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Heated seats installed

3K views 17 replies 5 participants last post by  95intrepid99kid 
#1 · (Edited)
So Friday I decided to finally install the heated seats kit in the Vision. I have had them sitting on the shelf now for a little over a year. I started on the passenger side. It only took a hand-full of tools and not nearly as much time as I thought, taking pictures slowed me down.

I bought the kits on ebay for under $100

Here are tools needed



After removing the four 15mm bolts holding the seat in I removed the seat controls from the side of the seat. Its fastened with 4 phillips screws. Then you have to remove the wiring to the switch.









The next step was to remove the two bolts holding the back to the base and the two bolts that attach the back to the recline mechanism. In order to get to them I also removed the seat belt latch. All three are torx, I used 3/8 drive torx sockets.

Seat belt



Seat recline mechanism



Seat back to base bolts



After separating the back from the seat I started removing the leather cover from the seat, with the seat face down on the work surface I worked my way around the parameter. The material is held to the base by a plastic channel that clips onto the lip of the metal frame.







After completely removing the material from the metal frame I flipped the seat over on the work bench and pealed the cover off the seat base. You can only get it to a certain point because the center of the material is held onto tyhe base by a metal rod and clips called hog rings.

This is the underside of the seat cover and the seat foam along with the metal rod, you will need to cut the hog rings with side cutters and remove the half's of the rings. I think I have a picture to come later that shows them attached. the







Next I removed the head rest so the seat back was easier to handle. You can skip this step if you like. To remove the headrest I used a small drill bit and inserted it into the release hole at the base of the headrest. Doing one side at a time keep some pressure on the first side to prevent it from slipping back in as you do the second side.



I flipped the seat back over so it was headrest down. Along the bottom there are two plastic connectors that hold the cover on by clamping to one another. looking down at the seat with back resting against your legs pinch the two halfs of the connectors together to release them.



Halfs seperated



Wire tie to be cut



Now peal back the seat cover towards the headrest, roll it over on itself until you get to the point where its attached to the foam.



Here is the attaching point and the hog rings that need to be cut. Cut the hog rings and continue to roll the cover back.





The next step is to place the pad onto the seat and to determine where it will be tucked in and how its to be cut. Make sure you check the directions which tell how much material you must leave in place on the sides, for mine it was 1 5/8"









After the heating pad is cut you need to prep the seat to re-attach the seat cover. The kit comes supplied with wire ties for this purpose. I put in one wire tie just for kicks, it was a bit of a pain, I had to use the hook tool to pull it back through. I have hog rings and a hog ring tool from when I recovered the seats in my GTX so I will use those. To me it would be worth it to buy a cheap pair of hog ring pliers If I didnt already have them.

Tolls for pulling the wire ties





Hog ring pliers and hog rings



One hog ring reattached





Hog rings installed and half the seat covered



Seat cover back down



Cover clipped together and the wires extended through the cover



At this point you are pretty much repeating the process for the seat bottom. Getting the cover back on is pretty simple. Just work your wat around the rim to clip the cover back on.



All the wiring will come together at the seat bottom, take care to route wires so they dong get minched and zip tie the wireing to the bottom of the seat out of the way.



Heres the finished product. The first seat took a couple hours, the second one took me 30 minutes to complete.



I ran the wiring into the console and up and under the dash to the fuse box. It comes with a pretty nice wiring harness to allow you to put the switches pretty much anywhere you like.



I used a step drill to cut holes in my shifter bezel. You need to drill the hole then cut a notch so that the switch doesn't turn.





I spent some time cleaning up the carpet since the seats were out. I temporarly wired these right to the battery. I am installing a dedicated circuit for them that will be switched via the ignition so I don't accidently kill the battery by leaving them on. They work really nicely, they are warm in 5 or 6 minutes, if I were to do it again I'd probably by more expensive heaters that heat faster. My wife likes the car much more now, she is always cold and does not like leather seats.
 
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#4 ·
Thanks, I think its taking me more time to write up than it did to do the project, I'll try and finish writing it up today though.
 
#6 ·
No problem, I created a sub folder under the vision where I stored all these pictures. Maybe I should have titled this a how-to huh?
 
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