Heated seats.......

try swapping the ds switch

I have a MK3 Jetta that I put K2 heated seats in. I have the switches with the pigtail attached, does that previous diagram work for A3's? I haven't had a chance to look through my bentley manual

Difference between cloth and leather elements

Can someone tell me what the difference is between the parts?

Element, seat heater
cloth R/L 1J0 963 555 B
leather R/L 1J0 963 555 D
Element, backrest heater
cloth R/L 1J0 963 557 C
leather R/L 1J0 963 557 D
Element, side heater
R/L 1J0 963 556 B

I did a search of 1stVWparts and the cloth elements are like twice as expensive.

Does what element really have to do with the material or the shape of the seat? I have cloth seats now in my 01 Wolfsburg, but I want to get new leather upholstery installed. I want to add the heated elements and wiring first, or at least along with it. Do I need the cloth elements because of the shape of my seats, or the leather because I'm adding leather, and different elements act differntly with different materials

Also, is there a better source out there for elements that will work with factory wiring?

I did a search of 1stVWparts and the cloth elements are like twice as expensive.

Does what element really have to do with the material or the shape of the seat? I have cloth seats now in my 01 Wolfsburg, but I want to get new leather upholstery installed. I want to add the heated elements and wiring first, or at least along with it. Do I need the cloth elements because of the shape of my seats, or the leather because I'm adding leather, and different elements act differntly with different materials

Also, is there a better source out there for elements that will work with factory wiring?[/quote]

So it sounds like you are having an upholstery shop turn your VW orig equipment fabric seats into leather seats?

Buying aftermarket seat heating elements may be an option for you.

I installed heating elements from www.heatedseatkits.com and so have quite a few forum members with great reviews. Now that it is 50 degrees on Michigan mornings I'm back to using my heated seat every day and I love it. These elements would work fine for leather or cloth and you can trim them to shape but from my experience they don't need to be trimmed for Mk4 seats. I've got the aftermarket switch on my IP that has high/low/off positions. If you are really set on using the factory wiring I would think the factory wiring would drive the afermarket seat heating element with no problem as the factory switch is basically a potentiometer that varies the current to the heating element. If you are not set on using factory wiring then the heated seat kit comes with all the wiring you need, just put it under your leather seat covers and you are good to go.

you could ask the dealer, there was a heated seat recall done for the mk4's. the seat elemament wouldn't heat, or itd heat too much and litterly burn through the seat. also the switch was part of this recall.

tamorgen said:

I did a search of 1stVWparts and the cloth elements are like twice as expensive.

Does what element really have to do with the material or the shape of the seat? I have cloth seats now in my 01 Wolfsburg, but I want to get new leather upholstery installed. I want to add the heated elements and wiring first, or at least along with it. Do I need the cloth elements because of the shape of my seats, or the leather because I'm adding leather, and different elements act differntly with different materials

Also, is there a better source out there for elements that will work with factory wiring?

Click to expand...

Getriebe Guy said:

So it sounds like you are having an upholstery shop turn your VW orig equipment fabric seats into leather seats?

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I am doing. I have already found a source for the OEM spec harness.

Getriebe Guy said:

Buying aftermarket seat heating elements may be an option for you.

I installed heating elements from www.heatedseatkits.com and so have quite a few forum members with great reviews. Now that it is 50 degrees on Michigan mornings I'm back to using my heated seat every day and I love it. These elements would work fine for leather or cloth and you can trim them to shape but from my experience they don't need to be trimmed for Mk4 seats. I've got the aftermarket switch on my IP that has high/low/off positions. If you are really set on using the factory wiring I would think the factory wiring would drive the afermarket seat heating element with no problem as the factory switch is basically a potentiometer that varies the current to the heating element. If you are not set on using factory wiring then the heated seat kit comes with all the wiring you need, just put it under your leather seat covers and you are good to go.

Click to expand...

I had been looking at those, I'm just not sure if the factory wiring and switches will work. I may have to give them a call. The OEM pads look to be twice the price, unless I can find a junked MK4 to get them out of.

