Fuse 18 blowing

[samsonevickis]

Well, everything was fine until I decided to change the drivers seat.

Fuse 18 controls

Radio (I have)
Rear Reading Lamps (I have)
Roller Sun Blind ( I have a manual)
Telephone (Nope)
Trailer (Nope)

I drove 2000mi over 3 days and the radio worked just fine the entire time.

Then I change out the driver seat and now the fuse pops every time I turn the car on.

I was looking in the archives here and perhaps my "new" seat brain is causing this?

I am getting it replaced yet again this weekend.

But the fuse chart doesn't list ANYTHING seat related having to do with fuse 18.

I have already checked for bad wires on the radio, they are fine. I have unplugged the radio and removed the bulbs in the rear to no avail, what could be tripping it?

Thanks

[samsonevickis]

UPDATE:

Just wanted to close this out, after extensive testing it turns out a short in my heating element on the seat lead the FUSE 18 popping. I have unplugged the heating element and Viola no more fuse popping and my radio works.

[shogun]

you could try to resolder the heating element, I have seen that on the German forum. Should be possible and easy to spot in the heating mat from brown color

[samsonevickis]

It's crossed my mind. Problem is 2 fold. One the leather is actually beige and was painted black. So in removing the dried out leather, I will have all these stress cracks, cracks that are already forming despite the seat being only 3months old and sat in for less than that.

Also the buffoon who sprayed the seat also sprayed inside the connector. I was able to soak the lumbar switch in DOT 3 overnight and make it work again, but the heated connector has those super small pins, so I am not sure if that is related or not.

Game plan is to have the seat releathered this fall and have new OEM heat pads installed. Lumbar bladder is fine apparently.

[shogun]

Leather refreshing is actually not that difficult. Have done that with my buddies on several cars, even with cracks or cuts in it.
If there are cuts or cracked parts: skin the seat , turn inside out and glue with special leather glue a leather patch from inside over the cut. Then turn it around again and use liquid leather to fill up the cracks and small uneven paces, let it dry, do again, then use a special emery paper sponge these leather repair shops sell and smoothen everything out, then apply the leather paint.
Leather paint they have different concentrations, one is just for refreshing the same colour, and the other one is high concentrated paint if you want to changed to a different color.
I got the stuff from a friend in Germany who has a special shop for this, even special leather stitching needles etc.
That was such a typical seat
http://userimg.teacup.com/userimg/88...bs/0000264.jpg
http://userimg.teacup.com/userimg/88...bs/0000263.jpg

just google for Repairing a Leather Car Seat
lots of info and videos

[samsonevickis]

Hmm, I have a lead on some donor leather. Perhaps I'll do this later in the year...

[LysanderSpooner]

I was having this same issue after swapping seat covers, but I don't have heated seats. The donor seat covers and my original seat frame that I reused both have the wires for it though. Turns out the wires in the seat frame got pinched.