Wiring Aftermarket Heated Seats.

[mclaughlin006]

I'm doing a complete overhaul of my 98 2-door Tahoe, and decided to put in aftermarket heated seats. I got a good deal on some, so I bought enough for 4 seats, so I can have heat for the front and two passengers in the back bench seat.

Now, my question is this: Have I gotten in over my head? I've never done anything like this, but I'm able to follow instructions and I'm fairly mechanically inclined. So, What would I need to do in order to run the appropriate wiring to power these? The driver side seat has power to it already, so I think I've read that I can do the power for that seat to the existing wiring for that. The switches will be installed in a console that I pulled out of a 2000 Lincoln Navigator. Will put a blank in the back, where the rear air for the Navigator was, and the switches for the rear seats there. The passenger seat, will be up front, alongside the switch for the driver, but still need to run the wires, of course.

The passenger and rear bench are currently at the upholsterer getting new leather and the padding rebuilt. He's going to install the heat pads, so I'd just need the wires to connect those to.

Any help, links to articles, advice, experience and pictures on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Mike

 

[eric.s.t]

You could pretty much just find any available power source in the fuse box... You'll probably need relays to run them too ... Shouldn't be very hard if they come with a diagram, ground it anywhere on the chassis, then your power. Could probably just use something like this ...http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_so2-sclJeTU/TLa9FX4y3nI/AAAAAAAAB7I/Ig5zkHhUaeU/s400/fuse-holder.jpg Clean look would be running wire under the carpets to your 4 seats. The ground can be right to the seat bolt, if you don't like that, then just put a wire on the floor underneath the chair so you don't see it.

 

[mclaughlin006]

Awesome, thank you for the quick answer. I didn't figure that it'd be incredibly difficult, but then again, I've never done anything like this before. I watched a couple of youtube videos and that picture you linked looks just like one that they used, if I'm not mistaken. Pretty stoked to get this project done, going to see a stereo guy in the morning about some speaker options. Nothing fancy, no boxes or subs or anything like that, just better speakers in the factory locations.

 

[mclaughlin006]

Rehashing this old thread, because the time has come to run the wires, as the new carpet and seats are about to go in. The guy doing the new leather on my seats is putting in the heater units inside the seats, but I need to have some available power for them when I take it to have the carpet redone.

Some things I need to make sure I have:

- Enough power wires for all 4 seats
- Make them only get power when the ignition is on. Someone said relays
- Should I run the wires from the fusebox or bring in power directly from the battery, like I would for a large aftermarket amp?

I just want to make sure I do this right, the first time. I'm electrically challenged, but I'm also pretty cheap when it comes to paying someone to do install work. I like doing it myself, when I can, if for nothing else, to learn now to do it.

So, my questions are as follows:

1. Should I run the power from the fusebox or directly from the battery?
2. What type of wire do I need to get?
3. What type of relays should I get?
4. If from the fusebox, how do I ensure they get enough, but not too much power? (same goes for the other option, too)

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help!

Mike

 

[TylerZ281500]

tap it right into the fuse box by your firewall in the engine bay, find a unused plug that has key on power only and then run and inline fuse holder in there as well under the dash or directly under the seat or something. its not incredeibly hard but easily overthought. i dont think vortecs have a distribution block like the tbi trucks did.

i wouldnt think youd need any sort of relay or direct battery power.

 

[polar]

How much did the shop charge you to skin your seats in leather


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mclaughlin006]

@Tyler: What wire would I use for this? Not kidding when I said I know nothing about this stuff, so I'd rather just ask folks that know.

@Polar: I'm paying $2k for the seats. He's old school, doesn't use the catskinz kits, everything is done by hand. He's rebuilding the seat padding and putting in the heating elements for me, as well as installing new carpet (I supplied the carpet from AAC).

 

[TylerZ281500]

um most stock seats are like 20 guage or 18 gauge or something like that i think. i would check what the recomemndations for the heater is to determine what size fuse you need, or go a bit overkil and match the size of the fuse holder because most ive seen are a pretty thick wire.