New Power Leather Heated Seats, Overhead Console, and Custom Headliner

[Abletobecain]

Hey all,

Just wanted to share some of my recent tweaks to my daily driver/dog car, "Charlie."

So after I added angle iron to extend the stock seat I realized that I could put just about any seat I want to in the car. I found these sweet power heated seats out of a 2002 Nissan Pathfinder and I only had too modify one bracket to get them to fit!



Wiring them was a different story though. There were a bunch of wires and plugs under there so I took them inside to figure out what's what and I figured out which wires went to the airbag real quick!



Luckily it split right along the seam except for one tiny spot.



And I was able to remove the cover and resew it pretty well.




I'm glad I started with the passenger so when I got to the driver's I knew what not to touch. However, the driver seat had the automatic memory buttons and two additional motors for the seat pan so there were about 8 plugs and 40 wires under there connected to a circuit board. It took quite a while to figure out what goes where and which wires needed power and what not but I finally got it and didn't blow the seat up!



After I got them in and the power functions working I had to figure out where I wanted to put the seat heater switches. I was contemplating putting them in a logical place like right by the ebrake handle. Decided not to though as I didn't want to cut into the original trim and cause I'm going to be placing an ammo can over the ebrake anyway to have a larger cubby for the center console.

I was also in the process of installing an overhead console that I pilfered from a 1998 Isuzu Trooper.



And I realized that there was room on the back wall of the garage door opener cubby if I installed everything just right. So I ran my wires all over...a constant power runs to a switch in the blank by the shifter then to a 6 pole fuse block behind the stereo. From there power runs directly to the seat motors but also up to the seat heater switches in the overhead console then back down to the seat heaters. Power also runs up to the over head console for the maplights and the clock. This is the only pic I really took of the wiring:



It also shows the cuts I had to make in the headliner for the overhead console but I wasn't worried about it. I used the original headliner with a nasty waterline from the leaking roofrack (which is fixed).



Well I couldn't have that headliner looking so gross so I did something about it. I realize it's not for most people...but I love it.



The overhead console just looked too out of place for me so I decided to do something about that too.




Now I have a clock in the DLX...and MAAAAPLIIIIIIGHTS!!!



And here's the seat heater switches:



Oh, and I did this a while ago but never shared it...I cut a queen mattress in half like sandwich bread so it wasn't so tall.



Then templated the back end with the seat backs removed and cut it out.



Now my boy has the whole back end for a bed.



It looks a lot better with all the trim back in.



Thanks for looking!

[ARCHINSTL]

Neat repair job on the seat! I'd bet you JUMPED when that bag went off! Did your pants change color?
You have been a busy beaver!
Tom M.

[slimdude85]

Funny story about airbags. I work at a dealership and we had a tech doing airbag work on a late model truck. For some reason he had the key in the ignition in the on (battery still connected) position while he was installing the airbag module. Located inside that module is the yaw rate sensor which communicates with the module to let it know of potential rollover scenarios. As he was attempting to plug it in he realized it was much easier to do so while the module was upside down.... as soon as all the terminals made contact, it thought it had rolled over and deployed the side curtain airbags and fired off all the seatbelt tensioners. It scared the crap out of him and only hurt his pride a little. Everyone else jumped. A new headliner, two side curtains, an airbag module, and four seatbelts later, he didn’t make that mistake again.

[Petros]

Ha! I bet you did not know your new seats had explosive devices in them!

I guess if you are a fan of air bags (of which I am not) you can retro fit them to the tercel this way. Personally I would remove them so they do not go off when you do not want them. OTHO, you can leave them in the passenger seat and rig it to a panic button, just in case your passenger gets any ideas of doing you harm (kind of like the old Bond car ejector seat). You never know when that feature might come in handy. Rig it so the door flys open and the airbags push the passenger out the door, for a clean get away.

Otherwise those are great seats. I had fitted some similar leather seats out of a Nissan 300zx into an import Isuzu pickup in 1986 (I got them for free because the car they came out of was made in to a Race car, and they were throwing away the unused parts). best seats I ever had.

