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HELP: Power to electric seats

2003 - 2009, roadster, coupe, facelift
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Barty
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HELP: Power to electric seats

Post by Barty » Wed Apr 24, 2024 7:45 pm

So I’ve set about fitting electric adjustable seats to my coupe. It did not come pre-wired for electric seats, so we tried to piggyback 12V from the heated seats supply (since these aren’t heated, we figured we’d might as well use that).

When we connect the seats directly to a 12V bike battery, they work beautifully. When we connected the power supply from the heated seats, nothing.

We measured 11.98 volts at the seatheat connector even when contact off. Connect that to the seat: nothing. Neither on or off contact.

My question: why doesn’t this work?

Alternative: can we cable up fuses 15 and 29 normally used for electric seats, or aren’t they powered fuses by default? If not, what alternatives do we have?

Thanks!
Four Alfa's and a Ducati later, I've turned to the dark side...
"Drive German, wear Italian, kiss French"

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Usel
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HELP: Power to electric seats

Post by Usel » Wed Apr 24, 2024 8:13 pm

Seat heating gets the power from the centre console heat seat buttons so you can't use that.

You need to run 12v from fuse box and then ground locally.

binwinn has done it. I beleive he also taps into the canbus from the back of the radio so the memory seats work.

He can explain it better than I can.

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Usel
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HELP: Power to electric seats

Post by Usel » Wed Apr 24, 2024 8:37 pm

Barty wrote: Wed Apr 24, 2024 7:45 pm Alternative: can we cable up fuses 15 and 29 normally used for electric seats, or aren’t they powered fuses by default? If not, what alternatives do we have?
This will be the route you want to take, use piggyback jumpers on those fuses.

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Barty
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HELP: Power to electric seats

Post by Barty » Wed Apr 24, 2024 8:43 pm

Usel wrote: Wed Apr 24, 2024 8:13 pm This will be the route you want to take, use piggyback jumpers on those fuses.
Thanks. Are these powered despite the car not originally coming with electric seats?
Four Alfa's and a Ducati later, I've turned to the dark side...
"Drive German, wear Italian, kiss French"

Z4: Tiefgrüen Metallic E86 3.0Si / Insta @bartsbuilds

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Usel
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HELP: Power to electric seats

Post by Usel » Wed Apr 24, 2024 8:46 pm

Barty wrote: Wed Apr 24, 2024 8:43 pm
Usel wrote: Wed Apr 24, 2024 8:13 pm This will be the route you want to take, use piggyback jumpers on those fuses.
Thanks. Are these powered despite the car not originally coming with electric seats?
They definitely should be. Carefully push in 2 single spade connectors and then test with a multimeter.

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Usel
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HELP: Power to electric seats

Post by Usel » Wed Apr 24, 2024 8:50 pm

You may find this useful if they are not:
Screenshot_20240308_223505_Samsung Internet.jpg
Screenshot_20240308_223505_Samsung Internet.jpg (158.45 KiB) Viewed 88 times

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