Heated Seat Operation

The seat heating control module controls heated seat operation for the driver and passenger seats. When active, power is applied to the seat cushion and back heater elements through a common pulse width modulated (PWM) voltage supply control circuit. Each individual heater element is switched to ground by the module through a common low side drive control circuit.

When inactive the seat heating control module connects the heating element low side outputs to a common reference point internal to the module which is biased to approximately 3.5 V. The module uses this biased voltage in order to check the high side and low side control circuits for a short to battery or ground before enabling the driver and passenger seat heating elements. During heated seat operation, the seat heating control module interrupts control of the heating elements every 10 s for approximately 10 ms to make this biased voltage check.

With both the seat cushion and seat back heater elements disconnected, if the high side output of the module is measured it will display a low current 12 V bleed off voltage. This bleed off voltage does not have a meaningful diagnostic purpose. With one or both of the heater elements connected you would just see the 3.5 V biased voltage from this circuit.