It's real simple to do this in-car. Remove seatback by pulling the bottom out, then 6 or so clips with pliers, peel up the leather (no need to remove the lumbar lever or headrest), repair the burnt spot, put it back together again!

 

Is it neccessary to disconnect the battery if you're not taking the seat out or disconnecting the SRS connections in any way?

 

For safety I'd disconnect the battery for a few minutes. And if you do have an air bag there, remember there's no back pad on the passenger side.

 

I'm a little thick, and stubborn, at times.

I plan on removing the seat, whole.
Can I leave the battery alone, so as not to have to deal with finding the radio code?

 

You would most likely set an SRS light if you do.

 

Well, the job is done.

Pulled the driver's seat, breaking the seat back power lever [still works, but I should have been more careful}. Got the seat up on the kitchen table.

Pulled up the back fabric, found the burnt wire, spliced the wire. Getting the insulation off the wire might have been the hardest part! Cut a piece of foam, replaced the back cover.

Flipped'er over, jammed more foam between the springs and the bottom cushion.

I might consider buying new heating elements [$91/back & $102/bottom], and new cushions [$210/back & $361/bottom], and rebuild the seat entirely, if money was no object.

However, for two hours and an old foam pillow, it's done.

The new foam doesn't compress like the old seat foam, but whatever.

 

Kevin, I did what you did but when I got to the element I could not find a burt spot. The dealer said that sometimes it is a broken wire that and their is no burn. Does anyone know a way to find the break. Thanks Gary Petersen

 

The way I checked mines was with a razor blade knife clipped on to a multimeter lead. The harness has two prongs you will see whcih one corresponds to each wire color at the edge of the pad. Pick a prong to check for continuity. Use the razor blade to very very gently get in to the wire insulation. Keep going until you find a break. I had one that wasn't burnt open, the wire had just overheated and burnt up inside the insulation but the insulation was very stiff at that point. Probably melted and hardened again. Hope I made some sense.

 

So is the best wire to use 14-18 gauge stranded copper? Some people said stranded, some said soild. No one has given a straight amswer unless I overlooked it

 

Use stranded, it's way more flexible.
14 - 18 gauge should be fine. Tin both wires first and it'll make the job easy.

 

Def. stranded. And the more strands (for a given gauge) the better.

 

severin--what do you mean tin the wires first?
please describe procedure

or was that trim?

 

"tinning the wire" means you coat the wire in solder before soldering it to _____.

You like heat the wire up and melt solder onto it.
Its always a good thing to do rather than just melting solder between the joints.


>> also use flux core solder or some plain old flux and remember to wipe off with water when cooled (follow instructions on pkg (alchol/acetone/water))

 

here is a good guide how to tin/incorrectly tin + join two wires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jUaf394WIk

 

Yes, tinning is a good idea, along w/ a little flux helps the joint to bond.

 

Does anyone know if can I swap the bottom seat cushion and the leather seat cover from the driver side to the passenger seat on my 03 Acura TL Type-S?

The passenger seat cover is clean and the cushion is firm compared to my driver seat.

Does anyone know if the seat leather cover and cushion pad are the same for the driver side and passenger side on 2003 Acura TL Type-S?

Thank you.

 

Yes and no.

Yes, we know whether it can be done, and the answer is no, it cannot.

I'd love to switch cushions and covers between the seats.

But consider, it makes too much sense.

 

Thanks for the quick response, Sperry. The leather cover looks the same from outside. I wish I could swap the bottom leather cover from the driver side to the passenger side.

In terms of the bottom cushion, is there a way I can use a knife to cut out a bit here and there to make the passenger seat bottom cushion fit to the driver side? Don't worry much about the passenger side, since it's not often used.

I would greatly appreciate if anyone can post some pictures showing the difference between the driver side and the passenger side bottom cushions.


Thanks again, Sperry.

 

Just did this yesterday - Josh's video and this thread were so helpful.

Something I found that was very helpful with the hog rings (I don't have hog ring pliers), was to cut them and replace them with zip ties.

Forgot how nice it was to have a warm seat in the winter.

 

Gonna tackle this on my dad's '01 TL (not Type S) - does he have SRS side air bags in the seat to worry about? Or is it just the Type S that has them?

 

TL-p have the side airbags as well. Do you plan to leave the seats in the car to do this or take them out?

 

"TL-p"? What's that?
I plan to take the driver's seat out to do this. Guess it's safest to disconnect the negative battery cable. It's just that I'm not sure the old man knows his radio's security code :-(

 

TL-P are any TL that isn't type S. P for premium.

 

Nice DIY, I will fix my driver seat sometimes soon

 

After fixing my driver's seat seat-back heater over two years ago, I finally discovered it wasn't working again (sure is hard to tell for some reason ). I took the seat apart again today and the wire burned out at the other weak point in the pleat area.
You'll see the one on the right that I fixed a while ago; the left is new (not fixed in this photo):



A half hour later and it's all fixed again! I suppose that if anyone's seatback starts working, its due to a burn-out in one of those two spots. Real easy and fast fix.

 

I used 16 ga. speaker wire. Typically it has the finest strands and more of them for any given gauge. The insulation is usually more flexible than standard automotive wiring as well. It's held up for at least 3 years now, which is better than factory. [2 years, 2 times] Thanks to all who have provided info on this; I wouldn't have tried it otherwise.

 

Yep, cold leather = cold butt.
This "DIY" is a great project for winter if you desire a bit of warmth on your woman's buns.
It really didn't bother me, but she loves it !!!

 

Got almost 6 years with no heated seat And I think I will get many more cuz this looks like a PITA to do TBH.

 

Yeah, That's why I kept putting it off.
But, what the hey.....it don't get cold in California. It's well below freezing here in Pa.

 

This is sorta off-topic:

Since you guys have taken off your seats before, can you tell me what this connection is and where it connects to?

http://imgur.com/kDINYKG
http://imgur.com/emKy32W
http://imgur.com/Wz0dNOl

If you look at the third pic, it runs up that side and from what I can tell, through the back part of the driver side seat we're your back connect to your tailbone.

I'd really appreciate it, thank you.

 

That looks like the plug for the rear seat heater pad, it plugs in on the bottom of the seat almost right in the middle. you'll probably want to take the 4 seat bolts off and just tilt the seat back and look under there.


If you look at the picture I posted on page 6, it's called the back seat heater harness. The picture is of the passenger seat so the driver side is opposite.


Now would also be a good time to put a ohm meter on that and see if the back heater is still good.

 

Thanks. Do you know if it connects to the black box that's attached to under the seat?

As for checking the ohms, I live in Miami and I don't have an ohm meter. :-/ I could do without the heated seats until I do find an ohm meter and I'll just take off the seat again and check it to see if it works.

 

Nope it connects to another wire with a grey plug, and that wire connects to a three pin grey connector which then goes into the carpet. If you follow the wires from the carpet, there should be a big black wire for the seat adjustments, a yellow wire for the side air bag and a smaller black wire for the seat heaters.


The black box your talking about is the memory seat module.

 

Man, I swear I just don't see it when I check under the seat. What sucks is that I'm pretty sure I could see everything that's down there and I just don't see an unplugged harness where that would connect to.

 

There should be a round hole in the black fabric that holds the leather to the seat, look in there.

 

I slid a mirror under the seat and took a photo.

Is that the whole you're referring to?

If so, there's nothing coming out of that hole. I even felt around the under part of the seat to see if theres like a wiring harness, but there's nothing.

This is weird.

 

Damn, I forgot to include the pic.

http://imgur.com/5b8NnBJ