U0246: Lost Communication With Seat Control Module E
What to do
The car drives normally and one seat's powered adjustment has stopped. On a seat this far back there is no airbag implication, so this is a comfort problem rather than a safety one.
The first question is whether any seating has been moved, removed or refitted — a third row folded away, a seat taken out for luggage, a second-row seat repositioned. That happens on family vehicles constantly and gets forgotten, and a seat refitted with its connector not properly seated gives exactly this. It is free to check and it is the commonest answer.
Otherwise the wiring under the seat is the usual suspect: it flexes every time the seat moves and sits where feet, luggage and spilt drinks end up.
What this code means
The fifth seat control module has stopped being heard from. The family's framing — including the occupant classification concern that makes front seat modules more consequential than rear ones — is at U0208, and the local-subnet reasoning at U0211.
Five seat modules means every seat in a large vehicle is individually powered, so this is a seven-seater, a large SUV, or a luxury vehicle with individual rear seating. The airbag concern from U0208 does not apply to a seat this far down the series, since occupant classification is a front-seat function — so this really is a comfort fault.
What does apply, and is worth checking before anything is dismantled, is whether the seat is where the vehicle thinks it is. On vehicles with removable or reconfigurable seating — third rows that fold into the floor, second-row seats that slide out, captain's chairs that can be repositioned — a seat that has been removed and refitted, or moved to a different mounting position, may not be reconnected or may now be reporting from a position the configuration does not expect.
That makes "has any seating been moved, removed or refitted?" the first question, and on a family vehicle the answer is very often yes, for luggage or a child seat, months ago and forgotten.
Otherwise the causes are the family's: the under-seat harness, which flexes and lives where feet and luggage arrive, and its connectors.
Likely causes
Start here
- Disconnected sensor connector · easy
- Damaged wiring under the front seats · moderate
- Corroded or loose connector · easy
Less common
- Water ingress into the module connector · moderate
- Module not coded to the vehicle · specialist
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
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Community experience
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