Heated Seats - need help with aftermarket heated seats

[thechosun]

*** Finished Product pictures! and thoughs ***
**Pictures of Center Console switch installation are posted on page 2**
* Passenger side heat pads installed - not yet put back in car
* pictures of automotive relay and extra fuse panel

Hey all,

I own a 2007 IS250 6mt and did not get heated and cooled seats.

i have taken apart my passenger seat and will be installing after market heated seats but was wondering first if anyone had suggestions on brands they have used etc. I know the majority of you guys all got the heated/cooled seats option but at the time of my purchase, it was not available.

If you have installed or heard of a decent brand out there, please let me know. i plan on documenting this process and throwing up a diy at some point.

this is what i have been looking at thus far.

http://www.heatedseatkits.com/heated...at2/index.html
-heated seat with 5 setting adjustable dial

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/seatvenheats.html
-heated and cooled with 2 way adjustable rocker switches, does anyone know if you have to have perforated leather for this to be even decently effective? ive seen some say its a must, other places say its nice to have, not necessary. i just dont want to sweat all summer anymore.

ill throw up some pics of the seat with leather stripped for your enjoyment

thanks in advance all.

[Jetfire]

Originally Posted by thechosun

Hey all,

I own a 2007 IS250 6mt and did not get heated and cooled seats.

i have taken apart my passenger seat and will be installing after market heated seats but was wondering first if anyone had suggestions on brands they have used etc. I know the majority of you guys all got the heated/cooled seats option but at the time of my purchase, it was not available.

If you have installed or heard of a decent brand out there, please let me know. i plan on documenting this process and throwing up a diy at some point.

this is what i have been looking at thus far.

http://www.heatedseatkits.com/heated...at2/index.html
-heated seat with 5 setting adjustable dial

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/seatvenheats.html
-heated and cooled with 2 way adjustable rocker switches, does anyone know if you have to have perforated leather for this to be even decently effective? ive seen some say its a must, other places say its nice to have, not necessary. i just dont want to sweat all summer anymore.

ill throw up some pics of the seat with leather stripped for your enjoyment

thanks in advance all.

For the heating, you don't need vents because it seems like it uses heating elements, but for cooling it'll probably need vents because it relies on blowing cabin air into your seat. If there was an A/C unit in the seat, then you probably wouldn't need the vents. The cooling is pretty much just a fan.

My seats only have heating and that's fine with me because by the time the A/C chills my car, my seat is pretty cool by then. But heated seats are amazing now that it's getting colder. Super toasty(like sitting on the hot sand at a beach) when set at max

[tex2670]

you definitely need perf leather for the vented seats. but jetfire is right--it is just a fan, and the air is not "cooled". the vented seats is an ok feature, but I wouldn't spend more money than your other option--it doesn't do a stellar job keeping you cool.

[tromly]

Originally Posted by tex2670

you definitely need perf leather for the vented seats. but jetfire is right--it is just a fan, and the air is not "cooled". the vented seats is an ok feature, but I wouldn't spend more money than your other option--it doesn't do a stellar job keeping you cool.

+1 tex, cooled seats was a marketing ploy, I really never got my butt cooled. But the heat works great

[thechosun]

Just for your curiosity, this is what i have done so far with the seat

more to come as the heated seat pads are coming in the mail soon.



you have to remove all the seat control buttons to reomve the side plastic panels


like so


what you see here are one of the many fabric plastic clamps that hold the leather tight all around the car, took some time to figure out how to remove, but not so bad once you know where and how to pull.



There are alot of metal rods that go through some hog clamps(i think thats what they are) but if you twist the rod 180degrees it slides out easily, once you remove them all, the leather comes off and so does the foam molded seat.



The passenger seat is my test subject, once that is complete, i hope to do a full write up for the driver seat with all the details.

I dont think many people have the is without heated seats but for people like me, it was rather frustrating not being able to upgrade to them after the fact.

