I found the crux of the problem. Not the same but similar to previous gen fails. This particular element uses a plastic coated thin conductor that snakes through the pad but its not as protected as previous gens with a double layer of the felt material. Previous gen fails were mostly due to a stray metal hog ring working its way in and shorting out the element. That said the fail is poor design, this thin relatively unprotected cable runs right through both j-clips on the front hold down for the cover. An inch or so in either direction and should have been fine. Mine was directly in the 3/16 in clip and in and out of the seat over time cut the copper but left the plastic in tact and was a bitch to actually see it.
Fix was i used the heating element for the back seat. yes its smaller but i already bought it off amazon, like 30$. I had to swap the wiring for the coil and the thermistor or whatever they use as a thermostat. the resistance on both was very close to the dead one but the connector cabling was swapped and connector slightly different. In hind sight i think you could use a larger footprint pad and maybe one with holes cut in as long as the configuration is close to what the trucks controller wants to see. I had to cut little holes in mine to allow the cool air to get past the felt pad. Not perfect but will work hopefully until they have a replacement part for this.
Overall its very easy to do and not really risk damaging anything and i did it in about an hour with the seat in place. Just need to take your time to not tear out the j-clips molded into the foam. It gets pretty hot and is a smaller coil so it doesnt draw as many amps as the passenger side does. i checked it with Forscan. More importantly it allows the back to turn on as well, essentially restored base functionality.
