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Heated Seat Kit - 17803282


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Sorry if I missed this somewhere... but will this kit work on the bench seat?

 

Yep,Bucket and bench seats are actually identical,The only difference is the middle.....buckets have a center console,and the bench has a middle seat.

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What exactly does the dealer need to do?

 

I went in with the installation procedure and they said they could only do the passenger seat recalibration (step 72) And that programming the heated seat module (step 73) was only for SUVs and would not apply to my truck. He wanted their minimum charge of $80 to do anything.

 

The dealer I took mine to really did not know what to do either but the tech & I found it by poking around in the menus in what appeared to me to be an online (WWW based) menu. We never really found a clear mention of the heated seat kit but basically we told the truck it had the factory heated seat option and the seats came on and appear to be working just fine. Maybe a more experienced tech and/or dealer would be of more help. The programming is definitely there and definitely applicable to your truck otherwise the kit will never turn on! It needs the programming to turn on and for the truck to be able to turn on the heated seats when remote started when cold.

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I called a few more service centers at local dealers, none of them seem to have any idea how to do this. Ive got a feeling im going to have to pay for atleast 1/2 hour of labor, but i dont want to get stuck there trying to figure it out and having to pay for a full hour or more.

 

From the reading ive done it sounds like the update takes place in the BCM and can be done with the Tech II scan tool?

 

Any more details would be appreciated.

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Ah, okay.

 

So its just a simple activation somewhere? Sounds like the tech was connected with a laptop? Was the heated seat option easy to find once looking in the correct location, or did you need to know the 3 letter code for the heated seats option?

 

I called a few more service centers at local dealers, none of them seem to have any idea how to do this. Ive got a feeling im going to have to pay for atleast 1/2 hour of labor, but i dont want to get stuck there trying to figure it out and having to pay for a full hour or more.

 

From the reading ive done it sounds like the update takes place in the BCM and can be done with the Tech II scan tool?

 

Yes, was as simple as selecting from a drop down menu. We did not need the code for heated seats as it had the code(s) AND a description of each. The BCM was what took the actual programming, I think I remember seeing this somewhere in the menus.

 

The tech was using a laptop connected to what I assume what is known as the 'tech II' as the laptop looked generic but interface box definetly did not. I have seen a box similar to this used on CANBUS in (big)trucks.

 

My dealership charged me $35, IIRC. You might try posting a question down in the GM Tech section of the forum (if you have not already) and I bet one of the pros in there knows this procedure.

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Don't mean to derail the thread but I asked this in a previous thread and it was never replied to. I found some aftermarket "carbon fiber" heated seat elements for $80, and my drivers side elements are shot (based on the symptoms i've read from other threads I found). Has anyone else installed after markets to existing wiring?

 

$80 is a lot easier to do than $300 plus for the top/bottom elements from GMpartsdirect

 

Thanks for your input.

 

-JR

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From an electrical point of view, the seat heaters are simple resisitive elements. If you replace the OEM element(s) and come close (within a tenth of an ohm or so) to matching the resistance of a known good element, I see no reason aftermarket elements would not work. You want to match the resistance fairly close so you do not overload the controller or end up with much less heat.

 

I would be more concerned in making sure the replacement heaters are designed for use in seats so physically they can stand up to the flexing and not short out or open in a short (no pun intended) period of time.

 

I agree, $300 is pretty steep. I've seen aftermarket heaters going for less for the entire kit.

 

If I get some time, I will go measure the resistance of the elements in my seat.

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From an electrical point of view, the seat heaters are simple resisitive elements. If you replace the OEM element(s) and come close (within a tenth of an ohm or so) to matching the resistance of a known good element, I see no reason aftermarket elements would not work. You want to match the resistance fairly close so you do not overload the controller or end up with much less heat.

 

I would be more concerned in making sure the replacement heaters are designed for use in seats so physically they can stand up to the flexing and not short out or open in a short (no pun intended) period of time.

 

I agree, $300 is pretty steep. I've seen aftermarket heaters going for less for the entire kit.

 

If I get some time, I will go measure the resistance of the elements in my seat.

 

Thanks for the advice, the one's I'm looking at are designed to be used in the manner described (as heated seat elements). And your right, the kit I am looking at is actually made to be put in a vehicle that did not come with factory heating elements. My plan was to simply dump all that extra stuff and hook it up using the (I assume) 2 factory wires.

 

If you could measure your resistance that would be great, I can then ask the seller to verify this before I buy them. Thanks so much for your help and reply.

