Seat Heater Install

[Ryangriffith]

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:

I installed the Rostra seat with the dial-switch you have pictured here. To make the install as simple as possible, I ran the wiring to the drivers-side kick panel and used a tap (piggy-back) fuse connecter on a blank IG slot in the fusebox. I also used the punch-out on the lower dash as the place for the switch to go. Unfortunately, however, the switch is just a bit too big, and I'm not sure yet if I will try to modify the switch itself or the slot in the dash so that it will fit. The seat is wonderful.

 

[Laubage]

Wiring?

I just installed the seat pads and I'm trying to figure out how to run the wires. What did you all do? Did you keep the control box under the seat?

I have it under the seat right now but the wires don't run far enough to reach a fuse box and the yellow and green wire can't reach the PRND/S wires. [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION], what did you do to tap into this green line? Cut it, solder, and reattach to the plug?

I'm a little apprehensive of cutting factory lines... So I hope there's another option.

 

[Antman]

I just installed the seat pads and I'm trying to figure out how to run the wires. What did you all do? Did you keep the control box under the seat?

I have it under the seat right now but the wires don't run far enough to reach a fuse box and the yellow and green wire can't reach the PRND/S wires. [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION], what did you do to tap into this green line? Cut it, solder, and reattach to the plug?

I'm a little apprehensive of cutting factory lines... So I hope there's another option.

On the kit I installed, I tucked the control boxes inside the center console up to the left of the 4x4 shifter. Plenty of room there. The fuse boxes slide/connect together to make things neater.

I'm not aprehensive of cutting wires . I cut the green wire, spliced into it and shrink wrapped the connection.

 

[jnbthomas]

Did you guys cut the carbon fiber in order to make a slot to allow the hog rings to be re-installed?
View attachment New Bitmap Image.bmp

 

[jnbthomas]

I just looked at the factory wiring a bit more and concluded that the drivers side seat has all the wires in Connector Ob1 needed to support the factory heated seat. I pulled the 20Amp fuse and ohm'd out the circuit from the fuse box to pin 6 of Ob1. It's there, which means there is a fused power source available under the drivers seat to use.


But, the passenger side seat does not. Connector Na1 only has two wires. Go figure...

 

[Kraeken]

Did you guys cut the carbon fiber in order to make a slot to allow the hog rings to be re-installed?
View attachment 81178

If I remember correctly, there was an area on the heating pad with no element that matched up pretty good with that seam in the seat bottom. We pulled out the wire, put the rings through the slit, and fished the wire back through the rings.

In the seat back, we just put the heating element as far in as we could get it, and it fit fine.

I just realized I haven't posted in this thread in a while- the heaters are working great! They get nice and toasty! The switches are a nice fit but the LED's annoy me. Bright, undimmable green when the headlights are on, and the orange operation light is half-assed. It lights up then half lights the seat icon next to it. Oh well...

I'll try to take some pics when I have time.

 

[Laubage]

Alright, so I ran all of the wires in the center console. Even cut/spliced the yellow/green wire in with the PRDN/S line. I didn't have any tap-a-fuses tonight, so I just ran the red/black wires over to where the fuse box is.

My question is: Should the switches light up without the red/black wires plugged into a power source? I figured they still would because they are spliced in with the PRND/S line, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm worried I messed something up! The PRND/S lights still work though.

 

[Laubage]

I just realized I am supposed to route the green wires to the cigarette lighter. How do I get access to it? I'm assuming you wire it to the back somehow.

 

[tHeGeeK]

I just looked at the factory wiring a bit more and concluded that the drivers side seat has all the wires in Connector Ob1 needed to support the factory heated seat. I pulled the 20Amp fuse and ohm'd out the circuit from the fuse box to pin 6 of Ob1. It's there, which means there is a fused power source available under the drivers seat to use.


But, the passenger side seat does not. Connector Na1 only has two wires. Go figure...

