Seat Heater Installation (2 Viewers)

[TomH]

I know many people got in on the group buy on the seat heaters so I thought I would do my share and post up some installation instructions. The instructions should be pretty accurate but there could be errors.

General Notes

• This is really a pain to do – not difficult, but a pain.
• My pictures suck.
• Check the seat heater wiring carefully. I had one connector pull off completely and a wire pull out of another connector. Tried calling for tech support and no success. The tech wasn’t available and never returned my repeated calls. I fixed the harness myself and will continue to try to get a replacement piece from them. UPDATE: I contacted the company via their on-line RMA page and a new part showed up in the mail today. I have to say that is pretty good customer service, especially since I had fixed the part and their website clearly states, in several places, not to do that.
• The instructions for the seat heater installation leave a lot to be desired.
• Time required: Seat 1 – 6 hours (learning curve), Seat 2 – 3 hours (down the learning curve quickly), Wiring – 7 hours (not really sure why or how it took this long – but it did).
• The position of the wire on the top and bottom heaters is important. When everything is assembled, the two connectors need to be right next to each other. Check out the wiring harness. Not a big deal, just something to keep in mind during wire routing.

Tools

 

[TomH]

Seat Removal and Disassembly

1. Remove the four fasteners that hold the seat in place (14mm). Disconnect connector and remove seat.
2. Remove three screws from each plastic side cover and lift up on the cover to remove.
3. Remove two screws on seat back cover panel and pull (down IIRC) to remove. There are two clips that hold the cover in place at the top.
4. Remove headrest. Remove two headrest guides. From the back of the seat, use a long screwdriver and one hand to compress and push the guides up and out.
5. Remove the hog rings from the back of the seat back. Use needle nose vise grips (or similar tool) for hog ring removal. Clamp down, twist and pull. This will allow access to the two fasteners on each side of the seat back. (Remember this step – you will not want to reattach these hog rings until after the seat back has been re-installed)
6. Disconnect the connector on the driver seat.
7. Remove the two fasteners (12mm) on each side of seat back and remove seat back.
8. Remove the two plastic pins that hold the leather cover thing on the lower portion of the seat. (This is not necessarily required).
9. Remove the four fasteners (12mm) that hold the seat bottom to the seat frame assembly and remove the seat bottom.

Note: If you really want to learn about how the motors and seat rails tie together, feel free to start randomly removing fasteners from the bottom side of the seat frame. It’s really interesting. However, if you just want to install seat heaters, I recommend just removing the four required fasteners that hold the seat bottom in place.
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[TomH]

Seat Back Seat Cover Removal

1. The seat back has two vertical rails and two horizontal rails where the cover attaches with hog rings. The hog rings can be a real pain to grab. No easy method. Just keep working forward.
2. Assuming all hog rings have been removed from the back of the seat back, lay the seat back on its back and start peeling the leather up and over the cushion. Remove hog rings as you go. If they are hard to access, push the foam cushion down and out of the way. Clamp down with the vise grips, twist and pull.
3. I bent the metal rails on the seat cover up and out of the way as I moved up the seat back. I straightened them out as best I could prior to reassembly.
4. When all the hog rings have been removed, slide the seat cover over the top of the seat back and off.

 

[TomH]

Seat Back Seat Heater Installation

1. Center the heater on the seat foam. Set the height wherever you want. The directions talk about front and back but it really isn’t clear which is which. I used my best judgment and put the heat sensor side down.
2. There will be just enough room for it to fit without trimming the sides (which I don’t think is allowed anyway). The heater will cover the horizontal rails that are used for hog ring attachment but the rails actually extend beyond the heater and are covered by the foam. You can still get a hog ring in without affecting the heater.
3. Push the heater down into the channels on the foam and adjust the position as required. Use a pen to mark the center hog ring position in each channel.
   
