Fix For Climate Controlled Seats Not Cooling

zuki_dan said:

Some more feed back. I was driving my car Saturday it was 94 degrees ambient and with the heat index 105 degrees outside. I had the A/C on panel and floor temp setting LO the seat back stayed cool the whole time. It wasn't as cool as the seat bottom but I could definitely feel the coolness on my back. This was during several drives a 30 minute drive about noon then an hour drive home mid afternoon. While driving home in the afternoon I placed my hand under the front of the seat cushion up high and I could feel the warm exhaust from the under seat TED. I think I am going to try and move the seat back intakes down closer to the floor to see if it improves its cooling ability. There is a lip under the front of the seat and I could feel the warm air just sitting in the channel there.

Also I tried to get some passenger side pics but they didn't turn out real well. There is more stuff under the passenger seat with the addition of a weight sensor for the air bag it is a tighter fit to route the hoses.

@Darko66 Might want to add this to the instructions. When attaching the hoses to the front of the seat frame you want to have the seat folded full forward so as not to stretch/stress the hoses when the seat folds forward. This will leave a little slack under the seat when the seat is in the normal upright position.

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You didn't come out and say it, but I'm assuming you have Darko66's TED mod kit installed?

GT Pony said:

You didn't come out and say it, but I'm assuming you have Darko66's TED mod kit installed?

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[MENTION=14534]GT Pony[/MENTION] Yes if you look at the picture with the trimmed foam that is my seat and he even referenced me for some of the pictures. With the foam trimmed you cannot tell it has hoses unless you look under the seat at the flap.

I can say now at least I can use the seat coolers with these installed. Before I could only run the coolers for about 2 minutes before I could feel the seat back warming up then I would just cut them off.

I plan to try some different locations for the intake hoses as well. I have mine mounted high under the seat and the under seat TED exhausts it's heat forward and it seems to get trapped under the edge of the cushion where I have the intake hoses located.

I think with some more modification to help the seat back breathe it will work even better. I noticed when I rolled the seat cover up that there is a plastic card with holes in the top that slides in and there is a mesh panel sewn inside the seat over top of the perforated leather of my seat back.

I should reword my A/C settings statement as well. Splitting the A/C between the panel and floor is the most practical setting for good results. You will get the best performance if you set it to the floor only (make sure to select to recirculate as it turns it off when you switch).

Even a short period of floor only can be sufficient. So if you're on a long drive and the cars cooled down enough that you can sacrifice not having the air blow directly on you, try selecting floor only for a few minutes and see what difference that makes.

It's unfortunate we have to do these workarounds, but we're trying to get a poorly designed system to work its best.

It has a lot to do with how hot the car is to begin with. For example, today it was 103° on my way in to work but my car was in the 90ish degree garage, so the inside of the vehicle was warm, but not too bad. I used the A/C split between panel and floor all the way in and when I checked the blower temps 10 minutes in, both the cushion and back were blowing 59° which is pretty good. When I drive home tonight, even though the car will have been in the shade for a couple hours, the interior is going to be in the 120s. If I drive for 10 minutes with the A/C split, the blowers will probably be around 70° but will still be very slowly dropping from there. If I switch to floor only at that point, it will likely drop it down below 60° within a few minutes.

EDIT: just too follow up, I did as I mentioned on the drive home, 109° outside, ran 10 minutes with a/c split, coolers were blowing 70°, switched air to floor for 5 minutes, coolers dropped to 59°, switched back to split and the temp held for the last 5 minutes of my drive.

I’ve also been using Darko66’s mod for the last couple weeks. He was kind enough to send me a set since I experimented with it last year. In my mind my mod was “good enough” but what he has done has improved upon it quite a bit.

I believe the mod resolves the biggest issue with our seats. He did a great job with the fit and finish. The attachment was easy to install and doesn't add any bulk to the seat. I wasn’t sold on the three hoses at first but it makes sense because it adds very little bulk to the seat. It also makes the routing easier and three hoses helps get max flow out the bottom of the attachment.

It alleviates all of the heat on the seat that is felt with the original Ford design. I see no need to vent the exhaust heat that is still trapped in the seat. I have known from my testing that if the device can get air from outside the seat, the trapped heat inside the seatback is significantly less.

For anyone that installs the mod I recommend following zuki_dan’s install tips. I did install mine one-handed again because I had done it once before but it is extremely difficult and practically impossible to get it mounted exactly like it originally is installed. I suspected those two clips were the key to getting the seat cover up but I didn’t want to chance it when I installed my original mod. Now that I know, I will be pulling it up this weekend to ensure I installed it properly.

