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Hey Guys, I am hoping someone can help me figure this out.
I got some leather electric seats out of a 04 Chevy Envoy. Everything on the passenger side seats works fine.
On the drivers side....when testing with a test light I have a bright light when testing on the output side of the plug..the side going to the motors. And also at the swithches,the ligt is bright
But at the plugs to each motor...using the test light the light is very dim!
When I press any of the switches,they will work for a second and then stop.
Do I have a short somewhere?
Any help on trying to figure this out is appreciated

First You say you have a bright light on output side of plug..the side going to the motors. But the plugs to each motor is dim. Very confusing. Don't know how many plugs you are talking about and where they are in the circuit. If you have hot at output side of plug to motor, of course you have hot at switch, how else could the hot get to the output side? I'll take a wild guess. Bypass all the darn plugs and see if it works, then figure out which plugs are bad or have bad contacts. Make sure ALL ground wires are good and contacting a good ground place. Option 2: Start checking for hot AT THE MOTOR and work back till you find hot. Then you know it's between motor and that spot.

There is one main plug under the seat.....from there the wires come out of that plug and go to 4 different motors and the electric lumbar.

at the main plug....the test light is bright on the output side.
At each of the plugs that plug into the motors, the light is very dim. and the switches will work for a second and the stop. At the switches the test light is bright also.

Follow suggestions in my first post and you will figure it out fast. What do you mean the switches will work then stop? Do you mean the motors will work then stop or what? Maybe you can't explain things very well but you have to go slowly so we can understand what you have exactly. If you have at least 4 motors, do you have 4 switches? Where is the "main plug"? before the switches or after? I suppose the wires (4?)come out of the main plug or out of the switches and go to each motor plug? Pull the main apart and tell me how many contacts there are, then test each input contact, with it apart, and see if they are hot when each switch is operated. If they are, proceed to each motor plug, pull apart and see if the input side is hot when switch is operated. Do that to all four. Don't forget the grounds I mentioned, that is very, very important. You must run thru all these tests and report back. You can start from the motor plugs and test backwards if you want. If all four motors do not work it is a "common" problem, like ground or main plug or Voltage supply to switches or fuse, etc.

When you press the switch the motor will work for a second or two and then stop. The seats are heated and also memory seats.
I have the control module also that went to the seats.
I am totally lost....LOL

I was typing when you posted, read above. If each of the 4 motors does that then you have a ground or fuse that is intermittent. Grounds need cleaned, shined, tightened or bypassed with a test ground. You are not lost, I am helping you, read and do. How many wires to each motor? what color? Do you know if the seat motors work with the switches without memory hooked up. I don't know that much about memory seats but maybe they are waiting for a memory signal. If the switches are a separate manual over-ride then you can proceed.

Thanks for taking the time to help me guys.
On the main plug,under the seat...it is before the switches.
There are 15 wires in the plug.

each motor has 3 wires orange on each motor(hot wire)
black to each (ground) and then light blue to one,dark blueto one,tan to one and brown with white stripe to one.

I hooked up the ground and just the hot wires,and the passenger seat works fine.
I did the same to the drivers side seat and when you press the swith, and of the switches.....they will work for a second and then stop.
On the passenger seat there are 7 wires
Orange
Black
Dark Blue
Tan
Dark Blue (smaller gauge wire)
Pink
Light Blue

On the Drives side there are 15 wires
Black
Orange
Orange(smaller gauge wire)
White
Pink
Pink(smaller gauge wire)
Dark Blue
Dark Blue (smaller gauge wire)
2-Brown with white stripe
Black with white stripe
Tan
Tan(smaller gauge wire)
Green
Light Blue

Sorry for all the confusion with all these color wires

IF you are just wanting to take a pile of stuff and make it work ie does the blue wire go to #2 terminal I cannot help you without schematic.


If you have a schematic it should not be too hard.

With NO schematic I would start with identifying what kind of motor I have. Then will it run. Use only six volt to test motors - they will run but if you screw up you will not hurt anything with a one or two second test.

IF perm mag it will have only two wires. Reversal of the line potential feeding these two wires will reverse motor rotation.

That is not the case with wound field DC motors. If the motor is intended to reverse you will have at minimum 3 wires maybe four.

