Heated Seats and Potential Fire Hazards.



Common, sadly, for this seat style in this model (F10). Affected me, multiple times. First time warranty replacement of leather seat cover. Second time - two DIY fixes so far. Soldering, heat shrink, replace a short section of wire.
 
Glad the OP reported this to the NHTSA. It takes consumers and insurance companies to report this stuff in order to institute a recall. Most manufacturers will not step up unless pressured. And many times only have a "hidden warranty"...which assumes the consumer comes back to the dealer for service and repair...then the manufacturer may cover it, since they know they have a problem.

But in the manufacturer's defence, it could also be a one off, where the electrical connection was bad or defective, causing a lot of resistance resulting in the melted connections.

But if there are a couple dozen or more reports of the same problem, it is likely to get eyes on the problem...and a free repair.

BMW had a full recall on the 7 series about 11 years or so ago. The heater elements were overheating and burning right through the seat leather...the pictures I saw online were scary. Until they could fix them all, they sent letters to owners to not use the feature. My friend owned a pair of those cars...a V8 and V12.
Exactly. Unless the issues are reported to NHTSA the manufacturers have no idea theres an issue, even if the item is repaired at a dealer the manufacturer may not be alerted if its a few years old. granted they will often try to dodge the problem. (think GM ignition issues, thats a total cluster) Best case scenario is that it brings an investigation and some failure analysis and then hopefully a remedy.
 
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