use universal seat heaters with factory switch?

[russman1963]

Can it be done? Mine have stopped working.
Classic symptoms, switch lights up, but can I just wire new pads in place of the factory ones?

 

[ADeFazio]

I'm sure you can. It's probably just variable voltage through two wires into the heat pads. My guess is that the switch adjusts resistance to ground while the other lead on the pad goes to the ignition circuit through a fuse that you should probably check.

 

[gshadow325]

Can it be done? Mine have stopped working.
Classic symptoms, switch lights up, but can I just wire new pads in place of the factory ones?

no guessing. crimestopper HSK150, remove and replace. real simple.

oem stops working because the element is one continuous single wire that heats up. if there is a break in it it will not work. OEM seat warmers are one continuos loop from bottom to seat back . the way i prevent that from happening ever again, i wire the seat back and seat bottom in parallel vs in series. this way if one fails the other one will still work and much easier to diagnose which one is bad, using a multimeter in the continuity setting will also find out which pad is bad too.

look at my mods, you'll see i replaced the seat warmers in my fronts as well as probably the only 4 runner out there that has heated rear seats too with the switches in the rear doors.

 

[russman1963]

the HSK150 worked with the factory switch?

no guessing. crimestopper HSK150, remove and replace. real simple.

oem stops working because the element is one continuous single wire that heats up. if there is a break in it it will not work. OEM seat warmers are one continuos loop from bottom to seat back . the way i prevent that from happening ever again, i wire the seat back and seat bottom in parallel vs in series. this way if one fails the other one will still work and much easier to diagnose which one is bad, using a multimeter in the continuity setting will also find out which pad is bad too.

look at my mods, you'll see i replaced the seat warmers in my fronts as well as probably the only 4 runner out there that has heated rear seats too with the switches in the rear doors.

 

[gshadow325]

the HSK150 worked with the factory switch?

Is there a echo? Lol, I'm sure my first sentence was really clear.

 

[russman1963]

Sorry,
Your mod thread never actually showed how the fronts were wired (unless I missed it! :doh

I will ohm the elements before I buy the heaters for sure.

Thanks

 

[foxtrot]

Im currently trying to set up the factory switch with my aftermarket heaters. I will post a writeup if I am successful

 

[russman1963]

Im currently trying to set up the factory switch with my aftermarket heaters. I will post a writeup if I am successful

Please do!

 

[simple]

Im currently trying to set up the factory switch with my aftermarket heaters. I will post a writeup if I am successful

Were you ever successful?

 

[foxtrot]

Nope, got everything soldered correctly and it just didn't work like it was supposed to so I gave up