Ebay Heated Seat install

[pauldavis]

So I purchased a set of heated seats from ebay and am working installing it.

Here is a link to the kit I bought for reference:

2X Heated Seat Heater Pad Switch Kit Toyota Avalon Corolla Highlander MR2 Tundra | eBay

Here is a link to the installation instructions for reference as well:

http://www.rostra.com/manuals/250-1870_Form5261.pdf Thank you [MENTION=99702]jrandom[/MENTION] for finding this online manual.

Mine has two separate switches (wheel Type) for each seat. It also has three wires Black, Yellow, and Red (red wire has a 7.5amp fuse built into it, as seen in pic below).

My plan was for wiring:
1. wire the two yellow wires to the light for the PNDR
2. ground the black wires to the bolt shown in the picture below.
3. wire the two red wires into the accessory wires pictured. I originally thought this was the power outlet inside the center console but as yuou can see in the pic that one is much lower. Not sure what the one I was going to tap into is for.

I did probably what I shouldn't and went for it with one of the seat heaters. I grounded it and slide the yellow into the PNDR lights green wire plug. Then slide the red wire into the green wire of the accessory (I think) plug. Then turned the car and tested it out.

Everything operated correctly. The green light on the heater switch turned on when I turned on the dash lights and the other light on the switch came on when I turned the seat heater on. The heat pads also seemed to work when I turned the switch on.

All seems well but it doesn't mean I am not doing something wrong. So I am hoping to get a little feed back from the experts here if they don't mind.

My intention is to connect the wires from each seat to the same connections. I am wondering if this would be an issue and is the green wire from the picture an OK power wire to tap into?



I have a lot of experience with wiring RC cars, planes, and helis. So I can solder and do clean work. I just have no clue to the complexity of the wiring in a real car. I am clueless so if you do decide to reply with some help you may need to word your response as if you are talking to an idiot. Thanks!

 

[Engineer]

I am not a wiring expert but I would think that tapping into that small of a gauge of factory wiring that we don't know what it goes to is a bad idea. Normally factory wiring is sized to handle the designed (expected) max loads and nothing more as wire is expensive (ok , so I have never seen a design guidance document from a OEM but this is a logical assumption).

I would have expected the +12v for the elements to be installed via a fuse tap

 

[pauldavis]

That makes sense. I was hoping the kit came with fuse taps but it didn't. Maybe I can pick up those at an auto store.

 

[Lugboot]

Man, seems like there's a seat heater renaissance going on around here. Thanks for posting this!

 

[Engineer]

Man, seems like there's a seat heater renaissance going on around here. Thanks for posting this!

its that time of year again!

 

[Dropzone]

How much power (amps) do the heaters draw?
Personally I would not tap a random(probably not random in your case, been a long night at work) wire for power. The gauge of the wiring you tapped looks very small to hold an additional load.
I would come off the ACC circuit at the fuse box. Or better yet run an accessory fuse box (like a Blue Sea box) off the battery.

 

[pauldavis]

I'm going to go ahead and get some fuse taps and run the red wires to the fuse box. I'm going to hit autozone today. Hopefully they will have some. Sorry guys for another post on heated seats. I wasn't sure if I should have posted on someone's thread or not. Thanks for the help.

 

[kingofZroad]

I installed these exact heaters in my jeep last year. They worked great. I went to an empty "keyed" terminal at the fuse block and fused the hot wire....

 

[jrandom]

I am not a wiring expert but I would think that tapping into that small of a gauge of factory wiring that we don't know what it goes to is a bad idea. Normally factory wiring is sized to handle the designed (expected) max loads and nothing more as wire is expensive (ok , so I have never seen a design guidance document from a OEM but this is a logical assumption).

I would have expected the +12v for the elements to be installed via a fuse tap

How much power (amps) do the heaters draw?
Personally I would not tap a random(probably not random in your case, been a long night at work) wire for power. The gauge of the wiring you tapped looks very small to hold an additional load.
I would come off the ACC circuit at the fuse box. Or better yet run an accessory fuse box (like a Blue Sea box) off the battery.

