Front Seat Heater/cooler problems of the 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee

While the vehicle was parked, unoccupied and locked. The front passenger seat had a catastrophic failure of the seat heater system that caused the seat to catch fire. Interestingly, no fuses were found to be blown. The seat catching fire spread to the passenger door panel. It continued up the door panel and spread to the door trim, headliner & visor. The entire interior was smoke damaged. The fire department responded quickly so that's why the damage was not worse.

The heated seat on the driver's side of the consumer's 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee ltd malfunctioned. As a result the system burned through the leather seat in the lumbar region. The consumer contacted the manufacturer but the refused to provided any assistance.

Seat warmer, when on, gets extremely hot, approximately 214 degrees. Dealer contacted, and cannot remedy the problem. Problem occurred three times. Also, steering gear box locked up and was replaced/transfer case was making noise and was replaced. Provide further information.

Seat heating elements failed.

Parked and locked vehicle caught on fire. Origin of fire front passenger seat. Probable seat heater defect. Entire interior destroyed. Investigation by Chrysler complete. Chrysler said they could find no reason the seat caught on fire by itself in an unoccupied off vehicle. There was no vandalism as the vehicle was opened by the fire department. Seat heater was used for the first time this year the prior weekend and on the day of the fire smelt a burning odor while driving but assumed it coming from outside the vehicle. After parking the vehicle was notified of the fire after 3 hours.