Repairing Saab 9000 Aero front seat heaters

The Saab 9000 Aero is equipped with front seat heaters. A wonderful invention on a cold winters day! I recently went to use my seat heater to find that it was not working on the drivers side. I checked all of the basic items that maybe causing such a fault, such as the fuse and found that 10 years of use had taken its toll on the seat heating element itself.

I decided to look at repairing the pad. However this involved removing the seat and taking the base apart. Quite a daunting prospect!

Below is a guide to help any one else facing this repair to help them to complete the task.

Part 1 - Remove the seat from the car.

Firstly you need to remove the seat from the car.

Start by undoing the seat mountings while the car seat can still be moved forwards and backwards to gain access to the top of the Hex Bolts. There are two at the front and two at the back. You will need a T-50 Torx bit.

You now need to undo the seatbelt from its mounting on the car seat.

First remove the electric seat switch covers by gently pulling them off.

Then remove one Torx screw from the front of the plastic switch cover and two from the rear. You will need to pop off the cover of the rear screw to gain access.

Once the switch cover is free you can unclip the wiring connector from the rear and place the whole cover to one side. You now have access to the seatbelt mounting. You will need to use a large Torx bit to undo the mounting. It is very tight, so you may need to use a long bar to give you the leverage needed.

You should now be able to reach under the seat and undo the two connectors for the seat electrics.

The seat is now free and can be removed from the car.

Part 2 - Remove the leather seat covering

Start by removing the three metal hog rings from the front of the seat. You can replace these later with cable ties if you do not have a pair of hog ring pliers.

You can then start to pull back the front of the leather over the top of the foam seat base. There are then 6 hooks which hook onto the leather seat cover to give it its shape. They pass down through holes in the foam seat base and hook over the sprung wire seat base. You will need to turn the seat over so you can see the underneath of the base. Unhook all 6 clips. You will need to use long nose pliers, or alternatively a piece of strong wire with a hook on the end. (A coat hanger is ideal for this.) To gain access you may need to remove the electronic seat control box. Simply undo the one screw holding it in place, unclip the wire and swing it out of the way.

You should now be able to rotate the leather seat cover back enough to view the whole of the foam seat base. If you find this difficult check to ensure you have released all of the seat hooks - its easy to miss one!

Part 3 - Diagnostics & Repair

Often you can clearly see a small burnt patch where the seat heater has failed. In my case it wasn't that obvious and I had to do quite a careful visual search to find the area with the fault. This is usually along the front of the seat. Once you have found the burnt area you can repair the broken wire by stripping back the two wire ends, soldering them together and taping them electrical tape. I would strongly recommend you also test your seat heater for continuity with a multi-meter or similar circuit tester. I found that my seat pad had 3 breaks, all of which were not visible and showed no signs of burns around them.

Once you are confident that the seat heater is repaired you can put the base back together and refit the seat in the car. Refitting is the reverse of the removal procedure.