Latest project has been to retrofit heated seats, that's heated pads into existing seats..

I won a fully loaded mirror switch with heated seat buttons & folding mirror on ebay for less than £10 so decided to retrofit heated seats. Ironic as today is the 1st day of Spring....

So for the heating mats I again ordered off ebay from China, quick delivery, well packet, universal mats with decent power rating.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-seat-h...-/181421805638



Seller is heatedseat, item description is "Car seat heater pad*2,universal heated seat pad,fit all 12Vcars"

Once received I cut off the supplied connector as it will not fit and removed the built in thermal fuse as I thought it was too big to sit on comfortably. I then trimmed them to length & chamfered the corners so you do not see them through the leather.

Then to the bottom pad, the one you sit, on I added a 5K thermistor to allow control feedback to the switch. I put it in the middle of the pad so its under my bottom when you sit on it.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2x-5K-THE...E:L:OC:GB:3160



For the wiring I ordered the retrofit harness of www.bmminiparts.com, part no. is 61 12 0144084 - Retrofit cable set, heated seat. Total cost in UK was £28.84 including delivery. Its special order but they can get them from Germany no problems.



And to connect the wiring from the harness to the pads I used 2 of these

http://www.armcoshop.co.uk/products/...429-334uk.html



3 PIN POLYCARBON CONNECTOR 10A

And for the power feed from the fusebox I used an add-a-circuit type thing rather that ripping out the fusebox to get to the back connector.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ADD-A-CIRC...-/251650492205



Fitting the pads into the existing leather seats is a PITA or should I say PITF (Fingers). You need to seperate the covering from the foam & then stick the heater pad to the foam using the fitting double-sdided-sticking-tape.
It can be done WITHOUT taking the seats out of the car by removong the seat rear covers & working slowly and carefully.

Retrofit instructions are here :- http://www.minipeople.lt/failai/db/2...ing_system.pdf

The wiring harness was fitted as per the instructions mostly but I did not run the feed from the column switch down the RHS of the car under the sill. Instead I ran it down the centre of the IP, behind the radio & down under the front console. The connections under the LHS sill were as per the instructions.

To get the wiring under the carpet I unbolted the seats but left them in the car and ran the wiring from hole to hole under the carpet. Then bolted down the seats.

And rather than remove the fusebox I used the add-a-circuit and put it in the specified fuse hole as per instructions, adding a 10A fuse.

 

reserved

 

FYI, seen two Countryman in with aftermarket heated pads added to front seats like this. In both cases it damaged the OC3 seat mat for pass side making for a costly repair for owner....

 

no seat occupancy detector in R53s

 

I thought there was one in the passenger side, cause with weight and without weight ill have different times where it pass pass airbag off

 

It was on the passenger side on 1/2005+ US MINIs I believe.


Some more heated seats retrofit info here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-retrofit.html