Heated seats

Does anyone know how or what exactly is involved in installing heated seats. I have a 98 without the option. How hard and what exactly is needed for this conversion? Any help,ideas or leads for parts is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

In short - a lot...

In long, you'd not only need to take your seat upholstery apart to install the elements (or find good, matching seat with heaters,) you'd need to attach control modules to the bottoms of the seats and find matching switch panels for the doors that have the push-buttons in them.

And that is assuming that the wiring harnesses from the doors to the seats are already in place...

Uggh. Sounds like this might be alot of work. Gonna look into the cars I found at junkyard and see if either has that option. Is there any wiring besides that or relays,fuses,anything after the doors, at the fuse block? Thanks for the help. Gonna weigh the options on this one first!

knuckled1 wrote:

Uggh. Sounds like this might be alot of work. Gonna look into the cars I found at junkyard and see if either has that option. Is there any wiring besides that or relays,fuses,anything after the doors, at the fuse block? Thanks for the help. Gonna weigh the options on this one first!

actually there are kits for this on the internet, and you can install the switches on the center console by removing the ashtray panel (gives you room to work). Just do a web search on "heated seat kit" or some such and you will see several.

Albertj

I think Alberts suggestion might be the easiest, practical way to go.

I think the first thing I'd do is check under the seats for any unconnected wires coming
out from under the carpet, and go from there...

(You might find that the heater wires come up to a connector mounted to the same bracket
as the seat adjuster connectors, but with nothing plugged into the other side.)

Eldo wrote:

In short - a lot...

In long, you'd not only need to take your seat upholstery apart to install the elements (or find good, matching seat with heaters,) you'd need to attach control modules to the bottoms of the seats and find matching switch panels for the doors that have the push-buttons in them.

And that is assuming that the wiring harnesses from the doors to the seats are already in place...

...job is time consuming not difficult. I thought there was a thread on this site shows how to remove the seat upholstery - can't find it though. Basically you cut the hog rings that hold the upholstery on the wire stretchers, insert the seat heaters, then put it back together usnig new hog rings and hog ring pliers. There are seat heater kits made of trimmable material, consider those.

Did anyone ever verify if the harness is already there, just no control module, heaters and door switches?

Sometimes the manufactures use the same harness, so all the wires and connectors are there. Any idea if the whole harness for the heated/memory seats is all there on a 95?

Thanks
Al

Given the 95 mfg run was so big, probably Not.

I'm going to resurrect this thread.  My '98 Riv has regular seats.  No memory, no heat.  I like a heated seat.  Now, the junkyard HAS a rig, '96, same color as mine with a heated seat.  Obviously there will be 1 or 2 extra connector on a seat WITH heat and memory, but what I want to know, without pulling the seat out, is IF on the '98, GM put in 1 wiring harness WITH the connectors present, but obviously not hooked up to anything.  If no, then I don't want to deal with the separate wiring.  Not all THAT important.  And I don't care about the memory connection.  I realize I'd need a new door panel to account for the switches, but these are already in the yard on the '96.  I don't know if the wires are in the door either in order to make the connection.  If anyone's done this or has any insight, I'd appreciate it.  We got 3 Rivs in the junkyard so might as well make hay while the sun shines.  I"m also making an assumption that a seat from a '96 fits a '98.

You could try a GM dealership parts guy to look it up. See if there's more than one part number.

Keep us posted. I want to have a heated seat in my car also.

When I looked at the "ultimate parts list" in the Riv FAQ section, I noted there is a difference in the door panel between the '95-'97 & the '98-'99. The parts list shows one one wiring harness under the seat. I'm going this weekend to the junkyard to take a look.

Sorry to re- jump start an old thread but we all have a common interest here. I am looking to add my driver heated seat as an auxiliary feature on my remote start. My alarm guy said my oe switch is not 12v so he is afraid to tap into it. There must be a spot where it turns into 12v, not sure it would work sending a pulse from the alarm brain after the switch. Or, is there a way to make the seat power up when the ignition turns on. If it is possible to do this for the winter or is it part of the bcm? Ty for any help.

carguy8888 wrote:

Sorry to re- jump start an old thread but we all have a common interest here. I am looking to add my driver heated seat as an auxiliary feature on my remote start. My alarm guy said my oe switch is not 12v so he is afraid to tap into it. There must be a spot where it turns into 12v, not sure it would work sending a pulse from the alarm brain after the switch. Or, is there a way to make the seat power up when the ignition turns on. If it is possible to do this for the winter or is it part of the bcm? Ty for any help.

I would re-think adding heated seat to the remote start b/c seat heaters heat up so fast (just a couple seconds).  

