Heated seat retrofit - universal ebay kit

[LeylandVCDS]

So for less than £30 for a universal heated seat kit off ebay, I've now got heated front seats in my Leon . Easy enough to do once the seats are out of the car, and the seats did not need dismantling any more then just lifting two edges of the cover from both base and backrest. It's an expensive job to go OEM and into the canbus, which would require a new heater panel as well, so have taken a spare ingition switched space in the fuse box, and run a simple feed and earth twin cable to each seat, separately protected with a 7.5 amp fuse, and mounted the off/low/high switch on the seat plastic near the height adjust lever. About an hour and a half per seat, and they are really effective and work well. Can throroughly recommend, they are great value for money. Took the opportunity to properly hoover the car out as well whilst the seats were out, it's amazing how much dog hair accumulates where you can't see.

 

[AndrewJB]

Nice, something I'd like to get round to on my MK1 daily.

 

[Wastedagen]

Nice job. Like the position of the switch too.

 

[Steeldevil]

Great job. Have you got alink to the kit you bought please?

 

[LeylandVCDS]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universa...sh=item2ae4dbeb4a:g:82wAAOSwWp9efdvH&LH_BIN=1

@Steeldevil , the actual item I bought is now sold out, but there are loads of identical kits on there. I paid £28.99 with free post. Watch for any postage costs on the listing which takes it over £30 - still an absolute bargain even at that though. If you look at the different listings there are some with square switches, others with 5 heat settings etc, but I've had an identical kit to this one in my Octavia for 9 years and its still going strong. I went for these small round two way switches, same as in my Octavia, as they only need a single 21mm hole drilling in the plastic of the seat base to mount them. I got a 21mm hole saw included with the kit. As you can see I've mounted mine on the vertical cut out by the height adjuster, easy to reach whilst driving, and out of the way with no cutting of the dashboard or console. Also, putting the switches there means that all the wiring can be cable-tied to the bottom of the seat, and the only wiring to the car is a single dual-core cable from the fuse box which I have routed under the carpet, and emerges where the original airbag and seatbelt warning light cables are. I also added a universal quick release multiplug at that point so the seats can be removed at any point without cutting any wiring - its just another plug in exactly the same as the airbag/seat belt plugs already there.......mind you I've also got another plug there for the wiring I put in for the rear footwell lighting too...... A far as fusing goes, I've got mine through a 15 amp fuse from an ignition switched supply, the cable to the fuse box splits two ways, one to each of the seats, and each seat has a separate 7.5 amp fuse as well. Tried both seats on high settings for a good while, no issues at all, no wiring getting warm, and a scan afterwards shows no faults in VCDS with battery management, electronics or anything else.

Despite what anyone else says, you do not need to fully dismantle the seats, and you do not need to separate the back from the base. All you do is unclip the cover from its fold over plastic retaining strips from the front and seat belt buckle sides of the base to access as much of the foam as you need. The back is a little more awkward - once the seat cover is unclipped, and with a bit of juggling about reclining and unreclining the seat to work the cover through to the front, once you look behind the foam you'll see a metal wire clip on each side which holds the cover down. Just release these with a pair of mole grips, and feed the cover fully forward to above the base, and roll it upwards a few inches, enough to access the foam on the backrest. Same putting it back together, the hard plastic strip of the retainer is tight getting through the gap between base and backrest, but made easier by feeding it through with reclining, once the cover is through, use the mole grips again to refit the metal wire clips into the holes in the seat frame. Once the covers are back where they should do, just fold the plastic retainers together to lock the covers in place.

Where the seat cover is clipped into the vertical and horizontal in the foam cushion, all you need to do is cut out a small section of heater element where the clips are and tuck the pad into the grooves in the cushion. Cutting a couple of little squares out has no effect on the working of the heater mat as there is still a good connection across the heater pad over the bulk of the thing. On mine, which has the FR half leather/half alcantara, there is a curved seam on the base, all I've done is cut out a corresponding section and stuck the heater pad down. The instructions say there is no issue whatever in doing this, as long as a connection isn't broken between the left and right edges of the pad where the power is obviously connected to.

Good luck with this - for the money you just can't go wrong

 

[Mr Pig]

If I had a dog it would ride in a trailer behind the car! Just a cheap open topped one, feck it. Yes, dog hair in a car is that bad :0(