I've been thinking about getting some seat heaters for my '94 GXE. If anyone has any experience with doing this, any suggestions about where to look would be greatly appreciated.

 

Try retrofitting some seat heaters and switches from a 4th gen Maxima. I heard they came in some models of those.

 

Interesting idea. I didn't even think that any Maximas even had this feature. Now I gotta find out how much they cost.

 

I've also contemplated the idea of installing warmers from any other car into mine. Shouldn't me too bad.. just get the warming devide itself, get a switch and bam! literally BAM if you dont connect it right. You can end up getting electrical problems which I dont like.

 

I think I'll just get one of those aftermarket kits. I watched Pimp My Ride two days ago, with a busted up Honda Civic and they installed something that looked like stuff on this site www.heatedseatkits.com. The price isn't bad, I just hope I don't f*ck up my seats in the process.

 

That is really cool...I want to do this now. Thanks for that link! If you mess up your seats I have some replacement grey covers I'll sell you for pretty much nothing.

 

Awesome. I'll keep that in mind. But hopefully I won't need it.

 

Be sure to get plenty of pics for us non pioneers

 

It's pretty much a standard feature in Canada - but not until the 4th gen. I have them in mine though. They were wired in using a kit. The on/off switches are where the coin holder used to be. They sit very nicely in the space there with a little dremel help.

 

PICS!!!!!!!!!

 

Alright I got one seat done. The little button is all you can see in the end result.

I used the 3M double sided tape to attach the heating elements to the seat cushion. Putting back the seat covers was the hardest part of this procedure.

I connected the seat heater to the cigarette lighterwires, as I was unsure that the wires for the seat motors would have enough power (4.7A, 60W). I'm out 60$ but at least my @ss is gonna be warm in the winter.

 

was it hard to get the cover on without moving the heating element from where you stuck it? I want to this in my 4runner and maxima since they both have leather.

 

No, that wasn't much of a problem. Actually, that wasn't a problem at all. What you do is place the seat cover on top of the heating element, and just stretch the edges over the corners of the seat. Getting the hog rings to stay in place while you try to clamp em down is a different story.

 

Wow not bad, the button itself actually can pass for stock-ish. how's it working?

I think someone might be tellin you to disconnect that from the cig lighter and tap into something else cuz it'll end up killin.

I would really like to do this, but on all 4 seats, if it was cooled as well it'd be perfect.

 

i'll be that guy.

tap power from somwhere else

or else.. you'll have to do what blootoof here just got done doing. replacing your Kentucky Fried Wire. Not to mention fire risk if it chooses to melt/burn near your butt.

 

What should I connect it to then? You think the wires from seat motors have enough power for that? I thought about connecting it directly to the battery, but I would need some kind of relay to make it shut off when the engine isn't running. And I don't know enough about wiring to do this myself, unless someone tells me exactly how to do that. So anyone?

 

well... i have never tapped wire for anything added aftermarket like that. If you really need to you can just tap it off any of the fuses that are for "ign ON or START" or "accessory" if you want. I didn't mean to lead you astray... i was just humoring what BlooToof posted. But we're right, that you may want to find a beefier power source. but make for darn sure it's fused. Find out the correct fuse rating to use for it, and tap that fused line from an appropriate power source. It is possible you see, that tapping an already-fused power source will end up blowing that fuse by running some extra accessory (namely, seat heater) that the fuse wasn't intended to accept the load for on top of what it is already fusing for.

i hope you aren't confused. by my tired-person typing antics.

 

No, I see your point. I was gonna look into it later, anyway. My cig lighter already feeds two other accessories.

 

wholly crap then dont use it! The cig lighter is meant for 5a max!

You should be able to pawn the heaters off the power seat line, just uprate the fuse the correct amps. Might be worth it to use the same fuse and test it now, heaters on and mess with the power seats alot and see if it blows the stock one.

Then move the other accesories, as the cig lighter wiring is pretty small.

~Alex

 

Actually, the cig lighter is 15 amps max, and the other two accessories i was talking about are a small glow wire and a radar detector, so they don't consume much power. Power seat wires were my first choice but I decided to go against it. I'll give it a try though sometime next weekend.

 

So I've gotta ask one question, do you feel the heating pad under the seat causing it to feel annoying/uncomfortable? cuz I've sat on some that have felt quite bla!

 

No, it actually looks and feels perfectly flush with the seat. But then, it would probably highly depend on the seat cover fabric, cushion shape and brand of seat heater element. I switched the seat cushion with one from my parts car '91 SE, as well as the cover from it. My '94 GXE cushions had a slightly different layout, and had a groove across the middle of the seat, which would make heating element sink in and feel uncomfortable. So if you wanna do that, I'd advise you to use '91 or earlier model seat cushions.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=327803

It's such a worth-while mod - especially in the cold north

 

i wonder if they element would be visable with leather?

 

I concur. Iowa ain't the cold north but it gets pretty damn cold here in the mid-winter.