Heated seat retrofit - universal ebay kit

[LeylandVCDS]

So for less than £30 for a universal heated seat kit off ebay, I've now got heated front seats in my Leon . Easy enough to do once the seats are out of the car, and the seats did not need dismantling any more then just lifting two edges of the cover from both base and backrest. It's an expensive job to go OEM and into the canbus, which would require a new heater panel as well, so have taken a spare ingition switched space in the fuse box, and run a simple feed and earth twin cable to each seat, separately protected with a 7.5 amp fuse, and mounted the off/low/high switch on the seat plastic near the height adjust lever. About an hour and a half per seat, and they are really effective and work well. Can throroughly recommend, they are great value for money. Took the opportunity to properly hoover the car out as well whilst the seats were out, it's amazing how much dog hair accumulates where you can't see.

 

[AndrewJB]

Nice, something I'd like to get round to on my MK1 daily.

 

[Webstuff72]

Nice job. Like the position of the switch too.

 

[Steeldevil]

Great job. Have you got alink to the kit you bought please?

 

[LeylandVCDS]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universa...sh=item2ae4dbeb4a:g:82wAAOSwWp9efdvH&LH_BIN=1

@Steeldevil , the actual item I bought is now sold out, but there are loads of identical kits on there. I paid £28.99 with free post. Watch for any postage costs on the listing which takes it over £30 - still an absolute bargain even at that though. If you look at the different listings there are some with square switches, others with 5 heat settings etc, but I've had an identical kit to this one in my Octavia for 9 years and its still going strong. I went for these small round two way switches, same as in my Octavia, as they only need a single 21mm hole drilling in the plastic of the seat base to mount them. I got a 21mm hole saw included with the kit. As you can see I've mounted mine on the vertical cut out by the height adjuster, easy to reach whilst driving, and out of the way with no cutting of the dashboard or console. Also, putting the switches there means that all the wiring can be cable-tied to the bottom of the seat, and the only wiring to the car is a single dual-core cable from the fuse box which I have routed under the carpet, and emerges where the original airbag and seatbelt warning light cables are. I also added a universal quick release multiplug at that point so the seats can be removed at any point without cutting any wiring - its just another plug in exactly the same as the airbag/seat belt plugs already there.......mind you I've also got another plug there for the wiring I put in for the rear footwell lighting too...... A far as fusing goes, I've got mine through a 15 amp fuse from an ignition switched supply, the cable to the fuse box splits two ways, one to each of the seats, and each seat has a separate 7.5 amp fuse as well. Tried both seats on high settings for a good while, no issues at all, no wiring getting warm, and a scan afterwards shows no faults in VCDS with battery management, electronics or anything else.

Despite what anyone else says, you do not need to fully dismantle the seats, and you do not need to separate the back from the base. All you do is unclip the cover from its fold over plastic retaining strips from the front and seat belt buckle sides of the base to access as much of the foam as you need. The back is a little more awkward - once the seat cover is unclipped, and with a bit of juggling about reclining and unreclining the seat to work the cover through to the front, once you look behind the foam you'll see a metal wire clip on each side which holds the cover down. Just release these with a pair of mole grips, and feed the cover fully forward to above the base, and roll it upwards a few inches, enough to access the foam on the backrest. Same putting it back together, the hard plastic strip of the retainer is tight getting through the gap between base and backrest, but made easier by feeding it through with reclining, once the cover is through, use the mole grips again to refit the metal wire clips into the holes in the seat frame. Once the covers are back where they should do, just fold the plastic retainers together to lock the covers in place.

Where the seat cover is clipped into the vertical and horizontal in the foam cushion, all you need to do is cut out a small section of heater element where the clips are and tuck the pad into the grooves in the cushion. Cutting a couple of little squares out has no effect on the working of the heater mat as there is still a good connection across the heater pad over the bulk of the thing. On mine, which has the FR half leather/half alcantara, there is a curved seam on the base, all I've done is cut out a corresponding section and stuck the heater pad down. The instructions say there is no issue whatever in doing this, as long as a connection isn't broken between the left and right edges of the pad where the power is obviously connected to.