Droid_Junky said:

For anyone that installs the mod I recommend following zuki_dan’s install tips. I did install mine one-handed again because I had done it once before but it is extremely difficult and practically impossible to get it mounted exactly like it originally is installed. I suspected those two clips were the key to getting the seat cover up but I didn’t want to chance it when I installed my original mod. Now that I know, I will be pulling it up this weekend to ensure I installed it properly.

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Just for clarity, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think Droid Junky is referring to removing and reinstalling the entire blower unit which isn't necessary to install the attachment. Both he and I removed our units so we could experiment with them and he likely had to remove his again to detach his original fix.

When I mention in the instructions that you can install the attachment without opening up the seat completely, I am suggesting only that you unscrew the deflector and then screw on the attachment while reaching up into the seat. The hard part is that it's a very confined space, so very awkward to keep a grip on the screwdriver and screws.

I'll need to ask about me seats

What is the website top purchase these? I haven't used my cooled seats all summer because, well, they don't work lol.

black1985gt said:

What is the website top purchase these? I haven't used my cooled seats all summer because, well, they don't work lol.

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Website is in the instruction sheet attached to the first post. I encourage anyone interested to read the instructions before purchasing.

Thanks for your interest.

Cooling Tip

A suggestion if any of you want to give this a try after you've got everything installed.

I've found that after the cooler has run for awhile and gotten to the point of blowing cold air, there's seem to be an advantage to leaning forward for a moment or even just arching your back away from the seat a little. When I've leaned back into the seat after doing so, the seat usually seems colder. I don't know if it's just a perception thing, or if leaning forward allows the cool air to spread across the seat better or maybe it's just the air from the cooler bouncing off my back and onto the seat.

If you try it, please share.

Trying this out today or tomorrow...should be getting the parts today based on tracking (thanks for the quick shipping Darko66)

Got some of the 3/4" pond tubing from Lowes (they only had two left so I'm happy I didn't have to run around to find it).

I ordered mine last night. I will get around to installing mine when I get them. I have wondered though, has anyone ever thought of tapping into the a/c box to get one of the three hoses to moving cold air directly form the source?

Darko66 said:

A suggestion if any of you want to give this a try after you've got everything installed.

I've found that after the cooler has run for awhile and gotten to the point of blowing cold air, there's seem to be an advantage to leaning forward for a moment or even just arching your back away from the seat a little. When I've leaned back into the seat after doing so, the seat usually seems colder. I don't know if it's just a perception thing, or if leaning forward allows the cool air to spread across the seat better or maybe it's just the air from the cooler bouncing off my back and onto the seat.

If you try it, please share.

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100% true in my 2015 without the TSB installed... the seat-back fan doesn't have enough grunt to force cold air out of the little holes while you're leaning on it... that's likely part of our problem, too.
:frusty:

Did my drivers side today. I had some trouble understanding some of the instructions so I ended up removing the entire seat and it was much easier to access. The only problem I had was the tab to line up the adapter broke off but it was probably because of my mishandling it. I tested the seat out for quite a while and it's so much better. It still doesn't *blow* air on my back but the seat back was cold and I'm good with that. Now I just need to do the passenger's side.

It's sad that we have to resort to these types of fixes (no matter how well they actually work) instead of Ford's engineers doing it properly in the first place.

ib2loud said:

Did my drivers side today. I had some trouble understanding some of the instructions so I ended up removing the entire seat and it was much easier to access. The only problem I had was the tab to line up the adapter broke off but it was probably because of my mishandling it. I tested the seat out for quite a while and it's so much better. It still doesn't *blow* air on my back but the seat back was cold and I'm good with that. Now I just need to do the passenger's side.

It's sad that we have to resort to these types of fixes (no matter how well they actually work) instead of Ford's engineers doing it properly in the first place.

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Thanks for the feedback.

Sorry about the one tab breaking. It is unfortunately the weakest part of the attachment because it has to be a certain thickness to fit over the hook. Fortunately, the two screws should hold it tight enough to the blower for you. I'll add a note into the instructions about using caution when attaching.

FYI – Acetone or ABS glue can be used to weld pieces back together if necessary.

The instructions do still need some work, especially in the seat opening section. I appreciate any suggestions you all might have to help clarify them.

I wasn't as careful as I should've been with the tab so it's no fault of yours. It actually broke as I was twisting the hoses onto the other end. The screws held it in place just fine though.

The instructions were fine, once I could see into the seat. I'm not a small guy so I just couldn't get to the proper angle to see where the tabs and elastic bands were. Taking the seat out wasn't difficult and made the install much easier for me.