Can you sell or return the OEM wire harness and switches and use the wiring that comes with the aftermarket switches? For me saving a couple hundred bucks and getting a hotter seat (my aftermarket heat pads get hotter than my wife's OEM heated seats) was worth having an aftermarket heated seat switch on my dash instead of the VW OEM switch.

Aquell said:

Hi,

I am new to reparing/modding my golf and am looking for some help in diagnosing the problem with my heated seats.

I have a MK4 2005.5 Golf GTTDI 130, the driver's seat heats up fine, however the passenger seat does not heat up in any part of it. I have checked the fuse as I believe it is the same fuse as for the driver's seat and this is fine.

Would I be correct in thinking that it would be unusual for all the elements in the seat to fail at once, or is it a case of if one fails then it would break the entire circuit?

Could anyone help describe the steps I should go through to diagnose what the problems could be before biting the bullet and deciding whether to get VW to replace the heating elements or not.

Thanks in advance,

Aquell

Click to expand...

Have you pulled back the lower seat cushion and checked where all the wires connect? They are known for cracking and detaching from each other.. Personally, I'd cut away all the silicon like sticky stuff VS uses and solder the wires together and tape. I had the same problem with my drivers side, no heat at all.

Some answers...

Okay, I've been doing some research over the past few days, and I wanted to share with everyone what I've found out.

I had a suggestion from MINION on Vortex to find a Jetta with the same seats as mine, get their VIN number, and then I would be able to verify which elements I need for my Jetta. So, knowing good advice when I saw it, I did a search for 01 Wolfsburg Edition Heated Seats VIN on Google, and I found several listings come up on AOL Autos, and they had a link to their CarFax report, which had the VIN.

I then sent an email to John at World Impex, gave him the VIN, and asked him to confirm the correct heating elements. He gave me the ones for the cloth seats, so now I know for sure that they fit the Wolfsburg Sport seats, which I wasn't sure of before.

Now, that gives me:

Element, seat heater
cloth R/L 1J0 963 555 B
Element, backrest heater
cloth R/L 1J0 963 557 C
Element, side heater
R/L 1J0 963 556 B

I had also emailed Potterman at parts4vws a few days ago, and he responded a short time ago. He informed me that the leather parts listed below, are no longer available. From that information, it seems to me that the heater elements listed for the cloth seats are pretty much universal.

leather R/L 1J0 963 555 D
leather R/L 1J0 963 557 D

If I can find a set of the cloth elements used, I'll be great. The best price I am seeing is through 1stVWparts, and that is about $545 total for two sets. Pretty expensive, but it will be OEM, and unlike the aftermarket units, I will have the bolsters elements as well. Even out the cost of the elements, as I'm seeing a set of aftermarket elements being around $320. The $225 difference is actually less than the cost of the two bolster elements.

Anybody know where I can get them used on the cheap?

Okay, for anyone else needing this in the future, if you buy a harness that someone took out of their car, and you get frayed ends for the wires going to fuse 44 & fuse 5, I was able to figure out which repair wires you need.
Fuse 44, you need 000 979 227
Fuse 5, you need 000 979 225
These are simply yellow repair wires, about 18", with a connector on each end. You buy one, and you get two connections out of it.

I ended up just going to the dealer, but they tried to charge me $8 each, when the MSRP is listed as $4.84. I mentioned that, and they brought it back down to reasonable, which is still a tad pricey for a wire with two 5 cent connectors on the end.
Also, of interest, if you look at the Kufatec.de web site, they sell the harness for the heated seats. I've known this for some time, but their shipping makes it cost prohibative. I was able to get a better deal through the classifieds. However, they do supply some good information:

They show the four wires that you need to connect. One is labeled Masse (ground), and the other 3 are labeled Kl. 15, Kl. 58b, and Kl. 30. I'm sure these are labels for what pin socket they are to be plugged into, but I still need to find that on a wiring diagram. My home PC took a dump last night, and I'm waiting on the motherboard to be replaced, so I can't look at my Bentley CD. Does anybody have the Bentley that can show me what those match up to? Again, I'm trying not to splice. I know that two of those will go to the fuse box, and it shouldn't be too hard to match up once I get the car pulled apart, but what about the illumination pin? If Kufatec has a pined wire, then it must plug in somewhere, and we aren't expected to use scotch locks to splice it in.