So Technically you could simply tap into that for both seats and have a 20amp fuse on it? Might look into that later. Thanks.

 

[jnance50]

I just realized I am supposed to route the green wires to the cigarette lighter. How do I get access to it? I'm assuming you wire it to the back somehow.

Your green and yellow wires should all be fine to run to that pdnr light (assuming you tapped its power line and not its ground). You COULD run them all to the cigarette lighter if you want (the service manual is available on the forum and will show you how to remove the couple of plastic pieces that need to come off) but I think your issue is with your black wires. Those should go to a ground source, not power. I connected mine to my seat bolts but anything that will give you a metal connection to the body/chassis should work. The red wires are the only ones that go to the fuse block power.

Also, I did cut my elements in the middle for the rings that run in the middle of the seat to allow me to place the heating element further up the back/bottom. I just made a hole for each ring and used zip ties during reassembly so as to minimize electrical contact. I even wrapped the metal bar that the rings attach to in electrical tape to be extra sure.

 

[Laubage]

Your green and yellow wires should all be fine to run to that pdnr light (assuming you tapped its power line and not its ground).

Looking over it again, from what I'm gathering, the yellow line should be the only one tied into the PRND/S line because that's the one that actually illuminates/dims the LED, right?

The green one is just for power when the heaters are turned on? IE, I still want the lights to work during the day if I turn on my seat heater, not just when I turn on my headlights.

 

[jnbthomas]

tHeGeek- So Technically you could simply tap into that for both seats and have a 20amp fuse on it? Might look into that later. Thanks.

That's the way I'm leaning... Only concern would be if the wire guage is big enough to carry the load. Normally, I think there would be a dedicated wire from the fuse box for both sides equally carrying the load (10amps per wire).

jnance50- Also, I did cut my elements in the middle for the rings that run in the middle of the seat to allow me to place the heating element further up the back/bottom. I just made a hole for each ring and used zip ties during reassembly so as to minimize electrical contact. I even wrapped the metal bar that the rings attach to in electrical tape to be extra sure.

Thanks for the reply. So you basically cut an individual hole for each ring rather than an entire strip, correct? Wanted to confirm did you cut the carbon fiber, or just the material in between the carbon fiber?

 

[mikey's2010SR5]

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...".

[MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION]....Ok so of the green and grey wire going to the small LED in the shifter, which one is the positive? I was going to use this for my switches to my lights just to have them light up with the light switch.

 

[Antman]

[MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION]....Ok so of the green and grey wire going to the small LED in the shifter, which one is the positive? I was going to use this for my switches to my lights just to have them light up with the light switch.

Green.

FWIW, that light isn't LED. It's a small incandescant with an orange silicone cover over the lense. I took off the cover and converted my shifter lights to white. I like it better.

 

[mikey's2010SR5]

Thank you kind sir. Works like a charm.

:hail:

 

[Antman]

Thank you kind sir. Works like a charm.

:hail:

My pleasure- Your truck is looking awesome!

 

[Laubage]

Finished up my install today too! Found out that I got the wiring backwards at first. The yellow line needed to run to the cigarette lighter and the green line to the PRND/S. The dim function doesn't work, but the heaters work amazingly!

After all that work, my back now has something to loosen up it's muscles on those long drives!

 

[Laubage]

Oh, one last thing... do you guys get a lot of friction towards the higher power settings on the right switch? I did some grinding to make the switch housing fit better and it helped it, but it is still there.

 

[buchaja]

hossen prado seat heaters back on Amazon

Just FYI.

Amazon.com: 2pcs High Quality Heated Pad Kit 2 Seat(4 Pads)Heater for TOYOTA PRADO: Electronics

 

[sandcrawler]

Just FYI.

Amazon.com: 2pcs High Quality Heated Pad Kit 2 Seat(4 Pads)Heater for TOYOTA PRADO: Electronics

nice heads up.

everybody following this thread see this? FJ Cruiser Seat Heaters - Project Forge