What year/model has heated seats? Any cloth heated seats?

[Bushwick]

My buddy has 98 outback and it has cloth heated seats.

That link had a price of $678? Yikes. Interesting though as it showed the element as a separate unit. I realize a person further up the board stated a custom install into a non heated seat resulted in a short that could have caused a fire, but I suppose if done correctly and in a way the element can't be damaged, they can be swapped in if you cab buy them like that. But not for $678! I can get complete seats for $27 (cloth) and complete leather for $35 each (heated, full power). It'd be cheaper to reupholster the entire seat then buy 1 of those units. Or just be vigilant and find a nice set w/o damage.

[Bushwick]

Here's an update.

 

Found a 99' Outback with worn leather and manual seat track + heat. Some research revealed the seats are extremely basic and ALL the wiring is what's basically attached to the switches, leading down to the seat plugs. While both switches are keyed differently at their plugs, the actual seat-side plugs are identical (meaning if one switch is bad, just flip the seat-side harness and rotate the switches in the housing). Feeding the switches is a light blue wire (12v+ switched on) and a shared ground (black) wire. Attach those 2 wires and you are in business. The switch's amber light *should* light up with rocker on low or high. Accessory lights are from 2 other wires that are white with a stripe. Unsure of polarity with those as they can be reversed to provide lighting and don't appear to actually ground out and are not connected to the main ground wires. Unfortunately, BOTH bulbs were burnt for accessory and the amber rocker "on" light burned out during initial testing, so if you connect the blue and black wires, and nothing lights up, it might just be the bulb is shot. (my passenger switch had a dead accessory as well, but the "on" bulb was OK so I used that switch; I pulled each bulb and tested to verify they were dead)

 

I reused my cloth covering from my seats, and slipped it over the leather seat body. The upper seat portion was an exact fit, the lower seat portion was extremely close. I went to a Jo Ann fabrics and purchased some 1" high density (green) foam, and a small section of 3" high density foam. The 1" is in the center of both seat sections, while the 3" was trimmed to fit the outer bolster areas. I used spray tack and gorilla tape on a few areas that were going to see high traffic. The gorilla tape also helps to pull the hard ripped foam back from where you constantly enter/exit the seat- it rips and exposes a metal bar. (EDIT: The gorilla tape is very heavy duty duct tape. It's usage UNDER the seat fabric isn't noticeable with the seat cover back on. The seats hard formed foam mold can rip. Glue gun the rip or spray tack, then use the gorilla tape to pull the broken/ripped section back into place. I had to use some of the tape on the outer bolster foam as 3" was rather thick)

 

The heated element has a spot that likes to pull apart. It's on the seat bottom, in the center, about mid thigh. It's poorly secured from the factory and pulls the heater wire, causing a short and heat failure. The actual heat element is nothing more than an extremely thin gauge wire, complete with a rubber coating. Very carefully expose the good wire from the fabric, strip back the coating, and you can solder in a splice patch. I used shrink wrap to seal the connections and also went with a heavier gauge in the splice. I reinforced the entire area in the gorilla tape so as to prevent the connection from pulling apart. I used zip ties to loosely hold the heater fabric in place, while giving *some* room to move under compression.

 

The pay off? I have a seat that is extremely comfortable to sit in, hugs you on the sides, and as a bonus has heat + the lumbar and height adjustment. I've got a bad back so this was more of a forced necessity as the factory seat was like sitting on a plank of plywood and extremely irritating to sit on. Sorry for no pics, as I wasn't even thinking about doing a write-up as there are some already out there that pretty much cover everything. Only thing I did differently was reusing my fabric on a leather equipped seat with height adjustment. Had to get creative on the seat bottom as not all the fabric attachment points are the same for the plastic clips to seat frame. Also, the leather seat has more anchor points for the fabric where your butt rests, whereas the fabric seats didn't as they didn't have as many seams.

 

All in all in was fairly straight-forward, and if you attempt any of this, it'll make more sense. It took me few days to complete as my back + meds only allow for so much before I have to call it quits (back is like getting hit with baseball bats), meaning most of you could tackle something like this in a day.

 

Also, with the heater element out, Run the blue to 12v+ and ground the black wires, start the car, and run the heater element for 30 minutes (or more) to make sure everything is working and WILL work. If it's going to short again, it should do it right away. The wires can also come apart right at the thermal switches, which seems to be right where the factory wiring connects up to the heater element. If it breaks there, you'll need to carefully pull apart the fabric (split it apart like a 2 ply fabric) and see which wire is separated.

 

My splice has held thus far, and the maiden voyage was a success and the seat is beyond comfortable! Don't be afraid to get into your seats. If yours have rips or wear spots, it's EXTREMELY easy to replace the covering.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Bushwick