[michaelpalmer7]

Hi all,

I recently picked up an 09/14 BMW F31.

It's got quite high spec but unfortunately lacks heated seats (nice to have in the UK). and has Manual black Dakota Leather Luxury (non-heated) seats.

I thought I would have a go at adding heated / memory seats and have done the following so far:

Fitted a replacement centre console with heated seat switches (don't light up but are there ready).

Coded the cars VO with option 494 (I think that's correct) and coded FEM_BODY ECU (not sure if I've missed any others).

Also it looks like there is some wiring and big yellow plugs under the seats.

I was hoping that before buying some seats which I can pick up quite low cost the LEDs on the heated seat switches would start lighting up giving me the confidence that if I buy the seats I can get them working but the buttons still don't light up.

My priority is heated seats but I'm thinking that if I'm going to the effort of doing this and it doesn't make much difference I may aswell go for electric memory as well.

I guess my questions is that does anyone know outside of what I have already done what would be required to get upgraded seats working.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom.

Michael

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by michaelpalmer7

Hi all,

I recently picked up an 09/14 BMW F31.

It's got quite high spec but unfortunately lacks heated seats (nice to have in the UK). and has Manual black Dakota Leather Luxury (non-heated) seats.

I thought I would have a go at adding heated / memory seats and have done the following so far:

Fitted a replacement centre console with heated seat switches (don't light up but are there ready).

Coded the cars VO with option 494 (I think that's correct) and coded FEM_BODY ECU (not sure if I've missed any others).

Also it looks like there is some wiring and big yellow plugs under the seats.

I was hoping that before buying some seats which I can pick up quite low cost the LEDs on the heated seat switches would start lighting up giving me the confidence that if I buy the seats I can get them working but the buttons still don't light up.

My priority is heated seats but I'm thinking that if I'm going to the effort of doing this and it doesn't make much difference I may aswell go for electric memory as well.

I guess my questions is that does anyone know outside of what I have already done what would be required to get upgraded seats working.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom.

Michael

Have been retrofitting Heated Front Seats (494) and Rear Seats (496) myself over the past month.

david51 has proven invaluable with his knowledge.

I had memory seats so the wiring harness FOR THE FRONT SEATS had all necessary wiring in place. However, from all the schematics and part numbers I studied, I do not believe that would be true of non-memory Seats (though I could be surprised/wrong).

Do not believe you have the control units unit the seat that are needed either - and depending on the set of seats you purchase, they may/may not come with the units.

On top of that, I have found the BMW wiring thinking is 100 years old with the driver and passenger seat power to be in Series instead of Parallel so if one side goes out, the other goes out as well.

Because of this insane thinking, it doesn’t surprise me that nothing might work correctly until it’s all in place and coded correctly.

This retrofit has turned into a much more difficult project (especially rears) than I ever expected.

And forget about trying to buy a BMW wiring harness for the rear.

I am not finished either at this time.

Good Luck!

[michaelpalmer7]

Thanks for the info.

Will try and catch up with david51.

Good luck with yours also.

[SSportWagon]

Interested in this - ours came from Florida so no heated seats as well and am interested in doing the swap .. have memory seats.

Also as an aside, are the mirrors heated even if no set/steering heat ? My car is actually coded as S823A Hot-climate version .. ??