Has anyone ever retrofitted the seatwarmers in another aftermarket seat? I want to get a pair of sparco milanos, but my girlfriend will never ride in my car again if thewarmers are gone, (shes a freak she can sit at level 5 for hours). I seen people add aftermarket seat warmers to stock seats in other cars, but what about retrofitting the existing warmers on a aftermarket set?? Thanks in advance for the replies.

 

Well, kind of.I DIY-installed seat heatingfrom scratch in my 1997 VW Passat a number of years ago. The cold-weather package wasn't available in the States with the cloth seats I got.I then moved to Southern Bavaria, where I quickly realized the cold-weather package would begood to have. :-)

I wanted it absolutely OEM --with the stock heating elements, relays, and particularly dashboard switch.It took some research. I started with theVW service manual I had, and determinedwhat components I needed from the wiring diagrams.

I then made friends with a local VW dealer parts guy, and he helped me research the part numbers that I needed to order and where they went (like the relays under the seats). Wasn't easy, and I had to make several trips to the parts department as I found out I needed additional parts -- connectors, etc.

The most puckering thing was taking the seats apart to install the heating elements under thecloth covers. The service manual came in handy for that too.

I wired everything to its OEM location in the fuse block. It's worked perfectly for the past eight years.

Oh, I see you already have seat heaters... the OEM ones? Then it should be a lot easier. You should just be able to strip your new seats down and install the stock heating elements... just don't forget stuff that may be under your existing seats, likerelays.

You could strip the old elements from your old seats, but I'd personally want to start with new ones...IIRC, the new VW ones came with adhesive strips already on them, and they weren't horribly expensive (at least in Germany). (Not that you're considering it, but I wouldn't be tempted bynon-stock aftermarket heating elements, since your existing controls probably won't work them.)

--Marek

 

Wouldn't it be easier to just replace the gf?

It shouldnt be to hard all you have to do is remove the cloth on both seats and swap the heating elements over.