Wiring power seats?

[Kwhistle]

So I'd like to replace the seats on my 98 OBW. Saw some nice leather seats at a junk yard, but they are power, mine are manual. So no plug and play here. Is it possible to wire these up, with minimal amount of labor, or would that be too much work and a danger of blowing a bunch of fuses?

 

Also, has anyone here ever tried repainting/recoloring leather? My interior is gray, but there are a gazillion of junk cars with beige interiors and really nice seats. I saw some leather paint online, but really wouldn't want to buy some just that would rub off.

[Scoobywagon]

Yes, you can wire up power seats. Its kind of a PITA, though. We did it in our shop once and it was nearly $1200 at $58/hr.

 

Why not just reupholster your seats? It really isn't all that hard to do. Just eats up lots of time. If you want leather, I can probably find you a good price on a leather kit. That kind of assumes that the foam in your seats isn't all beat.

[Kwhistle]

How much would it cost for a leather kit for both front seats? Or both front and rear? The foam is in pretty bad shape, but I could get a used seat just to gut the foam out of it.

 

About rewiring it, is it more than just hooking up a few wires? Did you have to do some special modifications? Really, I wouldn't mind reuphostering the seats, just trying to weight my options as far as reupholstering versus bolting in power seats and running a few wires so they are adjustable.

[Scoobywagon]

How much would it cost for a leather kit for both front seats? Or both front and rear? The foam is in pretty bad shape, but I could get a used seat just to gut the foam out of it.

 

Leathering up the whole car is likely to cost you about $650-700 plus labor. That's both front seats, the rear bench seat and all 4 door cards. For reference, I'm using seats from an 05 Outback with side airbags for the pricing example. More specific pricing will depend on what kind of car you get the seats from.

 

About rewiring it, is it more than just hooking up a few wires? Did you have to do some special modifications? Really, I wouldn't mind reuphostering the seats, just trying to weight my options as far as reupholstering versus bolting in power seats and running a few wires so they are adjustable.

 

This depends on your car and whether or not it is already wired for power seats. In the case of the car we converted, power seats were never offered as an option, so we had to build harnesses from scratch. In your case, I think power seats were an option for the 98 Outbacks (though I could be wrong). If so, its possible that the harnesses are all there and you just have to swap in the proper seats. IN some cases, all of the controls are mounted on the seat itself. In that case, all you have to do is mount the seat and give it power and ground. No big deal. Some cars, though, have off-board controls or rely on the BCM for control. That can be not fun.

[Fairtax4me]

Take the seats from that car, and transfer the covers onto yours. Takes a few hours, and you need a hog ring clamp and about a dozen hog rings per seat.

[idosubaru]

98 OBW's and other leg models had leather power/heated seat options. look for the connector under the carpeting.

 

or you can also buy the harness and install it - it plugs and plays into your car. i actually have one i might sell for a 1998 OBW. i have the entire harness so it's plug and play and the switches too i believe. or just snag one from a car in the yard. it's big and all but you can do it yourself and not worry about splicing/etc.

 

that being said - this is really simple, it just needs power, not much to it. it would be very easy to pull power to the seat area. there's nothing complicated about it at all, very easy actually as far as wiring. and this from a guy who does not like (isn't good at) wiring.

 

if you start wanting heated seats it's not that much more but you have the additional switches in the console, wiring, etc.

[Kwhistle]

If it can be plug and play, then that's pretty awesome. I'm not so interested in heated seats, that's way too much for me. But to leather up the car would be really nice.

 

About the harness, would that just plug into whatever's under the carpet, or is there more to it?

[idosubaru]

yeah the harness plugs in, it is rather large though so it's not like it's just one plug on each end and you're done in 5 minutes. not a big deal either, but it's got a few connections. there's probably only one harness for powered seats- meaning all power seat harnesses also have the switches, plugs, and such for the heated seat wiring which goes to the passengers seat and the center console. only makes sense to make a one-size-fits all harness here.

 

have a knife handy if you're going to a you pull it yard - once the seats are out start cutting away. this is of course...if your car doesn't already have it, which it might?

 

you only need to route the powered stuff since you're not installing heated seats anyway. but that still requires running through/around the center console to get both sides and tapping into the power, wherever that is.

 

either way it's all plug and play.

 

in my opinion you're not missing anything with the heated seats, they're novelty. EJ engines provide heat fast. by the time the heat gets to my legs the car is warmed up anyway. if it's really cold outside then 70 degrees on 10 square inches of my body hardly makes a dent for the negative 5 degrees killing me everywhere else! it's kind of silly really. except the novelty, it does sound cool to rattle off "heated seat" when talking about my OBW, but i'd rather not encourage that in myself. i bought an extra set of OBW leather heated seats to install in my XT6 but if i install them i won't wire in the heated portion since they don't impress me much in my OBW.

[Fairtax4me]

Most of the time I only use heated seats for my back. Feels good after a long day to lean back a bit in the seat and let the heat soak in. This only works if the seat back has heater pads in it, if it's just the bottom it's a waste of electricity.