Wanitive

My drivers seat is pretty damaged and I want to replace it. It's been hard for me to find a replacement at a decent price that isn't a heated/cooled seat. Can I put a heated seat in a car that didn't come with it and still maintain the power seat controls WITHOUT the heat working? Is it possible to get the heat/cool function on the seats to work?

Mangsailor

Look for threads created by Peasodos and he has thread on doing this same thing for his 450h

Wanitive

Thanks Mangsailor.

Here is Peasodos post for anyone else who sees this:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...ispreloading=1

peasodos

iTrader: (1)

Yes you can install heated/cooled seats into your car without throwing any errors and every other function of the seat will work.

The heated/cooled seats are powered by the AC Amplifier and I believe if you just plug in the switches you’ll get the heated/cooled seats to become functional. The wire/plug for the switches are already there. If just plugging in the seats/switches doesn’t work then you’ll need an ac amplifier from a car that had this functionality, but I’m 80% certain it will work with your existing ac amplifier. Lexus really just made some options plug and play, and pre wired the car.

Look for used heated/cooled switches. And trim that matches your interior.

If you want to be more certain this will work, remove your console trim and you should see the plug for the heated/cooled seat buttons in front of the cupholder. It might be dangling there or taped down against the wiring harness.

Wanitive

I finally found a 16-way seat at a good price near me, and I ordered the switches to control heating/cooling on eBay. Could you tell me, how do I remove my cupholders/panel above to swap in the new one with the controls?
TIA

Wanitive

Guys did I get a bad seat? I finally got a 16 way seat to swap in place of my non heated/cooled 10 way seat. I got it installed, but it isn't working right. The "regular" controls (front, back, lean forward, lean back, etc) all work, but none of the other stuff (thigh support, bustler, lumbar). When I press any of those buttons I hear the motor click then stop, the same way it would if you tried to move the seat back when it was already as far back as it goes. Is there something I could have done wrong when installing that would have caused this, or is it possible it's not compatible with my car for some reason? Or did I simpy get a bad seat and need to return it?

Any advice would me MUCH appreciated.

(In the picture, the controls marked in green work, and the ones marked in red exhibit the above described behavior)

Wanitive

I imagine this is such a specific issue that perhaps no one here has an answer for me, but I'm going to keep posting in the hopes that I am wrong and someone can tell me what I need to do. If nothing else I can at least document this for someone else in the future.

I discovered another problem, but it has actually since resolved itself. The first two times I drove the car after installing the seat, the seat would move back for easy exit, but would not return forward when I got back in the car. If I pressed the memory button it would move back to my preset, but otherwise it would just stay all the way back. However, the third time driving it worked like normal. I haven't driven it again since, but hopefully it's now working.

I called a local shop that specializes in Toyota and Lexus and they said it sounded like the seat might need to be "programmed" to the car, but that they wouldn't be able to do that and that I'd need to go to the dealer. I got the impression that that was just his best guess and that he didn't actually know, nor do I know - do these seats need programming/calibrating?

I called my local dealership and of course this isn't something the service advisor would know, but they said they would have a technician call me back. Hopefully they can shed some light on this for me. I'm worried they'll just tell me the seat is bad even if that isn't the case just because they don't want to support this "aftermarket" upgrade.

I'll let you guys know what happens next.

Wanitive

Update: Lexus called me back, programming the seats isn't a thing, so it looks like I got a bad seat. I called the yard that I got the seat from to see if they could search on their network for another one and they don't have any black 16 or 18 ways right now, but I have 30 days to return this one. I'm going to wait 2 weeks to see if they can find me a replacement, and if not I guess I'll go back to my ripped 10 way

Wanitive

Had a chance today to install the buttons for the heated/cooled seats.I was panicing at first because I didn't see the plug for it, and I was thinking to myself maybe this is why nothing is working, this seat just flat out isn't compatible with this car... then I remembered @peasodos mentioned it might be taped to the wiring harness, and sure enough there it was.

And they worked! So basic movement of the seats work, as well as the heating and cooling. I also disconnected the wiring harness for the seat and compared it to the one that it originally had (the junkyard cut it off of the car rather than disconnecting it from the seat) and everything looks exactly the same down to the wire colors and position on the harness. So if this is anything other than a bad seat then it's certainly beyond my ability to do anything about it, and that leaves me with trying to find another one.

Wish me better luck with the next one guys!

ETA: thanks @eddie420 for his interior disasembly guide that helped me get the cupholders/buttons swapped out. I didn't see it in the guide and I couldn't figure out myself how to get the shift **** off (I thought it just twists but I couldn't get the **** to twist seperate from the leather), but I just kept it on and angeled it to work around it.

I hope someone finds this thread useful in the future, if nothing else than as a comfirmation of what peasodos already told us - even an absolute base car with 10 way non heated/cooled seats can be upgraded just by swapping out the seat and the switches.

Wanitive

Any snowbirds want to bring this seat from NY to Orlando for me?

$250 for what appears to be a perfect condition 18 way

Wanitive

Guys it happened again!

I ordered another 16 way, this time shipped to me rather than from a local yard because I couldn't find another one locally, and it's doing the exact same thing!
Heating, cooling, slide forward and back, lean forward and back, everything works except for the thigh support, the side bolsters, and the lumbar.

I've got to me missng something, what are the odds that two different seats are broken in the exact same way?

I can't return this one without paying more in return shipping than I'd get back from the seat, so I guess I'm stuck now. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm beggin'

Wanitive

So apparently the car knows the seat isn't working. Unfortunately that doesn't get me any closer to being able to fix it myself. I'm going to try calling the dealer again tomorrow, unless anyone has any ideas.

bclexus

@Wanitive - When you try to operate the thigh support, the side bolsters and lumbar - do you hear those motors engaging and working?

If you hear the motors working but no movement the cables that move those particular seat parts/sections may be unhooked, snapped-off/broken or cut. Have you removed the seat's back panel to have a look - also, to look underneath the seat bottom?

Wanitive

You know the sound your seat makes when it's all the way back and you try to move it back? The motor clicks but nothing happens. That's the same sound all the non-working functions of my seat make. Trying to move any of them in or out immediately makes the same noise, just the click sound and nothing else.

Although I thought about taking the back of the seat off, I didn't do it because I figured I wouldn't know what I was looking at. I suppose I could take pictures and post them here though, maybe someone will notice something out of place. I did check the bottom and compared it to my original seat to the extent that that was possible since they're different seats, and nothing looked broken, unplugged, etc.

bclexus

This image shows why the seat's motor doesn't move the seat part - because the cable has snapped/broken (see the yellow arrows). Maybe your seat has something similar going on for the reason it doesn't work.





Here are some more images that may help - some contributed by member @peasodos who is probably the best person to ask for advice.