[pavelekPL]

Im one of the guys w/o heated seats;/ so keep us posted

[greg0723]

i'd say just do heated seats. its easier the cooled seats are really that much of a factor. it doesnt work when its really hot

[thechosun]

All,

I need help with some basic wiring on the is250 and am looking to the Audio enthusiasts to help out.

I have a seat heater on both the driver side and passenger side that need power. What do you typically wire to for 12v power, preferably inside the cabin? id like the seat heaters to turn on only when the car is on so i dont end up burning my leather.

Also, i have a power inverter that i wanted to mount permanently, and just run extension cables to the center console somewhere for easy access. i figured if i were going to remove all the center pieces id take care of this as well.

any help or direction to another post would be helpful, ive been trolling the audio threads but have not yet found what im lookin for

thanks everyone,

[Jay.Diem]

looks very promising.... keep us posted on what you find

[Shinobi-X]

By chance, did you weigh your seat after pulling?

My stock seats with heater/cooling fan weighed in at ~64lbs, so for the sake of information, I was just curious about the difference.

[thechosun]

OK so here is my question....

the wiring diagram is telling me i need to wire direct to the ignition fuse, but i feel like that would be difficult to do. i saw the ignition fuse in my manual and it looked pretty snug.
im wondering if i should purchase an automotive relay, run the power on/off wire to the cigarette lighter, than pull my real power from the battery going through the firewall? the relay would only give the seat heaters power from the battery only when it also gets power from the cigarette lighter.

any better suggestions as to how to wire this thing?

each seat will run about 60 watts pulling 5 amps, and each seat has its own 10 amp fuse.

[thechosun]

I spent some time today wiring up an automotive relay and adding a small fusebox to add future hard wired devices.

12v power was pulled from the battery and routed through the gromet next to the bottom of the battery tray. I just fished a hanger through and pulled my wire through. that power wire was run along the side wall and under the door sill. It was then run under the carpet to the hole where all the seat wires come out. not too hard to do, just alot of fumbling around with the hangar wire.

The Automotive relay requires 4 wires. 12v power, signal wire from whatever source you want it to turn on and off with (in my case the aux power wire), a ground wire, and your output 12v power wire(whatever you want to power)


Here you can see a somewhat finished product. This is primarily to power my heated seats ive been working on but can be used to control aftermarket audio, or even a ac/dc power inverted(that i also plan to install). instead of using the automotive relay to control just one device, i sent power to a fuse panel and now have a dedicated panel for any device i want turned on and off with the cigarette lighter. if i wanted it on/off with ignition, i would have had to splice into the ingnition fuse in a different fuse panel under the hood and route that through the firewall as well. a little more work but perhaps a better idea for some devices. your personal needs i suppose.



The signal source(aux jack) is very easy to access. the rear passenger heat vents in the center console are attached to a plastic cover that easily pops off if pulled from the bottom and angled up. the seat arm rest needs to be pulled back and angled up in order for that piece to come out. You can use the bolts that hold down the center console as your ground,and the power wire from the connector on the right side(aux power jack) the yellow wire is the power wire.



ive tested this setup with my heated seat pads and it works perfect, now all i need to do is fab up a small lexan housing for the fuse box and automotive relay and velcro it to the carpet and ill be set.

Im going to be looking for a good location to hard wire my ac/dc power inverter, and try to find a way to make it look like a wall plug. if anyone has suggestions let me know. unfortunately, i wont have much time until this weekend to put my passenger seat back in and drill holes for my seat heater switches.

till then,

happy modding

[Jetfire]

hahaha so much work to make your butt toasty. good project though, might inspire some people to do the same project.

[tromly]

Originally Posted by Jetfire

hahaha so much work to make your butt toasty. good project though, might inspire some people to do the same project.

Nothing like hot buns

[DDLexus]

i didn't see what kit you bought... also, where are you mounting the switches?