Seat Heater Install

[jnbthomas]

I picked up the Amazon kit and shot a couple of pictures of the contents. Didn't get any instructions at all. Was wondering if anyone had instructions to share? There was also a sheet of mettalic material with a sticky backing... Not sure what it is for, any idea's? Here are some pictures

Picture of one of the kits...


Picture of the Switch (sorry for picture quality). It haves 5 indexed settings. Switch looks good and the dial is nice and tight.


Picture showing the control unit and the wire harness


Here is the Mettalic sheet that has an adhesive backing, Any idea's what this is for?

 

[axxman]

I picked up the Amazon kit and shot a couple of pictures of the contents. Didn't get any instructions at all. Was wondering if anyone had instructions to share? There was also a sheet of mettalic material with a sticky backing... Not sure what it is for, any idea's? Here are some pictures

Picture of the one of kits...
View attachment 79681

Picture of the Switch (sorry for picture quality). It haves 5 indexed settings. Switch looks good and the dial is nice and tight.
View attachment 79682

Picture showing the control unit and the wire harness
View attachment 79683

Here is the Mettalic sheet that has an adhesive backing, Any idea's what this is for?
View attachment 79684

Yeah maybe someone should start a thread about this

 

[axxman]

Did mine today, hands hurt, back hurts, but it is done and they work, just in time for the deep freeze later this week:whoo:

as to the earlier question, the horizontal line on the adjustment dial does seem to light up somewhat, it is more of a reflection from the green light on the side, but the line is clearly visible at night.

seats get hot, real hot. I doubt I will ever use them past the midway point.

 

[axxman]

There was a question earlier about the lines on the dials lighting up at night, I taped over the side lights, they are too bright and distracting for my taste.

 

[jnbthomas]

Dimming of the illumination likely doesn't work? Noticed in the vehicle wiring diagram that the lights that dim have a separate return line rather than connecting straight to ground.

 

[sandcrawler]

this seat heater kit is a nice find! unavailable on Amazon currently, though.

curious if the OEM seat heater switch would work as a replacement for the switch provided with the kit?

 

[adam2562]

the Kit just arrived in the mail, it looks good, I will post pics shortly, the buttons appear to be oem toyota. No instructions included, there are red, black, green and yellow wires, I guess I will have to figure out what goes where.

if anyone in the MD with a garage is thinking about this mod, and has a garage they are willing to allow me to use, I would gladly help them install theirs.

I am in Laurel.

hmmm i may have to take you up on that offer if i decide to add them to mine.. my GF REALLY misses the ones that were in my Limited lol

 

[axxman]

they turned out nice, it was a bit of work, I wouldn't do it without a garage, but it turned out nice. finished mine just in time for that cold spell last week. Just let me know if you need some help.
I basically read through this thread 10 times and searched a little on the internet.

 

[sandcrawler]

this seat heater kit is a nice find! unavailable on Amazon currently, though.

curious if the OEM seat heater switch would work as a replacement for the switch provided with the kit?

kinda sorta answering my own question here, but just FYI i wrote to Rostra, which makes a similar seat heater kit a few folks have installed here. Rostra has upgraded their switching options too, and now have a more OEM-like radial dial switch available (though it appears to use a blueish LED which might be a little annoying in the cabin at night). their "non-answer" to using a Toyota OEM switch with their kit is that "it's not recommended and would void their warranty" which may or not mean that it would work. :shrug:
[MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION]: since you have the OEM seat heaters and have also worked with these aftermarket kits—and because you're our resident electrical/wiring/lighting/LED/OCD/detail-oriented craft project guru—i wonder if you think the OEM switch would be plug and play with one of these kits?

 

[Antman]

kinda sorta answering my own question here, but just FYI i wrote to Rostra, which makes a similar seat heater kit a few folks have installed here. Rostra has upgraded their switching options too, and now have a more OEM-like radial dial switch available (though it appears to use a blueish LED which might be a little annoying in the cabin at night). their "non-answer" to using a Toyota OEM switch with their kit is that "it's not recommended and would void their warranty" which may or not mean that it would work. :shrug:

[MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION]: since you have the OEM seat heaters and have also worked with these aftermarket kits—and because you're our resident electrical/wiring/lighting/LED/OCD/detail-oriented craft project guru—i wonder if you think the OEM switch would be plug and play with one of these kits?

I'm not sure. I'm thinking the lighting/power/ground hookups would be easy enough to figure out. The output from the switch needs to jive with the input for the control box. If they match it should work...Somebody is gonna need to bite the bullet and test it out.

Send me a kit and I'll gladly try to blow it up- er- figure it out for ya!

 

[Kraeken]

I'm too lazy to go looking for it, but I read on other forums that the OEM switches have resistors or something that make them incompatible with aftermarket heaters. And Antman wouldn't trade with me anyway. He said hells no.

 

[sandcrawler]

I'm not sure. I'm thinking the lighting/power/ground hookups would be easy enough to figure out. The output from the switch needs to jive with the input for the control box. If they match it should work...Somebody is gonna need to bite the bullet and test it out.

Send me a kit and I'll gladly try to blow it up- er- figure it out for ya!

I'm too lazy to go looking for it, but I read on other forums that the OEM switches have resistors or something that make them incompatible with aftermarket heaters. And Antman wouldn't trade with me anyway. He said hells no.

well that's a bummer. i'm willing to contribute an OEM switch for experimentation, but seeing that we're halfway through winter i'm not inclined to pick up a seat-heater kit until autumn; other mods in the meantime.

