(beware) burning of the heated rear seats

[johnny11]

While driving home yesterday, pulled into a service station, my 11 year old daughter was alseep in the rear seat behind the driver, as i slowly awoke here she mentioned her back was really hot, so i looked and saw she had the heated seat on no.2 but as she leaned forward i felt her back which was very hot, then i felt the rear of the seat which was very hot too, so turned the seat off had a break and carried on with the journey. But it wasn`t until this morning when i had a look at the seat that i saw how hot it had actually got, as you can see it had burnt the material on the seat, now what would of happened if i didn`t wake her up? would it of burnt her back? i`ve contacted audi customer service who has passed this onto there saftey department who seemed quite concerned, and will get back to me soon.

[Shoppinit]

Holy moly. That's a shocker. Properly dangerous. Reckon you came close to setting the seat on fire, there.

I knew a girl who got completely smashed and passed out all night against a radiator. Her arm basically cooked and 10 years later, she was still having surgical operations to remove dead flesh. Narsty.

[ChrisRS6]

Yikes! I would shudder to think about the consequences if you hadn't caught that when you did!

I'm going to check to make sure mine are both switched off now. I've never sat in the back of our car, but the odd passenger or two may have fiddled with the heater. My daugter's child seat lives on one side of my back seat, so as a 20-month old, and insulated by her child-seat, she won't be able to alert me if it starts getting hot until it's too late!

Let us all know what Audi say about this - if it was a one-off accident, or something to do with having the heaters on for too long?

[chunky79]

Was there a car seat against it? Wonder if the resistor has failed in the switch?

[johnny11]

Only a booster seat on the base, but her back was against the back seat.

[Ian_C]

Fecking hell! I'd be giving my car to Audi for them to investigate rather than risking it again

[el_ringo]

Crikey, I would be surprised if Audi actually do anything about it. They don't care you will spin off a die with crappy suspension (!)

[Mr V10]

Scary, glad Audi are taking it seriously though. Keep us posted. Glad your daughter is okay.

[johnny11]

This could of potentially harmed someone, so this must be audi's duty to look into this, for safety and customer experience. I am not letting this go at all, if I hear nothing within a few days then its the next step up.

[cfcdoc]

I would correspond via email with read receipts, its date and time stamped and veracity cannot be questioned. I wouldnt be a happy bunny but as you say you need to give audi time to reply. Obtain an email address and send them an email giving them an exact period within which to respond with what they would like the next course of action to be or you will escalate the matter.

[chunky79]

What if they come back and say the switch must be faulty? Hardly thier fault is it?
You could have a faulty brake calliper and almost have a bump, it's faulty though. It's bad that someone almost got hurt with the seat but i can't really see what they would do.

[cfcdoc]

Its not a serviceable item though is it, it also isnt an item that gets routinely replaced. You can understand the part failing and not heating up but what isnt acceptable is the potential fire risk but crucially personal injury especially in the rear of the car where arguably the younger element of ones family would routinely sit. They should be obliged to do something about it even if out of warranty. Had his little one suffered burns of any description audi would not have been allowed to escape by any decent brief without culpability.

[sweegie]

Scary indeed and glad everyone is ok... There should be saftey features in the heating elements of all heated seats to prevent this happening and it sounds like yours didn't work at all.

Let us know what Audi find when they dismantle your seats and check they're safe

[Shoppinit]

I'd be surprised if Audi could be held responsible for an isolated incident unless you could prove negligence.

Look at Beko, they've been getting away with killing people for years.

[johnny11]

I have a ref from the phone call on Monday, but no one has got back to me yet, I will give until later today other wise I will step this up.