Heated & Cooled power leather seats

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Brian Bonehill

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No leg room issues. With the seat all the way down and the tilt column straight, there's a bit over 6"clearance.

One notch up on the tilt column was 7" and all the way up was 9"
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Awesome pics. Good explanation. That helps a ton!


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Brian Bonehill

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****....
now I gotta do this.
No kidding right? I was feeling weird about looking outside the model family and this guy has me looking up Ford seats. 2021 is going to be awesome. [emoji1787][emoji1787]


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Tickdoc

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dang nice work.
 

swilson143

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My Suburban got a major center console upgrade today. My original center console was cracked and was overall very lacking.

I scored a center seat from a 2010 F250 on eBay for under $200 shipped to my door.

Similar to how I mounted the F150 seats, I cut the rear mounts off and built new ones. I created my mounts to tie into the reinforced OEM seatbelt holes in the floor. I wasn't using them since I'm using the Ford seatbelts which are integrated into the seats.

For the front mounts I drilled through the tranny tunnel and had to install the washers/nuts from the underside.

I was able to keep the seatbelt functional, moving the attachment points to the new mounting bolts.

It's really nice having a higher center console that doubles as an arm rest.

The bottom seat cushion flips up and is lockable if I had the original Ford key. It had a nice plastic tray beneath the seat with a 12 volt outlet. I went ahead and removed it because I plan to build a pistol safe in that space.

And now Suburban seats NINE!

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89Suburban

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My Suburban got a major center console upgrade today. My original center console was cracked and was overall very lacking.

I scored a center seat from a 2010 F250 on eBay for under $200 shipped to my door.

Similar to how I mounted the F150 seats, I cut the rear mounts off and built new ones. I created my mounts to tie into the reinforced OEM seatbelt holes in the floor. I wasn't using them since I'm using the Ford seatbelts which are integrated into the seats.

For the front mounts I drilled through the tranny tunnel and had to install the washers/nuts from the underside.

I was able to keep the seatbelt functional, moving the attachment points to the new mounting bolts.

It's really nice having a higher center console that doubles as an arm rest.

The bottom seat cushion flips up and is lockable if I had the original Ford key. It had a nice plastic tray beneath the seat with a 12 volt outlet. I went ahead and removed it because I plan to build a pistol safe in that space.

And now Suburban seats NINE!

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Awesome mods there sir, beautiful Burby.
 

TheFishBox

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Well I’m looking at getting a set of Ford seats so I hope you are ready and willing to field some questions when I find the right set.
 

Brian Bonehill

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1986
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Suburban
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No leg room issues. With the seat all the way down and the tilt column straight, there's a bit over 6"clearance.

One notch up on the tilt column was 7" and all the way up was 9"
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I picked up my CTS power seats today. I can’t wait to put them in. Going to start tomorrow night.


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swilson143

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Make sure to post photos! Can't wait too see how it turns out

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Rumbledawg

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nice!
i put a set of king ranch seats in my crewy about 14-15 yrs ago. worlds above my old clapped out benches.
quite the wiring nitemare under the newer seats. mine are from an '02 or '03 i belive wit just 2 wires. leather ten way power with seat heaters, no cooling. if people want to put ferd seats in their cheby, i would strongly recommend getting a tilt column as well if ya don't already have one.
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Cmdieselk

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Mark
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1986
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K10
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383
Now I don't feel as bad about having furd seats in my k10, but mine are buckets from an escape with a 90s truck center fold down. And yes I know the seats look nasty, they were junkyard seats I put in before selling the truck and just bought I back after selling it years ago.
 

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sthomps30

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The next weekend I tackled the wiring for the heated and cooled features. These seats don't use traditional seat heaters. They use a thermal electric device (TED) and a blower motor. The TEDs are capable of heating and cooling. They heat or cool the air that the blowers pass across them.

There is a TED and fan in the seat back and another set in the seat bottom. Wiring these up was a bit more complicated than I expected. I searched hard, but found no wiring diagrams online. I drew up a wiring diagram which should simplify things for you.

You'll need 2 double pole double throw DPDT switches, 4 relays, 2 red LEDs and 2 blue LEDs.

I was not able to find reliable information on wire color coding online, but I can talk you through this.

Finding the fan wires is easy. Each fan has three wires coming out of it, VIO, RED, & BLK. You're going to supply +12V to VIO and ground the BLK wire. You'll find it's easier to follow the VIO & BLK wires through the harness connector and connect up to whatever color wire Ford used rather than trying to get in the confined space next to the fan.

Next you'll need to find the wires to power the TEDs. Check the wiring harness coming out of each TED. Two wires are a larger gauge than the rest. Those are the ones you want.

You're going to experiment to figure out the polarity. Make sure your fan is on first. You would not want to power up a TED without air blowing across it. Then connect your TED wires, one to +12v and the other to ground.

Now check whether the TED is heating or cooling the seat. Note that if the TED is pushing hot air through the seat cushion then it's pushing cool air through its exhaust port beneath the seat. The reverse is also true.

If you reverse the wires to your TED, it will do the opposite function. If previously it was heating, reversing the wiring causes it to cool. Now write down the color coding of your wires So you keep the polarity correct.

Once you've identified the polarity of each TED, you'll tie the upper and lower TEDs together so that the polarity is consistent. that way the seat back and seat bottom are both cooling or heating together.

Now that you've figured out the polarity of your TEDs and have identified your fan wiring, you'll be able to wire up using the attached diagram

Note that using this wiring method eliminates any thermostat features that Ford had designed it with, to keep the seat from getting overly warm or cool. You'll simply switch off your seat when you're warm enough.

TROUBLESHOOTING
If when you switch your seat to cool it is actually heating, you've just wired your switches to the wrong relays. Pull the wires off of both pin-85 connectors and reconnect them to the opposite relay.

If when you switch your seat to cool you find that one cushion is cooling and the other cushion is heating, then you've just got the polarity of that TED backwards. Go back to the wires for the misbehaving TED and reconnect them opposite of what you had done.

NOTE
The color coding of the TED wires in my diagram is just for demonstration. You'll be using the color coding you wrote down when you figured out the polarity of your TEDs.
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You sir, are a genius & godsend. Been trying to wire '14 MKS seats into a '02 4Runner. Got all but the Ted - could only figure bout 80% of the wiring. With your diagram as inspiration I got the fan & TED powered up - now just need to figure the hot/cold switch... huge upgrade to a 20 yr old truck & bad back will be mu h happier on future road trips
 

sthomps30

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C30
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289
Just to follow up - cause I've searched a ton & only 2nd writeup/video I've understood... I got TEDFan working, just differently & with 1 on/of/on switch.

On/off/on switch- middle to +12v from battery
Other 2 + to 5 pin relay (has led so red = heat, green - was low = cool)

5 pin has left to ground, couple crosses with fan + out of relay

Outs to 8 pin DPDT there there are a couple crossed +/-

Regardless of which "on" on switch the fan gets constant +/- bit my DPDT switches TED hot/cold.

I'm no automotive engineer or electrician but will try to diagram.

For anyone looking at any TED seat swap fundamentals of wiring should be the same...

Checking on EE Forum to see if my idea for dual POT may add variable temp adjust
 

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