Tried this today, probably just made it worse!
My 2002 seat doesn't come apart like yours!! 

Superb post thank you so much! My drivers seat leather was still in decent condition but had gone slack and was starting to crease so before it started to wear the colour off at the creases, I decided to take the plunge and renew the foam. It also made sense to swap the passenger and driver seat cushion leather so that the outer edges become the inner less visible edges and although that's obviously twice the work, both seats now look pretty much like new especially after a clean and good coat of leather conditioner. Worst part of the job are the aptly named hog rings, they really are pigs even with proper pliers! I found that the one electrical connector for the headrest motor can be reached without removing the upper backrest cover so that saves a lot of work. Just follow the cable up into the cavity and you can just about get 2 hands in there to disconnect the plug. The armrest can be left installed too if you only need to access the bottom seat cushion but without this guide I'm certain this job would have been much more difficult. Took my son and I five hours to complete both front seats but its well worth the effort as the results are a much more comfortable seat as well as the awesome cosmetic improvement.

Cool, glad it was useful

Cheers, 2011 TDV8 AB
2006 TD6 AB (Gone to Wales)

Im just tackling this job now and I’ve found a broken pair of wires. I can’t see the rest of them as they disappear into the seat squab.
Any ideas how I can retrieve them?

Only thing I can suggest is removing the seat cover from the squab to see if you can find the other end of the wires. This is assuming the part that is cut is the part that connects to the heater element.

Why would someone cut them..... just wondering if the seat cover has been replaced at some point with a non heated seat one before your ownership???

You have to find the ends of the heating element anyway so pulling off the cover is probably the way to go....

Cheers,

Paul. 2011 TDV8 AB
2006 TD6 AB (Gone to Wales)

They haven’t been cut. I think they have been severed inside the seat, possibly wear or caught on the metal frame.

I have tied the wires together and the seat works now. I’m not sure what section is connected to the wires but it all warms up nicely now

Hi, thanks for the write up

is it possible just to remove the seat cover without removing the seats? 2011 Vogue 4.4 Santorini black
prior:
2010 Vogue 4.4 Buckingham blue
2007 Vogue 3.6 TDV8, Stornoway grey remap
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no! impossible, i tried. 2011 Vogue 4.4 Santorini black
prior:
2010 Vogue 4.4 Buckingham blue
2007 Vogue 3.6 TDV8, Stornoway grey remap
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POSSUNT QUIA POSSE VIDENTUR

I managed to remove the seat, change the seat cover that was ripped. Replug all connectors, refit the seat, and connect the battery.

Move the seat back and forward to screw it back on with the 4 bolts.

But the next day the electric adjustments would not move. After 20 mins driving they started working again,

today again not working. I am afraid i may have broken some wires or connectors. the problem is now i cannot remove the seat to check the connectors because i cannot access the 4 bolts since i cannot slide the seat back and forward to expose the bolts using the electric motor.

anyone has any suggestion how to remove the seat now?  2011 Vogue 4.4 Santorini black
prior:
2010 Vogue 4.4 Buckingham blue
2007 Vogue 3.6 TDV8, Stornoway grey remap
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The most likely place for an electrical failure will be the switches or the connectors I would have thought. Can you pull the switch panel with the seat in place and go through the cables with a meter checking for continuity? Also do the same with the connectors you can access?

Or at a push, even trying wiggling or moving connectors with the switches pressed so you can try and find which one is causing the problem?

Cheers,

MM 2011 TDV8 AB
2006 TD6 AB (Gone to Wales)

thanks, in the tight space under the seat i tried poking all cables but no results,

i see the motor to move the seat aft/fwd is on the back and there are cables providing power (4 cables) as opposed to the passenger motor, 2 cables.....

i believe one could cut the power cables to the motor, power the motor independently and electrically move the seat aft/fwd to expose the 4 bolts so to remove the seat and then properly check all the connectors....

but this is above my level so I will take it to the indie and see there, will get parking sensor fixed too hopefully as well there

i will update 2011 Vogue 4.4 Santorini black
prior:
2010 Vogue 4.4 Buckingham blue
2007 Vogue 3.6 TDV8, Stornoway grey remap
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POSSUNT QUIA POSSE VIDENTUR

magically when i went to start up the car to drive to the indie, the seat would move. Now i dont know if it was the sun and the temperature helped because this morning it was -5 and it was not working and now is +5, maybe the plastic cables got more flexibility and made better contact. In any case I took the opportunity to slide the seat back and forth to remove the bolts to remove the seat and then check the cables.

Seems there is the big cable that comes up from the cable pit under the seat that I may have positioned with the fold angled towards the back of the car, this may have prevented the cable to slide easily on top of the cover of the cable pit while the seat slides forward, and maybe the cable partially got stuck and partly disconnected the connectors ...

now this is what i suppose happened. not sure though.

Nevertheless i folded the main cable the opposite way and checked it would not get tangled in the seat connectors when sliding the seat on top....

forgot to mention that this main cable had part of the cover consumed by the sliding motion of the seat on top of it and i had put some tape to cover the exposed small cables inside while putting back the seat for the first time.

in any case i bolted back the seat and now all seems to work fine, for now,

lets see tomorrow morning.... 2011 Vogue 4.4 Santorini black
prior:
2010 Vogue 4.4 Buckingham blue
2007 Vogue 3.6 TDV8, Stornoway grey remap
___________________________
POSSUNT QUIA POSSE VIDENTUR

Resurrection of the praise for this post, thank you so much for detailing it out so well, and providing a solution. Mine was exactly the same, the grey wire had come off the element, so some solder, shrink wrap and putting back together has done the trick. For anyone else trying this if it seems like there is no element, keep digging on the right hand side (at least mine was) of where the wire ends, it will be there somewhere.

Also, is it possible to ignore this element and just add the later ‘pad’ type in between the foam and the leather stitching? I can’t find if anyone has tried it, and thought it might be an option if this happens again. I also considered it may be too much material to get through to be worth it.

 RR 2005 4.4 petrol
Any spelling mistakes are the fault of spellchecker
Previous MG J2, CITROEN light 15 x 2 gone unfortunately
Present MERC 180e, RANGE ROVER L322, JAGUAR XJS, MERC 280SE, MG F, JAGUAR S-Type 6v 2003, jaguar s-type 8v 2004, Ford Cougar

Hi folks. I know this is a fairly old string but it is so useful that I felt I should add an update to my addition back in 2018 whilst still paying homage to mm289 who created the original how to in the first place. I used this brilliant write up again yesterday on my driver’s seat after the heated seat stopped working, indicated by my heater lights coming on for a few seconds when selected but then going out again. I would add a note of caution that removing the seat leather and foam is not to be under estimated but if you are reasonably handy then you can save yourself a lot of money especially if you want to get your heated seat element fixed for very little outlay. This is a long, labour-intensive job which took me 9 hours in total so be warned, but there is nothing particularly difficult.
So, once you have used mm289’s write up to get the seat apart and have the seat squab leather and foam removed, you will see from the jumble of wires and plugs that the squab has 3 separate heater elements. 1 large middle element and 2 smaller side elements.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge