Wiring waeco heated kit to defender td5

[Tibout]

Hi guys just received my heated seat kit. It's a waeco one. I'm going to fit them this evening. Trying to get her warm for the coming winter as all of you know the heater in the defenders are not great. 

The instructions doesn't makes sense (at least to me).

from what I understand the red wire goes straight to the battery.

The black one to the body

The orange one have to go to the ignition feed. So anyone know which wire(colour) I could tap into from the fuse box the the gear stick? Or if someone has installed this before and done a different way would be happy to know how. 

The kit come with relays and switches so I don't think I need to add anything to the wiring loom!

 

thanks

Thierry

[Mo Murphy]

Ignition switched live is white/green Thierry.

Mo

[western]

check the cable adjustment on your heater too, I wrote this sometime ago --------------- 

 

[Tibout]

Thanks guys. 

Was looking at some wiring diagram and brown/white seems to be from ignition switch to fuse box or white direct from ignition. 

But I'll check the White/green later if it's there I'll tap into it for my live feed. 

Ive check the blower cables couple of months ago following your very helpful write up.

 

thanks

Thierry 

[reb78]

I always thought white (i.e. the entire wire) was ignition live??

[Tibout]

I thought white as well but I'll check them with a meter before connecting any wire. Would you just tap the orange wire into it or add a fuse as well?

[Mo Murphy]

White/green is fused. It shouldn't be too much as the relay will only draw milliamps.

Mo

[Tibout]

Thanks Mo

I'll tap it in the White/green. 

I'll give you updated

[Snagger]

6 hours ago, reb78 said:

I always thought white (i.e. the entire wire) was ignition live??

Correct, which is why the fuel solenoid wire on a Tdi is white, but that is for the "driving" position on the ign switch, position II (III being start).  The green wires (which power gauges and stereos amongst other things) are on the I position.

[reb78]

But when running or sat engine with the radio on, all of those have a 12v feed dont they? (I'm not being argumentative, just trying to understand the difference) is it as mo says that one set is fused?

[Snagger]

Yes, the kit loom is designed so that you can have the seats on with the engine off, but with the safeguard that when you remove the key from the ignition, the power is cut off automatically, just like the stereo.  It is not voltage sensitive, though you could simply fit a voltage sensitive relay if you wanted to ensure they could only work with the engine running, but the current draw is pretty low, only a few amps, so you'd have to leave the seats on for quite some time to flatten the battery.

I didn't bother with the relay on mine - I only used the heater pads and main wires and plugs and wired them into a pair of illuminated Carling Tech switches on the dash with the other accessories, the switches fed from a permanent live and the warning light in the switch coming on with the heaters.  I did the same for the front screen, rear screen and wing mirror circuits, the roof lights and rear wiper - they're all feed from a permanent live, and while a heavy duty relay may be a useful safety net, I'm in the habit of checking all switches when leaving the car and checking switch selections every few minutes while driving, making sure I'm aware of every function of the vehicle at all times.  I find that enough.  The switches in the kit didn't have a warning light and are very small, so a visual scan of them is not as easy as a bank of identical large Carling Tech (Condura) switches, so a relay may be useful if you use those small switches.

[Snagger]

Just a thought, but if you have the 2002+ dash, rather than the older type, you could use genuine switches in the centre dash for a neater job.  They do have warning lights.  I would expect the wiring to be in place with a common loom, but that may not be the case (it was on my RRC, which only needed the addition of the switches and seat pads).  They are still much less obvious than the switches I used, and so a relay would be useful, but if the wiring is already fitted, then it'd already include a relay port, you'd just need to add the relay.  The down side is that it'd be an on/off system, not a high/low/off system like with the kit's three position switches.  Frankly, the kit is very powerful and using both loops gets too hot for comfort after a couple of minutes and also damages the seat covering by causing the glue between fabric layers and the also the glue between the cover and foam to fail, giving baggy, wrinkly seats.  Just having the one loop would probably be best, and would avoid the possibility of overloading the original loom in the dash.

[Tibout]

Hi guys

Installed the heater kit today and wiring it using the kit loom. I've used the switch provided and will change to a carling switch on the dash. I've tap it with the green/white wire and this only power the unit when it ignition is on as suggested. they Live feed come straight from the battery.

The only annoying thing is that even on the off position the red light on the switch stay on!!! But the pad doesn't heat up in that position which is good!! 

I've put the switch on the cover of the fuse box it's discreet and tidy. It's very warm on position 2 i guess that would be just for heating up then put on position 1

 

[Snagger]

Tibout, read my post above.

[Tibout]

I did and going to change it soon have just ordered the switches for it. Thanks

[Snagger]

I meant about the two loops being too hot and damaging the seats.  I used this kit in my 109 and it has wrecked the fabric of the seat bases, and I can't use the two loops for more than two minutes, though it does speed up the time for the seat to be comfy before selecting one loop.  I used their old kit on my RRC (which didn't have heated seats but did have the wiring in place) - that has a single loop which gets quite hot until a thermostatic cutout switch in the back pad kills the power, which takes ages to reset (well over 10 minutes), which has also wrecked the bottom cushion fabric by destroying the glue.  Once I've had the fabric re-glued to repair them, I'll get the later kit and wire up a single loop on the RR to stop both the over heating and the cut-outs.  So, just avoid long use of the dual loop function.

[Tibout]

Yeah I get you. I'll take it on board and just use the first setting. It does heat up quicker on the 2nd setting but I always switch on the landy at least 5 mins before I get on the road to work every morning. I like getting the engine warmish so I guess if I switch the heater kit on by the time I'm in it should be hot and won't need the use of the 2nd setting!!