Retrofit heated seats?

[C8RKH]

Ah, got it, so not using the "original" switches on the dash or original lotus parts. That's cool as I'd kinda resigned myself to having to do that anyway. Or have I miss-understood.

[CocoPops]

Correct, the OEM switches are just momentary switches, that use the loom (that may or may not exist in your car) to tell the ECU to switch a relay on a timer.

This kit, ignores the OEM wiring (my car does not have it, Oct 2010 built) and uses a direct 12v feed from the fuse box (passenger footwell).

I intend to mount the switches somewhere accessible but hidden. My current thought is the small panel directly above the air con controls (between the dash and centre console, below the stereo).

[spunagain]

Hi Cocopops You could buy the Lotus OEM switch pack, but wire the momentary switches to energise a 10 minute rear screen heater relay? I just got the switch pack and plan to go the OEM route, but you can have a look if you like.

[spunagain]

Doh! As above I bought the switch pack and relays. To my dismay when getting the seats out I founds they have no elements in them.

Has any one retrofitted elements to the Lotus Recarros? There are some carbon fibre ones on Amazon which look possible..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carbon-Heated-retrofit-Universal-switch/dp/B0051BMMJ0/ref=pd_cp_263_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1QXESZKSARPJNM2BSKAK

Also looking at the wiring diagram, andy by trial and error I can confirm that you do need to get a dealer to program the ECU to tell it the heated seats are there. The momentary signal from the panel button is turned into the persistent heater relay signal by the ECU, which it does not do by default! (Mine certainly doesn't!)

On the plus side, when the driver's seat was out I found one of the the seat-belt pre-tensioner wires was broken at the connector, so have fixed that.

[C43]

HI

I am going down the same route as I also just bought some new seats with heating elements in them...

I was told that the 2010 cars and earlier do not have the wiring to connect the switch to the ECU so you can turn momentary to latching switch.

However there are plenty of sites on the net selling boxes to convert momentary to latching switch so all is not lost.

I have bought the original switches to fit and am buzzing it out to try and work out what is connected to what, bit of an epic job but getting there..

Unfortunately my brother has bought an Esprit that I am working on so heated seats are taking a bit of a back....seat!

C43

[spunagain]

Hmm - I'll check with a meter, but the cabling for the switch to the ECU is definitely there and the cables from the seats to the relays are definitly there.  Will report back later.

[spunagain]

Almost there now.

I pulled out the seats and made a start on fitting the heated elements I found on Amazon. The base is pretty simple, but you really need the proper skills and tools to put it back together. The leather is clipped to the base and also velcroed. The Velcro is stronger than the glue holding it into the grooves in the base, so needed to be re-glued - I used Gorilla glue. . I could not figure the backs out but the leather comes out around the edges of the back shells. I actually gave up and took them to a trimmer in Calne to finish them off for me. He also tidied up a scuff on the drivers shoulder bolster, which had been upsetting my OCD.

TodayI clipped the connectors off the loom that came with the heater kit and soldered them onto the wires which popped out under the seats and heat shrunk the joints for good measure. Seats are now back in and connected up. I have already fitted the relays and fuses, so all that is left is for the the nice folks at Silvestone to program the ECU to tell it I have heated seats when if goes in for it's annual service in 3 weeks time. Fingers crossed.

Interesting comment for the trimmer was that he really rated the Recaro seats, but that the Cobra ones he has seen have a poor comfort life as the seat foam they use is of a lower grade. 

I would not recommend doing this yourself unless you are very confident with trimming stuff.

On the plus side I found £1.20 under the seats ?

So far the costs have been £90 for the OEM switch from Deroure, £60 for the elements fromAmazon, £100 for the fitting of them elements and scuff fix from SW Trimmers in Calne and the ECU reprogram will cost me about £35, £6 for a pack of 6 relays from Amazon and £1 for the fuses. £292 in total. The price of a toasty bum.

[spunagain]

Well the folks at Lotus Silverstone have persuaded the ECU that I have heated seats and can report great success! Toasty back and bottom. I have come to the conclusion that I will never get a modern car again without heated seats.

My only comment is that the back is a bit warmer than the bum, I think this can be cured by adding the heat shield which looks like silvered card between the element and the seat foam.  I did not add it at first as I was worried I would feel it, and the trimmer thought that it would not really be needed.

