Heated seat retrofit with pictures

[gatojurko]

Is it heated?

[gatojurko]

Just changed central console from 2005.! Full buttons...everything works... except heats, of course!

What about relay? Does it have it under glove box like heated wheel relay?

[amancuso]

Originally Posted by Gregory891

It's a good question, however E53 don't have automatic seat heating. It's activated by the switch strip just in front of your front ashtray. Switches are at the extreme left and extreme right.

Italian market E53, I have one originally with cloth mechanical seats. I retrofit heated leather sport seats up front, leather rear (no heat) and the matching door cards. Fairly easy to do, I did a write-up on this ~4 years ago.

Someone might have retrofit a basic panel in the seat, have you checked?

Can't seem to find your thread on this. Is it as simple as getting a set of heated seats and the correct switching center? Or is there actual wiring that needs to be done?

[RFaber]

I did my heated rear seat retrofit a while back, easy!
the relay is the first one (light green) in the REAR fuse/relay compartment when you open the rear panel (where the subwoofer and gas cap release are)
I was lucky when I did mine, because I got seats that were the same color and material as mine.

I also did the PDC retrofit, the only un-nerving part was cutting holes in my bumper!
but they were marked out very well, and it was pretty simple to do!
running the wires was easy as well.

[itsbrokeagain]

Found the plugs under my seat the other week when I was doing my fuel pump. Sourced 3 other x5s with black heated rear seats so off I go to nab some stuff. Hope one of them has a good set of PDCs and folding mirrors as well.

[Ricky Bobby]

I don't know why but all of a sudden I am looking for used rear heated seats to swap -

[gatojurko]

I bought relay for rear seats...but that relay in trunk is only for rear seats! I will take off glove box and take a look...there is place for 4 fuses approximatrly!

I am not sure about front heated seats to swap them! Because I have 18 wires like that full console I changed it! My seats look the same underneath like those who has heating! Plus I have now tyre pressure control...of course it doesn't work... I do not have sensors in tyres!

[Gregory891]

I carried out this retrofit nearly six years ago and posted information for this (look under my id). In short, for the front seats you need to

(a) swap seats and plug in existing connectors to the car
(b) install the small control panel with switches (just above the front ashtray) to one with the switches for front seat heating.
(c) The passenger seat will work with further changes. The driver's seat will require either a jumper wire (an Austrian fellow posted this, based on his experiences), which I did to get the driver seat working.

The correct way is a add the relay that factory power seat cars have. It is located in the relay cluster of the FRONT fuse box. Part number is 61.35.8.365.960 (black, 5 pin).

You MIGHT need to add the fuse (front fuse box) for the seats, check your car. I didn't need to do so, even with a car with mechanical cloth seats.

[Bmwe5320023.0]

I got rear heated seats and my car was pre-wired so I was able to connect them.
Then I got the wires for the switches from under driver's side carpet.
I see that Relay 1 in the trunk is responsible for rear heated seats.
I tried swapping relay 2 and relay 3 into the relay 1 slot.
When I push on the switch, it only illuminates for a second and that's it.
Anybody had that happen?

[RFaber]

Check the seat heater lines for a short?