Fix For Climate Controlled Seats Not Cooling

How long is this install taking members to do?

Sorry, for the downtime

I apologize to those of you who had posted here, as this topic was temporarily blocked by the moderators.

I have signed on as a sponsor at least for the near term so that this thread could be reinstated and so that I can continue promoting the attachment on the forum. I was taking some time to figure out if I wanted to incur further cost, so sorry for the delay in its return.

Intake hoses

I recently went to Lowe's and ran over to the garden department to check out the pond tubing that one of the forum members had mentioned they used. It does appear to be similar in rigidity and durability to the Home Depot stuff that I recommend, so it's a good alternative.

The visit to Lowe's highlighted a couple things I figured I should share that hadn't occurred to me before. First, the tubing is a low demand item, so most stores will likely only have a couple rolls in stock. And, as the thick layer of dust on the tubes at my local Lowe's pointed out, there's a chance those tubes will have been sitting there awhile.

So, as much as I would like to support "shopping local," there might be an advantage to purchasing the tubing online.

Darko66- a question

My biggest problem is getting in a car that's been closed sitting in the sun all day and the inside of the car is 120° or so. At that point I only get burning hot air out of the seat back because it's already heat soaked.

On a normal morning say around 70 or 80° my seatback will cool but not very well.

So my question is this. Will this modification overcome a heat soaked seat at the end of a hot summer day and provide cooling to your back when the entire seat is 120° through and through ? It appears you live in Phoenix so I bet you experience the same thing.

RIBS said:

My biggest problem is getting in a car that's been closed sitting in the sun all day and the inside of the car is 120° or so. At that point I only get burning hot air out of the seat back because it's already heat soaked.

On a normal morning say around 70 or 80° my seatback will cool but not very well.

So my question is this. Will this modification overcome a heat soaked seat at the end of a hot summer day and provide cooling to your back when the entire seat is 120° through and through ? It appears you live in Phoenix so I bet you experience the same thing.

Click to expand...

Well, I sort of provided some info about this in a post on the prior page regarding using the a/c from the floor only. I don't do much driving when the car has been sitting directly in the sun and is at maximum temperature, so haven't been able to test that. But, the car is still plenty hot when I drive home every night even though it's been sitting in the shade awhile.

The inside temp is usually in the 120s. The blower units will drop to 90° or so right away and slowly continue to drop. If you direct the a/c to the floor only, the blower temp will drop faster. The seat will be cooling, but it will take some time before it starts feeling cold, maybe 10 minutes or so. The big "but" though is that the lumbar area won't cool at all, and will likely still be very warm as your back traps the heat.

So, yes it will, in my experience, cool even if the vehicle is very hot. It does require some time though, but even when the blower is blowing cooler, but not yet cold air, it does make a difference compared to the uncooled 120° seat. Keep in mind that it's highly dependent on the inside of the vehicle cooling down and cold air being directed to the intake hoses.

I mentioned briefly in the main cooled seat thread that I'm experimenting with an exhaust addition as well. I haven't been able to test it properly yet, but I'm thinking that it might be beneficial in extreme temperature environments like we're talking about. I'm not expecting much of an improvement, but maybe it will surprise me.

Hopefully, now that the thread is back up, more of those who've installed theirs will share some feedback.

Missing install info

I will add this into the instruction sheet, but figured I'd post it first as it's an important step that I missed.

Before you can pull up the seat cover you have to disconnect the flap that wraps around the front of the seat.

On the back of the seat there's an 8 inch or so wide flap that connects on to the frame of the seat via a plastic clip. Pry off the clip and push the flap through the gap between the seat back and bottom cushion to the front of the seat. See photo of the flap pushed through.

Be careful pulling on the front of the seat cover as the blower is connected to the seat cover via the mesh pad that spreads out the cooling. Only pull the seat cover up as much as needed to access the blower unit.

Exhaust attachment

Well, I gave it one more shot to see if I could come up with a small, simple exhaust solution, but it did more harm than good. It seemed to work fine with the blower unit hanging outside the seat, but once installed inside the seat it held too much heat next to the unit and the TED wasn't properly cooling, resulting in higher blower temperatures.

So, I'm abandoning the exhaust side. A larger system that's less in contact with the blower might work, but I'm not convinced it's the best way to go and don't really have the time to pursue it.