Good luck with this - for the money you just can't go wrong

 

[Mr Pig]

If I had a dog it would ride in a trailer behind the car! Just a cheap open topped one, feck it. Yes, dog hair in a car is that bad :0(

 

[Djh2392]

Don't suppose you have any more information on the wiring in a 5F FR like yours?
Is it just a case of earth wire and ignition switched? Also I'm guessing power taken from the fuse box behind glovebox?
Thanks for the information above can't wait to get heated seats

 

[LeylandVCDS]

Don't suppose you have any more information on the wiring in a 5F FR like yours?
Is it just a case of earth wire and ignition switched? Also I'm guessing power taken from the fuse box behind glovebox?
Thanks for the information above can't wait to get heated seats

Yes, just ignition switch live from the fuse box, through a 15 amp fuse , split to the two seats, with a 7.5 Amp fuse to each seat as a backup. Plus an earth to each seat too. Over 5 years since they were fitted, and no issues whatsoever with the installation or the way they are working.

Since fitting these, the seats were swapped over into my later Leon, these were removed after simply unplugging the connecting plugs under the seats, and hiding the power cable under the carpet. All it needed was a power lead and earth to each seat as before when installed into my new car

 

[Djh2392]

Brilliant thanks for the reply that's very helpful got my seat pads for £22 on eBay so should be a cheap solution to winter months!
Don't suppose you got a pic of the fuse you came off? Did you use a piggyback off a 15A ignition fuse with the dual core and run each side to the seats? Seems very simple wiring and much easier than a OEM retrofit.

 

[Matt_anderson]

Looks a really good job! How did you run the wires to under the seat? Was it easy to remove the seat covers? I guess it becomes obvious how to get the covers up when you’re looking at it? Very impressed with the button mounting!

 

[LeylandVCDS]

Looks a really good job! How did you run the wires to under the seat? Was it easy to remove the seat covers? I guess it becomes obvious how to get the covers up when you’re looking at it? Very impressed with the button mounting!

Once the sill trims are lifted, you can get your hands under the carpet. Simply route the cable you're adding from under the dashboard close to the transmission tunnel, and bring it out under the seat in the same position as the existing wiring for the seat airbags and seat belt warnings.
Seat covers don't need removing as such, they are held on by a plastic bar that is double folded into a retaining lip in the front and sides of the seat. That's all I did, remove enough to get the heater mat installed. Same with the backrest, the covers are secured at the bottom by the same double folded plastic bar. Sounds complicated, but honestly it's not, it really is self explanatory when you start doing the job. Just have the seat fully reclined forward to undo the cover, then fully recline it to slide the bottom of the cover out and gently lift upto expose the foam. Just make sure you leave enough slack on the cable for the backrest heater to accomodate the reclining movement in full. Once the job is complete, just tidy the wiring by using cable ties to the bottom of the seat frame.
Lastly, make sure you get a kit that has the round buttons like I've fitted - it's a simple single hole that needs drilling (drill was included in my kit). The kits with the square button look nice, but would be much more challenging to fit properly.

@Djh2392 I used the proper position for where the heated seat fuse goes when they are factory fitted - fuse 26. There won't be a contact in both sides of where the fuse should go, there will only be an input connector, but it's super easy to connect to this using a male spade connector on the end of the lead you install, with an in-line 15 amp fuse . This lead then splits to each seat, and I double protected the whole thing by adding a further 7.5A fuse going to each seat. The attached pic will show you the fuse position 26 that I used - at least being the factory position for heated seats, you know the wiring is more than up to the job of powering the kit you are fitting.

Good luck with the installation, you won't be disappointed. I also fitted the same kit to my wife's Toledo, and again everything works spot on there as well. The kit I put into our old Octavia is still going strong after nearly 10 years of use!

 

[Djh2392]

That's a great write up thanks for all the information in detail really going to help with this install I'm sure it will help many other people too! I was planning on checking the empty heated seats fuse as mentioned thinking the wiring core is designed for that purpose so nice to read that has worked for you.
Going to do the same with our MK7 Golf too once this is done I'm sure this hack will be used in many future cars!

 

[Matt_anderson]

Hero. Thank you