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

@OP. Nice job on the write up. I have a very similar setup in my 06.
I am an electrician, and I would have put each seat on its own fuse.

My seats had fuses for each circuit (seat) reasonably close to the relay, so I cut them off and extended the wire to the battery. I used 14 gauge zip cord, big lamp cord, and had a wire for each seat to splice where I cut the fuse off.

I used one crimp for both fuse holders to connect it to the battery.

Now, if one seat has an issue, I don't lose both.
If you increase the size of that one fuse to feed both seats, you have increased the available current going to one seat if something messes up.

Edit: scrolled back and saw the ground. Nonononononono, put that to some metal, period. That will get hot, melt into the plastic which will then loosen that connection.

 

That Depends...

 

Thanks for the catch on that. I will change it tonight and modify the write-up.

Do you think feeding 1 line from the power is a safety issue worthy of a few hours rewiring? Would splicing individual fuses right after my wing nut splice from the battery be sufficient to avoid messing with the firewall more? I have a few in lines laying around.

 

I just realized that I can add this to my remote starter for the winter

 

I would not have mentioned it if I didn't think it was a safety issue

Use the one you've pulled through the fire wall to pull 2 new ones through.

 

Gotcha. I will do that. Thanks again for the feedback.

 

Im gonna add heated seats to the rear seats this September that way ill have heated seat front and rear

 

sub for later

 

Update: I just installed the 12-15 lower panel in my 06. It came out real nice. I can't wait to start stuffing switches into it. If you're the type of person that crossthreads the cap on the toothpaste tube, this probably isn't the project for you. Figuring out all the plastic clips and which panel comes out 1st, was a little bit of a challenge. With that said, start with the panel below the steering column, followed by the panel around the gauges, then the shifter cover, rear of console, front cup holder, front of console, then heater control, radio, radio surround/ vent panel and finally get to the lower dash piece. Look carefully at the new power port and cover you bought to see how it goes together, so you can figure out how to get the other power port and cover out of the old panel. No point in finished pics, since it looks just like a 2012 with 4 empty switch holes.

Obviously I left out some details along the way, but that's the basic order.

 

Great find and write-up. Couple of questions:

1. How is the performance of the heaters? Quick to heat up?
2. The switches, are they of good quality plastic, can you tell the difference between these and stock ones you have?

Thanks,
Alvin

 

With the memory foam of the clazzios it takes around 3-4 mins to get up to full temp. I wouldn't mind if they got a few degrees hotter.... but I like them scalding. I think if they were under factory cloth they would be a bit faster and hotter. Overall I am happy with them, particularly for the price. Between the heaters and clazzios I got everything I would have wanted out of a limited for 650 $.

The plastic is not an exact match as it is slightly darker and more glossy. It is subtle and requires close inspection to notice. They do not stand out as non factory or aftermarket Imo, but are not 100 percent the same as the USB and blank switch panel.

 

Dude...THANK YOU! This write up was just the thing to get my 13 y.o. son and I through this awesome mod! We wrapped this up in under 5 hours - took our time, studied the info, watched the video, and made certain that we did it right. It's going to be a nice, toasty winter in the blue taco!

 

Nice! It was driving me nuts there was not a good start to finish writeup with pictures! Glad this helped.

 

Helpful write up - I just finished installing mine

At the risk of - I wired a bit differently. I used add-a-fuse taps like OP but added two more, and just tapped into the open circuits on the bottom of the fuse block (which I believe is where factory heated seats are fused on the Limited). One circuit for each seat - they are the three XXX circuits on the lower right on the fuse diagram/coin tray. This keeps the cable runs shorter and avoids needing to go through the firewall to the battery. Considering there are several high current circuits on this panel (like the power windows) I'm really not too worried about overloading the buss. If my truck burns down I'll come back here and eat my hat.

Also when I pulled the switch blanks (2015 OR), there were wires/plugs for factory switches behind the blanks, which leads me to suspect that it's probably wired under the seats as well, but I didn't check. I just used the harness that came with the kit but if I ever have to get in there again I will probably try and use the factory harness.

 

TaterHarry ... Did you have to add any fuses to the box under the hood to make the three XXX circuits hot in the fuse box behind the coin tray? I will be adding these heated seats to my 2014 dbl cab TRD Sport soon and like the idea of not running two wires all the way to the battery

 

@soundguy88 Yes - I had extra "add a fuse" taps so I just put a fuse in two add-a-fuses and plugged them into the empty slots for seat mains power. On the picture below from OP's post you can see the circuits I tapped into (two of the three) for the seat power. They are the "|\|\|\|" on the diagram and on the lower right of the fuse block. They are hot with the ignition on.

 

TaterHarry... None of those three slots are hot with the ignition on. Did you have to add any fuses to the main fuse box under the hood? I see in the diagram in the fuse box under the hood there is a spot for a 50A S/HTR No.1 and a spot for a 30A S/HTR No.2 ... These are both empty ... no fuses in the slots ... I am thinking these need to have a fuse in them to make the empty slots active in the fuse box in the cab ... any ideas on that theory?

 

Mine Truck is a 2014 ... Maybe thats why your slots were hot by adding a fuse and mine are not ... not sure

 

I bought the same set from the op link and I have to say that I honestly can't reccomend them. The main power lead changes guage twice before reaching the seat panels, once just after the main fuse with the splice hidden under the wire loom and again between the input and output of the solid state relay with yet another in line splice to go from one wire to two wires for the separate panels. There is also another in line splice in the ground lead which is never the same guage as the hot lead. Buy something else unless you're a risk taker.