Heated Seats retrofit

R

ryukin

Member
Milton Keynes
I noticed this thread http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=15101 and it got me thinking... how easy is it to retrofit heated seats?

I've always wanted them but never really thought about fitting them - just assumed it would be too complicated! From reading that thread, it sounds fairly simple. Would I be right in saying that the pre-facelift z4 already has the wiring and just needs the mats and buttons?

If so, has anyone done this before? Is it simple to fit? How much does it cost?

I would have posted this question on that thread but its been locked :(
 
Anyone know how the mats fit?

Would I need to take the chairs out and insert them deep inside?
 
You may well have the loom in place on an earlier model. That just needs checking on the individual car. (don't mess with the battery or else you'll trip the airbag warning light)

A new switch panel is needed - scrapper, or fairly expensive dealer module.

Pads - I think you have to strip down the covers off the seats and insert the new pads. Obviously a seats out and I suggest semi skilled job to get then fitted and leather stretched on smoothly. My experience comes from retrobuilding my sport seats onto electric memory bases and recall seeing just leads coming from deep inside the various seat parts.

This is one project I'd be wary of and would likely buy heated seats and sell the non heated, taking the hit on price difference Vs the fitting
 
Cheers Jeeper, I think I'll draw a line under that idea.

Sounds far more complicated than it's probably worth! Might just keep an eye out for heated seats in brakers etc.
 
Tired, I'm thinking about retro-fitting electric sports seats after reading this:
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14981

I am hoping if they are heated (not a fan, but if they work be silly not to plug them in!) that the loom will follow through to the switch panel and just be plug and play that end too. Adey may be shed some light on whether it's all part of the same loom. If it is, the seats CJ found plus the switch could be a cheap and easy upgrade!
 
Tired said:
Anyone know how the mats fit?
Would I need to take the chairs out and insert them deep inside?
Click to expand...

As said above the mats will mount just under the leather on the back and the seat of the chair. It'll be chairs out, strip the leather, install the harness (if not fitted), locate the mats, fit the controls, then re-upholster the seats. It's the last step that would be difficult, and getting a good (and long wearing) result.

I've seen it done plenty of times on VAG (Recaro) seats but it isn't something I'd fancy tackling myself as there are so many niggly issues you could create.
 
Not sure if you guys found this but way back I built my own red, sport, memory, heated, seats by swapping out parts from manual standard, black seats.

Might give you some confidence that actually they're just a big kit and you can swap and change to build what you want, selling on the remaining set.

I eventually sold on a set of standard, manual, heated seats and recouped most of the initial purchase price :)

For instance if you found heated seats manual seats on Ebay you could simply swap those bases and backs for your into memory.

You can also swap sport and standard as the frames are the same

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3083&hilit=memory+seats
 
I do like a lot of BMWs attitude towards building cars, It's quite refreshing having these options available to you with very little work/input (Cruise Control, MFSW, Paddle Shift etc).
 
cj10jeeper said:
Not sure if you guys found this but way back I built my own red, sport, memory, heated, seats by swapping out parts from manual standard, black seats.

Might give you some confidence that actually they're just a big kit and you can swap and change to build what you want, selling on the remaining set.

I eventually sold on a set of standard, manual, heated seats and recouped most of the initial purchase price :)

For instance if you found heated seats manual seats on Ebay you could simply swap those bases and backs for your into memory.

You can also swap sport and standard as the frames are the same

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3083&hilit=memory+seats
Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't fully appreciate what you'd done when you were showing us last weekend - should have known it wouldn't have been anything as simple as just swapping the seats over :P .

TH3R4POR, agreed... I like the Lego set approach to the car! Still, a little custom engineering is also fun... miss that from the biking days!
 
hi guys cj10jeeper thats my seats on ebay for sale as far as i am aware on 2003 cars the wiring is there for heated and electric seats things changed in 2004 but at what date i dunno, fitting the electric seats was easy just make sure the battery is disconnected before you unplug the seats and don't connect back up before the seats are fitted, switch panels do come up on ebay or someone who is breaking i suppose the easiest way to tell is if you remove the panel where the electric roof and tyre monitor switches are and see if there are any connectors not connected to anything
 
Hi adey - had not made the connection they were you r seats. Ah well a free plug...

TH3.... In terms of BMW making it easy to do these projects it is true to some extent, but it does require a few trail balzers with the research and 'balls' in some case to try it and work out what can actually interchange, wire, retrofit, swap, etc.

Buying a set of seats for several hundred £££'s then stripping them down unknow to rebuild into memory seats is a lot more scary than after someone has told you it's an easy lego kit to rebuild and warned about airbag lights, etc.
Shipkiller pointed me to the fact that the 330 E46 calipers fitted the standard car. The actual change is easy, but that knowledge hard to come by.
When I did the paddle shift and guy in the US was doing something similar on a commercial basis and wanted $500 per go plus cost of the wheel. I worked out how for free by adapting knowledge for an X5 reverse steptronic project, by a US guy. FemmeT and some other cracked rear light rewiring and so on.
Cruise control is an easy swap now the knowledge that no coding, is required and I think I can claim bringing the cost down by being a pioneer of the dremmel on lower cowl, etc.

I love forums like this that work out and share ideas :thumbsup:
 
cj10jeeper said:
TH3.... In terms of BMW making it easy to do these projects it is true to some extent, but it does require a few trail balzers with the research and 'balls' in some case to try it and work out what can actually interchange, wire, retrofit, swap, etc.
Click to expand...

Agreed, my point was BMW are making the job far more accessible to a larger range of people. It is far easier to do these jobs on a BMW than it would be on an equivalently prices and spec'ed VAG model for example.
 
Something I was wondering about... part 61316926959 for soft top and seat heating was near enough £125. Price from Cooper Reading.
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=BT32&mospid=47796&btnr=61_1614&hg=61&fg=35
 
wow, a lot has been said since I posted this. Thanks for all the advice. So from reading this, I've gathered that the easiest thing to do would be to buy new seats which are already heated (such as the ones on ebay) and a switch panel with the buttons for heated seats and that would be all I'd need?

If so I'll have to keep my eye on ebay for a switch panel!
 
I am going to try and get that section out at some point to see which wires are there - no doubt instructions here somewhere.

If it's easy then keep and eye on breakers... assuming they don't take it out for you.

EDIT: Screw that... this is much easier eBay "Z4 Centre Switch":
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-E85-Z4-CONVERTIBE-DTC-SLOPE-CENTER-SWITCH-CONSOLE_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem20ae199643QQitemZ140359865923QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories#ht_786wt_1165
Reasonable shipping for the UK too!
 
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