I do not recall rigging the switches that much trouble, it has motors for fore and aft, up and down, back and seat tilt, and air pillows in the lumbar and under the thigh, six in all. seemed silly, but common now.

That overhead panel is a great way to increase storage compartments on an already small passenger compartment (at least our cars have great head room).

I have been fantasizing about modernizing the interior of my Tercel4wd for many years now, putting in newer features common to more modern cars, just to make it look "new" again.

[The Professor]

Subaru seat heater switches!

[Abletobecain]

Tom:
I was on the other side of the seat when it went off so it didn't hit me but it sure was LOUD...something like a .45 ACP going off in the house. I think it happened too fast to really scare me or make me jump...I just felt the great shame of being an idiot set in instantly. My dog's pants changed color though...if he was wearing pants. He didn't leave my side for at least an hour...poor thing.

Slimdude:
That's funny...I bet y'all razzed him pretty good for that one. Expensive mistake too. Luckily mine just cost me a little extra time.

Petros:
Well I knew that there were airbags thanks to the conspicuous "SRS SIRBAG" tag right on the edge of the seat back. I thought I had the line traced out pretty well to the motors with a green and a red wire so I'm thinking perfect...ground and power. Boy was I wrong. Hah. I had thought about an ejector seat type thing...that would be one hell of a prank to pull on someone. Unfortunately it was the passenger side that I blew up and since it can't blow up twice I just tucked it back into the foam and sewed it up. The driver's seat, however, I removed all the wiring going to the airbag but I left it in to keep the proper shape of the seat back.

I love the seats...so much more comfortable that the original and being black and a matching pair they don't really look out of place. The passenger seat wiring was pretty straight forward but the driver's with the automatic seat positioner buttons literally had a circuit board under there. If I'm remembering correctly 5 wires had to go to power to get everything to work right. The biggest PITA was that the wires changed color at every plug and the color codes from the FSM were not intuitive at all. It took a bunch of checking and double checking.

The OH console was one of my first ideas for the car. I hate not having a dedicated space for a pair of sunglasses in every vehicle. And the maplights!!! What a convenient feature that I never even thought about until I didn't have them.

What else would you do to "modernize" your interior?

Professor:
Those switches are from the same 2002 Pathfinder that I took the seats from. Maybe they share a common manufacturer with Subaru?

[BaileySims]

Jeez. Looks like I have some catching up to do! I have some ideas I need to work out with mine but it won't turn out anything like yours. You've done a fantastic job with all these mods, especially the dog bed!

Does the charging system hold up well with the seat warmers running?

I want to get a better alternator for mine before I add anymore electrical stuff. The 70amp one I have now barely cuts it for what I've got going on.

[Abletobecain]

Thanks Bailey. My dog loves the bed. I've laid back there a few times too...pretty comfy.

I haven't noticed any problems with the charging system. I was running both seat heaters for most of the day after I first got it done but it's warmed up here so they haven't been used for a bit. The power seats are a very brief lag...if they're used at all. I have the constant power ran to a switch so I can use all of the new features without turning the key to on. I've left that switch on a few times by mistake but only once with a seat heater on and it started up just fine. I've left it on plenty of times besides that and all that runs is the clock. I was wondering if I'd need a stronger alternator but I think it's alright for now. Perhaps I'll have to get one when I have as many tricks as you do.

[The Professor]

Professor:
Those switches are from the same 2002 Pathfinder that I took the seats from. Maybe they share a common manufacturer with Subaru?

Nissan used to be a majority share holder in Subaru, so they actually shared more parts than one might expect from the 70's through the 90's. I think the connection has faded in the last 20 years, but yes that switch is used for seat heaters in at least three Subaru models in the late 90's/early '00s. I think they even have the Nissan logo on the side of the switch.

Other examples of the shared components are rear differentials and housings, window switch assemblies, wheel bearings, brake pads, interior switches, etc.