Heated Seats on Way, Question on Switch (1 Viewer)

[IH8SNOW]

I'm considering picking up the switches from MOT and the heating elements from ATLAS at the moment... I know parts and pieces of the process are in this thread but could someone provide a basic overview of how these two will go together? Is it quite simple to run the ATLAS elements with the Mot switches or how much modification needs to be done? any info will help as I'm closing in on making the purchases...

 

[TrickyT]

There's a few considerations. First you need to verify that the wiring harness in your rig is set up for heated seats. Apparently some are and others aren't. Remove your center console and see if the connectors shown in post #9 above are present. If they're not, you'll have to do all of your own wiring. If they are present, you'll still have to do some wiring as the connectors that are part of the seats do not have pins in them that correspond to the sockets in the mating factory harness. You can order these from Cruiser Dan. Then you'll have to wire up the heating elements to these new pins. Note that there is no circuit diagram for heated seats in the EWD FSM, so you are more or less on your own here, although there is a link to a schematic from some similar vehicle in post #12 above.

But before all that, you'll have to remove the leather from your seats and install the heating elements. There are threads on how to do this, so you just need to search. Most say that with patience, strong fingers, some lube, hog ring pliers and a hefty supply of rings you can do one seat in several hours. Or you can take the seats to an auto upholstery shop and have them do it. And if you're going to this trouble, shouldn't you just also install new leather?

So there you have it. If you pull the trigger on this, post of pictures of your progress.

 

[96r50]

Wiring diagram anyone? I pulled this out of one of the overseas FSMs that was linked here a while ago. Looks like the circuit is protected by the rear heater fuse (20A IIRC).

 

[hzavarce]

Essentially the two "blue" wires go to a relay (supplied with the heated seat kit) which controls how much voltage is fed into the seat cushion elements. Mine work flawlessly, and I checked the OEM setup voltage 10x over as compared to the supplied switches before cutting into/wiring anything; advise that you do the same as the penalty for screwing up is a burnt out element, or wiring harness. Be careful!

Steve, can you please clarify this part ?

I just got the heating elements and have the Lexus LS300 switches.

After looking at it, my conclusion is that the "blues" connect in the aftermarket switch harness, and it should be like this:

Blue with black trace (Low) -> to yellow in aftermarket switch harness

Blue with orange trace (Hi) -> to white in aftermarket switch harness

White with black trace (ground) -> black aftermarket switch harness.

The red wire in the aftermarket harness will not be used, and there will be no need to use the power supply harness of the heating element.

Does this sound right ? THANKS !

 

[96r50]

What elements did you get? Mine didn't have a white wire in them. Mine looked like this (pic borrowed from Shane's thread in the Vendor Section):

The small black wire off to the side is purely for the LED in the switch. Is that your white wire?

 

[hzavarce]

yeah, my colors are different. So this is what I meant:

So this is pretty much where you need to connect the "blues" and ground, correct ?

 

[hzavarce]

one comment on the ground: the cable that goes to the switch is smaller gauge, but after the connector is a heavier gauge and this is where I would make the connection.

This ground goes to the relay and lands where the ground from the power supply harness lands

 

[FDNewbie]

Anyone know of a HORIZONTAL-facing switches that would fit (so they could be placed in the bottom of the center console, under the climate control, to the right & left of the rear heat switch)?

Thanks!

 

[Dave 2000]

Update:

A recent PM prompted me to post the copy of the wiring diagram for the ES300 seat switches I used. Done!

As far as the unused plugs under the centre console, it looks to me like the short harnesses from the mot-sourced OEM 80 series switches would plug into the connectors under the console. Of course, you would also need to have the connectors under the seat to take advantage of that. It also looks like the switch end of the harness would plug into the ES300 switches. Just my observations!

The switches on my stock VX are identical to those in the post from 96r50

regards

Dave