Your alarm guy could wire a relay to be driven by the OE switch pretty much no matter the voltage.  Drive the relay through a diode to eliminate possibility of random transients.  For example, 3v relays to be driven by a Raspberry Pi at the LINK. Use the relay to switch 12v from some beefy switched circuit to drive the seat heat - there is probably already a space in the fuse panel for it.

Thanks for the help Albert. My thought is to have it as an auxiliary which I would initiate shortly before I got in the car. I would not hook it up where it would be running 15-20 minutes @ a clip.

carguy8888 wrote:

Thanks for the help Albert. My thought is to have it as an auxiliary which I would  initiate shortly before I got in the car.  I would not hook it up where it would be running 15-20 minutes @ a clip.

A little more directly:  I would not bother.

Even in sub zero temps (as we have had the past week and are coming again this week) the seats heat *very* quickly.  Probably because the thermal mass isn't real high and the seat padding is insulating anyway - heaters sit just under the leather on the seat, on top of that padding, so the heat does not have to "soak" the seat in order for you to get a useful result quickly.  

On top of that, if you're remote-starting the car some minutes before you get in it, it is as likely as not to get warm enough to run the HVAC heat anyway.    

If you want it to initiate "shortly before you enter the car," that's a different problem,  Either you have to manually set that timing or you need some way to detect when 'shortly before you get in the car' is.  

On late model Fords, the option to turn on seat heat with remote start lets you choose to run the front seat (and steering wheel) heat for 5, 10 or 15 minutes after the start.  If *that* is what you are talking about regarding seat heat with remote start, it's not so hard to do at all.  Installers have a variety of remote start relay modules to choose from; I did not look but I imagine there is one that will simulate the momentary door switch for turning on/off the heater.    

Not my cup of tea, though.  But that does not matter.

At this point it's become more of a challenge and I know most people would not bother, my trait is a blessing and a curse lol. My alarm guy was afraid he was going to fry the switch b/c it is not 12v he said. I found another oe switch for $20 so I will have him test it with the diode. My remote start can be operated from any distance w/ my cell phone. My plan is to hook the seat up to an auxiliary button. Only once triggered it can send a signal to activate the heated seat as if I hit the button. At least that is my plan. My guy does not see many 20 year old Buicks lol. Any milestones on your odometer?

I'm hoping this will do the trick.

carguy8888 wrote:

At this point it's become more of a challenge and I know most people would not bother, my trait is a blessing and a curse lol. My alarm guy was afraid he was going to fry the switch b/c it is not 12v he said. I found another oe switch for $20 so I will have him test it with the diode. My remote start can be operated from any distance w/ my cell phone. My plan is to hook the seat up to an auxiliary button. Only once triggered it can send a signal to activate the heated seat as if I hit the button. At least that is my plan. My guy does not see many 20 year old Buicks lol. Any milestones on your odometer?

No odo milestones really, been driving our Volvo XC70 on highway trips b/c the weather has been so **lousy.** That said, in that car - highway speed on packed snow on the interstate is fine. The kinda sad thing is the sliding that people who try to follow me usually have pretty serious issues. Meaning I'll move into left lane, accelerate to pass, and glance often into rear view mirror. Just to see a car behind me try doing the same, but waggle/overshoot and quickly return to right lane without passing anyone.

As you all in the US Northeast and northern Europe probably know, don't ever hop into the left lane on a packed snow road just because you see someone else do it. Yesterday, we passed 7 slid-off-the-highway accidents over the course of a 280 mile trip thru the central Pennsylvania mountains. The Volvo XC70 has 'dynamic stability and traction control' and electronically engaged and modulated all-wheel-drive (and on mine, Blizzak tires). And an idiot light to tell you when you're getting into traction trouble. It is astounding how hard you can drive the car on a snowy highway before you're actually in trouble. But yeah, yesterday's drive was bad - the 'skidding triangle' idiot light actually came on once, first time for me in the 5 years I've owned/driven the car.

...point-A to point-B, no drama or new sheet metal creases, in good time.

How would the rib do in the same situation? The morons by me think they're invincible.

carguy8888 wrote:

How would the rib do in the same situation?  The morons by me think they're invincible.

