Hey everyone. Just purchased a 2012 FJCW R56 and it's been great so far! It's got the N14 engine but it looks well maintained with no oil leaks and only 45k miles in 4 years. It also has an extended factory maintenance program for another 2 years or 100k miles. I did search for a 2013 JCW with the N18 but couldn't find one with the options I wanted.

Anyway the 2012 I got has everything I wanted except heated seats but the other day I was checking under my seats and to my surprise I found the heated seat modules and the wiring harness for heated seats under both front seats. I even checked the part numbers to make sure they were for heated seats. I then checked the fuse box and found two 30A fuses for driver and passenger heated seats. I was like ok that's interesting. So I thought maybe I have the buttons hiding under the center panel with toggle switches but only found the soldering blanks where the buttons would go. I think I may get the auto climate control unit with toggle switches that include heated seat buttons and plug it in and see if it turns them on. If not it may just need coding. I'm pretty confident that if it's got the wiring with modules under the seats and the fuses then I may also have heating elements inside the seats. Does anyone know if the factory installs heating elements in lounge leather seats as standard? So far I may have a really easy heated seat retrofit.

 

Looks like some cars are pre-wired even if they are not optioned with heated seats but it's hit or miss:
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Discussion-t8007_ds262819

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

When I was searching for fJCWs I found one with a little heated seat switch on the side of the seat where the height adjustment is. It looks like aftermarket but I think it is a retrofit from MINI IIRC (could be totally wrong on that). Check for that too if you haven't already but I have a feeling you would have noticed that already.

 

Thanks for the reply. I don't see any switches on the side of the seat. From the links you provided it looks like some seats have the heating elements and some don't. One person said they had the fuses but no wires connected to the back of the fuse box. So I think I'm going to check behind the fuse box and see if I've got wires behind there. If there's wires behind the fuses it may have the rest of the wires going to the center buttons. My Mini does have heated washer nozzles, power folding heated mirrors and the headlight washers. Seems as if it has everything you'd get in the cold weather package except heated seats.

 

You'll probably have to re-code the vehicle order and appropriate modules to activate it if you do intact have all the equipment. This should be able to be accomplished with NCS Expert.

Now you have me wanting to go look at my car.

 

Have you checked the options list using bmwvin.com? That is strange if you have the rest of the cold weather pack stuff but not heated seats. Why a dealer would order a car like that, who knows.

 

I checked and there's no mention of heated seats. I know the vehicle was originally purchased in Florida which could be why the heated seats were not put on the order sheet.

 

I was wondering if I could check for power at the heated seat fuses using a multimeter? That would be easier than pulling it apart to look for wires. Here's some pics.

 

Did you ever find anything else out about this?