Front Seat Heater/cooler problems of the 2004 Volvo S60

Driver's side seat started smoking within a few seconds of starting the vehicle while backing out of parking place. Seat heater was on. Immediately stopped and turned off seat heater and smoking stopped. Quarter size hole was burned into the leather seat bottom on the driver's side outside panel. Took it to darrell waltrip Volvo/Subaru in franklin, TN, and they said it was the seat heater and took the fuse out. Said it wasn’t covered under warrantee and no recall out. Hope no one has this problem driving down the interstate. Best regards and thanks for all your hard work, john worrell.

The contact owns a 2004 Volvo S60. The contact stated that he activated the heated seats and after a matter of minutes, smoke bellowed from the side of the driver's seat. The seat warmer was deactivated and the contact noticed that a one inch hole had been burned into the seat. The vehicle had not been diagnosed by a mechanic. The manufacturer had not been notified. The vehicle had not been repaired. The failure and current mileage was 300,000. Updated 2/12/13.

Like many others who are on Volvo websites have reported I too had a fire on the drivers seat left side due to my seat heater. I now have a half dollar sized hole in the side of my seat. The first sign of this was a smell and then a lot of smoke. Luckily I was able to pull over quickly and had a towel handy to snuff it out, otherwise I would have burned hands or other parts. I've been a lifelong Volvo owner, I have to say I'm surprised Volvo hasn't at least warned their dealers about this problem. I did see another drivers seat totally blackened and burnt out last time I took my car in, was amazed that it could even happen let alone be a common occurrence. Now after searching online this is a prevalent problem.