I am looking to add factory seat heater switches to my aftermarket seat heaters. The truck did not come with seat heaters. Does anyone know if this is possible? Does the TIPM needs programmed to activate the seat heaters? I found the harnesses behind the dash for the seat heater switches. Any help would be appreciated.

 

just a guess but I bet all you need to do is buy the OEM switches....then find the power down by the seat wiring harness...

 

I am hoping that is the case. I am concerned because I have read on another thread of people getting flashing lights on their switches if the seat heaters were not working. I know there are resistors in the switches for the high and low temp, but I don't know if the TIPM can decipher the resistance of the circuit to tell you that you have a problem with an element by flashing a light in the switch. If the TIPM does have that capability, then my aftermarket heaters will probably cause a problem unless they are the exact same resistance as the factory heaters.

 

Please post your results because I'm thinking about doing this too. BTW how do you know the wire you've found is for the missing seat heater switches and not for some other accessory not installed on your truck? I'm not doubting you - just interested in understanding how I can identify the right connector if I do this.

 

There is more to it than just a switch, there are modules involved.

 

Good Afternoon,

I had my cloth seats recovered with leather (love sitting on cowhide). I had this done at the dealer and they also added seat heater. There are two swithes on either side of the the power rear window that opperate the heater units.

 

I got the information at dodgebodybuilder.com. They have very useful wiring diagrams. I also checked the empty connectors behind the dash and the wiring was there. In the wiring diagrams there is not a module shown on an 06 truck. On the 05 and older trucks the diagrams show a module.

 

I installed factory Dodge 06 leather seats with factory seat heaters in them in my 06 SLT. Hooked up all the plugs and all the seat adjustment functions work correctly. Installed the two factory switches in the dash and all they do is blink, no heat. I had a dodge mechanic work on them for two hours and all he could tell me was that their is an open circuit. That I knew. He contacted Star to see if they could help. They were no help. I have given up, I'm not good with wiring diagrams. So if anyone out there has of a solution or something to try I will gladly give it a try.

 

Also the Dodge leather seats are just as uncomfortable as the cloth POS.

 

You probably already read this thread, but it has a procedure for testing the switches.
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=174421
My guess is that if both sets of seat heaters are not working then it would have to be in the circuit providing power to the seat heaters. I do know that there are 3 different circuits that run to each switch. One circuit is #32 fuse providing power to the high/low resistors on the switch. One circuit is for the seat heaters and indicator light and one is the B+ from the TIPM. You could check voltage at the switches and see if you are getting voltage at the points listed in the above thread. If no voltage is present at any of the listed points then I would think that you have a blown fuse or the TIPM would have to be programmed to actuate the seat heater circuit. Also, I have heard mention that the wiring is at the switch for the heaters but the wire does not ultimately make it to the underseat heater location. Thanks for the information, I will post anything else I find.

 

msatow, how many wires are on the connector that the drivers side seat connects to? I also have an SLT and I just found out that I have 7 total wires on my connector; 2 wires short of the 9 you need to have heated seats. If you are wired for heated seats then you will have 2 light green with white wires on that connector. I am not worried about that for myself as I have already ran the wiring for the aftermarket seat heaters to the seat heater switch location.

 

J2ML, Thats what my Dodge Tech is now telling me. The harness is short two wires. I only have 7 going into the connector and 9 wires coming out going to the seats. So what you are saying is I need two more wires run from the big connector under the drivers seat to the switches. I would imagine that one wire would go to each switch connector.

 

Why not use the factory switches and run your own wiring to the seat heaters?
Find out which wires show continuity when the switch is in one direction and feed that to the low setting then do the same for the other direction to the high setting and just feed power (fused) through the switch.

The aftermarket seat heaters only need power and ground. Maybe I'm missing something you guys are trying to do?

 

MSATOW, You are correct that one wire goes to each switch. As precision1 said, I am going to use the factory switches with the aftermarket seat heaters but I don't think it is as simple as he says. The switches have a series of resistors along with an l.e.d. and indicator lamp. I ran the power leads from my seat heaters to the location of the switches and I am going to tap into the wire at the switch since it does not go all the way to the seat connector. I am hoping that the factory circuit will have sufficient capacity for my aftermarket heaters.

 

If the aftermaket heaters are wired to use a two position switch you could try to determine which circuit in each has the highest resistance and tie them together for the lowest setting and then do the same but find the least resistance and use that for the high setting.