Putting Leather powered seats in a JDM

[Ardesco]

So I put the powered leather seats I bought in today.

 

First things first, roll down the windows and disconnect the battery to prevent accidental sparking . Then I started off by pulling out the seating disconnecting the existing wires that I do have.

 

 

I then had to start stripping more stuff out because I wanted to run the new wires under the carpet. I pulled out the centre console and put in the heated seat switch I got courtesy of zmanalex (I've not wired these in yet though). I pretty much pulled everything out that was in the seat area (I probably could have got away with doing less, but I got a bit carried away).

 

 

 

A bit of time on google told me that all I would need is a power and an earth to get the powered seats working (Big red wire is power, big black one is earth. No surprises here ).

 

I already have a nice thick power cable going into the cubby behind the drivers seat (where the sub would be on a UK car). So I used that as my power source. This means the seats are constantly powered and I can move them around when I don't have the key in the ignition, I could have tried tapping the 12v power from the rear power socket but decided against it. I have some wire in the store that you'd normally use for household sockets so I decided to use that. It's good quality wire even though it doesn't look very automotive. The earth wire is grounded to the chassis in two places to make sure it's a good earth (I'm a bit OCD).

 

 

 

I then pulled the wire out through the available holes and routed it under the carpet, pulling it out where the existing wires come out under the seats. I made sure I have enough slack for the wire to get dragged forwards and back when the seat is in motion and then joined it onto a couple of connectors (also supplied by zmanalex). I'm glad I got them because I haven't had to cut up any wires in the car, I've just joined my wires up to the connectors and plugged them straight in. I gave it a quick test to make sure it all worked.

 

 

 

 

Then I wrapped all the wires up nicely to make sure they can't connect with any metal floating around in the car and start sparking.

 

 

 

Once I had my wires in place I stuck all the trim back in (and gave it a quick clean).

 

 

 

Then finally I stuck the seats in and reconnected the battery..

 

 

Took me most of the day because I faffed a bit and took my time (and it was bloody hot) but it really wasn't that hard.

 

Very happy with the result.

[jumping350]

good little write up I had to do the same with mine, though I just ran fused power straight from battery then tapped into the ground on the existing loom. another jdm converted

[Ardesco]

The thick power cable I have going into the cubby is a fused power lead from the battery. It's there in prep for a car PC if I ever get round to doing it. I've only procrastinated about it for 5 years so far...