Totally agree, I too would just run a fused 12v lead from the battery (or custom fuse box like a bussmann RTMR) and try to minimize contact with the trucks systems (ABS, SRS, RSCA, Ect, ect,). Too many critical control systems to inadvertently tap into.

The numbers I have seen are all over the map, so I grabbed the highest reasonable estimates.

Electrical Specs Wattage: 24~36 Watts per Pad, 48~60 Watts per seat Current Draw: 3 Amps on Low Heat Setting and 5 Amps on High Setting per Seat.

This is useful to figure on amp draw, Bluesea has tons of useful information (you should test it anyway, by wiring it and "feeling" the smallest wire in the system to see if it gets hot, if it does go bigger):

 

[TrkyMfns]

It might seem like overkill, but I would wire up an auxillary fusebox directly from the battery. IMO it is a smarter choice, As I prefer to keep the factory wiring factory at all costs. Plus, It makes it easier and cleaner down the line to install other electrical items. Less variables to sort through should something go awry.

 

[v_man]

Any idea what the amp draw on the seats is?

 

[Lugboot]

It might seem like overkill, but I would wire up an auxillary fusebox directly from the battery. IMO it is a smarter choice, As I prefer to keep the factory wiring factory at all costs. Plus, It makes it easier and cleaner down the line to install other electrical items. Less variables to sort through should something go awry.

This might be a simple question, but how would you then make the power to seat heaters switched with the ignition? I wouldn't want seat heaters in a circuit that doesn't get cut if the vehicle is off.

 

[flyinhawaiian01]

Well, the kit has a 7.5A fuse, and the ebay listing shows 27W+/-3W, so figure 30 watts @ 12VDC, that's about 5A total draw, about 1/3 less than the supplied fuse.

NOTE: That looks to be PER SEAT, as the harness is wired for 1 switch, and you will probably get two harnesses and switches with the kit.

 

[flyinhawaiian01]

This might be a simple question, but how would you then make the power to seat heaters switched with the ignition? I wouldn't want seat heaters in a circuit that doesn't get cut if the vehicle is off.

Quite easy to do. Run fused power from battery into cab. Find +12VDC from inside of cab (under dash or at fuseblock) that is switched to the ON position (or ACC if you want heated seats without the key to on position), tap that wire and run it to a relay. Here's your standard 30A relay wiring diagram:

 

[Lugboot]

Thanks--I will understand this electrical stuff yet. I swear I will.

 

[Deuskid]

if the 4runner I buy doesn't come w/ heated seats, I'm going to want to install them so am subscribing for future reference.

 

[pauldavis]

I bought an Add-A-Fuse at a local auto store and plugged it into the heated seat fuse slot on the fuse panel. I should have just done it in the first place. The only wire I tapped into was the PNDR light for the lights on the seat heater switches. Also grounded the black wires inside the center console.

I just finished install the first two heat pads in the passenger side seat. I ended up cutting the hogrings and using large zip ties when putting it back together. Seat heats up nicely and everything seems good. I should have the driver side finished within the hour. Looking forward to have the project finished.

 

[flyinhawaiian01]

Easy stuff! Just think of a relay as a remote switch! See terminals 85 and 86? That's what tells the relay to turn on. You supply +12 and ground to those two terminals, and it flips the switch inside, so to speak.

See terminals 87 and 30? That's what is being passed through the relay's "switch". Whatever you're putting into 87, will come out of 30 when you put power/ground through the other two terminals.

This is the most basic use of a relay, but you can do a LOT more with them, run two together and wire it correctly, you can flip power back and forth depending on what relay you feed, this works for windows or antennas going up or down. Use diodes with it and you can do door locks for a vehicle where all lock with one wire input, but unlock only one door with input to a different relay!

Just ask questions here, there's quite a few guys here who know wiring!

 

[pauldavis]

Ha, there are certainly a lot of guys here that know their stuff. The only reason I had the guts to do the heated seat mod was because of the info on this forum.

Everything is finished and stalled. Heated seats work nice, which will make my wife happy. After all said and done I spent just under $100.00 and spent about 4 hours time installing. Well worth it.

 

[Lugboot]

[MENTION=118444]flyinhawaiian01[/MENTION], that explanation actually helps a lot. Now I can visual how the relay actually works. Thanks!