HOW TO: Add Leather (or power) seats to a KJ

Frozentoze · Jun 22, 2006

This is a lifesaver

Great thread. Just great - it was like reading the missing instructions for my 2 month long project.

I have an 02 renegade and I picked up Limited wreck seats from Ebay. I had both connectors on the seats but had the same issues with wiring that you did. I didnt go as far as to buy the circuit breaker, because I could never have figured out what hole it went in. I know the area under the driver's dash, but have no idea how I could tell which slot I needed. I was just planning on getting a 12V+ lead put in and running my own power and fuse to the seat motors. I am glad to know I can get the circuit breaker and it will work, at least for the driver side.

For the passenger side, did you say you spliced the driver side power and ran it over to the passenger side? I think I can pull that off, though I would really like to avoid pulling the console if at all possible - my seats are already in. I will probably just run a ground to one the of the seat retaining bolts if the ground under the seat is hard to reach.

The heated part is still beyond me. I may forfeit that. I figure it needs a 12v+ and a ground, but there are two reds in the connector and I cant tell which takes in the juice and which sends it over to the passenger side. You are right all the control wires go between the seats. The wiring diagram I have shows that, but it doesnt deliniate where the connectors are in the wiring. Besides, you dont want to make a mistake with this system and burn a hole in your seat.

If you happen to not be a ham radio operator, put some alligator clips on the terminals of a rechargable drill battery to move the seats.

grogiefrog · Jun 23, 2006

A little late... but nice job Chris! They look really good. I do love the leather seats in my KJ. Enjoy!

BluPhant · Jul 10, 2006

Re: This is a lifesaver

Frozentoze said:
For the passenger side, did you say you spliced the driver side power and ran it over to the passenger side? I think I can pull that off, though I would really like to avoid pulling the console if at all possible - my seats are already in. I will probably just run a ground to one the of the seat retaining bolts if the ground under the seat is hard to reach.

Hey.. glad to hear this helped, and that you were successful in your efforts. Yes, I spliced into the drives side wire. You may be able to avoid taking the console out if you can contort your arm in weird ways, but you will likely have to take out the seats to get under the carpet. It's not horrible.. just time.

Let us know how it goes.

-Blu

springroll · Jul 13, 2006

Nice work, is it possible to add a "Heated Seat" module to the factory-fitted seats? My one has all the power feature but heated seat

Boilermaker · Sep 14, 2006

Blu, thanks for the write up...after searching for power seat tracks for over 8 months i finally found a set that didn't come with the seats. I read thru this thread several time before i started putting in the tracks, and since i have an '05 checked my FSM. Turns out my FSM has some mistakes in it (it mislabels breakers no 1 and 3 in a few spots), and without your instructions i would have been toast.

The only thing i have left to do is replace the molding on the outside of each seat. Besides the fact that it's taupe and my seats are gray, i can't get the front part secured on to the track. Don't know if this is because i added power tracks to what were cloth seats. Part of the molding that holds the heated seat switch is being blocked by the bottom cushion. The molding came with the track, and fit before i put the seat on it...and all the other holes lined up well after installation.

Has anybody taken the 6-way switch off? I can dremel out a new hole for the switch and attach it to my old molding...if i can get the swich off.

BluPhant · Sep 18, 2006

Ya no probs, bro, glad to help out. Snap us a pic if you get a chance so we can get a better idea of what you're talking about. Prior to me doing this the only other leather seat conversion I knew of was a dude who did leather seats on non-power rails, and I can't seem to find where that was, thinking it was on some other board.

My guess is that with some fanagaling you'll be able to work it out. If you need to buy parts you're going to need a vin # with the right trim color in it, dealer bases all color related stuff off the trim code from the vin.

-Blu

mariewash · Oct 8, 2006

The Heated Seats Mystery resolved!