I think that the better bet is to just find a way for the hot air to escape more naturally. Perhaps replacing the one panel on the seat back with more breathable mesh material as some have suggested or more simply just adding a small vent of some kind to that panel. The former likely requires a trip to an upholstery shop and the latter would require cutting a hole of some sort into the seat.

I cut a 1.5 inch hole in my driver's seat some time ago as I had originally planned on connecting the exhaust directly to it. The hole has been mostly blocked for awhile so it hasn't been helping me much regarding the temps I've shared.

I'm committed to the larger hole, but I think something smaller might be sufficient – maybe 1 inch. Ideally something that just requires cutting an "X" for the vent to be pushed through instead of a precise circle. I'd have limitations 3D printing it because it's an external visible item, so it would be preferred if there was something that already existed out there that might work.

It would just need to be something simple like the below image with an outer flange big enough to cover the cuts needed, plus a locking ring to hold it tight.

Anyone have any ideas? How do you feel about cutting into the seat?

A tweeter grille could be a good part to cover the hole, with your 3d part inside.

https://www.google.it/search?q=twee...3tkPrOAhXIrxoKHddwCLsQsAQIIA&biw=1680&bih=925

Subscribed...

BAD NEWS FOR GT350 TECH PACK OWNERS

Build date on my car was 3/27/2016 and it shipped with TSB updated blower (sock/straps present). So if your car was built early this spring you might be SOL.

I don't know about EB/V6/V8 cars though.

I would drive to Phoenix and have you install it for me if you ever make the kit for Mustangs with the TSB fix (that's also broken).

Really absurd that you have to do a DIY fix for a $40K car. Ford should fix this issue themselves and offer a fix.

Luckily for me, I dont care much about my back being cool. As long as my ass is cool its good. XD

Honus said:

BAD NEWS FOR GT350 TECH PACK OWNERS

Build date on my car was 3/27/2016 and it shipped with TSB updated blower (sock/straps present). So if your car was built early this spring you might be SOL.

I don't know about EB/V6/V8 cars though.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I thought that some of the TSB units likely would have made it into 2016 models, but had info from folks with later build dates than yours that indicated they had the original blower.

Do your seats have any special markings/embroidery that might make them more unique and thus more likely to have had the TSB included earlier?

I bought a TSB version of the blower and plan on seeing what's involved in cutting off the sock. It should be simple enough to remove. Next step will be adapting the attachment so it can attach to the different screw locations. I'd hoped to do it this past weekend, but didn't get a chance.

I think I should be able to get it to work, but would like to have more feedback from those who've installed it on the original blower before I encourage cutting off the sock. Stay tuned.

OK guys heard I was being talked about so figured I would sign on. I think it is amazing that Darko66 came up with a DIY solution for pre-TSB cars. This issue has been a major problem for the F150 guys like me for a long time. (second thread link below dates back to 6/6/15 first one was ever earlier than that)
http://www.f150forum.com/f118/cooling-seats-issue-tsb-feedback-304154/index433/

The TSB that you have is in part due to the work that I did with Ford Seat Complete (engineering team at Ford) early in 2015. I always knew it would migrate over to the other lines and was curious how long it would take.

Here is what I know... The intake issue that Ford approached with the SOCK was for one reason only (reduce localized heat on the rear of the seat). They did not and will not make an improvement to try and fix the lack of cooling as it does not impact the overall function of the vehicle (their words not mine).



This DIY is a much better solution than the SOCK as it can not be kinked or collapse like we have seen over on the F150 side of the world.

Here is where I disagree with Darko66. The exhaust air is a MAJOR issue! The TED produces hot exhaust air when in cooling mode. The HOT air has no where to go and will get trapped inside the seat. As the unit runs for a long time it will continue to build the internal seat temp higher and higher and continue to reduce the efficency of the system. Eventually after long runs the TED will start pumping out warm air instead of cool air.

What did I do? Well I approached the hot exhaust first instead of the intake. My goal was to get the hot air out. How do I know the hot air needs out? This FLIR image.




To be clear Darko66 has a great product for you guys without the TSB. I have reached out to him and given him kudos and even bought one from him. I am not and will not get in his way. I am also not pushing anything I sell on this forum as I am not a vendor and it is not fair to Darko66. I would be happy to do a co-op of sorts with Darko66 as he knows the Mustang far better than I do. Darko66 if this bothers you or gets in your way please PM me and I can edit. You paid as a sponsor so I want to respect that.

-Tim
F150 SeatGuru