Heated Power Seat Installation
Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 10:38 pm
While I've had my 2013 Kizashi SE AWD since new, one thing that I always disliked was the lack of a power driver's seat (which I believe came in all other SE or higher trims, including the 2013 SE FWD) After some looking around, most of the matching tan cloth replacements I could find in salvage yard searches were in rough shape, either due to poor care or an airbag deployment inside the vehicle.
After some looking I found a full black leather power heated seat set from a 2012 SLS in good condition. Given the mix of black and tan trim already in the interior, I decided that the black leather seats would not be too out of place in replacing the manual cloth seats. The swap was very straightforward, though I did not bother to attempt swap the rear seat locks. I've never used them, and given that the pass through behind the rear arm rest has no lock, I didn't see the point.
To start, prior to the install, I checked the fuse box(es) and the wiring to make sure that all of the necessary fuses and wires were already in the car. Given my previous research I believed this would be the case, but decided I would take a few minutes to double check using the fuse charts in the owner's manual, and the service manual wiring descriptions. A few minutes of poking around, and I verified all of the necessary electrical parts were already there.
The install of the front seats is very easy.
1) The front seats contain airbags, so before beginning disconnect the battery (or pull the A/B fuse) and wait a few minutes to be sure
2) There are 2 connections under each front seat that need to be unplugged. A small yellow connector for the air bag, and a larger white connector that carries power for the seats, seat heaters, seat belt sensor, and OCS mat (passenger only) The larger cable with the white connector is held the the seat bottom with a small press clip strap. Carefully remove this from the seat bottom and reinsert in the same spot on the new seat once installed.
3) Each front seat is held down using 4 bolts (one in each corner of the seat rails) these need an E10 (eTorx) socket to be removed properly. (You could try to remove them with a standard 8mm hex socket, but there is a high risk of stripping the bolt head. If you try this, and the bolt isn't coming out easily, stop, it WILL strip.)
4) Once you have removed the bolts, return the seat to roughly the center position over the rails. This will make it much easier to take the seat out without accidentally scraping anything with the seat rails.
5) Set the "new" seat in place. There is a pin on the bottom of each seat rail that drops in to a hole just a bit behind the front bolt to locate them. Plug the yellow and the white connectors in to the bottom of the new seat, and snap the press clip that retains the cable in to the hole on the bottom of the seat. Put the 4 bolts back in to the new seat rails, and torque to 17 ft lb ( 23Nm).
6) Reconnect the battery (or re-insert the A/B fuse)
7) At this point the power seat install is done. If you have added *heated* seats, you will need to replace the climate panel in the center console in order to be able to operate them. The climate panel is only held in place with clips, so if you open the cubby below the climate panel, you can get your hand behind it and carefully pop it straight out (try not to twist much or you could break the clips). Unplug the connector on the back of the climate panel, and install a replacement climate panel with the heated seat buttons (part number 39510-57LA0) . These panels are occasionally mis-listed, so I suggest something with a picture of the unit so you can see that the heated seat buttons exist. Just plug the connector in to the new panel, snap it in to place, and it is done.
After some looking I found a full black leather power heated seat set from a 2012 SLS in good condition. Given the mix of black and tan trim already in the interior, I decided that the black leather seats would not be too out of place in replacing the manual cloth seats. The swap was very straightforward, though I did not bother to attempt swap the rear seat locks. I've never used them, and given that the pass through behind the rear arm rest has no lock, I didn't see the point.
To start, prior to the install, I checked the fuse box(es) and the wiring to make sure that all of the necessary fuses and wires were already in the car. Given my previous research I believed this would be the case, but decided I would take a few minutes to double check using the fuse charts in the owner's manual, and the service manual wiring descriptions. A few minutes of poking around, and I verified all of the necessary electrical parts were already there.
The install of the front seats is very easy.
1) The front seats contain airbags, so before beginning disconnect the battery (or pull the A/B fuse) and wait a few minutes to be sure
2) There are 2 connections under each front seat that need to be unplugged. A small yellow connector for the air bag, and a larger white connector that carries power for the seats, seat heaters, seat belt sensor, and OCS mat (passenger only) The larger cable with the white connector is held the the seat bottom with a small press clip strap. Carefully remove this from the seat bottom and reinsert in the same spot on the new seat once installed.
3) Each front seat is held down using 4 bolts (one in each corner of the seat rails) these need an E10 (eTorx) socket to be removed properly. (You could try to remove them with a standard 8mm hex socket, but there is a high risk of stripping the bolt head. If you try this, and the bolt isn't coming out easily, stop, it WILL strip.)
4) Once you have removed the bolts, return the seat to roughly the center position over the rails. This will make it much easier to take the seat out without accidentally scraping anything with the seat rails.
5) Set the "new" seat in place. There is a pin on the bottom of each seat rail that drops in to a hole just a bit behind the front bolt to locate them. Plug the yellow and the white connectors in to the bottom of the new seat, and snap the press clip that retains the cable in to the hole on the bottom of the seat. Put the 4 bolts back in to the new seat rails, and torque to 17 ft lb ( 23Nm).
6) Reconnect the battery (or re-insert the A/B fuse)
7) At this point the power seat install is done. If you have added *heated* seats, you will need to replace the climate panel in the center console in order to be able to operate them. The climate panel is only held in place with clips, so if you open the cubby below the climate panel, you can get your hand behind it and carefully pop it straight out (try not to twist much or you could break the clips). Unplug the connector on the back of the climate panel, and install a replacement climate panel with the heated seat buttons (part number 39510-57LA0) . These panels are occasionally mis-listed, so I suggest something with a picture of the unit so you can see that the heated seat buttons exist. Just plug the connector in to the new panel, snap it in to place, and it is done.