I've driven the Riviera in pretty nasty weather.  I put snow tires on it each year, current set is General Altimax Arctic, they are legal but all the snow-and-ice-rubber part of the tread depth is gone so they are basically noisy all-seasons now that are (much) better than average in snow.   But there are limits.  One limit is that the car is kind of nose-heavy.  Not like Plymouth Sundance/Dodge Shadow were, those things were almost 70/30 front rear, the Riv is more like 60/40.  So in snowy interstate driving, I try to keep the Riv's gas tank pretty full, for the ballast effect on rear traction.  One time, on the Michelin X-Ice tires, I drove across Interstate 86 from north of Erie PA headed east.  The road was packed snow - my guess was the roads may have been closed that day in Chatauqua and Cattaraugus counties - which was where I was driving through.  No one was out, it was pretty cold (single digits IIRC) and the highway was snow/ice covered, basically a layer of ice with snow (and sand and cinders) packed on top. I stopped at a gas station in Salamanca, but got back on the highway in the wrong direction (westward).  Realized it when I saw the route confirmation sign. Decided to hit the shoulder and back off/turn around.   A cop (federal park police) stopped me (technically this interstate cuts through American Indian territory) - it's not at all legal to back down a highway shoulder any distance ha ha... he asked me if anything was wrong and where was I going, I told him nothing's wrong, drive's going well, I just got on the road the wrong way in spite of seeing the signs, and decided since nobody was around I could get away with backing off the highway and getting on the other ramp.  We chatted for a minute or two about the weather and the tires.  The police cruisers used Ultra Grip Ice tires.  He decides to block the road so I could use the turn around (there was no grass strip in the median, just a guard rail dividing the highway... and still there was nobody around).  I thanked him and went on my way.

Riv is a little nose heavy and won't easily climb (or do a controlled descent of), say, an icy city street hill.   On a hill climb, once you've used up whatever momentum you had at the bottom of the hill, the front wheels lose grip.  (and when you're only half way up, you're neither up nor down...)   Traction control helps a little but does not make up for how any torque is applied to the road.    The Volvo with AWD, DSTC, and Blizzak tires (an "ice tire") *will* climb snowy/icy hills, we are talking roughly a 12-15% grade. Basically each of the Volvo's tires can have about half the traction on that (hypothetical) hill as the Riv gets,  up to the point the tires slip.  Consequently, it does not take near as much traction at each wheel to successfully get up or down and you can usually maintain enough momentum to keep moving.

For snow tires I've driven the Michelin X-Ice, 2 versions of Blizzaks, the General Arctic Alpin (2 sets, same tire), Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice,  and Yokohama Guardex 360.  The Blizzaks are tops.  I mean, different tire makers make different claims about this and that but IMHO, with the Blizzaks, the Bridgestone claims about ice and snow performance are, in my experience, actually **understated.**   In my opinion and experience those Blizzaks grip on glare ice is about the same as that tire on a wet or dry road as long as you stay at or under about 30 MPH.  In some conditions they seem even better than studded tires.  As far as value for money goes, I've been really happy with the Generals. The Michelins had great ice performance, but not like the Blizzaks, definitely nothing to brag about in deep snow, but were much better than anything else I've driven on dry or wet/slushy highway in the winter as far as noise goes. Goodyears were a close second to the Michelins in many ways; they were better than the Michelins in snow, though. The Yokohamas were quite good as well, but I never drove them as hard in winter on the highway as I've driven the Blizzaks.  They did have great grip, though. One time, going up a hill (State Street from Denison Parkway in Corning NY - Google Map it).  There had been freezing rain, wet snow then dry fluffy snow; the hill was apparently too slick to walk or drive up due to ice.  However, on the Yokos (or on studded tires) in an AWD Subaru Legacy, driving up and down was no problem.  I don't think you could go as fast on the Yokos as you could on the Blizzaks without losing control, though.  

The Blizzaks are just a piece of work.  I had a set on a Volvo 740 (RWD) stationwagon I owned; I was driving from Altoona to Ebensburg on Rt. 22, and had stopped at what then was a Howard Johnsons (is now a senior rest home) to call ahead (the 5 hour drive had taken us 4 so far and we were about 1/2 way).  The parking lot at the HoJo by the pay phone was glare ice.  (See it at the LINK.) Driving was OK.  When I got out of the car to use the phone, I fell (twice) because I could not keep my footing.  And that was just walking a few feet to use the (*^$* phone.

Had I been in the Riviera, even on whatever new snow tires, I would have stayed in the right lane for the most part. Again, the Riv is too nose heavy, IMO the front end woulda been OK and the rear would have overshot/fished around and pulled the car into the median.

You are a brave man. If there is enough snow that it is a pain in the butt I will take the bus to work. If the busses stop running I am staying home and the riv will sit in the garage like this lol.

Brave? Naah. When it's time to go home I want to go home. And will, unless the roads are actually closed.

That's brave in my book lol. Do you think I did OK with the step down module pictured a few posts a few posts ago?