Rear Heated Seats Retrofit
 

Hi,

Has anyone tried putting switches in to enable rear heated seats? I know that my car has heated seats (rear) but not hooked up. I have already ordered switches and a new switch cover. Keeping my fingers crossed till the parts arrive and I open everything up to see. If somebody has done it I would appreciate some reassurance. BTW I have a 35D with Premium package and cold weather (heated front seats, heated steering wheel, front heated seats, headlight washer).

I am confused, If your car has heated rear seats why wouldn't they be hooked up? You either have the option or you don't...........right?:dunno:

All rear seats have built in heaters (atleast the leather ones). There are no separate part numbers for heated or non-heated seats. They are not hooked up at the factory as the option was not ordered. My guess is that they can be hooked up if all the other wiring is in place by ordering switches and perhaps recoding. A lot of people have done it on E53s.

I did not know that. Thanks .

Very interested in this. Good luck. I will be following this thread.

Has anyone had success with this?

that would be great.. Im sure it can be done!! Who is gonna try it?

Many people said that about my X3 as well. I figured I would buy the switches and hook them up, but before I did, I pulled the rear seat to make sure the heating elements were actually there. They weren't. The wiring harness wasn't there either. I believe the confusion came about because the parts book only shows 'with heating elements' for all vehicles. That would save them stocking double the number of parts. They essentially charge you for the elements whether you need them or not when you buy replacement covers. It doesn't mean they only built them that way though. Let us know what you find out when you open your seats, the E70 X5 could be different than the E83 X3.

I haven't pulled the rear seats off as of yet (it is too cold out to do any sort of DIY projects). I did see the part number for the wiring harness (in case I need one, not sure if it is the harness or wiring of the heating elements itself). The part numbers are as follows, if anyone is interested:


61 31 6 988 957 - switch x 2
51 16 6 963 374 - switch cover
61126975451 - wiring harness (L)
61126975454 - wiring harness (R)

Hopefully the American built E70s have the heated seats as opposed to the the Austrian built E83s. I would indeed be disappointed if I find otherwise!

It isn't a big job to check, just lift the rear seat squab, the bottom piece, straight up.

The American built E53s didn't appear to have the heaters built in, so I don't know why the E70s would. Seems like a cost that the manufacturer could avoid, and they were pretty good at trimming things out of the E70 builds to cut costs (like tools, storage area props, etc)

Ok, finally decided to check for wires. As I have the 3rd row option I couldn't simply pull up the seat. I actually just raised it up so I could take a peak inside. I did see some wires but not sure if those are for switches indicating the seats are locked in place or for the heater. Judging by the wire gauge, I think they are for the switches. Does someone have 3rd row option with heated seats who can look under the seat and perhaps take a picture? I will try to post a picture tomorrow during the day.