I have been looking for a way to add cheap heated seats to my Max. I bought this kit on Ebay made for Subaru Forester’s, hoping I could make it work to add front and rear heated seats.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2432096805

Bought it for $46 shipped, comes with seat heaters and all wiring (with in-fuses and a relay) included. It is quite a bit of wiring, and is protected by a combination of heat shielding and plastic tubing. Going to be fun to hide all the wiring…

The wiring is clearly labeled. There are no install instructions. Right now, I don’t feel comfortable enough tearing apart my interior. From previous people I have heard that taking off the original seat covers isn’t that tough, but putting them back on can be a real PITA. I was planning on getting seat covers for winter anyway, so I am thinking to put the seat heaters under the seat covers.

What comes with the package:

-A set of 4 switches that have high/low on them, do not light up. They come inside a Beige panel (The other auctions also have gray panels)

-Complete wiring for all the seat heaters to the main set of high/low switches, and the wires that need to be tapped into the Max's fuse box.

-8 Seat heaters total (4 for back, 4 for butt), made by “Farmont Skylite, LTD. Carbotex Seat Heater 4720384A00”. A bit of research shows that they are carbon fiber seat heating panels. Here’s the website: http://www.cartekdist.com/productinfo.html

-Seat heaters come with plastic clear rods, and black / orange plastic material that is sticky, like duck tape. I’m assuming it’s used to hold the heating element’s wires down.

-Plenty of tie-ties.


I have no affiliation what so ever with the person whom I bought these off of on EBay. Money’s just a little tight, and I really wanted heated seats for the winter. Hope this post helps someone…..

Edit: Here's my old thread about what's needed to install seat heaters, some useful info:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....t=heated+seats

Here's a rear leather seat install:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...hreadid=106060

Pic / Some Instructions:
http://www.lotuselancentral.com/hotseat.htm
http://www.seatcomfort.com/heatinstall.pdf
http://www.pfyc.com/store/merchant.m...ry_Code=GPSRCH
http://www.leatherseats.com/pages/installation.htm
http://www.mccgp.com/upgrades/heatedseat/patspage.php

 

Good luck with the project! Get lots of pics if all goes well.

 

Right now do you have cloth or leather? If leather, I would not just sandwich the elements between the leather surface and your winter covers. Just doesn't sound good for the seats.

 

I have cloth seats. I'm planning to also put some material behind the seat heaters, so they aren't directly on top of the seat covers.

 

you might want to look under the deat to see if yo ucan mount them to the underside of the seat. I would imagine that those things will get pretty toasty. With them under the seat the heat might dissipate throughout the seat bottom. The seats aren't usually that thick. I;m sure that you can pop off the back cover on the seat and mount them there also. My .02, good luck

 

They can't be TOO hot... they are designed for people to sit on. I doubt they'd do anything to the seats... leather or not.

So are you just putting them between your seats and your covers, Uconn411? I'm thinking about doing this before the winter, but if I do I'll be putting them under the leather.

 

You'de be surprised.

 

just wondering if you guys know if the Max comes prewired for the seat heaters (I heard the connections are already there, and that you only need plug in and install heaters). Also, is it possible to use the stock switches for an aftermarket heater? thanx!

 

tkostiuk4,

If you look under you front seats and see a wire connection hanging, that's the power for the seat heaters. If you don't have that, I've heard you can tap the power off of the seat belt connection. I'm sure that you could use stock switches, it would just be a matter of different connectors between switches, which you could just cut and solder anyway.

 

I am going to take out my back seat cushion first, and see how difficult this project looks. I'm just nervous when it comes to the front seats. I don't want to screw up the reclining feature on the seats, be it powered or non-powered. I also don't want to have loose fabric, notice all the creases in the seat. If I feel its above my skill level, I'll go with seat covers. I'd much rather change an alternator or power steering pump, than mess with my interior.

 

What a cool idea....always kinda felt bad I didn't look harder and find a Meridian ed. Max when I was buying (not too many new '03s left when I did though) and I'd love to have heated seats....thanks for the info, will defintely have to keep this in mind