Cooled seats not cooling

[OySmallFry@SCS]

According to the F150 forum, there is a TSB for the trucks. I Can't find any other info on it though. Nothing on the NHTSA website.
http://www.f150forum.com/f118/cooli...working-properly-304154/index182/#post4322270

Knowing Ford's exact fix would be best to duplicate, no matter if they get around to officially releasing it for more models. Doubtless that their engineers have spent more time on this than we have.

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[Stangnut]

From another post on f150forum.com:

I just got off the phone with my local service manager. He confirmed that the F150 cooled seat is in that TSB. He also mentioned that there were several other vehicle lines. He did also say that it doesn't seem to read as being VIN specific but rather if they are having cooled seat issues.

Anyone have any service tech connections that can confirm this? Maybe get a pic or screen grab of the actual TSB?

EDIT: The TSB only mentions the F-150 so I have no idea what that guy is talking about. (see the actual TSB below)

 

[Darko66]

I think the talk was over on the F150 site that they were going to do a "snorkel" for the intake only. Assumedly just bolting on to where the deflector in front of the fan currently is. With any luck they'll also boost the fan speed and/or increase the voltage to the TEC. I guess we'll learn soon.

When Ford does get around to us they'll have to modify the shape of the snorkel to fit in our seats. The back seat passenger knee room indent in the back of our seats creates a bend that has to be navigated. And, I'm trying to figure out if there's any way to close the flap back up with the snorkels sticking out of it. It's an awfully snug fit. But, aesthetics can wait for now.

Ideally, I'm going to vent the waste heat out the seat bottom. I could try to just redirect it toward the mesh in the seat back, but I'd rather get the hot air out of there.

The F150 guys attachment to the blower are more secure because they're screwing on, but they do have the advantage of easy accessibility to the insides of their seats. I suppose I could do an alternate version that screws on though. The passenger side blower is already out, so might as well.

Eagerly awaiting what the TSB indicates.

 

[ctlaw]

From another post on f150forum.com:


Anyone have any service tech connections that can confirm this? Maybe get a pic or screen grab of the actual TSB?

i just emailed my local service manager.

 

[Stangnut]

Here's the TSB. It's only for the F-150 and it only has an intake snorkel. Nothing for the hot exhaust.

 

[Old 5 Oh]

Here's the TSB. It's only for the F-150 and it only has an intake snorkel. Nothing for the hot exhaust.

I believe the cutting away of the foam is intended to improve exhausting of the hot air, and the snorkel provides intake air that is at least separated from the exhaust. Our Mustang seats have perforations on the back that I am pretty sure are intended to exhaust hot air from the blower cavity, but they are not very effective.

It will be really interesting to see if Ford follows up with a similar fix for our cars.

 

[Darko66]

Yikes! Has a bit of an Apollo 13 vibe to it. With the lo-res of the image in figure 4 that snorkel even looks a little like a sleeve cut off a spacesuit.

They're swapping out the blower. I wonder if there's anything different about it than the snorkel.

 

[Droid_Junky]

I believe the cutting away of the foam is intended to improve exhausting of the hot air, and the snorkel provides intake air that is at least separated from the exhaust. Our Mustang seats have perforations on the back that I am pretty sure are intended to exhaust hot air from the blower cavity, but they are not very effective.

It will be really interesting to see if Ford follows up with a similar fix for our cars.

It's hard to tell from the picture but I think that is an entirely different peltier unit. The instructions do say install the new blower motor.

Glad to see some progress. Maybe by next summer ours will be fixed.

 

[Blk2015GT]

Darko's solution looks good. Im sure people can go to Home Depot and get their own hose; the couplers are the most important part really.

I think an intake snorkel alone will help a lot. Even if the unit is venting hot air into the seat, at least the intake air is still cool. It should help a lot

 

[Fek]

Ya i really think that for the mustang crowd an exhaust outlet to vent......somewhere would be really nice and increase the efficiency of our seats considering we dont have must space back there anyway.

I'm suspicious about the new blower thought, it could be a "better" one or it could be regulated differently to cycle on and off to prevent heating up. I'm defiantly going to be keeping my eye on the F150 forum and see what they report.

Here's the link for anyone that want to check up as well. http://www.f150forum.com/f118/cooling-seats-your-seat-backs-working-properly-304154/index185/

 

[av99gt]

Doesn't the bottom TED exhaust hot air to the floor boards, wont this suck up that heated air?

 

[GT Pony]

Doesn't the bottom TED exhaust hot air to the floor boards, wont this suck up that heated air?

Doubt it would make any impact there. Besides, most people are running the AC while running the cooled seats, so the little bit of heat rejected off the bottom cushion TED unit won't really matter.

I'm still betting Ford will have a TSB for the Mustang sometime down the road.

 

[ctlaw]

The Mustang is very different from the F150

Doubt it would make any impact there. Besides, most people are running the AC while running the cooled seats, so the little bit of heat rejected off the bottom cushion TED unit won't really matter.

I'm still betting Ford will have a TSB for the Mustang sometime down the road.

You have hit on the critical distinction between the Mustang and the F150.

According to cars.com, the cooled seats are only available on the super cab and crew cab F150 with underseat AC ducts. Thus, there is plenty of free flowing cool air under the seat.

The Mustang seat is lower, lacks AC ducts, and if you are reasonably tall butts up against the rear seat bottom cushion. There is no real airflow whatsoever and the set bottom TED will really heat things up. The Mustang cabin AC really can't affect the underseat area much.

 

[SVTFreak]

I believe the cutting away of the foam is intended to improve exhausting of the hot air, and the snorkel provides intake air that is at least separated from the exhaust. Our Mustang seats have perforations on the back that I am pretty sure are intended to exhaust hot air from the blower cavity, but they are not very effective.

It will be really interesting to see if Ford follows up with a similar fix for our cars.

This. If you bring in cool air from outside, the hot air will escape through perfs and through bottom. The now positive pressure will force it out. It can't blow up like a ballon indefinitely.

Conversely, if you get hot air out, it will have to suck cool air in. Negative pressure.

All you have to do is create a pressure difference from outside to inside. It's not sealed. Fluid dynamics will do the rest. Currently, with internal circulation, it can't. And that's the problem.

 

[av99gt]

Doubt it would make any impact there. Besides, most people are running the AC while running the cooled seats, so the little bit of heat rejected off the bottom cushion TED unit won't really matter.

I'm still betting Ford will have a TSB for the Mustang sometime down the road.

I believe the OEM get cafe credits for using climate controlled seats bc the suggestion was people wouldn't be running the AC to cool down, so less gasoline being burned.... Funny that some of the statements used suggests that the seat coolers were designed to use HVAC cooling to help cool the seat TED. If true they don't get to have it both ways.

http://articles.sae.org/13404/

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