If you want further gory details let me know. You will need a good VOM.

Dan Bentler

All of the motors run.
Im so confused......on the passenger seat each motor has 2 wires
on the drivers seat each motor has 3 and 1 of the wires to each motor is Orange. what I have read is that the orange wire is hot all the time.
I have taken apart the switch and its ok, I have even swapped the switches from both seats and the passenger seat still works fine with the switch from the drivers seat.

When I test the orange wires at the motors,the test light is very dim and the switches seem to work when they want to.
They work for a second or two then stop....sometimes not al all.

OK now that it is known the motors will run.

My bet is you have a high resistance connection in one of them plastic click pop connectors. They are the first thing I remove on new installations on MY equipment. Ensure you follow wire color on each side cut one wire and put in Western Union splice and
solder it then tape well.

Oh yes nearly forgot buy a good VOM

Dan Bentler

The wire plug into the motors,so I cant cut and slice anything.
Im not sure I am understanding what you are saying.

The memory function is on the drivers seat so it has extra wires probably from controller and wires for manual operation (switch). You have two wires to each motor. Determine if one of those is ground or the motor is grounded thru metal seat. If one is ground then see Leitmotif's explanation. Wire the drivers seat just like the pass with same colors and leave off the extra wires. You say 4 motors on pass seat and 2 wires each motor..that's 8 wires., you say 7. SO we don't know much from your explanations because you are still not careful about describing. You have to say motor 1: no of wires and color, motor 2: no of wires and color and so on and then say where each wire goes, thru a connector (plug as you say) and so on. Draw yourself a wiring diagram of the whole deal and you will find that it's easier to see what's going on. Don't say plug, say connector. Each connector has a plug and receptacle halves correct? Male and female. More than a Volt Ohm Meter you need a diagram for that vehicle. Find a Chevy site for newer Envoy/Trailblazers and ask them to post the seat wiring info.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I have another question..
The memory control module that is under the drivers seat, is there a way that I can just take it out and wire the motors straight?
It seems like it would be alot more simple to just do away with the memory module.

OK here I go again...LOL
I found that on both seats on the motors, each motor has the same color wirs going into their connectors.

Now on the drives seat motors on one end of the motor there is a connector with the 3 wires running to a connector. I am guessing that this is the memory part of it??

So, since I can just connect the hot and ground on the passenger seat and it works fine, could I do away with all the memory wires and wire the driver side the same as the passengers?

I hope Im not getting annoying

Yes, the motor will work with just a switch. If the switch is a momentary on off on. The motors on drivers side have sensors to detect a certain location/tilt for a certain driver and remembered by memory module. Need to wire motor like the other seat. Anyway here's what you can do. If you have three wires to a motor and one is ground. Hook up neg of battery to the ground and pos to one wire, see if motor works, if it does, hook pos to other wire to see if motor reverses direction. If that works, hook up each switch to a motor. The switches you have should work. When you do the above motor test do not use the switches, just touch the hot to a wire temporarily to see if motor moves. Make sure you use a 10 amp fuse on the test wire. The lumbar is not hooked to memory. (it is probably a fifth motor or actuator.) Your four motors are horizontal, recline, rear height, front height. This is not a test light test, it is a full power test, either pull a motor connector apart and touch at the contacts or cut the motor wires and test right to the wires coming out of motor. Just one motor at a time. Do not test down stream wiring, make sure you are powering one motor, nothing else!!
You are confused and confusing us. After saying motors on drivers side will only run for just a second, then you try everything and they still won't work, All of a sudden you say "all of the motors run"??? Then at the bottom of the same post you say they only run for a second? That's real , real important and you just ran right over it? You say wires plug into motor. First time I heard that! So is there a connector as part of the motor and the mating harness connector plugs into that?... and you can unplug that and see contacts coming out of motor?
Well anyway if you say all motors work, I hope you mean they work on the drivers side, which is all I want to talk about, then just hook them to a switch with just the wires that make them work and your done.
Do the drivers motors run or don't they, not for a second, do they run?!?!? If they don't run, forget the test light and hook them up as described in this post. Read my instructions carefully.

Thanks for all the help guys.
I wired the drivers seat identical to the passenger seat and everything works great.

Thanks Again
Manley