E30 Convertible: Fitting Rear Heated Seats

[mike621]

Like most people into these cars, I'm managing a few small projects on my E30, amongst is a seat restoration that will include some new upholstery from creative options.

My car was originally equipped with heated seats which had been replaced by E46 sedan seats by the previous owner (hate them - they are coming out).

I'm restoring sport seats for front and adding in new heated seat pads from here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008D2LIRG/...=ID1NQDCF3NKIE

and I wanted to know if anyone has gone about installing heat in the rear as well. I imagine I can utilize the same kits in back while I'm reupholstering, but any recommendations on where to tap into the harness for the additional power?

I tried searching for this topic but was unable to find any documentation of previous installs.

[Semblance]

Try searching for adding heated seats when it didn't come factory on their car. I know I've seen a thread long ago on it. IIRC you'll want to use the auxiliary fuse box to add new circuits rather than tapping existing ones, heat pads use a lot of power.

Why on earth do you want to do this? Who's in your back seat? ;)

[mike621]

Try searching for adding heated seats when it didn't come factory on their car. I know I've seen a thread long ago on it. IIRC you'll want to use the auxiliary fuse box to add new circuits rather than tapping existing ones, heat pads use a lot of power.

Why on earth do you want to do this? Who's in your back seat? ;)

To clarify: I read and appreciate the threads here on adding front heated seats when the car is not originally equipped. Thankfully, my car is and switches are still present so front seats are OK.

As for the rears, its a feature I'd like to have as I have rear seat passengers on a regular basis. I'll likely end up following the instructions with the kit(s) and post results when I have them.

[Das Delfin]

You could tap into the circuit for the rear window defroster fan. It has a 30a fuse and wiring already set up. The fan is pretty much pointless and if you don't run a hardtop you're not going to do anything with the wiring anyway. Plus the switch is right in the dash and the wires go right behind the seat

[MC Hammered]

I would talk you out of those aftermarket pads as I tried them and they didn't get hot enough, fast enough. Use the OEM ones which you can still buy new.

There are separate part numbers for the bottom and seatback.




First I would hook up a meter and see if you can determine the current draw from one of the seat heaters when put on max, then see if the existing circuit can handle the draw from 4 of the heaters.

If you plan to use only the bottoms for the rear seats then you may be able to get away with tapping the existing heated seat circuit.