heated seats
 

I am loving my Whiteout FR-S!!!! Love the drive and all the attention that it gets!!

When I bought it 3 weeks ago, I was sold heated seats as an option. The 2nd day that I had the car I noticed that the airbag warning light was on. I phoned Toyota and they gave me an appointment to come in for service. After spending 3 hours sitting there, they sent me home and said that they needed to look into the problem. I didn't hear anything for 3 days and today I spoke to the service manager. It seems that Toyota has advised them that a heated seat should not have been installed on the passenger side because it compromises the airbag sensor. Toyota said that they are waiting for a part and they need to remove the heated seat from the passenger seat. I will have 2 controls but only 1 control will control anything. Not impressed!!!!!

I don't see why the heated seats should cause an issue with the airbag sensor in the passenger seat, the BRZ limited has heated seats on both front seats so obviously there's no issue with it.

I didn't know heated seats was even an option on the FR-S?????

it's not supposed to afaik

Heated seats are not an option for the scion. Dealer must have done it's own install.

And botched it. Sounds like they had an idea on paper that they thought would make them more money and jumped on it before testing it. The seats were more than likely an experiment (maybe even a clever lie) that turned out not to work the way they wanted. Money back, or at least some type of credit for at least half, if not more for the seat that doesn't work. Add-ons should be tested first, not sold for a profit broken.

Even if they weren't a factory option, I had the seats in my '98 Impreza RS done in leather and added heat, and never had an issue with them over 10 years. The dealer farmed the work out thought, so that may be the root of your problem. Bottom line is they promised something that they're not delivering, so either the come through or return your money and car in original condition (with hopefully at least a free service visit or something tossed in for your trouble). Good luck, I hope everything works out for you.

Heated seats are not a Scion option. The dealer offered them and had them installed before I picked up the car. Very good point that the BRZ offers heated seats!!!!

I will make sure that they compensate me. The dealer has been very nice and is taking responsibility for the error/problem.

I'd like to see the seats and the buttons/switches they installed for the heated seats... got any pics?

That's good to hear!
In my time at a dealership they were always sending vehicles out for sunroofs, heated seats, and sometimes tow hitch installs.

A majority of these came back with issues and it ended up causing all kinds of issues and major headaches. This is likely due to the company we outsourced work to.

Hope all goes well with the car!:party0030:

I bought mine and the price included aftermarket heated seats. I dropped my car off to get the radio installed, yes it did not come with radio, and to get the heated seats installed. I got a call later that the radio was in but they were just informed that they could not put the seat in the passenger side. Same issue, air bag sensor. I was very perplexed and even thought of telling them to keep the car. But after an hour or so of thinking and debating, I said fine. They told me that they would put the one heated seat in for free because of the mix up. I asked to make sure that you but both buttons in and in the little square area were the the GT 86 has the buttons. They said fine.


I get the car back the next day and no buttons in the area i told them to put them. After a little looking around, I found the buttons. They were above the shift lever, one button on each side. The buttons were small and round and one had ok paint and the other i thought was bad. I was a little mad, but my buddies that looked at it thought it looked fine.

If I knew that the buttons were a little stale or cheep looking, I would have had them put in on the seat. I almost had them remove them, but after a weekend, I think that I will live with them. Still dont know why they cant use some toyota switches. Plus dont know why the FRS has no room for switches were the GT86 has there switches.

I did tell them to contact me when they figure out the sensor problem. I still want the other seat heated for when my wife rides with me.

They left heated seats in for the Aus market, bit of a strange move, with our weather they are unnecessary here. But yeah you can source them from jdm/Aus/eu Toyota 86s as well.

I'm curious as to what they installed for the heaters in the seats/controls and the locations.

Did they use a 3rd party for the parts or did they use the OEM Toyota heaters? Shouldn't be as they are only available on the leather/alcantara seats and apparently Toyota dealerships cannot order non-NA market parts here, or so I've been told.

Not really the best pic, but do the controls look like these; by the ebrake, in front of the cup holder area and behind the silver buttons at the base of the shifter? In that square indent.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/attac...1&d=1331044395

They removed the heated seat on the passenger side of my car last week. They claimed that there was no other way to fix the problem with the air bag sensor. My car was the 1st Fr-S for the heated seats and they said that they were only informed afterwards by Scion that a heated seat should not be installed in the passenger side. They left both controls and they are installed on the console between the shifter and cup holders. It does look nice.

Funny, thats were i wanted the switches, but were told they don't fit there. My guess is that my aftermarket switches are very different than the ones you got.

Here is a pic

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...s/1e6bae02.jpg

yeah looks like an aftermarket solution for sure.

cloth seats dont really need heat or cool functionality IMO.