Oh, and yes I did look at the diagram that Tongsli posted, but I'm not getting much out of it. I don't see anything that would seem to match up with Kl. 15, Kl. 58b, and Kl. 30.

* fuse 44
* fuse 5
* earth point
* any blue/grey wire in the dash illumination

* And 2 wires to the 6 pin connectors under the seats.

Some useful urls:

http://vwgolfr32.co.uk/heated-seats.pdf

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/VW-Teesside_Heated-Seat-Kits_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ11849853QQftidZ2QQtZkm

hi guys ive been reading this topic for a good while (link was on vortex) and im still really stumped on everything (im use to working on aircooleds).now im going to be wiring my car for cloth heated seats.i guess i use the diagram shown?also i noticed the part #'s for the repair wires for the green/brown connectors on the dash switch...what would be the repair wire #'s for the connector under the seat?thanks

68redbug2000jetta said:

hi guys ive been reading this topic for a good while (link was on vortex) and im still really stumped on everything (im use to working on aircooleds).now im going to be wiring my car for cloth heated seats.i guess i use the diagram shown?also i noticed the part #'s for the repair wires for the green/brown connectors on the dash switch...what would be the repair wire #'s for the connector under the seat?thanks

Click to expand...

Look back on the second page at the post from Oldpoopie

oldpoopie said:

Ok, turns out I had a little crisis getting the connector housing (1J0-937-731) at the seat. IMPEX said it was out of stock in north america, as did my local dealer. I ordered it anyway from my dealer on thursday. Then, friday evening, I contacted GSXR600 of mb pierburg fame, and asked him to source them from germany for me. He said no problem. Well,long story short, the dealer calls me sat and says the parts are in! /images/graemlins/eek.gif Turns out the old # was supplanted by 2 new parts.


They are: 1j0-937-713 (pink locking tab)
1j0-937-714 (blue locking tab)

The two parts slide and lock together forming the complete connector. You'll have to insert any repair wires before you lock the 2 connectors together. You'll need 2 of each. Here are some pics:

Click to expand...

Also, consider going over to Vortex and looking at their parts post. If you look under Golf/Jetta MKIV, often users will be selling the whole wiring harness and switches out of a wrecked MKIV. Could save you a lot of time and effort. And if you want to go the new route, look at http://www.kufatec.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p170_Seat-Heating---Harness---VW-Bora.html/XTCsid/4007b6c78f6a8b6312f02e7326696c87 You will pay a premium for shipping, as they only ship via FedEx from Europe, but if you can find anyone else that needs wiring harnesses, you can offset the shipping costs to more reasonable if you split the costs. Either that, or order many harnesses that you may need in the future, just so you don't have to keep paying for the shipping.

i read his stuff.i already have the connectors under the seat (well one half...other half is missing due to the dealer warehouse sending the wrong part so i have to try and get a exchange).it said for pins 1,3,5,6 i need part # 000 979 135 and pins 2,4 i need 000 979 227 but that looks to be for the dash connector but i dont see anything listed for the 6 pin connector under the seat.here is one i wired already...does it look right?the wires seem to be bigger than the dash wires.thanks

Heated, powered, & memory

A buddy of mine just picked up some seats (from an 01 GLX, he thinks) that he is going to install in his 02 Jetta TDI. Right now, he has standard seats. I've done the heated seats install, so I'm going to be able to help with that, however, I haven't been able to find any write ups on the powered & memory. Anybody know anything about that? About all I know is there are two more plugs in the seats. I think I read somewhere that the powered portion should be easy to hook up, but the memory is more complicated.

