Factory Heated Seat Pads with aftermarket wiring?

[GETGONE]

I picked up a power seat to install in my 2021 Custom Trail Boss. The seat was from a 2021 GMC Sierra. I didn't know it had heat until I pulled the cloth off to put my aftermarket leather covers on. I already have aftermarket seat heaters I purchased, but the factory ones are already installed and have the wiring pigtails for the top and bottom easily accessible. What I am trying to figure out is what the wiring setup is for them. There are 4 wires per pad. Red, Black, Red with black stripe and Black with red stripe. The elements are wire and not carbon fiber like my aftermarket ones. All a heated seat is is 12V + and 12V - run in a loop causing the wire to warm up. There is a thermosistor(or should be) in each pad to turn on and off the power when it reaches max temperature. I am trying to figure out how to wire this up to a relay and a 3 position switch like the aftermarket heaters have. The problem is the aftermarket ones only have 2 wires per pad, not 4. I had found mention that there is a controller module under the passenger seat in factory equipped trucks, but I only purchased the drivers side for the power part. Does anyone have any ideas before I rip off the factory pads and just use the aftermarket ones I have?

[SeaDogAther]

Sorry no advice to offer but I am curious as to what you decided to do;

My truck came with factory heated seats, but the Mrs wanted me to add heated seats to our 05 Jeep Wrangler soft top. Those aftermarket kits are pretty easy to install and the ones I put in the Jeep warm up better than the factory ones in my truck.

[GETGONE]

From what I found all the OEM stuff has a controller box that decides when to turn on and off the power for the heat pad. I can't find a good circuit build to use what exists and make it work. The problem is the factory seat has recessed ribs where the seat cover clips into. I haven't put the aftermarket heater pads on it yet because I have to lay it out and see if I can trim for those clips and not cut into the circuit of the heat pad.

[Railroad_Jim]

I've been thinking about adding the OEM seat heating pads to my 2020 Custom Trail Boss which didn't have the heated seat option.  I wanted to use an aftermarket controller, but I have the same questions that you did about the wiring.  Did you ever figure out how to wire them up?

 

I have a feeling that I'm going to be installing an aftermarket kit for the heaters and the controller....

[GETGONE]

Nobody came up with any answers. I did talk to a co worker that knows electronic stuff and he thought I should be able to just add power to the wires for the back and bottom and it will shut off on it's own because of the thermosister built into the heat pads. The problem I have is trying to figure out how to be able to make low/medium/high heat levels. The aftermarket seat heaters I bought just have low and high, but I want to wire it to be back/bottom or both on. It would be nice to be able to have all 3 levels of heat for both back and bottom controlled separately. Guess I should browse ebay again and see what controllers I can come up with.

Edited January 25, 2024 by GETGONE