factory seat heaters

Back in June bought the wife an 06 sequoia limited. Pairs great with my 05 DC. Now that's it winter we're using the factory seat heaters, not impressed. Our '16 Camry seat heaters will cook you on high. The Sequoia is what I would call luke warm... Both sides are about the same. Did a 2 hr drive recently on high and forgot it was even on.

Anyone care to share how well their factory heaters work? Not sure if I should accept what they are, or look into replacing. Winter fishing season starts soon and I was looking forward to having good heaters to look forward to.

 

I installed aftermarket bun warmers on my 05.
I did it when they did Katskins.
They seem to warm up nicely.
High is too much for me.
The Mrs. says it’s fine.

 

I thought the seat heaters in my moms ‘04 sequoia were a gimmick so toyota could put more buttons. I thought they were weak, but i live in texas, so i didnt use ‘em.

 

The seat warmers in my '05 DC are lame. I don't even bother with them anymore. Take too long to warm up, and then provide minimal heating.

 

Thanks for the replies. Guess I will just accept them as not being great and leave it alone. Too bad, my Camry warmers will give you 3rd deg burns if you leave them on high, which after a few hours outside in sub freezing conditions you really appreciate.

 

You can find some awesome kits on amazahn. If i ever commit to driving to alaska i might get a 4 seat kit to install in the front seats.

 

I installed the Amazon kits, and honestly it's not nearly as hard as you would think it should be. Having done it once already, I could probably do a complete set (upper and lower) for both seats in under two hours. Having the factory wiring and switches already in place would make it a snap.

That being said, the low setting is kind of slow to warm up (5 minutes or so), but once it's going it's just about perfect. On high you'll sizzle like bacon.

 

Remember which brand you purchased? Looks like quite a few options.

If price is right I might try to replace drivers side to begin with, I already need to remove it to fix something else.

 

These are the ones I used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002U6IL9O/

I'd recommend reading the reviews too... I don't want to be solely responsible for recommending something you might not like. (LOL!)

 

Since I have factory heaters it should be an easy install. for $40 I'll order a kit and give it a try. We spend 6-8 hours fishing in the cold and a good seat heater on the way home will be worth some time and money.

 

Mind posting a review when you do it? My sequoia seat heaters are lukewarm also

 

I'll try to. With work and the holidays not sure when I'll get to it. Have a few other sequoia projects I'm working on as well.

 

I had no existing wiring. No existing switches. I’m slow and meticulous. Amazon large size I bought.
I also installed them in the rear outboard seats. Very pleased with mine.
Start out on High for initial heat, then throttle back to low when they get right to toasty.
Mine on low are great. Drive all day like that. I bought larger ones because I wanted more
back heat.
Guys prolly know this but never Neal on seats with heaters. You bust a wire and you get a hot spot or no workie.

 

Care to share which kit you used?

 

I bought this kit.
I bought another cheaper kit, and didn’t use it.
The one pictured is jumbo.
For fat ass people like me.
The rocker switches I used for the rear. They worked fine.
I wired the fronts to the used factory switches I bought.
All the lights worked on the fronts EXCEPT the backlighting.
I didn’t know how to do that. Would have looked good backlit
at night, but I just feel for the switch I need.
BTW, both front and kit rear switches have different color light
Indicating which setting is activated.

 

bought and received the dorman 1 seat kit. hope to get it installed in drivers seat over the Christmas long weekend. good timing too, forecast shows highs in single digits starting next week so the wife will be very happy! If it works well I'll do the passenger seat also.

anyone have insight on replacing the factory heat pads with an aftermarket one? The instructions only cover new installation. Think it will be pretty easy but not sure what to expect.

I'll report back results.

 

Hoping someone who's better at electrical can chime in.

Have it apart. Factory pads are 3 wire, the new pads are 1 wire. Using continuity I know which wires from lower pad correspond with upper (red to od green, white to green)

Schematic I have is for tundra, should be the same for sequoia, but some colors aren't matching.

Green (LG) from seat harness becomes Red.
Red/blue (R-L) from seat harness becomes black.

New pads only have red/black. So which wire color from new pad should be spliced to harness colors. Given it's a heater does it not matter?

I have a bracket to fix first so have some time to think about it.

 

I'll note that my install was different because I didn't have any factory wiring, so had to use the aftermarket harness (with OEM switches only), but maybe this will help. Use the harness they sent and splice into the factory switches. Both heading pads will plug into the included harness (that has the relays), and the factory switches should feed into where the replacement switch is wired in line.

They're both three wire if you use the included harness and bypass the factory wiring. "G" (ground) goes to black and white wire at the switch (black on harness I think). Green wire is High, and goes to corresponding Hi wire (I think this was red and not red/yellow). There were two wires if I remember correctly, one red and one red with yellow stripe. The other one (red I think) was Low.

 

I installed the bottom pad only, the upper pad was harder to get to and with leather and side airbag in there I chickened out. Was the right call apparently, with the new lower pad only the back one still worked much better. So I guess a wire or connection was bad. So hi now gets hot enough that I turn it down to low, low is warmer than it was previously.

Also had a loose connection point so the seat rocked slightly. With a little ingenuity got that fixed. Has all the power seat adjustability options so there is a lot going on in there.

Bit of work to get in there and the hog rings buried down in the cushion were not easy. Ended up using ag wire instead of hog rings to reinstall. Should work just as well and easier to install.

Did comparison of redone driver's and factory passengers seat and without a doubt the drivers side now works much better.

I'll do passenger seat in same way as drivers with just the lower pad, hopefully get to it this next weekend. I'll try and get a pic of how I did the wiring.