   
   Note: Be sure to account for the distance between the two positions as the heater will be glued to the foam. The 1 inch diameter gives a little room for error.
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4. Cut out a 1 inch diameter hole in the heater (I tried to go a little smaller that 1 inch) at each of the marked locations. The directions suggest using a punch.
5. The directions say to cover the holes across the whole width of the heater with the provided tape. I assumed the tape the directions refer to is the tape at the top and bottom of the heater. Since I had two holes to cover and only two pieces of tape, I decided to cut the tape in half lengthwise.
6. Apply the tape to each side of the heater at the hole location and cut a smaller diameter hole in the tape then the one cut in the heater, This will allow the tape to seal up the edges of the cut. I believe this is the intent (again, the directions are a little fuzzy here).
7. The kit comes with some tie wraps for connecting the seat cover at the location of the hole instead of using a hog ring (electrical concerns). Throw them away and get some bigger ones from the garage (OK, don’t actually throw them away, you can use them for the wiring portion of the job). I think the ones I used were eight inches. Unless you have little fingers and a lot of patience, the tie wraps are too small.
8. Install the tie wraps in the center position of each hog ring rail prior to attaching the seat heater. You may end up with a little glue on your hand when attaching the heater, but I think that is an better alternative than trying to feed a tie wrap through a 1 inch hole in the bottom of a channel.
9. Apply some spray adhesive to the back of the heater (I like 3M Super 77 – good stuff)
10. It may help to have an extra set of hands here – not sure because I did mine by myself. Carefully position the heater over the seat back and thread the tie wraps into the holes.
11. Center the heater width wise and push the heater into the hog ring channels and glue it down to the foam. Follow the contour of the foam as best as possible. Now you are ready to reattach the seat cover.
12. Seat cover installation is the opposite of removal – really. Well, except for the two tie wraps at the center positions. Pull the cover over the top and start working your way down installing new hog rings. I used No. 1 (I think - have to check) hog rings which were a little big. I think they are actually designed for pigs and not seats. You really need hog rings pliers to do the job.
13. I found the best way to install the hog rings is to put the ring into the pliers, hook the ring under the rail on the seat cushion, push the seat cover down to the top half of the ring and hook it over the metal rails in the cover, then squeeze the hog ring closed.
14. When you get to the tie wrap, just pull it tight and cut the end.
15. There are two rubber things that you need to make sure exit the bottom of the seat. You should remember disconnecting them during hog ring removal. Make sure you don’t get these stuck up in the seat somewhere. (No, I didn’t – just warning everybody else).
16. Work your way to the bottom, pulling the cover tight as you go and install all the hog rings.
17. Flip the seat over. Pull the rubber things tight and hog ring them into place. My hog rings were too big so I used bailing wire on these.
18. Go ahead and attach the bottom row and top row of hog rings but leave the side off. Remember you need that area loose to reattach the seat back to the frame.
19. Now you are done with the seat back.

 

[TomH]

Seat Bottom Seat Heater Installation

There really isn’t a huge difference between the seat back and bottom.

1. The seat bottom also has two vertical rails and two horizontal rails where the cover attaches with hog rings.
2. Remove hog rings from bottom. Loosen the tabs that hold the seat cover to the front of the frame (about five tabs) and fold the seat cover over the edge of the frame.
3. On the opposite corner, the cover is stuffed up pretty well between the frame and is a bit of a pain to deal with. I removed it all on the first seat but for the second seat I realized I could just fold the cover up and over the edge after all the hog rings were removed and not worry about removing it completely.
4. Remove all hog rings from top and fold cover out of the way.
5. The seat bottom is wider so there are no width issues at all. There is, however a channel right at the back of the seat. I decided the best plan of action was to hold the heater forward and avoid the channel altogether. After everything was positioned, I cut a small channel in the foam and routed the wire to the corner. Remember, seat back and seat bottom connectors need to end up in the same place.
6. Mark center hole for channel, cut heater, tape hole, insert tie wrap and glue into place.
7. Reinstall seat cover and you're done with the heater install portion of the process.

 

[TomH]

Assemble Seat and install

1. Slide the seat bottom back into the frame and install the four fasteners. The holes on the side did not want to line up real well so I used my old friend brute force.
2. Attach the leather cover thingy – if you removed it. Connect the Velcro first and then attach the plastic pins.
3. Slide the seat back into place and install the four fasteners.
4. Route the two connectors. For me, the connectors met at the outside corner of the seat. Connect the small piece of harness to the heater connectors and tie wrap to the seat springs.
5. Connect the connector for the electric seat on the drivers side seat.
6. Attach the four hog rings to complete the seat back seat cover installation.
7. Attach seat back cover panels with two screws.
8. Attach two plastic covers with three screws each.
9. Seats are now finished.

 

[TomH]

Wiring

I think everyone has different ideas on how to do wiring and many have dual batteries and alternate fuse panels. Here is how I chose to wire the heaters. YMMV.

1. Pull two 10 amp fused 16 gage wires in convoluted tubing from battery to inside of truck. I chose not to run the convoluted tubing inside. One larger gage wire would probably be sufficient.
2. Route wires up over steering column, down and under front of console. Since there wasn’t a wire path this direction, I used the sticky things for attaching tie wraps to and then routed the wire along the same path as the accelerometer, and back to the metal tower the console is bolted to.
3. There are three unused connectors under the console (on my 97). The three wire connector has switched power (power when the ignition is on) so I pulled that contact from the connector and attached a power wire to that which I then split to two using a splice connector.
4. There is a handy ground point right by all the unused connectors so I tapped two ground wires in at that point. Had I been thinking, I may have added the two grounds from the seat heater harness. Instead, I used the splice connectors again to connect the grounds.
5. I installed two relays to the metal tower, connectorized all the wire ends, including power from the seat heaters and hooked them up appropriately to the relays.
6. I routed the harness for the seat heaters under the carpet and out the same location as the alarm on the drivers side and the rear heater on the passenger side.
7. I drilled two holes in the black bracket that the rear heater attaches to and routed the seat heater harness inside that bracket.
8. With the harnesses in place, I installed the seats and connected everything up so I was confident wires wouldn’t get pinched anywhere.
9. For the switches, I followed the lead of others on the board and installed the switches into a switch cover blank. I drilled a 3/4 inch hole in a switch cover blank (I happened to have two spares laying around) and inserted the heater switches into the holes. I had to do a tiny bit of filing to make it work. If you follow this method, make sure the holes are perfectly centered in the blank or there may be some trimming required on the console. I used a new spade bit for the hole and drilled slowly. It worked great.
10. Then, it’s just a matter of finding a good spot for all the extra wire on the seat heater harness. I stuffed it up the side of the console, made sure everything was connected and bolted the console in place. If I had to do it again, I would probably shorten the ground and power wires from the seat heater but at the point I was, I didn’t have the energy to do that. Also, under the console probably isn’t the best place for the seat heater fuses – but it will have to work.