Anyone?

Heated seat thread back from the dead.

Question....
What type of connector do I need in fuse box position #44? My fuse box doesn't have the metal plugs so I can't plug in a fuse & wire to power.

If you're going for the factory wiring job you'll have to get some VW repair wires from the dealer.

tamorgen said:

Okay, for anyone else needing this in the future, if you buy a harness that someone took out of their car, and you get frayed ends for the wires going to fuse 44 & fuse 5, I was able to figure out which repair wires you need.
Fuse 44, you need 000 979 227
Fuse 5, you need 000 979 225
These are simply yellow repair wires, about 18", with a connector on each end. You buy one, and you get two connections out of it.

Click to expand...

Here is the answer you had wanted....

AH... thats what a repair wire does. Makes sense now. Thanks!!

heated seats

Guys,

When I wired mine up, I had only the double clip/prong repair wires on hand. I used fuse position 44 and 33 for my wiring. The hardest part of installing heated seats was getting to the back of the fuse panel!

Eric

Shenandoah said:

Guys,

When I wired mine up, I had only the double clip/prong repair wires on hand. I used fuse position 44 and 33 for my wiring. The hardest part of installing heated seats was getting to the back of the fuse panel!

Eric

Click to expand...

I wired mine up non-factory. I actually just used an inline fuse holder and connected it to the switched termial under the dash. This way I save a few $$ from the repair wires. Plus I was able to use 14 AWG the entire way. I feel a tad safer knowing that I have thicker wire, and I noticed that my seats heat up faster than my friends factory seats.

Food for thought I guess.

Heated Seats

NB_TDI

I used the 2.5mm repair wires (I had a bunch on hand because I ordered the wrong wires when doing my OEM HID install). The 2.5 wires are 14 gauge, if not a little bigger. I then ran 14 gauge wire for the rest of the wiring to the seats. I didn't want to run to overheat a smaller wire.

Eric

back from the dead again, subscribed

Seat Mod for people with Bad Backs

2004 TDI Jetta Wagon

Hi, I am comfortable in my seat while driving, but with the sides of the seat hugging my back and legs, I feel like my shoulders and hips are being pushed together, and in turn my lower back aches - I have torn muscles in my lower back from sports.

What I need is for my seat to be like an old school bus seat from the 70's (old green seats), where the back is flat, and the bottom is flat.

Am I able to buy flat bottom and flat back seats?

Do you think it is an easy job for an upholsterer to remove the heaters, cut away the hugging side foam mouldings, replace the heaters, then sow it all up?

In other words are the heaters stuck to anything, or can they easily be taken in and out?

Mr. Clean,

My heated seats retrofit was done using an aftermarket heated seat kit. They have a pad that sits on the bottom seat and a pad on the vertical part of the seat. With this style, the shape of the seat pad really doesn't matter.

I'm not sure how OEM VW heated seats are set up.

Eric

Back from the dead once again. I just finished the factory style heated seat install, and am getting no heat coming from the seats. I see 12VDC going into the switch, but only 3.8VDC at the driver's seat and 1.8VDC at the passenger seat.
Does anyone know if that seems in range? I did test continuity across the leads to the heaters themselves. They are all good. The continuity across the temperature sensors was open for both.
Does this point to bad switches?

John

Shenandoah said:

Mr. Clean,

My heated seats retrofit was done using an aftermarket heated seat kit. They have a pad that sits on the bottom seat and a pad on the vertical part of the seat. With this style, the shape of the seat pad really doesn't matter.

I'm not sure how OEM VW heated seats are set up.

Eric

Click to expand...

flashmayo said:

The continuity across the temperature sensors was open for both.

Click to expand...

Continuity is a poor test for the temperature sensor's function. They're actually thermistors that generate a variable resistance with changes in temp. According to my very innacurate $4 meter, at ~72°F, the temp sensors should be reading around 7,700 ohms. As they warm up, the resistance drops. I get around 5,000 ohms with it sitting in the warm air stream behind my laptop CPU cooling fan ~100°F.

