never had one. They are definitely nice to have when it's extra cold outside. You can pick used heated wheels up on Ebay for around 150 to 200 and a heated wheel clockspring would run you right around 190. The first thing to do is purchase the Alfa tool and make sure all the codes are enabled and go from there. I am posting a pic of what the wiring should look like if your truck came equipped with it from the factory. If you look at your drivers side yellow seat connecter on the truck side of the harness you should have two pink wires with yellow stripe that go into that connector. If you have that your truck is pre wired for Heated/Vented seats and Heated Wheel.


If your connector looks like this your set.





Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

 

[miksweet]

I had the same issue on my 2017 bighorn. Does your rig have leather seats? If they were not factory installed, they may have installed the heater as well when they put in the leather. I didn’t have any buttons to control them either. I was able to get the dealer to upgrade the software so I could at least control them with the software. They did the same thing at first and told me I didn’t have heated seats according to the build until I took a picture of the icon and the control module under the seat.

 

[RASelkirk]

Me and my local Ram dealer are stumped on this one...

I bought a used 2018 Outdoorsman 1500 Eco last August, have been driving it every day for work since. This year, now that the weather is getting colder, my drivers seat has been automatically turning on seat heaters that I never knew I had. According to my dealer when they ran the Vin, my truck was never equipped with heated seats, but they exist and an icon pops up on my screen to tell me they’re on when I start my truck. Other than that I have no way to control them.

Has anyone else encountered something like this or have any ideas as to what’s going on? It would be nice to at least have control over the heated seats turning on or off, but even my dealership has no idea how to do that.

From the owner's manual PDF:

Remote Start Comfort Systems — If Equipped

When Remote Start is activated, the heated steering wheel
and driver heated seat features will automatically turn on
in cold weather. In warm weather, the driver vented seat
feature will automatically turn on when the remote start is
activated. These features will stay on through the duration
of Remote Start or until the ignition switch is placed in the
ON/RUN mode.

NOTE: The Remote Start Comfort System can be activated
and deactivated through the Uconnect System. Refer to
“Uconnect Settings” in “Multimedia” for further information
on Remote Start Comfort System operation.

This may offer you either an explanation or further confusion...

Russ

 

[BigWhiteSnake]

I’ve got no switch panel buttons, nothing I can find in the multimedia screen menus to control the seat heat at all! They only come on when the temperature is cold enough. To confuse things more... they didn’t come on all last winter either, it’s only started in the last month but I’ve owned the truck for over a year.

I have the switch if you want to PM me.