How I wired my aftermarket seat heaters in my 2nd gen Tacoma, lots of pictures.

A bit of FYI but the switch cover including the roller is made of translucent white plastic so a bit of Dremel work will allow the indicator on the roller(s) to light up as well.

 

Any pics?

 

Here's the inside of the roller with the black Dremeled off inside at the white line
And here with a flashlight illuminating it.

 

So I followed this "how to" back in October to wire everything up and finally got my seat covers on 12/27. And not a moment too soon either as we are having record cold in north east since 12/26. Anyway, yesterday, the passenger side heater stopped working. I'm guessing it's a fuse but there are several and haven't had time to check accept the one tap a fuse in the IGN in cab fuse block. That wasn't the problem. I seem to remember there are some inline fuses under the carpet and some more near the battery. The yellow indicator light does not light up and I get no heat to the passenger seat. Hoping it's the one near the battery as that would be easiest to get to but not sure why it would have blown out. Thought since each seat draws about 5 amps that the 5 amp fuse in the tap a fuse was too low and switched to 7.5 amp but as I said, that wasn't it. Any other ideas? I did run two separate lines to the battery as the OP indicated after someone pointed out the safety concern so at least the driver side is still good.

 

Ok so its not a fuse. One of the switches failed. They are supposed to be lifetime warranty but in case I don't get anywhere with the manufacturer, anyone have a clue where I could buy just the switch. No luck searching.

 

You might try opening up the switch. They're not very robust and on one of mine the contacts popped off the wheel. I just epoxied it back on.

 

I did try to open up the defective switch but could only get the face cover off. How do you get the roller dial out?

 

The release tabs are visible on each side. Once the front cover is off the top separates from the bottom with a bit of careful prying after releasing the tabs. Just don't shove anything way in there to pry it open, there's a printed circuit board inside. Here's a pic of it partly separated, you can see the tab on this side and the "window" it snaps into.

 

Thanks - I got the broken switch working again after opening it up and prying the contact fingers up a little inside the dial. Although I did manage to break the release tabs off that hold it all together. But it seems to stay together just fine without them. Used wrap of electrical tape to be sure.

 

I had one of my switches short out, due to power feed using a 30amp fuse; so swapped to 20amp per instructions (my mistake). The good news, I was able to purchase a replacement switch via EBay for $20 (vendor provided special link).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Seat-heate...ks-used-for-replace-the-damaged-/161452994568

Due to no spare switch slots, I installed the my heater switches on the side console near cup holder, felt this was a more logical location, used a nice onboard air switch bezel (metal), dremmeled slots, riveted in place....Easy trick installation.

Use the 2900 Series switch bezel for Toyota switches, linked here:
https://www.aironboard.com/online/switch-panel-2900-universal-2p-push-switch-panel.html



Anyone looking to really improve your truck for cold weather, this is one upgrade you must do. Last weekend it was -9 degrees during our drive to the ski hill out in WV. Seat heat makes it a lux ride. I’m also working out bugs on my retrofit 4Runner mirrors with heat. Once installed my truck will have a missing from dealer “winter package”.

 

Firsttraxxx - could you provide the link to the ebay replacement switch

 

See above, pasted into my post!

 

Thanks

 

@firsttraxxx, did you use the 800 or 900 series bezel for this? I can’t tell from the pics.

 

X2

 

Sorry for delay....been offline...2900 series for Toyota

https://www.aironboard.com/online/switch-panel-2900-universal-2p-push-switch-panel.html

 

This was what I found also. I cut up the harnesses to remove the hidden gauge changes, rewired and added a fuse panel under the hood for power, fuses and grounds. I’m still a little uncomfortable about it because if they hide this stuff what other short cuts are being taken. This is why I don’t like buying from online stores. There’s no way to inspect what you’re about to buy and returning it is a hassle. I’ll wrap up by saying that the roller switches seem like they’re going to be a nice option but in practice I have only used the max setting or off. If I had it to do over I would get the hi/low/off version, drill a couple holes somewhere to mount them and been done.

 

I just started this project on my '17 DCSB OR, installing the pads under the factory seat covers. Prolly try to wire everything up next weekend. Took a little over 3 hours taking my time. Big recommendation is to set the seat on a table or something when you do it (like they do in the YouTube videos). Wrestling with them on the floor of your living room is no fun.

 

Nice job OP. Thorough and entertaining how to! Looking forward to installing these when they come in!

 

Just spent some time tracing printed circuits in the switch and it seems the ground pin(and black wire going from the switch to the relay) are only connected to the two illumination leds. This means that by disconnecting this particular black wire from the relay you could connect it to the dash dimmer ground circuit and have these dim with the rest of your dash switches/lights.