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Help please - wiring heated seats

2003 - 2009, roadster, coupe, facelift
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Smartbear
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Smartbear » Tue Mar 22, 2016 7:22 pm

Marlon wrote:nope, Bob
No gaptech! Sort it out John they are great :poke:
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Marlon » Tue Mar 22, 2016 7:25 pm

Smartbear wrote:
Marlon wrote:nope, Bob
No gaptech! Sort it out John they are great :poke:
Rob
It gives you a one-touch roof down experience I believe - I can live without that excitement Don :)
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Smartbear » Tue Mar 22, 2016 7:33 pm

Marlon wrote:
Smartbear wrote:
Marlon wrote:nope, Bob
No gaptech! Sort it out John they are great :poke:
Rob
It gives you a one-touch roof down experience I believe - I can live without that excitement Don :)
It's got to be experienced Mike, great for those awkward traffic light fumbles :oops:
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Fishy Dave » Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:18 am

Marlon wrote:Update:
Fishy Dave ordered me a set of these X3 wiring looms from the states, and very kindly labelled them up for me and then posted them on.
I now have the looms (and the switch centre) and have talked to my Indy this afternoon regarding fitting. He is happy to try it out and so I've booked in for the 6 April.
Fingers crossed the retro fit loom from the X3 will fit the Z4, and I can finally make use of the heated seats.
You're welcome Colin, I just hope it works :-? I'm going to give mine a try later today by running the cables to the heat pads, but not installing them in situ just yet, will let you know how I get on.
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Marlon » Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:42 am

Fishy Dave wrote:
Marlon wrote:Update:
Fishy Dave ordered me a set of these X3 wiring looms from the states, and very kindly labelled them up for me and then posted them on.
I now have the looms (and the switch centre) and have talked to my Indy this afternoon regarding fitting. He is happy to try it out and so I've booked in for the 6 April.
Fingers crossed the retro fit loom from the X3 will fit the Z4, and I can finally make use of the heated seats.
You're welcome Colin, I just hope it works :-? I'm going to give mine a try later today by running the cables to the heat pads, but not installing them in situ just yet, will let you know how I get on.
Great - I will be interested to hear how that goes :thumbsup:
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Fishy Dave » Sat Apr 02, 2016 8:09 pm

The wiring is pretty much in, good so far, hard work and time consuming removing all the necessary trim for the first time and my god the seats are heavy!!! The only wires which need extending are the earth on both sides, the rest of them are an ideal length, which is fortunate as they came from an X3. Next task is to strip down the seats and insert the heating elements. Noticed that my car has the necessary 5 and 25 amp fuses already in place which surprises me.
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Marlon » Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:20 pm

Sounds like a very productive day :thumbsup: I imagine striping down the seats is going to be a PITA.
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Fishy Dave » Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:07 am

Yes, we started last night (my wife helped) and have got to the stage where the leather covers are peeled back enough to slide the elements in place. Having a decent pair of cutters that are man enough to get through the hog rings would have saved a lot of time, instead I carefully wrestled the things out with long nosed pliers. Long day ahead, good fun though. :)
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Fishy Dave » Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:29 pm

Long, long day yesterday, I ache all over today too, it's a surprisingly physical job.

The elements are now in and I have to say I think we did a good job, with the leather looking at least as taught and well fitted as it was at the start of the job. We (my wife and I) didn't finish until 22.00 and just put back in enough interior trim to allow me to drive home.

Jobs remaining:

Extend earth wires
Extend wires from carbon heat pads and source and fit correct BMW pins so i can plug them into the underseat connectors
Plug all the wires in
Rebuild the interior
Switch it on and play around with the variable resistor until I get the temperature output just right.

Assuming all the above goes right I will feel pretty chuffed, fingers are still crossed.
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Marlon » Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:04 pm

This is great progress Dave (and wife :wink: )
Connecting the heat pads to the pins and plugging into the underseat connectors will be tricky I'm guessing. Also the variable resistor is an unknown, so quite a bit of work still to do by the sounds of it.
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Marlon » Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:14 pm

I now have heated seats :D
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=86176
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Fishy Dave » Sat Apr 23, 2016 10:27 pm

I do too 8) . Finished it all a couple of weeks ago but had no time to post.

The pre-facelift switch console has different connectors compared to the ones on the M, so a bit of extra wiring which I hadn't expected. Fitting a variable resistor each side has worked a treat, set them to 6 ohms initially and with a bit of fiddling all 3 heat settings work well with the heat mats own thermostat controlling the maximum temperature. On level 3 the seats really heat up quickly and the leather is at least as tight looking as before (phew!).

Total cost:
£70ish X3 retrofit loom from the states inc. customs charge
£40 used switch console with heated seat buttons
£29 Carbon fibre heating mats from ebay, excellent quality for the money
Cable ties in place of hog rings + contact adhesive

Total cost in time:
Plenty in time taken to research, thanks once again to you guys who have helped on the forum
Probably 4 days to strip interior, fit loom, strip M seats, fit heated elements and rebuild it all.

It would have been so much cheaper to just fit the aftermarket heating kit complete with their switches and relays to my existing seats, but I wanted the oem look and function. Alternatively for considerably more money I could have looked for M seats with elements already built in but that would have been a very expensive option. So, I'm happy with the result.

I have bought a spare X3 loom that I've labelled up ready for fitment to make life easier for the next person, happy to sell it.
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Marlon » Sat Apr 23, 2016 11:19 pm

Bravo Dave - fantastic work :thumbsup:
I'm so pleased yours have worked out too, we have used ours several times now on early morning starts and late evening returns :driving:
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Darkangelv2 » Sun Apr 24, 2016 7:42 am

Fishy Dave wrote:I do too 8) . Finished it all a couple of weeks ago but had no time to post.

The pre-facelift switch console has different connectors compared to the ones on the M, so a bit of extra wiring which I hadn't expected. Fitting a variable resistor each side has worked a treat, set them to 6 ohms initially and with a bit of fiddling all 3 heat settings work well with the heat mats own thermostat controlling the maximum temperature. On level 3 the seats really heat up quickly and the leather is at least as tight looking as before (phew!).

Total cost:
£70ish X3 retrofit loom from the states inc. customs charge
£40 used switch console with heated seat buttons
£29 Carbon fibre heating mats from ebay, excellent quality for the money
Cable ties in place of hog rings + contact adhesive

Total cost in time:
Plenty in time taken to research, thanks once again to you guys who have helped on the forum
Probably 4 days to strip interior, fit loom, strip M seats, fit heated elements and rebuild it all.

It would have been so much cheaper to just fit the aftermarket heating kit complete with their switches and relays to my existing seats, but I wanted the oem look and function. Alternatively for considerably more money I could have looked for M seats with elements already built in but that would have been a very expensive option. So, I'm happy with the result.

I have bought a spare X3 loom that I've labelled up ready for fitment to make life easier for the next person, happy to sell it.
Very impressive work Dave! :thumbsup:

I think someone earlier in the thread asked, before you sell that additional loom, is there any chance you can capture the labelling some how so that it can be shared and copied later?

It's a job I'm hoping to be able to do one day (when I can source the seats!) and would definitely need the help on the wiring front!
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Help please - wiring heated seats

Post by Fishy Dave » Mon Apr 25, 2016 4:55 pm

Thank you, yes, will attempt to write a description of the wiring needed and host a few piccies too. :)
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