Cooled seats not cooling

[Darko66]

Yes, they're a different model that no longer has a replaceable filter and most likely has a different kind of vent opening on the seat side of the unit. The ones used on one of the F150s just has an opening and a metal bracket to attach to the seat. Ours might be a little smaller too. Impossible to tell scale from the pictures.

Correction, ours don't have the vent on the side facing the seat at all

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[Nemesis911]

Deysha,

You can count me in as another 2015 with the same issue. Marginal at best on the bottom and warm on the back.

Thanks,

 

[Free Agent]

The waste heat most likely vents out the unit and into the back volume of the seat as I've shown with the red arrows. Ideally, the waste heat should vent down and out the back of the seat back, not inside the seat back.

Yep and that is exactly what the fan draws in, heated waste air and then tries to cool it. A poor design. It would be like a window air conditioner unit that blew the hot exhaust air right back into the room it was trying to cool.

 

[Darko66]

Well, I got the back flap loose and I stand corrected. It really is just a terribly designed unit with only one true vent. It is venting the heat out that opening, but there's no way to attach any tubing to redirect it. Having that flex tubing on the cooling port is terrible idea too. It both reduces the force of the air and allows it to warm up prior to entering the seat. That's why all the other units have the vent that goes directly into the seat - short travel and no exposure to the air trapped within the seat.

The best solution to fix it is to replace the blower unit with a two vent one like the other Ford vehicles use.

A much less desirable solution because of the existing flaws in the current units design would be to create a baffle that would attach to the unit and deflect that hot air away from the flex tubing and the fan intake. It would also need to push the seat backing out and away from the intake so the inside of the seat isn't so claustrophobic. I suppose with a little skill and a 3D printer someone could make their own.

Anyway, I apologize for my prior postulizing. The design is just so wrong that I couldn't believe it was actually put together correctly. Note that I deleted a lot of my previous babbling to save future readers the time reading it.

 

[Alloye]

Now that summer temps are here, I'm noticing the same thing: mild cooling of the seat cushion and warming of the seat back. I can't wait to take it in and be told it's normal.

 

[lwilliams]

Got the call from the Ford CSM around 5PM yesterday. Mine is at the dealer for dash replacement. Also, they have my contention regarding the seat cooling issue.

The response from the dealer to the Ford CSM -- "we hooked the computer up and the seat cooling is functioning normally."

After detailed explanation from me to her, she is going to ask them to place two people in the car with the seat cooling on high for 10 to 15 minutes to experience the NON cooling without the computer hook-up.


We'll see what happens.

 

[jbailer]

After detailed explanation from me to her, she is going to ask them to place two people in the car with the seat cooling on high for 10 to 15 minutes to experience the NON cooling without the computer hook-up.

Yes, have to get very technical. All joking aside, that is just the issue and perfect. Ford needs to understand the seat is working as designed. It was just a very poor design. It's unfortunate that we don't have a mechanism to formally complain to Ford without the useless trip to the dealer! They could go out to the production line and get in ANY brand new car with cooled seats and verify it is a broad problem, not just some or a percentage of vehicles.

 

[Free Agent]

"we hooked the computer up and the seat cooling is functioning normally."

Typical. :(

Ask them to verify those "computer" readings with an actual temperature reading with a infrared or laser thermometer on the seat surfaces and they will see the computer results are a load of BS. It might be cooling the elements of the unit, but it is in no way transferring that cool air to the upper seat back.

Does anyone else see the pattern here? Customer takes it in, nothing is done, repeat ad nauseum. So Ford what's the call?

 

[jbailer]

Free Agent, nothing is going to be done by the dealer. The car is functioning as Ford designed it. They will all be the same until Ford gets enough complaints to acknowledge the problem. The dealer can't and won't re-engineer something in the car. I still haven't seen Ford acknowledge the problem. They are always very careful with their wording.

 

[peetucket]

Ford should be paying some of the members in this thread for all the diagnostic work they have done. Nice work folks, let's hope it gets put to use.

I took my GT Premium Convertible in today for various fitment issues and a flaky hazard switch, and mentioned the seat back cooling (which is ineffective in mine as well). I told the service agent that in the 15 minute drive to the dealer, the seat back actually got warmer with it set to max cooling, and it was only in the mid-70s outside. Without even approaching the car, he basically tried to blow it off (pun intended). I said: "Tell me if the following statement is true or false: seat coolers should cool the seats, not warm the seats." He agreed to take a look, but I have very low expectations.

For the Ford reps on here, the dealer is Towne Ford in Redwood City, CA, which is where I purchased the car.

 

[jbailer]

Without even approaching the car, he basically tried to blow it off (pun intended). I said: "Tell me if the following statement is true or false: seat coolers should cool the seats, not warm the seats." He agreed to take a look, but I have very low expectations. /QUOTE]

The dealer service advisor gave me the same type of BS initial response saying the seat backs aren't supposed to cool. LOL, how true that turns out to be. I told him I had already contacted the Ford regional service manager and filed a complaint, then he agreed to have it looked at. The longer it takes Ford to acknowledge the problem, the more frustrated I get.

 

[dconfer]

These seats are way below what I had in my 2013 Taurus sho. The cooled seats there worked really well. I am disappointed in the stang seats from the SHO.

 

[Zombie]

Mine work great, they work even better when the a/c is on lol. As in if I don't want to use the a/c I just use the seat cooler. If that isn't enough to keep me from sweating I turn on the a/c and as soon as the cabin cools down I can notice the seat getting much colder. I'm ASSuming the cooler air making the cooling mechanism more efficient.

I see what you did there

Mine work great, I usually turn them on full with the air, and end up having to turn them down before I get half way home. Both parts cool. Southern Ohio, so the worst day so far this year has been low 90's... usually 85-86 seems to be our summer thus far.

Oh, and not meant as a taunt just wanted people to know that they should work a certain way, and if not, the dealer needs to address. Sounds like a number of people are having issues with it. :(

 

[GT Pony]

Mine work great, I usually turn them on full with the air, and end up having to turn them down before I get half way home. Both parts cool. Southern Ohio, so the worst day so far this year has been low 90's... usually 85-86 seems to be our summer thus far.

I posted a while back in this thread where I ran my seat coolers with also the cabin AC on and they seemed to put out some cool air out the backs for only 10~15 min, then stopped. Probably stopped cooling because the cooling unit over heated. I'm not totally convinced that your seats work that "great".

 

[GT Pony]

Got the call from the Ford CSM around 5PM yesterday. Mine is at the dealer for dash replacement. Also, they have my contention regarding the seat cooling issue.

The response from the dealer to the Ford CSM -- "we hooked the computer up and the seat cooling is functioning normally."

If you look back in this thread, when Droid_Junky took his car in the service department also hooked up a computer to check the function of the seat cooling and his diagnostic showed that the units in the seat back were not cooling like the units in the seat cushion.

Also, it seems some people do feel the back start to cool but it only lasts 10 min or so. Therefore, a diagnostic test that is done when the seat cooling is first turned on will probably not show a problem. It takes 10~15 min of them running for the units in the back to over heat and stop cooling.

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