Fitting Exmoor seat heaters

[CheekyMonkey]

Hi

I need some advice on fitting seat heaters to my Defender, and I'm hoping that someone more knowledgeable than myself might have already done this. I bought a pair of the Exmoor seat heaters, which turn out to be a Waeco kit complete with the heater pads and all the wiring and switches.

I've got an 02 TD5 Station Wagon with the centre dash, so plenty of space for adding extra switches. I was hoping to swap the switches that came with the seat heaters for a pair of Land Rover's own switches but now that I've had a look at the kit I'm not sure if this is possible. The switches with the kit have three positions - off, low and high. But as far as I know, the Land Rover switches are a simple push on or off, and they also seem to have a thermostat fitted. Is it a simple matter of using the wiring in the kit, and swapping the switches over, and are the Land Rover switches the best way to go, or is there a better option.

Thanks for your help.

Nessan

[davie]

Hi there,

I got a set of these fitted recently also - lovely now in winter!

Do you have a cubby box fitted? If so what we did with the switches supplied in kit is to mount them just in front of cup holder slots in cubby, run wiring underneath it so all quite tidy.

Can post a picture later if you want to see it done.

Davie

[CheekyMonkey]

Davie

Thanks for your reply. I have got a cubby box, but I didn't think of using that, though it does sound like a neat solution. And yes, a picture would be useful if you can post one.

Nessan

[gazelle]

The switches with the kit have three positions - off, low and high. But as far as I know, the Land Rover switches are a simple push on or off, and they also seem to have a thermostat fitted.

I can confirm that the Winter Pack option switches for the seat heaters are just on/off. It is either b****y hot or off. Not a problem if you are wearing winter clothing.

Martin

[Snagger]

I have fitted two of these kits.

The first, older on/off kit to my RRC soft dash, using just the mats spliced to the vehicle's (then redundant) seat wiring loom, using original RRC soft dash/300Tdi Discovery switches. They're probably the same switches as used in the latest Defenders.

The second kit has two elements per mat, with three wires (one common and two independent for the elements). As I recall, the white wire is the common one and is connected to the thermostatic cut-off switch in one mat per seat. You can connect the brown and blue wires together and run them to a relay controlled by the dash mounted Defender switch, so both elements come on or off together. The thermostat breaks the circuit if the pad exceeds 60oC, and reconnects automatically as the mat cools. If you want to have selectable temperature, you could use a three way switch similar to those provided, or just fit the kit as per its instructions. I used 20A three-way Carling Technologies switches that match the other accessory switches on my centre console, with the middle position activating just one element and the lower position activating both. I set the contacts up such that I don't need any relays in the circuits, just a fused supply, the switches and the mats.

[davie]

Hopefully the photo attached makes sense to my ramblings.

Switches are inserted into cubby box, then wires run out through hole drilled in base to run under box - much tidier, then relay attached to the bulkhead area somewhere or wherever you find a tidy space. So virtually no wiring seen.

The two rear switches seen in photo control the X lites i have - sooooo nice for night driving, definetly worth buying!

[CheekyMonkey]

Chaps

Thanks for all your replies. Davie, that's a very neat installation that you've got and certainly looks like the easiest way of doing it. But since I've got the 02 dash with the blank switches for the heated seats already, I'd quite like to use that, although I've realised that the actual push on-off switches are probably too complicated, unless I can also sort out the thermostat that Land Rover uses. So, first plan is to see if I can find the Carling switches that Snagger suggested to fit in the place set aside for the electric windows, as I'm unlikely to ever fit those. But failing that, plan B will be to adapt the cubby box.

Thanks for your help.

Cheeky

[Snagger]

Chaps

Thanks for all your replies. Davie, that's a very neat installation that you've got and certainly looks like the easiest way of doing it. But since I've got the 02 dash with the blank switches for the heated seats already, I'd quite like to use that, although I've realised that the actual push on-off switches are probably too complicated, unless I can also sort out the thermostat that Land Rover uses. So, first plan is to see if I can find the Carling switches that Snagger suggested to fit in the place set aside for the electric windows, as I'm unlikely to ever fit those. But failing that, plan B will be to adapt the cubby box.

Thanks for your help.

Cheeky

The Carling Switches won't fit the standard TD5 dash unless you enlarge the hole. I was just trying to point out that with some switches you don't need relays and can just wire the heater pads straight to the switch and earth. I don't know what the rating of the standard LR switches is, so I would use relays to be safe, but in your position I'd definitely be using their switches in the dash, not the Exmoor Trim kit switches.