Heated Seats Retrofit

[Faheem]

Cheers @gookah not an expert by any means yet but I keep at it and hopefully one day I'll be at your level

Anyway.

Got the seats back together today. Faced a couple of issues but the main one at the moment is if I try and move the seats backwards they move forwards and if I try and move them forward they go back. What am I likely to have cocked up? They worked fine before!

 

[t-tony]

Can you have mounted the switch the wrong way round mate?

Tony.

ps. Does the other seat do the same?

 

[gookah]

Your article refers to 3 hog rings at the front of the seat, there were at least 30 on each of my seats, no way they could all be reached with plyers. Some you could hardly see as they were "buried" in the foam. Whilst the E36 seat is likely larger and a different design, the hog rings tie the leather to the vertical and horizontal tie bars embedded in the seat foam giving it it's "pleated" shape. Maybe the Z3 seat is different to the E36 seat, I have not had experience of doing these as my Z3 and MC have factory heated seats. If my experience is of no help, so be it.

What is a "bold statement alert" anyway??

I don't think we were talking about your e36 323i seats, but the Z3 seats to which the removal and refitting of hog rings is mentioned in my article in the knowledge base. My zed also had the factory heated seats, but as with Faheem's, they needed a repair,

a 'bold statement alert' is from someone that is not familiar with the actual job, telling someone with actual experience of that job that what they have done is not possible.

 

[gookah]

Cheers @gookah Faced a couple of issues but the main one at the moment is if I try and move the seats backwards they move forwards and if I try and move them forward they go back. What am I likely to have cocked up? They worked fine before!

not sure it is possible to plug the connectors in the wrong way up, but maybe possible. Did you remove the seat motor wires from connectors at any point and mix up on refitting.
Is it both seats? have you put passenger base on drivers back rest, and vice versa?

 

[Faheem]

That's what I thought. So tested it again with a battery and swapped tried swapping the polarity which fixes the forwards and backwards issue, however then the up down works incorrectly. I. E. Pushing the switch down takes the seats up and pushing the switch up takes the seats down.

Passenger side works fine, there was a lot of splicing and soldering so I bet I've cocked one of the wires up. Will have to remove everything again

 

[hard top]

I. E. Pushing the switch down takes the seats up and pushing the switch up takes the seats down.

Minor inconvenience in my book, at least it works.

 

[Faheem]

Here is my issue. As said in the video, tried with two different switches to rule out the switch or the wiring within it. This is definitely an odd one as I recall it working correctly before. Unless I've lost the plot and its still working fine.

I still can't work out what the wire below is for. Two connectors can plug in to the up down and the forward backwards motor but the other end can't be plugged into anything...

For the moment I've just got the switch plugged into the forward backwards motor and the up down motor via the existing connectors as the connector photographed above can't be plugged into anything.

Here's the YouTube video showing the issue.

View: https://youtu.be/T8seafT365c

 

[Faheem]

Minor inconvenience in my book, at least it works.

Yep. It works but I'm just interested to know why it's stopped working properly more than anything really. Because even with the switch I was using before the seats still move incorrectly.

 

[hard top]

I'm just interested to know why it's stopped working properly more than anything really.

Must have stuck something in the wrong hole Faheem.....

 

[Faheem]

You'd know all about that @hard top

 

[gookah]

View: https://youtu.be/T8seafT365c

Faheem the brown wire is always earth, and not live, on a Z3.
I notice that you have you live connected to it which will reverse everything. Make sure you put the 12v positive to the red/white wire and the negative to the brown one. that will sort out the back forward, then you need to check (and swap) the up/down wires

 

[hard top]

Well, that was my very helpful technical explanation for today's 'Technical Question & Answer' section on this forum @Faheem

 

[hard top]

I notice that you have you live connected to it which will reverse everything.

See, told you @Faheem, wrong hole....
Hahaaa.............

 

[t-tony]

Must have stuck something in the wrong hole Faheem.....

Just like you !

Tony.

 

[Faheem]

@gookah Cheers Pete, my only question is that originally I tested this in the car by plugging all the connectors in, noticed the issue there and I've only tested directly with a battery after removing the seats from the car.

When plugging it into the car I'd have no control over the earth or live as it's just plug and play and the connectors can only go in one way. I've gone through all the connectors for both motors to no avail.

And I've just figured that the heated seat feature is now working fine for the base but not the back!

I'm done for today. Not even patience left. So will take another look tomorrow.