Please give suggestions for properly installing Seat Heaters

Hi Rob,

It should be a simple fix...

From your photos, the 3 wires, brown, red and aqua all go to the switch, which looks to be installed somewhere on the center console...

The other wires for each seat heater is a ground (probably a black wire), 12 v ACC power (the wire that brings power to the seat heater when the car is on and the seat heater switch is on (Probably a red wire), and the Ignition wire to tell the seat heater module that the car is off. The module is probably mounted under the seat somewhere...

From the other photos, I can't tell where those wires go to. They should have run the wires to somewhere near the fuse box, just to the left and below of the steering wheel. If you look up under there, you'll see the fuse box cover. Are there any wires with taps on them? If so, then these would likely be where they got power for the seat heaters. But, those other wires under the console, can you tell where they go? If you pop the rear of the console off, the cup holders for the rear seats, did they hook into wires on the back side of the console? The wires back there power the "cigarette" lighter in the center console. If they got the power from back there, we need to have a discussion about that with more knowledgeable electrical oriented people on this site...

Anyhow, back to the task at hand: The 12v ACC power can be hooked up to wires/fuses that are always on and don't shut off when the car is shut off. A good example are brake lights. It looks like this is what they did. So, that's good.

What's whacked is the Ignition wire. This has to be hooked up to something that only gets power after you turn the car on. When this wire gets power, it tells the seat heater module that it's OK to heat up the seats if the seat heater switch is on. This wire can be tapped into the "cigarette" lighter since that power outlet only gets power when the car is on. And, since the Ignition wire for the module draws so little power, it's not going to fry that wire. But, it sounds like they have this wire connected to something that has constant power, even when the switch is off.... That is what has to change....

To do it up correctly, the 12v ACC and the Ignition wires should be run to the fuse box and given their own fuses. From John's site (www.vfaq.net/proj-pics/fuses/JB-fuses.gif), he has taken the time to outlay which fuse slots have Constant power (Always have power even when the car is off) and which have Ready power (Ones that only come on when the Ignition is on). So, the 12v ACC wire would tap into a Constant power fuse and the Ignition wire would tap into a Ready power fuse. To make this work, decide which fuse to use. You'll notice that when you look at the fuse box, there are no fuses there. Pick up some fuses from Toyota (They're not standard fuses that you can get anywhere else) and plug them in. First, you'll want to connect the wires to the fuses. Go to a salvage yard with a pair of cutting pliers and go to any late model Toyota and cut some harnesses out of it. These are the white plastic pieces that clip together and join wires together. Using the info on Darell's site, remove the female pins from some of the harnesses. You'll then cut away the old wires. We're really after the pins. Toyota charges beaucoup dollars for these pins. I went to the salvage yard, picked up 20 harnesse and they didn't even charge me...

Solder the pins to the seat heater wires. As for where they plug in, on that same page, opposite each fuse, is a number (i.e. 1K-1, 1K-8, etc.) This refers to where on the fuse box and which hole on the harness the pin should go. Also on John's site: www.vfaq.net/proj-pics/fuses/JB-rear.gif is the diagram of the rear of the fuse box. So, if you were laying with your back on the floor mat on the driver's side and your head up against the pedals, you'll see this. The fuse box/junction box is this chunk of white plastic with wires plugging into it all over the place. The bottom of the fuse box is where the little black cover is that hides the actual fuses. So, this image is of the back side of the fuse box, the part that is facing the firewall. Notice from the image that the 1K harness is down in the lower left. This is the easiest to get to. On this image are also the pin numbers for that harness. So, "1K-8" would mean the #8 pin slot on the 1K harness. So, if you use fuse slot (#28), then power would come thru the fuse and out the 1K harness through pin #8. So, this is where you'd stick that pin in. The pins go in real easy and you'll hear it click in. It's the cleanest install. As for which size pin, look at the back of the 1K harness. Pick a pin from one of the salvaged harnesses that has the same size hole. You can unplug the 1K harness from the fuse box. It comes out easily and you don't whack the car at all by unplugging this.

You would need to do this for each seat heater (the drive's side and the passenger's side). You could run the Ignition wires for both to the same pin, tho.

If you don't want to do this yourself, get some pins and fuses, print out the pages from John's site and ask them to wire it this way. Knowing which fuse slot goes to which pin on the 1K harness, they shouldn't have a problem doing this as this will inspire the most confidence in their install.

It looks like they actually did a nice install since they covered over the wires so that they won't rattle. If you feel comfortable doing the above (Which really isn't that difficult), then great! Just get the little manual that came with the seat heaters from the installers so that you have the wiring diagram and know which wires are which. But, from those photos, the job looks good that I wouldn't hesitate to ask them to redo some of it... Unless there are other things they did that you question.

 

just curious... i see you're in LA, how cold does it get there anyway?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kdk84 @ Apr 28 2007, 07:58 PM) [snapback]431946[/snapback]</div>

Snicker.... my wife uses the heaters whenever it dips below about 70. What the heaters mean for me is a cooler, more comfortable ride as my wife can cook herself while the heat stays off.