2012 XC70 PASSENGER ELECTRIC SEAT

I’m not an expert on the seats, so hoping someone else will chime in. But i am electrically savvy enough to know that those bare wires need to be repaired - if they’re shorting, whatever they connect to will likely fail.

Were those wires caught up somehow, or have you had mice in the vehicle? If it’s the latter, lay some mouse bait now because they make a huge mess and won’t stop there.

To repair, at a minimum make sure there’s electrical tape around each individual bare wire, then tape all that together. If you know how to solder well, I’d cut, put some heat shrink on, solder back together and then cover the solder and heat the heat shrink.

Hope this helps. By the way, I’m originally from Melbourne but now living in the US. My wife and I love our 2011 XC70 T6 - it’s been an amazing car. All the best!

It would help to do a root-cause analysis of how that wire harness got damaged. Then, as Rowie suggests, the wiring needs to be repaired.

Undo the 4 floor bolts that hold down the seat, then tilt it back to access the underside. It will be challenging to unbolt the seat with the motors not working. I've done this on my 2015 (to replace a broken seatbelt clasp), and running the seat forward and back to access the 4 bolts was part of the drill. Try an alligator clip cable to "jumper" any severed wires as an interim.

Thanks for the reply - I can't say that I've noticed mice, however, looking at the pic, seems to be claw marks just below the broken wire - how interesting.

Once I resolve the fan resister issues I currently have, I will move on to the wires under the chair and hope it fixes the right hand rail from moving.

I agree the wiring is afu and will need addressing asap.

However, since there is only one fore/aft motor and it runs okay, that rules out the wiring as the cause.
Said motor is bolted directly onto one track and drives the opposite track with a cable so your problem is likely the drive cable is broken.
They are similar to a mechanical speedometer cable made up of twisted steel wires with square ends.
What causes them to fail is one track gets jambed with an object, most typically a coin, and when the seat is moved the cable being the weakest link twists up into a ball then breaks.
Unbolt and tilt the seat back for a look.
If indeed that's the part you need it comes as an assembly of the cable and the outer plastic guide.