Also recognize that the voltage you read on the wires at the bottom of the seat are relative to the response provided by the thermistor. If you have unplugged the seat to take your readings, the thermistor looks like an open circuit and the voltage reading should be very low. You'll need to make your measurements with the seat connectors attached.

Another thing to consider when you are making your resistance measurements for the various heating elements themselves is that the typical MkIV seat has 4 different heating elements: Two lower bolster elements, one center bum element, and one lower back element. You can't seem to measure the lower bolster elements separately due to the way they are wired straight off the green plug. The lower bum, you can disconnect the 4 conductor plug under the seat and measure the appropriate wires (not the black/white or brown/black, those are the thermistor. You want the Black/Yellow and Brown solid). The seat back element is the remaining two conductor plug that branches off the green plug under the seat.

where2 said:

Continuity is a poor test for the temperature sensor's function. They're actually thermistors that generate a variable resistance with changes in temp. According to my very innacurate $4 meter, at ~72°F, the temp sensors should be reading around 7,700 ohms. As they warm up, the resistance drops. I get around 5,000 ohms with it sitting in the warm air stream behind my laptop CPU cooling fan ~100°F.

Also recognize that the voltage you read on the wires at the bottom of the seat are relative to the response provided by the thermistor. If you have unplugged the seat to take your readings, the thermistor looks like an open circuit and the voltage reading should be very low. You'll need to make your measurements with the seat connectors attached.

Another thing to consider when you are making your resistance measurements for the various heating elements themselves is that the typical MkIV seat has 4 different heating elements: Two lower bolster elements, one center bum element, and one lower back element. You can't seem to measure the lower bolster elements separately due to the way they are wired straight off the green plug. The lower bum, you can disconnect the 4 conductor plug under the seat and measure the appropriate wires (not the black/white or brown/black, those are the thermistor. You want the Black/Yellow and Brown solid). The seat back element is the remaining two conductor plug that branches off the green plug under the seat.

Click to expand...

My measurements were made on the black/yellow and brown wires with the seats plugged in. If I read the wiring diagram right, that tests continuity of the seat and seat back heaters all at the same time. It looks like the heater elements are wired in series and the individual plugs for each are glommed together in the 6 pin connector at which I was doing the testing. This all speaks to the heating elements being good. Continuity testing for the thermistor is a different story. The ambient temp was about 65 F tops, so getting a open reading with the tester in "Beep on Continuity" mode doesn't indicate a problem with either of these either.
It's hard to test for 12VDC at the back of the switches with the seats plugged in now that they're installed. I do see 12V coming off the #30 lug of the relay panel, through the #44 fuse. I have to assume that the switches are getting 12V. They glow nicely and dim when the dimmer is adjusted, which is cool.
At the 6 pin connector green beneath the seats I get the 3.8 and 1.8V reading between brown (ground) and I want to say black/white. It's the only place where you get a voltage reading. Dies this point to bad switches?
I do get some heat out of one of the seats, at the base of the seatback, but it's definitely heating up. the other seat is not heating up at all.
I wonder what the voltage reading is on a functioning seat.

John

Hey all, I'm hoping to wire up my heated gti seats soon. I haven't ordered a kufatech/tmtuning harness yet, just been researching. The only part that confuses me is the dimmable wire connection. Is there any splicing/soldering connection necessary, or does it just get plugged in to the back of the light switch connector? On page 7 of these instructions: http://vwgolfr32.co.uk/heated-seats.pdf seem to indicate that it just plugs right into receptacle 17 in the light switch connector? Is that correct? If so, does the dimmable wire come with a connection on the end for that purpose?

Anyone gone this route, or some other route without splicing/soldering?

So the last few posters were in Santa Monica, CA - Santa Cruz, CA - and North Palm Beach, FL and this is a thread about heated seats???

Must get a lot chillier in North Palm as opposed to Palm Beach.