 

[tomatopants]

Are those the buttons that came with the heaters? That's a pretty nifty setup.

 

[96r50]

Nice install thread! I'm looking forward to getting these in when my girlfriend gives them to me for my birthday
(technically, one is hers )

 

[Brindleboxer]

Tom,

Good post, I thought we were going to try a GTG for the local guys to team up and knock some out. Maybe we should still plan on doing this, it will give aid (working by yourself is a pain sometimes) and we can all check each other trucks out.

I would be up for travel North if need be (considering most that have bought the kits are King County or higher).

Also, if you do not hear back from the tech guy tommorow let me know and I will contact the POC I have and see if they can work something out for you. Shoot me a PM and I can give you my work e-mail that way I can correspond during the day.

Once again nice post and good detailed write up. This post should be a sticky!!!

Glen

 

[96r50]

This post should be a sticky!!!

FAQ maybe?

 

[TomH]

Are those the buttons that came with the heaters? That's a pretty nifty setup.

Just the round part is the switch that came with the heaters. The other piece is just a standard cover for unused switch locations. A couple other guys on the forum have done the same with toggle switches for their dual battery setups. I just copied - and got lucky that the switches fit in the blanks.

 

[TomH]

Tom,

Good post, I thought we were going to try a GTG for the local guys to team up and knock some out. Maybe we should still plan on doing this, it will give aid (working by yourself is a pain sometimes) and we can all check each other trucks out.

I would be up for travel North if need be (considering most that have bought the kits are King County or higher).

Also, if you do not hear back from the tech guy tommorow let me know and I will contact the POC I have and see if they can work something out for you. Shoot me a PM and I can give you my work e-mail that way I can correspond during the day.

Once again nice post and good detailed write up. This post should be a sticky!!!

Glen

Glen

I couldn't really plan the GTG approach. I actually did this over three days and had to have the truck operational during that time. I'd still be up for meeting if others want to do this as a group, I just can't commit a whole day. South is fine with me - I have family down there where I could drop the wife and kids.

I haven't tried to contact tech support since Friday when they didn't respond. Had to make a best guess as to which wire went where and did a half-ass job of reconnecting the wires to the pins (although obviously a better job then was done originally).

Tom

 

[aktundra]

This question may be the most petty, anal, detail ever asked on the forum, but is there a p/n for the blank covers ? I assume I can just go down to my local dealership, but my results vary depending on who happens to be working at the time!

REALLY like the way you got an OEM look to the install

I know this is the wrong thread, but Glen, thanks for putting together the group buy, VERY NICE !

 

[KCCruiser]

This may be a stupid question, but couldn't you use the unused connectors in the center console to power the seat heaters and switches instead of wiring all the way to the battery?

 

[TomH]

This question may be the most petty, anal, detail ever asked on the forum, but is there a p/n for the blank covers ? I assume I can just go down to my local dealership, but my results vary depending on who happens to be working at the time!

REALLY like the way you got an OEM look to the install

I know this is the wrong thread, but Glen, thanks for putting together the group buy, VERY NICE !

Yes, a part number exists for the blanks. CDan could certainly help but your local parts guys should be able to handle it also. I had two extra after adding CDL and fog light switches.

Tom

 

[TomH]

This may be a stupid question, but couldn't you use the unused connectors in the center console to power the seat heaters and switches instead of wiring all the way to the battery?

I'm not sure the unused connectors have the capacity to handle the load of the heaters which require 10 amps each. There are a total of three power wires coming into the three connectors so it could possibly work. You could check the wiring diagram and find out.

I just wanted dedicated circuits so I didn't even consider using what was already there. The wiring is more of a personal preference thing and I'm sure there will be a lot of variance on how different people handle it.

Tom

 

[Montana Cruiser]

How do they work? Heat up fast?

Thanks in advance for the write-up!

 

[mot]

FAQ maybe?

That's what I was thinking.

Of course, then this useless non-tech post would/should get deleted.

 

[TomH]

How do they work? Heat up fast?

Thanks in advance for the write-up!

They actually work quite well. Heat up in about 5 minutes. I've actually only used them once since the wife gets to drive the Land Cruiser. But she's pretty happy with them.

Tom