Add heated seats

I got an email today from my local Toyota dealer with an offer to have heated seats installed. You might check if a local dealer will do the same for you.

 

Here all the Priuses came (and still come) with seat heaters. Gen 2 seat heaters are just controlled from switches installed in the panel below dash https://image.nettiauto.com/extra/carimg/00/08/82/02/88/8820288_l_80612255.jpg

But if your just going to install a aftermarket seat heater you can install it the way you want. So if you wanted you could have separate controllers for seat bottom and back or anything else you wanted.

 

I checked and only junkyard that had seats for gen 2 Prius wanted 200e just for a (pretty bad looking) driver’s seat. Junkyards are expensive here. I’d really love to go to US junkyard.

It’s not really hard to take seat partially apart and insert seat heaters. I haven’t done it for a Prius but it looks just like most of seats. Here’s a Toyota manual on how to take the front seat apart https://attachments.priuschat.com/attachment-files/2017/09/131813_72_-_Seat.pdf

If you decide to go for aftermarket heaters maybe this picture of 2004 Prius seat heater taken with heat camera might help you get the correct sized elements: seat

 

You just need to learn the good tactic and use good pliers with those hog-rings.

Junkyards here work just like any part store. You go to counter and they check form the computer if they have the part. Or you can just check it online yourself before going there. Parts are already removed, cataloged, and pictured. Or now day’s junkyards do buy lots of parts from abroad as a bunch. That saves them a lot of work as the removal, cataloging and picturing are already done.

 

Well, yesterday I only had time to install the heating pads into the seats, but not do the wiring. I took some pictures of the passenger seat work. It was pretty straight forward. I removed the seat from the car and brought it inside my shop and did most of the work on my workbench. There were a few hog rings to deal with and on the first seat I did (the passenger one) I undid more hog rings than I needed to since I was exploring my way into the upholstery.

The back was fairly easy. I just undid three rings at the bottom and slid the fabric up about 2/3 of the way. Up to where it is attached to the foam by more rings and a steel wire. I did not undo those since the pad reached just up to that point after I cut about 1" off it. These pads you can cut to length. 1" off the top of the pad barely even cut into the actual heating element. There is about 3/4" of margin there.

The bottom was a bit more involved since I needed to get the fabric off most of the cushion. In the center and on the sides of the bottom there are also a wires that hold the fabric to the foam with some rings. I undid all of those on the first seat, but only the center ones really needed to be undone. The side ones can be left alone since the pad is not wide enough to reach them. after getting pads in place I reassembled and it looks pretty good. Can not really tell anything happened in there.



Edit: I tried to share photos from Google photos and they are not showing up, sorry. If anyone knows why not, let me know, please. Or suggest another way to insert photos here.

 

Use the Upload a file button:


The file inserts at the current cursor position. You can choose thumbnail or Full Image (per image or all images).

 

Let's try this for pictures.

 

Thank you. That worked. But why doesn't a link work? That would save the PC host from uploading images that are already hosted elsewhere. There is a button for inserting links to images in the editing bar, but it does not seem to work. Strange...

 

That is great in theory – until the 3rd party host changes its T&Cs or the account is closed or abandoned on the 3rd party site. At least if the pics are hosted on PC, posts still contain the pics.

 

Just finished the install, finally. It was in the 50s and I could work outside with my bare hands. I find that my bare hands do not work well when outside temps (in Fahrenheit) are lower than my age

I installed the switches in the center console yesterday, but then ran out of daylight. Today I dealt with all the wiring. I picked up 12V from the big fuse box under the hood. I used a 14 gauge wire and soldered a lug onto one end and attached that under the 12V nut on the jumping terminal. Then I added an inline fuse (30A) very close to the box and ran the rest of the wire through the firewall grommet into the passenger compartment right above the brake pedal. then to the left side under the trim to about the middle of the front driver's seat and over to the center console. I took the driver's seat out to make things easier (had to unplug three connectors under the seat). I ran the 12V wire under the carpet to the center console, which I removed and exposed a steel box of some sort. I used that steel box for the ground connection by drilling s 1/8" hole and screwing in a self-tapping screw in it. I attached all the ground connections to that screw using lugs. I then wired up a relay that is controlled by a wire a spliced into the power plug in the center console. That plug is off when the car is off, so that makes sure that the seats will not stay on when the car is turned off. The relay when the car is on completes the 12V circuit and that feeds the heaters. It took some soldering and wiring, but it all works so far. I went for a little test drive and it was real toasty under my butt. My wife is going to be very happy, I think. This mod was mostly for her. Hopefully I did not screw up anything major in long term. I am concerned about the new 12V wire chaffing and touching the chassis somewhere, but I was careful to route it in a way to avoid that.

I did not take any pictures today, sorry.

 

I used a 30A fuse on that wire, which is too high. The heaters draw about 6A per seat on high position, so I should really be okay with a 15A fuse. I used a heavy speaker wire I found. It may very well be 12 Gauge.

Thanks for the explanation of the importance of fusing.