Seat heater conversions - the cheap way

XJsavage

XJsavage

CounterCulture
Joined
Aug 15, 2009
Location
Lyle's Ford SC
Right now I'm sort of feeling things out. Im not sure if anyone here has picked up a universal seat heater system from a wrecked car or bought a kit and converted their existing non-heated stock or aftermarket seats over to heated. If not, this is something I'll be doing here shortly to my Corbeau SS's in the buggy and will make sure to give a decent write up about it. From my research, out of the list of cars that have seat heaters, the most likely to be found in a wrecking yard will be out of newer Ford explorers, Chrysler minivans and Sebrings, and a select few BMWs.

There are universal kits that could be used, but of course I'd rather do it the hard way and pull it myself. Without checking to see what a salvage seat heater kit (enough to do two seats) would cost from say Pull a part, I'd imagine the whole conversion could be done for well under $15 to pretty much any style seats.

This is the equivalent to what I aim to find:
http://www.amazon.com/Dorman-628-040-Universal-Seat-Heater/dp/B002U6IL9O/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
 
karatejosh said:
really wanting to do this to my buggy also but need to get it running first lol
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That's priority for me too lol. I'll let ya know what I find.
 
Yeah that would be to easy :lol:
 
I had good friend jeepn-jason here on the board put aftermarket pads in my corbeau's. Works great. He's in the aftermarket/dealer add-on industry. Hit him up.
 
I'm good on the heater. I've got a heater box/core, defrost ducting etc. built into the jeep that works brilliantly. I'm gonna add heat seaters mainly because of my back injury. Cold days I hurts like hell. I'll be hitting up the junkyard this week to get what I need.
 
I installed aftermarket ebay heaters in the seats of my last Honda. Cheap, easy, and lasted for about 3 years before I sold the car. I plan on doing the same with the Corbeaus in my Jeep this winter.
 
Very interested to see what you come up with. Be an awesome feature to add.
 
Lots of vw jettas/passats have factory seat heaters and they are plentiful in the junkyard. Don't know where u are located, but I saw a few at import auto salvage in marion nc last time I was there.
 
Cool. I'm going to Columbia sc pap location today after work and will keep an eye out for those as well. Thanks
 
Went to pull a part today after work and looked at several different style seat heaters. The one I decided to pull happened to be in a 2000 Cadillac Seville. This seemed to be the cleanest and simplest designed. I'll dig into them more tomorrow in the daylight.
 

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Also found these interesting little contraptions in a 99 jag xj8. Theyre air operated lumbar supports complete with inflatable bags and mini compressors. I got these cheap and plan on seeing how I can adapt these to my Corbeaus. PAP charged me $7 each for these so what the heck. I'm curious to see how much psi these compressors will put out, may even be a good candidate for ARB compressors. Also very easy to wire up (pressure +, pressure- and ground)
 

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I know you are posting up cheapy methods, but I went the aftermarket route on my Dad's truck a few years ago when he wanted to add them. Pretty sure I went with these: https://www.heatyourseat.com/Vehicles/2-Series-Wire

They were very easy to install and work like a champ.
 
Yeah, the cadillac heater was $3. Going back tomorrow to get a few more. Biggest reason I'm going this route is to figure out how they work (my reasoning behind a lot of things) :lol:
 
The universal aftermarket kits are cheap and easy to install. They are also water proof.
 
I nearly forgot about this thread. I have both the seat heaters (Cadillac) and the lumbar supports installed in the jeep and working great. Nothing pic worthy, just wiring stuff. I'll try to get some specifics soon.
 
For that price heck yeah!
 
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