Antman: another thought/way to come at this: think it's possible to reverse-engineer an amber LED (to replace the blue one for the seat icon) into the rotary-dial switch that comes with the Rostra kit?

yeah, yeah, send you the kit and you'll let me know! :wink2:

 

[nglayton]

this seat heater kit is a nice find! unavailable on Amazon currently, though.

It is still available on ebay. Just search for
"toyota seat heater" and you'll find many different switch options

curious if the OEM seat heater switch would work as a replacement for the switch provided with the kit?

The connector is different, 5 pins vs. six pins. Flat vs. a square connector.

[MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION]: since you have the OEM seat heaters and have also worked with these aftermarket kits—and because you're our resident electrical/wiring/lighting/LED/OCD/detail-oriented craft project guru—i wonder if you think the OEM switch would be plug and play with one of these kits?

The OEM switch is definitely not plug and play. It has been used before. Check this link http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-g...-work-toyota-factory-switches.html#post839391

 

[jnbthomas]

Hey, looking at the Driver side fuse box I noticed that the 20Amp fuse for the seat heater was installed...

# 13, S/HTR FR, 20 A, Seat heater system

I also noticed that the Ob1 connector underneath the driver side seat has three wires going to it.

- Ob1, pin 1, Pink wire (P)
- Ob1, pin 5, White w/ Black strip (W-B)
- Ob1, pin 6, Light Blue (L)

Trail obviously does not have heated seats, but the power wire (Ob1, pin 6) seems to be present in the Ob1 connector and provides easy access to a fused power source. Looking at the opposite side (seat side) of the Ob1 connector, there is no wire connected to pin 6... Only pin 1 and 5 are used for the power seat support.

Couple of questions...
1. Was wondering if someone else could confirm my findings?
2. Can others Trail owners confirm that fuse #13 is present?
3. Also noticed that the wire gauge for pin 6 looked pretty small, like 16 or 18 AWG. Can someone with factory heated seats confirm the size of the wire on pin 6?

Thanks
JNB

 

[tHeGeeK]

Just finished this install. Love it

 

[sandcrawler]

Hey, looking at the Driver side fuse box I noticed that the 20Amp fuse for the seat heater was installed...

# 13, S/HTR FR, 20 A, Seat heater system

I also noticed that the Ob1 connector underneath the driver side seat has three wires going to it.

- Ob1, pin 1, Pink wire (P)
- Ob1, pin 5, White w/ Black strip (W-B)
- Ob1, pin 6, Light Blue (L)

Trail obviously does not have heated seats, but the power wire (Ob1, pin 6) seems to be present in the Ob1 connector and provides easy access to a fused power source. Looking at the opposite side (seat side) of the Ob1 connector, there is no wire connected to pin 6... Only pin 1 and 5 are used for the power seat support.

Couple of questions...
1. Was wondering if someone else could confirm my findings?
2. Can others Trail owners confirm that fuse #13 is present?
3. Also noticed that the wire gauge for pin 6 looked pretty small, like 16 or 18 AWG. Can someone with factory heated seats confirm the size of the wire on pin 6?

Thanks
JNB

i have a busy week, but will try to remember to look tomorrow.

 

[mikey's2010SR5]

This is now an empty check box on my list of TO-Dos
[MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION]....So when you wired up the switch you were able to have the green "Gauge" on the side come on with the lights correct?

 

[tHeGeeK]

Hey, looking at the Driver side fuse box I noticed that the 20Amp fuse for the seat heater was installed...

# 13, S/HTR FR, 20 A, Seat heater system

I also noticed that the Ob1 connector underneath the driver side seat has three wires going to it.

- Ob1, pin 1, Pink wire (P)
- Ob1, pin 5, White w/ Black strip (W-B)
- Ob1, pin 6, Light Blue (L)

Trail obviously does not have heated seats, but the power wire (Ob1, pin 6) seems to be present in the Ob1 connector and provides easy access to a fused power source. Looking at the opposite side (seat side) of the Ob1 connector, there is no wire connected to pin 6... Only pin 1 and 5 are used for the power seat support.

Couple of questions...
1. Was wondering if someone else could confirm my findings?
2. Can others Trail owners confirm that fuse #13 is present?
3. Also noticed that the wire gauge for pin 6 looked pretty small, like 16 or 18 AWG. Can someone with factory heated seats confirm the size of the wire on pin 6?

Thanks
JNB

Didn't notice the wiring for your question, but yes, my Trail had a 20 amp fuse in the seat heater spot, now replaced with the add a circuit from this mod.

Kyle

 

[Antman]

This is now an empty check box on my list of TO-Dos
[MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION]....So when you wired up the switch you were able to have the green "Gauge" on the side come on with the lights correct?

Yes. Kraeken said it's too bright at night though and may put a switch on it to turn the green LED off.
I tapped into a dimmer circuit too, but it doesn't dim.

There appears to be at least 2 different kits out there with different , yet similar, switches so as they say "Your results may vary...".

 

[jnbthomas]

Didn't notice the wiring for your question, but yes, my Trail had a 20 amp fuse in the seat heater spot, now replaced with the add a circuit from this mod.

Kyle

Thanks Kyle, Wonder why Toyota installed the Fuse??? I'll try and ohm out the circuit on Wednesday to see if the wiring is actually routed from that fuse (#13) to under the seat (Ob1, Pin6). If so, it seems like the right choice for powering the aftermarket amazon kit.

JNB