2001 Volvo S60 Seats Problems

“My wife drove the 2001 Volvo S60 and noticed a noxious burning smell and immediately drove it home. She thought it was something extremely wrong with the heater. I drove the car 3 days later and after 3 minutes noticed the burning smell as well. I turned off the heater, and the smell continued. I saw some smoke to my left side and noticed the seat had a hole that was melting and burning. I turned off the heated seat and ensured the seat did not burn further.”

“I activated the driver seat heater component on my 2001 Volvo S60 during a cold morning. Approximately 15 to 20 minutes later, I smelled something burning and felt a burning sensation to my left outer thigh area. I turned the driver seat heater off and the burning stopped. On stopping my vehicle, I examined the seat and found a small hole burned in the seat where I felt the burning sensation. I photographed the burned hole in the leather seat. I researched the internet and found this to have occurred in other Volvo vehicles. I have not used the seat heater for fear that it may cause a fire.”

“Drivers power seat mechanism randomly and frequently moves forward pinning the driver against the steering wheel. Pushing the control button to the rear will stop forward movement. Pushing it to the rear again will begin seat movement to the rear. But rearward movement often is stopped and interrupted by forward movement again. This is a safety issue. A partial search on the internet indicates that the Volvo seat mechanism is failure prone.”