 

-JR

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Here's some info I found in the listing on ebay:

 

 

  • Wattage: 24~30 Watts per Pad, 48~60 Watts per seat. Current Draw: 4 Amps on Low Heat Setting and 5 Amps on High Setting per Seat.
  • Power: Standard 12 Volts/4.7 AMPS
  • Two temperature settings
  • Element size 9 inches wide x 18 inches long
  • Retrofit tier 2 OEM quality seat heaters
  • This kit can be installed in the front or rear seats
  • Our products can be installed under cloth, vinyl and leather seat covers
  • One round lighted rocker switch dual temperature HI/LOW/OFF switch
  • Power harness (Wires can be shortened, eliminating the need to cover extra, unwanted wires)
  • Temperature sensor
  • Integrated fuse holder
  • Thermostat

 

 

I'm assuming I can dump the switch and majority of the harness since my truck came with heated seats already? There's got to me someone here who's installed an aftermarket kit, right?? I'm ready to try it out, but want to be at least 98% sure first, lol. Thanks everybody for your input. :cheers:

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just finished the seat heater install and couldn't have done it with out the previous comments! The GM directions are poor at best and the project would be a nightmare if they were the only source of info. If anyone attempts this project in the future, I made a "word" document with some of the info that others have included and some of my photos and experiences. If you need a copy just message me.

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Here's some info I found in the listing on ebay:

 

 

  • Wattage: 24~30 Watts per Pad, 48~60 Watts per seat. Current Draw: 4 Amps on Low Heat Setting and 5 Amps on High Setting per Seat.

     

  • Power: Standard 12 Volts/4.7 AMPS

     

  • Two temperature settings

     

  • Element size 9 inches wide x 18 inches long

     

  • Retrofit tier 2 OEM quality seat heaters

     

  • This kit can be installed in the front or rear seats

     

  • Our products can be installed under cloth, vinyl and leather seat covers

     

  • One round lighted rocker switch dual temperature HI/LOW/OFF switch

     

  • Power harness (Wires can be shortened, eliminating the need to cover extra, unwanted wires)

     

  • Temperature sensor

     

  • Integrated fuse holder

     

  • Thermostat

     

 

 

I'm assuming I can dump the switch and majority of the harness since my truck came with heated seats already? There's got to me someone here who's installed an aftermarket kit, right?? I'm ready to try it out, but want to be at least 98% sure first, lol. Thanks everybody for your input. :thumbs:

 

Oh geez, sorry for how long it took to reply. Holidays and plain laziness.

 

My horizontal seat heater (the physically larger of the two) measures @ 4.6 ohms @ 25 deg F. My vertical seat back heater (physically about half the size of the seat heater) measures @ 6.7 ohms at the same ambient temperature.

 

Now for the fun part: Both plugs have 4 wires, 2 yellow, black with green & red stripe, and black with red stripe. The plug is labeled ABCD like this:

 

AB

DC

 

A & B each have a yellow wire in them. D has the black green/red and C has the black/red.

 

The horizontal seat heater has the same color coding and is arranged the same in the connector as the vertical heater.

 

Now for my hypothesis on what wire is doing what:

 

The two yellow leads connect to the resistive elements in the seat. As such, they are not polarity sensitive. I measure no connection between them and ground (and you should NOT!). There is no connection between the yellow leads and black with stripes leads.

 

Further guessing here: the black with stripe(s) leads are connected to what is known as a PTC or positive coefficient thermistor. As my truck warmed up, the resistance increased. I started out measuring around 6-7 kohms between the black/red and black with red/green. Since the resistance is the same no matter which way I put the probes, these are in all likelihood thermistors and not some sort of PN (or NP,lol) junction devices such as thermal diodes, transistor junction, etc. Also, as my truck was warming up, the resistance was climbing steadily. As I know there were no capacitors or other circuitry in the heating pads themselves, they must be thermistors.

 

These measurements give us (assuming 12V) 31.3 Watts at 2.6 amps for the seat (big) heater and 21.5 Watts and 1.8 amps for the smaller vertical seat back heater. I did not verify these as its cold out there (I am not rigging up a test tap) and my clamp on current probe with sufficiently low sensitivity is at work.

 

I assume GM is using some sort of PWM or other 'active' power control to control the heat output. This is borne out by what I saw in the controller when I took it apart before mounting it. I really did not delve into it further as GM/Delco use a sh** load of house marked parts and it is often a PITA to reverse engineer their stuff. Err, not that I've done that before ;)

 

So, your figure of 24~30 watts per pad for the replacement appears to be an OK replacement. If you are still going to use the factory controller though, you have a problem unless you can a) get the old sensing element out of the old pad or b) figure out the resistance of the OEM pad thermistor at various temperatures, plot the resistance curve, and order a similar thermistor.

