Power Seats in 99 SSEi won't move
 

Hey guys I was cleaning out my car the other day and moved the seats all the way forward to clean under them and as I was moving the driver's seat back there was an abrupt halt and the seat hasn't moved since yesterday. I took out the circuit breaker for the seats and it was so hot that it burnt my finger. Now what caused it to be so hot when I had the ignition off? Questiont 2 I have is when I tried to put the curcuit breaker back in it sparked really bad and it went instantly hot again. What caused that?

Could it be the switch on the center console or a wire that is shorting out??? Because I looked under the seat to see if there were any wires caught in the track and there weren't. So what is the problem?

A.J.

With the ignition "off", you should still have power to the seats, this is okay. Don't re-install the breaker until you are able to resolve the problem. It sounds like a direct short in that power ckt. for the seats. You will have to isolate components out. Try disconnecting both power seat electrical connectors. Locate the power side of the socket that the breaker plugs into, the load side would be opposite. Go to the load side of the socket with an ohmeter set on a low scale and read to ground. It should indicate infinity, then re-connect one of the seat connectors. If the meter indicates 0 ohms then that is where the short is.

Personally..I would pull the seat out and inspect if for any visible problems. A quick tug will get the plastic bolt covers off and a 13mm and 15 mm ratcheting wrenches go a long way.

if the breaker is getting hot that means there is a short or wires got pinched or stripped....pull the seat and inspect the wiring

This could be a mechanical/physical issue. Make sure nothing is blocking the track or seat movement. The motor could overload in this situation and pop the breaker.

Another question if I let off the switch should the circuit breaker cool down?? I am assuming that there is a short in the wire I am hoping that is the only thing wrong. I will keep you guys up to date on my progress.

Thanks alot.

A.J.

The ckt breaker should be tripping. If it is cooling down once you let off the switch, then the short ckt is downstream of the switch internal to the seat. Oh yeah, sorry for the long dissertation in my previous post, I got carried away. I'm thinking what you're looking for may be plainly visible under the seat area. A wiring harness, or a power lead pinched or cut & touching ground as an example.

Mine did this. I ended up replacing the switch on the side of the seat. Yeah, dealer only item and I think it was around $40 if I recall. I took the old one apart as I've done a fair amount of fixens over the years and thought I could fix it, but there was a little plastic part in there that was broken. However, when putting it all together with the new switch, I thought I did something wrong because the seat would not move with the new switch. Came to find out the plug to one of the motors had unplugged just enough that I couldn't tell :oops: plugged it in and all was fine.

Check everything obvious first. I hate paying the dealer anything.

the seats in question are different and have different switches than yours

Yeah mine has the 9 buttons on the center floor console. To answer the question about the circuit breaker it is hot constantly even when the button is not pressed. Does this mean that the motor is bad or what I am really nervous about this situation because I am not ready to buy a whole new motor.

A.J.