Link below for the Elements I used:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0051BMMJ0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

here are the relays:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B013EVWRSO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here is the trim tool kit I used to pry off the dashboard trim to fit the switch panel.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Y89GR1A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[CocoPops]

Well done Phil.

Lucky for you that your car has the wiring for them.

i still haven't done anything about mine yet, I know it doesn't have the wiring though.

[C8RKH]

I'm in the same boat as you Lee. However, a hot water bottle behind my back would work and would cost about £3!!!

I've decided not to bother as not a daily driver anyway. Only thing I might look at is fixing the 3 buttons to see if I can get the remote boot opener to work, now that, would be useful...

[Bibs]

 

[spunagain]

My boot release button works too.

[m6rk]

have dropped you a pm spunagain, i'd like to do this as i've got my evora in bits currently!

 

[JAWS]

@m6rk Any chance you could start a build thread on here to show us your progress? I'm sure a lot of others on here would really enjoy knowing how you're getting on rebuilding an Evora. The trials and tribulations etc.

[m6rk]

oh go on then... i'll post up some pics

[TheKevlarKid]

While there is talk of heated seating...

I've made myself some man-cave/gaming furniture from a pair of the recaro sport racer seats. They have the heating elements still in them and I'd like to wire them in to the mains somehow so I can sit with a toasty bum. Anyone know what size of transformer I'd need to power them up? What fuse rating do they have in the car etc. Anyone know??

 

 

 

 

[C8RKH]

Those blue seats and the interior would be fab in a white Evora. Nice job.

[agentdr8]

11 hours ago, TheKevlarKid said:

While there is talk of heated seating...

I've made myself some man-cave/gaming furniture from a pair of the recaro sport racer seats. They have the heating elements still in them and I'd like to wire them in to the mains somehow so I can sit with a toasty bum. Anyone know what size of transformer I'd need to power them up? What fuse rating do they have in the car etc. Anyone know??

12VDC most likely, and capable of providing upwards of 10A (fuse rating). There's also a relay for each seat on the front relay block, but probably not necessary if you're wiring direct using sufficient gauge. Since you're not using the ICM to control when the heaters stay on, you might want to rig some other safety system into place so that they don't get left on inadvertently and melt down your place.

[21gg]

A simple delay off timer should suffice.

Your man cave is coming along nicely!

Gav 

[spunagain]

On 11/01/2017 at 16:35, m6rk said:

have dropped you a pm spunagain, i'd like to do this as i've got my evora in bits currently!

 

The heated seat wiring on my car was under the carpet under the seats. There was a slit in the carpet and I just needed to pull the wire through the slit. Easy to see when you pullout the seats. Watch out for the wiring to the seat belt sensor wire when taking out the seats. I broke mine and had to fix it.

[m6rk]

@spunagain do you have a copy of the wiring diagram somewhere? As per our phonecall I need to make a start in interfacing with the oem buttons but my downloaded manual doesn't cover heated seats!!

 

[agentdr8]

Here's what I see in the service notes on heated seats.

[m6rk]

aha perfect ta!

 

[Benmac]

I do like a nice heated seat. My Evora doesn't have them.

I've just picked up a new set of tan seat covers for the recaros from Lotus as they are selling them off cheaply and my black ones have a little bit of bolster wear. Tan should go well with my metallic red car and as it'll just be the seats themselves I am hoping it'll not look overwhelming as the dash sweep can do at times but also not look odd. It's a risk I'm happy to take.

So, if the seats are coming out and being re-covered anyway it seems daft not to put bum warmers in as well. A fair few trimmers seem to offer it as a service. I'll be happy not to have the proper buttons on the dash that the factory fit would have had and am happy with aftermarket kits as my C Class has one that the previous owner fitted and similarly that has a button on the seats rather than the OEM dash buttons.

My question then is how tricky this would be, is there suitable wiring in situ already, is anything significant required to be done etc etc?

I've seen the decent sized thread on doing similar on here but that seems to focus on getting the dash buttons to work if retrofitted.

[Chris J]

15 hours ago, Benmac said:

 

I've just picked up a new set of tan seat covers for the recaros from Lotus as they are selling them off cheaply 

Can you tell more about where you got them, I am looking into re-covering my Oyster leather seats as they're unsurprisingly showing some wear after 50000 miles...