Thanks to this great thread, that my wife found, the plan to upgrade her '05 Sport to heated power leather has been...uh...hanging over my head for a few months now

Well, a pristine set of taupe seats from an '03 appeared on eBay from Certified Auto Recyclers in Ardmore, Alabama, and taupe is an EXACT match for those of you with the light khaki interior. I drove the 400 miles to get the seats myself, and these folks couldn't have been nicer or more accomodating. Cleanest shop I've ever seen.

Anyway, covered the seats in garbage bags and covered with tarps and tied into place in the back of my pickup, and that did the job - not a drop of rain the whole way home!

Now to the meat of it. Back seat swapped out just as Blu described, though there was no need to change the belt as it was a perfect match. Got lucky on that one

We put the front seats in and they looked beautiful, but we all already know that they didn't move. I purchased the circuit breaker and installed as Blu described, but still didn't get power to the second pin of the power connector as needed. I eventually ran new power to that connector to make it work.

I then sat down with the wiring diagrams for both the '05 and the '03, and it took several hours, but I got it figured out. There are three things needed to make the heated part work;
- Ground on both seats
- Power on driver seat
- Eight wires from passenger seat to driver seat

I made up a wiring harness using 16 gauge red wire for power, 16 gauge black wire for ground, and 18 gauge green, white, yellow, and blue to help separate one from the other for the other connections. I used a fish tape (electrician's snake) to run the wires from under the driver seat to the back of the console, then from there to under the passenger seat. Note that I didn't have to completely remove the console, just took the screws out and lifted it for access to the wires. This was literally a five-minute task with my wife there to guide me.

Now for the tricky part, and again keep in mind that these are '03 seats in an '05 Sport.

There are eight wires on the passenger seat and ten on the driver seat for the heater control. Before cutting off the connector on the driver seat, note that there are two fat red (with white stripe) wires in the connector. Mark the wire from Pin 5 so you know which is which. I use a small piece of electrical tape as a quick way to mark the wire.

There are two wires to ignore for the moment; the red/white one you just marked (from pin 5), and the brown/light blue wire from Pin 1. One at a time connect the other eight from seat to seat by matching colors. That may sound silly, but on the '03 seats, the wires are not in the same place in the connector on the passenger side as they are on the driver side.

Here's how the wiring worked out based on the pin numbers from the DRIVER seat.

Pin 1 (Brown / Light Blue) - Okay, I admit it. I've got no idea what in the Wide Wide World Of Sports this wire does. Not in the diagrams, no match on the passenger seat. I taped it off and everything still works fine.

Pin 2 (Pink / Black) - to the Pink / Black on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 3 (Red / White) - to the Red / White on the Passenger Seat. Again, this does not get 12V hooked to it even though it looks just like the "B+" line - it's the heater feed from the controller box on the driver seat to the heater in the passenger seat.

Pin 4 (Brown / Pink) - to the Brown / Pink on the Passenger Seat AND to power (+12V).

Pin 5 (Red / White) - Power (+12V) - no problem with connecting this along with the Pin 4 wire.

Pin 6 (Tan / Dark Blue) - to the Tan / Dark Blue on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 7 (Tan / Light Green) - to the Tan / Light Green on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 8 (Violet / Light Green) - to the Violet / Light Green on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 9 (Violet / Black) - to the Violet / Black on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 10 (Black / White) - Ground. I grounded this on both seats using the rear seat mounting bolt.

For testing purposes, I rigged up a 15Amp fuse to a male connector and used the relay power feed for the Daytime Running Lights that my Sport does not have. Sorry the picture's out of focus, but you get the idea.

The only thing left now is to find a good switched line for the power so there is no chance of leaving the heaters on when the Jeep is off, and to adapt the '03 seat to the '05 air bag and seat belt sensors.

Marie took it on the test drive, and aside from loving the power leather, she did complain that the leather is awfully hot. And then she turned off the heater and decided they weren't so bad :-D

Here are the pictures...

- Running the new wiring harness from under the driver seat to the back of the console...