It was chilly this evening so I thought that I'd light off the heated driver's seat in my new to me V70. I've never had the heated seat experience before so I had no idea what to expect. I still don't think that I've had the heated seat experience.

I pressed the button and the appropriate lights lit up but I didn't feel the seat getting warm. That prompts the question of how warm does the seat get.

I activated the passenger side as well and couldn't feel anything over there either and that was after five or more minutes.

Is there some quirky thing about heated seats that I don't realize or am I having a problem?

I checked the fuse and it isn't blown. Assuming that I am having a problem, what should I check next?

I've gotten this far in my life without heated seats so they aren't critical but if the car is supposed to have them, it would be nice if they'd work.

 

The heated seats normally do not come on unless the seats are colder than 56°. When they come on you know it within 2 minutes. They warm the seats up to about 96° then cut themselves off, until they get under 56° again.

 

The heated seats are controlled by a thermostatic sensor embedded inside the bottom seat cushion, one on each seat. The wires going to these sensors often come loose from the terminals, or the terminal ends pop off. I went through the same thing on my 850 wagon. I pulled the whole seat and turned them upside down so I could see and get to the wires easily. I plugged them back in after some minor annoyance, put the seats back in, plugged everything back in, and my seats are all warm and comfy now.
Look underneath the seats while they are still bolted into the car and see if you can see any wires hanging loosely, that's how I knew mine needed to be fixed

 

Interesting. So you can't heat up your tukus on a summer afternoon?