Has anyone retrofitted heated seats elements into their T4R (cloth or leather)? I imagine it would not be that bad to do, plus you could buy the factory switches for a real OEM look.
I was just curious.

I looked into it. The switches are ridiculously expensive, but worth it for the oe look.

I thought about the aftermarket heat off ebay, no further along than you in the decision though!

I installed seat warmers in my 4Runner along with leather seats. You are able to install them with cloth but i don't remember anybody doing it though.

Regarding the aftermarket warmer and stock switch idea i found out a few things a while back:
1. yes the switches are expensive (however I found used ones on ebay for $12)
2. most aftermarket seat warmers have 1-2 heat settings while the stocks are a stepper type switch that is not direct plug and play
3. A few people in the blue room tried to make the two work and IIRC blew fuse, burned switches and one heating element got fried without making it work easily.
4. now one manufacturer does sell a stepper type switch with the kit but i don't know of anybody who has tried to retrofit our stock switches.

Not trying to deter you guys, just wanted to share what i found when i was doing research.

Kevin

Yep, been done and they work well.

Search for Rostra and you'll find this thread among others.

I installed rostra seat heaters and then used factory switches for the OEM look. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of how I got it to work. But yes, it took a lot fo work to get the switch to work with the setup. I had to swap in a amber led and lay new circuit tracking as well. All in the name of OEM, ahhaha

I'm replacing my cloth seats with leather on my 06 SR5 and would like to add heated seats also. I've found the OEM heated seat switches and am now trying to determine if the OEM switches can be used with aftermarket heating elements. From the above thread and through searching, it appears Rostra might work with the OEM switches, but I can't seem to find any definitive answer on this and, if so, how to get them to work since they are stepper type switches. The switches that are shown with installed Rostra kits look similar to OEM, but are not.

Anybody know if it's possible and what kit to buy? Doesn't look like you can get the heating elements from Toyota unless you buy the limited seat cover too and it's extremely expensive. Any way to find out who the supplier is for the heating elements when they are port installed?

The Rostra kits came with switches that look OEM. But not sure that MNR sells the kits anymore since they are not on the web site. You can call them to find out for sure.

Can anyone with the OEM heated seat switches tell me if the OEM switches have 6 levels (0,1,2,3,4,5) like the aftermarket switch in this link:
Seat Heater for Cars and Trucks from HeatedSeatKits.com

I know the levels aren't numbered on the OEM switch, but does it feel like 5 different levels of heat are provided for??

If so, I may try this kit with the OEM switches. Thanks.

It has 5 or 6 positions including off.

Yes, the temperature varies with switch position, getting hotter faster on max.

T4RUSAF,
I am interested in using teh stock switches to control aftermarket heated seats. My sport edition did not come with heated seats.

When you say you had to "lay new circuit tracking", can you elaborate on that?

Thanks.

I'm not much help, but the previous owner of my 08 Sport added seat warmers to the cloth seats.

I've added heated seats with aftermarket switches. For power I used one of these and ran it to a fuse that only had power when the car was on. Hopefully that makes sense.

I have the Limited OEM factory switches and the center console panel where the switches go. I was 'hoping' to wire in seat heaters to the OEM switches. From different posts this seems some what complicated given the design of the switches.

The Rostra kit looks as if the switches are for the newer 4Runner and not ours.

Is T4RUSAF active on this board?

$40 eBay heaters installed in my cloth seats. Couldn’t be happier

Heated seats are easily installed. I want to use the OEM switches in the OEM limited center console.

Can anyone comment on that specitically?