Heated seats

ok, I know the title sounds as if I belong in a gaylander but...

thinking about fitting a heated seat kit when I refurb my seats. the waeco kit comes with all the gear/wires/relay and awitches, and is pretty cheap and cheerful and needs an earth as well as live and ignition feeds. I can do the earth and live, but how/ where do I wire it up to the ignition? I'm guessing there is a connection to the ignition somewhere in the fuse box? or is there an easier way to wire it all up?

don't really want to set my hairy arse on fire so thought I'd ask

Is there not any wiring instructions?

I'd be surprised if the heating elements aren't supplied via a relay. You just wouldn't want the extra current of a heating element directly through the ignition switch.

You'd have to check with the manufacturer of your heating elements, but heating elements are usually high current draw.

If it were me designing the circuit I'd take a direct feed to the fuse box then a sufficiently rated purple wire to the switch part of a relay and a similarly sufficiently rated wire from there to the elements. To energise the relay coil, I'd take a smaller fused ignition live (solid dark green wire) to the switch to turn the heaters on/off then onto the coil of the relay. Blacks to ground from the other side of the coil.

You'd do this configuration twice so that the seats are independently controlable. I.e two switches and two relays.

Of course if your kit comes with instructions, follow that instead. It may be that your elements are low current and do not need their own relays. I've fitted heating elements in the wing mirrors of mine which apparently can piggy back off the rear screen circuit. So those elements are quite low current. Maybe your seats are similar.

These come with their own relays. My friend has fitted his and somehow he connected his via the radio wiring so that the seats turn off when the engine is off. Other wires go to battery. Perhaps someone here can work out how?
We tried to fit mine (1997 defender) and my wiring is a bit different to his (1987 defender) somehow.
The instructions are pants!

These come with their own relays. My friend has fitted his and somehow he connected his via the radio wiring so that the seats turn off when the engine is off. Other wires go to battery. Perhaps someone here can work out how?
We tried to fit mine (1997 defender) and my wiring is a bit different to his (1987 defender) somehow.
The instructions are pants!

I agree, the destructions are ****e. they basically just say to find live and ignition feeds and wire them in.

had a possible idea. mine's a 96 300tdi without air con, so could I use the a/c connector that's behind the fuse box? it must be live and ignition switched, no? will head out with a multimeter when the rain lets up a bit

Why not get the heated seat covers you just plug in.

I'm gonna refurb the seats at the same time so it'll be easier to slip in the heater panels then. don't like the look of the ones you put on top of the seats.

ok, so I've tested the connector that is there for the A/C and it has 3 permanent lives and an ignition feed. Can I just use this to connect up to the relay for the heaters? and probably downrate the fuse from 20A to 10A? I think the max current each heater will draw is 3.75 A

So the kit came with two relays? And two switches?

Does it give any ratings of the heating elements? If not, measure the resistance across them with your volt meter on the ohms setting.

haven't got it yet, but it looks as if there's a switch for each seat, and they both go into one relay that is fed from two lives (one permanent live and one ignition live)

Ok, that's easy then. The switches must be sufficiently rated to handle the current drawn from the heating elements. Let us know what's in the kit when it arrives. It sounds like most of it can be done with a few additions in the fuse board area. The hardest part will be deciding where to put the switches.

got a rough idea of how to do it, just waiting for the stuff. most of the round 20mm rocker switches cope with 10A so they shd be fine for the heaters. think I'm gonna put the switches in between the cig lighter and rear wiper, easy to get the wires there and keeps everything looking tidy

Hi I have just fitted a pair of these today does your red lights stay on all the time when the ignition is on . Mine does I was expecting it only to come on when they are in switched to the on1 or on2 position they go out when I switch the engine off so no problem ! You are right about the instructions . I have only driven it once with them on very warm I just hope when I try them in the off position they don't warm up !

I bought a heated cover from Aldi just before xmas. works a treat and only a tenner!

I've recently fitted a set of the Waeco heater doo-dahs and found the wiring instructions, nah, the instructions, completely useless. I had a copy of LRO with an article about installing them and used that far more.

When it came to the wiring, I ditched just about everything in the kit and made my own loom up. It's a bit different as my Landy is an '03, so there were blanks for the switches on the dash, but the principle is the same

I found the original factory feed that would have run the seats in the fusebox, and spliced into that for my supply (it also runs the eleccy windows). It's a switched live and fused, so no worries there. I then used a 10A in-line fuse before running the wire on to the switches, and basically then followed the original LandRover wiring diagram (which is actually similar in principle to the Waeco diagram). The relay in the Waeco kit is the supply on to the switches (activated by the ignition switched live), not activated by the switches to power the seats, so the rocker switches they supply run at 'full' current, as it were. So it sounds like your idea of utilising the unused air-con feed would work, but I'd check what that feed was originally rated as just to make sure the wiring's up to it.

Hope that makes sense! I see you're in Abingdon, so if you get stuck, PM me and I can pop over (I'm near Faringdon) and lend a hand if you like. :tea:

I have fitted a set in mine, best mod I have done, makes up for the heater and door gaps! AS above the light stays on all the time but I have fitted a master switch to shut the whole lot down, if your not fitting a switch you will want a 50amp relay controlled by an ignition live. I used all the original loom that came with the seats , its spot on and has all you need, no need to chop or change it. The pads just fit in the seat bases and theres enough cable to allow you to lift the base and put to one side for access....

Do it, have a warm arse...