e46 heated seats retrofit

[doyleeoin]

I'd like to retrofit oem heated seats in my car. It's for an e46 saloon with leather sports seats. Does anyone have or know where I can get heated seat elements? Or even just front heated seats and I can take out the elements myself. My seats are in very good condition so I want to keep them if possible.

Thanks
Eoin

[JohnH]

You can get the heat pads on eBay, you'll need the button pack from a breaker or a dealer and the retrofit loom too.

@[Gar] did it to his e39 so should be able to point you in the right direction

[doyleeoin]

I can't find the heat pads on ebay at all. Maybe I'm not typing in the right thing?

[Gar]

Afaik that guy on ebays long gone haven't seen any in a good while the loom is also nla from bmw now , best option would be be heated seats from a breaker and fit them or go for the universal kit

[doyleeoin]

Ok thanks. I'd prefer oem ones if possible so I'll try source some. I can get the switch panel on ebay no problem.

[Gar]

The switch panel Is the easy bit but you will need to fit a loom under the carpet and in behind the dash connecting the seats to the button and the car itself

This is a good guide http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=341242

[thetangerine]

Have heated leather seat here from a e36 if they would b any good for ya to butcher up to fit to ure seats. Drop me a pm if interested

[Jimmy325ci]

I have a spare switch for an e46 for €20 if you still need it? You will need a different unit that the switch fits into as well, unless you wanna cut out the panel? Not sure what that panel is called .. It the whole panel with the Sunglasses holder and ashtray???

I fitted a set of M3 heated seats (which I would highly recommend because of how comfortable they are!) in my 325ci and used part of the link above. It wasn't the most difficult job but had to buy the multi switch and new centre console above the gear stick to fit the multi switch properly. I was going to wire it directly to the fuse box but really wasn't arsed simply because there is very little room behind the dash of an e46 anyway! SO I ran a wire straight from that battery (fused) to the multi switch. Ran an earth wire straight from the multi switch. Then ran dual sore to the PS and DR seats. You'll have to confirm which wires you have to connect into under the seats to get power but they are quite easy to remove from the multi plug. The loom should already have the cables to power the heated seat. The Multi switch also has a second multi plug that controls the DSC which you'll already have in your car which acts as a remote cable to activate the switch panel.

The carpet in an E46 has a break in it that runs from the hand brake under each of the front seats towards the doors which is ideal for running that wires and then cable tie to the existing multi plug under the seat (just to keep things tidy!).

The only trouble I have ever had with the seats is that they stopped working after I installed a new head unit because I forgot to plug in the DSC cable which mean NOTHING worked. After taking the entire centre dash out and checking every inch of cable I finally realised what I did ... such an eejit

Great Mod though especially with the weather we are having atm!

If you need any other info let me know. BTW I have a friend up the north who is constantly braking E46 M3s so if you need an M3 interior let me know. Jimmy

[Jimmy325ci]

No idea if any of these will help but I took some photos of the work I had to do.

One of the photos shows where I ran the cables.

Hope this helps!