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Here's some info I found in the listing on ebay:

 

 

  • Wattage: 24~30 Watts per Pad, 48~60 Watts per seat. Current Draw: 4 Amps on Low Heat Setting and 5 Amps on High Setting per Seat.

     

  • Power: Standard 12 Volts/4.7 AMPS

     

  • Two temperature settings

     

  • Element size 9 inches wide x 18 inches long

     

  • Retrofit tier 2 OEM quality seat heaters

     

  • This kit can be installed in the front or rear seats

     

  • Our products can be installed under cloth, vinyl and leather seat covers

     

  • One round lighted rocker switch dual temperature HI/LOW/OFF switch

     

  • Power harness (Wires can be shortened, eliminating the need to cover extra, unwanted wires)

     

  • Temperature sensor

     

  • Integrated fuse holder

     

  • Thermostat

     

 

 

I'm assuming I can dump the switch and majority of the harness since my truck came with heated seats already? There's got to me someone here who's installed an aftermarket kit, right?? I'm ready to try it out, but want to be at least 98% sure first, lol. Thanks everybody for your input. :sigh:

 

Oh geez, sorry for how long it took to reply. Holidays and plain laziness.

 

My horizontal seat heater (the physically larger of the two) measures @ 4.6 ohms @ 25 deg F. My vertical seat back heater (physically about half the size of the seat heater) measures @ 6.7 ohms at the same ambient temperature.

 

Now for the fun part: Both plugs have 4 wires, 2 yellow, black with green & red stripe, and black with red stripe. The plug is labeled ABCD like this:

 

AB

DC

 

A & B each have a yellow wire in them. D has the black green/red and C has the black/red.

 

The horizontal seat heater has the same color coding and is arranged the same in the connector as the vertical heater.

 

Now for my hypothesis on what wire is doing what:

 

The two yellow leads connect to the resistive elements in the seat. As such, they are not polarity sensitive. I measure no connection between them and ground (and you should NOT!). There is no connection between the yellow leads and black with stripes leads.

 

Further guessing here: the black with stripe(s) leads are connected to what is known as a PTC or positive coefficient thermistor. As my truck warmed up, the resistance increased. I started out measuring around 6-7 kohms between the black/red and black with red/green. Since the resistance is the same no matter which way I put the probes, these are in all likelihood thermistors and not some sort of PN (or NP,lol) junction devices such as thermal diodes, transistor junction, etc. Also, as my truck was warming up, the resistance was climbing steadily. As I know there were no capacitors or other circuitry in the heating pads themselves, they must be thermistors.

 

These measurements give us (assuming 12V) 31.3 Watts at 2.6 amps for the seat (big) heater and 21.5 Watts and 1.8 amps for the smaller vertical seat back heater. I did not verify these as its cold out there (I am not rigging up a test tap) and my clamp on current probe with sufficiently low sensitivity is at work.

 

I assume GM is using some sort of PWM or other 'active' power control to control the heat output. This is borne out by what I saw in the controller when I took it apart before mounting it. I really did not delve into it further as GM/Delco use a sh** load of house marked parts and it is often a PITA to reverse engineer their stuff. Err, not that I've done that before ;)

 

So, your figure of 24~30 watts per pad for the replacement appears to be an OK replacement. If you are still going to use the factory controller though, you have a problem unless you can a) get the old sensing element out of the old pad or b) figure out the resistance of the OEM pad thermistor at various temperatures, plot the resistance curve, and order a similar thermistor.

 

 

 

Wow, thanks a bunch for testing this and replying back. I guess I will tough it out till next year when I can save up for the oem's.

 

-JR

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If you are replacing factory elements that have failed, check out the replacements from Dorman. You can get the correct product model number for your truck from their website (www.dormanproducts.com) and search online for pricing. I found that Amazon had the best prices and free shipping and I'm I'm planning to buy a replacement for install in Feb. Attached is the product sheet which states they've made improvements over the OEM design to address common causes of failure.

2900043_Seat_Heater_Sell_Sheet.pdf

2900043_Seat_Heater_Sell_Sheet.pdf

2900043_Seat_Heater_Sell_Sheet.pdf

2900043_Seat_Heater_Sell_Sheet.pdf

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I just had my seat heater kit successfully programmed ($100)... I had called quite a few dealers around the area and most had no idea what I was trying to accomplish when I mentioned "programming" and others insisted that GM had no such kit. Regardless, I found a dealer and their first attempt was unsuccessful without the modules part number. I went home and with a couple of mirrors I was able to see the label on the seat module and record the numbers. With these the tech was able to choose the seat module in his drop down menu and it went in from there. If you attempt this project, just remember to document all the numbers on the module before you bury it under the seat.

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