Cooled seats not cooling

[Fek]

Its straight up a bad design decision by ford. They wanted to bring a new feature to the mustang and they used off the shelf design for other cars. There is a 90% chance ford higher ups were informed that this design wouldn't work and they wanted to push it out just to tote it as a selling feature of the car.
Now their playing catch up with the F150 guys because they went to the news and complained. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

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[Old 5 Oh]

Its straight up a bad design decision by ford. They wanted to bring a new feature to the mustang and they used off the shelf design for other cars. There is a 90% chance ford higher ups were informed that this design wouldn't work and they wanted to push it out just to tote it as a selling feature of the car.
Now their playing catch up with the F150 guys because they went to the news and complained. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I agree, but keep in mind there are 8 F150 buyers for every Mustang buyer, so they are the bandwagon we want to get on.

 

[ctlaw]

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/

Even if the underseat duct is blowing ambient 90F outdoor air, that will help cool the TED.

 

[klousgt]

...There is a 90% chance ford higher ups were informed that this design wouldn't work and they wanted to push it out just to tote it as a selling feature of the car...

Almost certainly, it can't be a coincidence that the seat back cooler doesn't work correctly and the manually happens to not mention that the seat back should be cooled. The feature in the manual and sales material is very vaguely described and I think that's on purpose. Many people probably don't even know the seat back is suppose to be cooled.

 

[papinist]

.. and in the european brochure they forgot to remove that indication, because we have images showing clearly that the system should work for the bottom AND the back!

 

[Droid_Junky]

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

It does make a difference. I've had my mod on for a few months. It's posted in here many pages back. Driver seat no longer heats up and you can feel coolness on the seat continuously.

 

[Fek]

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/

Seems to me like Ford has been lying to the EPA trying to receive that CAFE credit for more of their cars. They basically take a working cooling seat design from the Fusion or Tarus and then put it in the F150 and mustang, and then claim the CAFE credits for those vehicles.

I can say that I run the AC more due to the back of the seat not cooling/heating up, then only the bottom cooled. Maybe someone needs to check if Fords gets credit for these non functioning cooled seats claiming a reduced AC usage.

 

[DB23]

Well the tsb and fix is out for the F150. Basically an intake tube routed under the seat, and some of the foam in the seatback cut away to help the TED exhaust escape out the perforations. Preliminary reviews are very positive and the engineering team at ford that did this is responsible for all car seats not just F150, so hopefully they can tweak this basic design for Mustang and other similarly affected models.

 

[lwilliams]

Got my regular call from Ford rep yesterday. He said they are indeed installing the "fix" on the F150 and the Mustang is next. He said they expect it to be ready to start installing it on the Mustang in about 2 weeks. ---- Just in time for the cold weather! :-)

 

[av99gt]

Seems to me like Ford has been lying to the EPA trying to receive that CAFE credit for more of their cars. They basically take a working cooling seat design from the Fusion or Tarus and then put it in the F150 and mustang, and then claim the CAFE credits for those vehicles.

I can say that I run the AC more due to the back of the seat not cooling/heating up, then only the bottom cooled. Maybe someone needs to check if Fords gets credit for these non functioning cooled seats claiming a reduced AC usage.

I would not say they are lying to the EPA. They made a change to the design and carried it across different models. Now it seems like due diligence wasn't done, whether it was lack of engineering testing, driven by costing (ignoring engineering ), or believing the supplier on the operation we won't know. They are fixing the problem on the F150 so this was not on purpose, the previous gen. F150 seats coolers worked. Now if they dont fix the mustang coolers than that will be a different story.

 

[tsunami]

"lwilliams': will this be a TSB for all Mustangs with 'cooling' seats or just those owners who have been complaining to their dealerships already?

 

[redline727]

"lwilliams': will this be a TSB for all Mustangs with 'cooling' seats or just those owners who have been complaining to their dealerships already?

TSB's are for technicians. They are for diagnosis and repair purposes based off a customers concern. It's to save on diagnosis time and wasteful attempts at repairs that may not correct a concern. The OEM will include what models and model years are part of the fix. TSB's are not a recall and are only covered under warranty while your vehicle is under warranty. Unless the OEM extends the warranty period for a specific part or system if it falls within the guidelines of a specific bulletin.

 

[GT Pony]

"lwilliams': will this be a TSB for all Mustangs with 'cooling' seats or just those owners who have been complaining to their dealerships already?

It will be for all 2015 & probably 2016 Mustangs with the cooled seat option. So anyone who comes in complaining that the seat backs don't cool and the tech verifies it (and I hope they can do it accurately, not half-assed like some have experienced), then they will install the fix free under warranty.

 

[Fek]

It will be for all 2015 & probably 2016 Mustangs with the cooled seat option. So anyone who comes in complaining that the seat backs don't cool and the tech verifies it (and I hope they can do it accurately, not half-assed like some have experienced), then they will install the fix free under warranty.

And that's going to be the problem, having the dealerships "verifying" the issue. Most, if not all of us who have brought our car in for this issue, have had dealers tell us that the seats are displaying "normal characteristics"

Can the Ford rep on here provide any insight as to how we can handle this? Its clear that it is ALL cooled seats with F150s and Mustangs but the dealers are obviously going to give us a super hard time "verifying" and ordering parts.

 

[GT Pony]

^^^ Well, Ford is going to have to "school" the dealerships on how to test and verify that the back coolers don't work right. If they do it right, they will have the right procedure laid out in the TSB.

I know what the problem is ... the tech hooks up the diagnostic tester and it shows they are working fine because they only test them for the first 5 min after they turn them on. They need to leave the test machine on for 15~20 min to see that the TED gets hot and stops working.

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