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Freezing your butt off in the mornings? Read this!
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25-01-2010 9:26pm#1Hey all.
Thought I’d throw up a short guide on how I installed heated seats over the last few days into my ’00 BMW 728i.
During the cold snap I was sick of the freezing leather in the mornings and the original owner opted not purchase the cold weather package so I thought to hell with it, I could do with some heated seats!
I got the heated seat kit from www.heatedseatkits.com who provide heated seat elements to the car industry, to manufacturers like Mercedes and BMW themselves. They’re even used in the 7 series produced today so I thought no better choice. Price was about €170 shipped for two kits, one for each front seat.
Each kit consists of two heater elements and a single wiring harness with an inbuilt switch and fuse. All you have to do is get the elements under your seat covering whether it be leather or cloth, and wire up the 12v + and – to the cars battery or ignition. There are two heat settings, high and low and the mode is indicated by either a green or red LED on the heater button.
First things first, you absolutely have to get the seats out of the car or you’ll drive yourself nutty.
If you have electric seats, you have to disconnect the wiring harness under the seat. Disconnect the battery first or you’ll get an airbag light on your dash also. The seat belt also had to be unbolted as well as the automatic adjuster for the seat belt height in the B pillar.
Four bolts removed and the seat was in the house. The flash makes the leather look filthy when in fact its immaculate, I promise!
Then I had to get the plastic housing that holds all the electric adjustment buttons off. A series of screws held it on.
Then pop the buttons.
And off it comes.
Then I started removing the backing of the seat, two more screws.
The idea here is to get the leather off the seats with minimal removal.
The leather is held on with little metal claws all the way round the seat, and each one has to be bent to unpin the leather from the seat.
Here is the location of the large screw that holds the bottom of the seat and the seat back together.
Now the leather is free to be removed from the back of the seats, however it is still pinned to the front of the seats to stop it moving around when sat on.
As I did not have the correct tools to reattach the leather, I did very little removal so as I could get the leather back on with no problems.
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So I just got the heater elements and slid them under the leather as far as they would go.
Once in place, I unpeeled the adhesive strips and pressed the elements into the foam to make firm contact.
This is where the cable comes out of the seat back.
And this is the cable with the leather reattached.
Once both elements were installed in the seat, I put the seat back and bottom back together, with both cables in position.
Now the heater buttons have to be installed.
I choose to install them into the plastic housing beside the OEM buttons on the seat.
Drilling the hole for the button.
And the finished product below.
I will be respraying the plastic housing to get rid of the white scuffs later on.
Once the button was in place, I was able to install the harness under the seat and route the cables so that they do not interfere with the movement of the seat.
This is how the cables are routed.
All the excess cable is held inside the plastic housing on the side of the seat.
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Now I started putting the seats back in and wiring them to the rear of the car where the battery is located in the boot.
This involved removing all the trim pieces on both sides of the car door sills and routing the power cables under the rear seats and into the boot.
B pillar trim removed below.
Then I removed the rear seats.
Here you can see the factory power lines running from the front of the car into the battery in the boot.
I wrapped up the seat power cables with cable ties and used heat shrink to protect the cable as the seat bottom brackets would be sitting on top of them once reinstalled.
Seat installed with no visible wires.
Power cables are now running along the inside of the door sill carpet.
Here you can see where the heated seat power cables end, at the door sill of the rear doors.
So I had to extend them to reach into the boot.
Spliced together.
And heat shrink on both connections on both sides of the car.
The cables go through the same hole on the rear passenger side, so the driver seat cable had to be routed under the rear seat to the passenger side.
Here is the hole where both cables run under the parcel shelf to the boot.
I used a coat hanger to get the cables into the boot. Here they are ready to be connected.
I reinstalled the included fuse housings onto both 12v + cables.
I’ve actually changed the wiring of the whole setup in the last few days so that they are connected directly to the battery for better safety, however here I had them wired into 12v ignition that goes into the rear headlamp housing.
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Here are the seats installed back in the car. Again the flash makes them look filthy when they’re actually immaculate.
Job done! The heat from the seats is fantastic and I now have warmth starting from about 60-90 seconds instead of waiting for the heater core to warm up.
Just a warning that the job is in fact a lot bigger than it looks, it must have taken me about 8 hours to get the whole thing done.
Mind you if you don’t have electic seats and your battery is in the front of the car, you will certainly save yourself a lot of time.
I also got the newest 16:9 display installed over the same weekend, as well as the latest MK4 nav computer in the boot.
I just cant help myself.
Heated seats in the rear, factory xenons and factory radar cruise contol are probably my next mods.
Give it a go! 0 -
Brilliant! Really does look like a big job, lots of fiddly stuff to do in there. Worst part (for me) would be splicing the heater wires into the boot loom :eek: Can't wait to see radar cruise control, there's a video about using it. Very cool.
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Not to diminish your work, but when I had my old Saab with heated seats I only used them once or twice and that just because they were there and not because it was particularly cold.
When I installed heated Saab seats in my van I just snipped the heater controls off because I didn't want to go through the hassle of connecting them
Having seen what work you went through I feel guilty now
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Brilliant! Really does look like a big job, lots of fiddly stuff to do in there. Worst part (for me) would be splicing the heater wires into the boot loom :eek: Can't wait to see radar cruise control, there's a video about using it. Very cool.
Yup, saw that video, that chap know everything about E38s, hes a massive help on the forums.Not to diminish your work, but when I had my old Saab with heated seats I only used them once or twice and that just because they were there and not because it was particularly cold.
When I installed heated Saab seats in my van I just snipped the heater controls off because I didn't want to go through the hassle of connecting them
Having seen what work you went through I feel guilty now I know what you mean, there has only been 50% of days over the last few weeks where i've actually turned them on. The car retains heat really well so the only times I use them really is first thing in the morning or late at night.
But thats why I installed them as I can work late til 1am, as well as early starts like everyone else.0 -
looks great fair play man!
Also the Mk4 BMW system is brialliant, did you use the 3d isometric view yet?
Yup, went into the settings and enabled it yesterday, looks great!I really did love that 7 series when it was new. Still a special car im sure.
Nice job on the seats.
Is retro fit of radar cruise possible?
It sure is, every single function that was an original option can be retrofitted no problem. Typically they're all functions from the 750.
I've still a long way to go, radar cruise control, rear electric seats, rear picnic tables, electric folding mirrors, rear fridge, auto open boot, electric sunblinds. The list is endless.
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Voodoomelon wrote: »Yup, went into the settings and enabled it yesterday, looks great!
It sure is, every single function that was an original option can be retrofitted no problem. Typically they're all functions from the 750.
I've still a long way to go, radar cruise control, rear electric seats, rear picnic tables, electric folding mirrors, rear fridge, auto open boot, electric sunblinds. The list is endless.
Dear god man, where do you get the time (and money)?0 -
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Dear god man, where do you get the time (and money)?
Funnily enough, I have very little of either. Seats were done over the single day I have off during the week. And as I say, that list is things to do, not things that have been done!
Bangernomics at its best, this car has served me well over the last two years and i'll get another 3 out of it no problem. Depreciation isnt a factor to me, so why not spend the savings on a few extra toys that cars ten year on still don't have. 0 -
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO5AdLOXeWs
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