First Blog Post! This is a how to I wrote (quite some time ago) on how I installed Heated Seats into my Mazda 3 (Unfortunately I didn’t get photos of the process)
Tools Required:
- Heated Seat Pads (Bought these off eBay (literally search heater seats))
- Hog Ring Pliers
- Hog Rings (A small pack came with the heated pads)
- Needle Nose Pliers or Something to Cut Existing Hog Rings with
- 12mm Socket
- 14mm Socket
- A way to tap into 12v Accessory Power (Either tap into a fuse or or splice into the Cigarette Lighter)
- 19mm Drill Bit / Hole Saw
The Process:
Disconnect your battery and wait 10 minutes, cause airbags. Then start removing the seats and bring them inside to work on.
Might as well vacuum under your seats while they are out.
At the bottom of the seats, there is a metal base, with 4 12mm sockets, take this off, then the bottom section is free.
My passenger side had a weight sensor on it, unplug it from the connector so you don’t break anything.
The bottom of the seats has this really annoying clip, you gotta bend it out a bit to free the fabric. Once free, start pulling everything back until you can see the first set of hog rings.
The hog rings are along the side of the seat and also in the center. You can either turn them around till you see where they connect and bend them apart, or cut them (I choose to Cut them)
I only pulled off one side of the seat and then the centre set of rings.
Once free, lay down your heater pads, and mark out the middle, you need to put the hog rings back over these.
Cut around the marked areas on the pads, then place it back down, tuck it into the seat seams. Once your happy with it, take off the adhesive backing and place it down, be sure to push the middle bit down into the seams.’
Grab your hog ring pliers and ring, and start putting everything back together. You pretty much loop the ring around the plastic on the seat fabric and around the metal rod in the seat seams.
Repeat the same process for the seat back (If you got heated pads for the back) and then repeat everything for the second seat.
Next up is the electrical, I ran it all through the center console and the heater pad wires come up underneath the seat, next to the airbag connector (looks neater).
I tapped into my cigarette lighter Positive and negative. You can do this either by cutting the wire and splicing into it, or the easier way is to get yourself quick splice connectors.
I chose to mount my buttons next to the cigarette lighter itself. It seemed like the perfect spot and is pretty easy to get out.
Take the panel off, grab your 19mm drill and drill away. Be sure to get it looking even (unlike mine), please don’t wing it.
Plug it all in, give it a test, have a nice toasty ass.