BRZ has it cuz their seat is leather/alcantara.

Scion being Toyota....

Toyota puts heated seats into the GTS Models. This may be because of the swap over with the "wrong side of the car driving" syndrome :P.

http://img2.netcarshow.com/Toyota-GT...llpaper_62.jpg

Hey speak for yourself! I need all the heat I can get in the mornings! it's freezing!

Same.. the -3c temps in Canberra at 8am requires heated seating.

Ok, but was it the OEM heaters and switches? As seen in my linked pic or CozmoNz post?

I won't get into the differences between Scion and Toyota... but just know that Scion is a stripped down version. They don't offer the leather/alcantara seats, which is the only way to get the seat heaters. Among other things.

Try the -40 Canadian winters, ass heaters required.

I seen this switch button from 2008 Camry before..

heated seats make me feel like I shat myself.

How in the world does anyone need heated seats if the seats are cloth? I understand with leather, but, with cloth, ....really?! I dd my FR-S in -20 C weather and never said to myself, "I really could have used heated seats about now". On the other hand, leather without heat just feels like the old vinyl seats from the 70's.

They are very useful for cloth I think. When you do not have a garage the car is freezing right when you get in for about 3 months of the year. The first 5-10 minutes are pretty damn cold until things get warmed up. I would rather enjoy having the extra heat. A good heated seat will feel good after a minute or 2. For short drives it is worth it.
Fun fact: The WRX offers heated cloth seats.

I have been doing a lot of research on the matter, and it seems you have 2 options, you can buy the seat cushions from the BRZ (there is a DIY for this on this forum), or you simply cannot heat the bottom of the passenger seat with after-market solutions. In fact, many after-market producers of heated seats recommend to NOT install in the portion of the passenger seat that has SRS sensors, you do not want to mess with that system. You could trick it, or just put the heating tech under the sensor, but you still risk damaging it with the heat, so you are better off leaving it alone.
Some cars come from the factory like this (Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna come to mind). Where they only heat half the passenger seat.

What would the potential problems of having an aftermarket on the seat cushion itself be? Essentially, as far as I can tell, the passenger side airbag would always be on, whether someone is in the seat or not (the warning chime can be disabled). Would there be any danger to an adult who is actually sitting in the seat, as in the airbag might not go off due to the heater? Is it dangerous for the driver if the passenger airbag goes off in an accident? I can see where the airbag might be an issue for a child seat or small child or something perhaps. Also, do you know if the sensor itself is embedded in the seat cushion?

Heated seats are standard with the Monogram edition. Mine work great and there are no issues with the airbag sensors.

The biggest threat is that the heat could potentially damage the sensor. I am not sure if this danger is warranted or not, but I am a little reluctant to just wing it and end up unknowingly damaging the sensor. If the sensor were somehow damaged causing it to NOT detect a passenger would be my biggest concern. In the case where it was not damaged you are correct it would always be on, which would throw a light on the dash if the seatbelt is not done up. See a fix for that here:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16293

More info on the sensor itself here:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15425

The sensor is not embedded in the cushion, it is on top of it, and the wires run through to the base. I could not locate a picture, but I plan on taking apart my seats in the next couple of months so I'll be sure to document the process. It looks like a thin flat flexible piece of plastic with circuitry embedded in it, it looks to be quite flexible.

If it could be verified that the FRS/Monogram and the BRZ use the same exact sensor, I would be more comfortable with simply placing the heating pad UNDER the sensor and properly insulating it to prevent it from being detected. But as it is I am not sure if it is safe to have heat at about 105-120 degrees F directly on the sensor without risk of damage/melting. Further research is needed.

That`s cute :)

http://s2.hubimg.com/u/2479229_f520.jpg

Awesome, thanks for the info. keep me updated on your progress, I am very interested to know more.

just fyi, you can disable the passenger seat belt alarm through techstream so you don't get the annoying beeps after installing the aftermarket heated seat pads on the passenger seat. i have no issues with mine and they've been working great all winter.

i wasn't too happy when i found out that the passenger seat bottom doesn't have a heat pad because it would cover the air bag sensor.....i just have to deal with it when i'm sitting in the seat in the cold, and heat up my back......so my ass is cold.....good thing is that i wear a long jacket so it's not freezing

i also have katzkin leather seats, so it can get quite cold without the heat

if you ever find out create a post about it

i would also love to know how the brz does their seats...how does it work with the sensor, and where it's places

I plan to write up a DIY for after-market heated seats when I get to do it. It should be pretty straight-forward except for the unknown on the passenger side. It will be much more affordable then the current OEM DIY (<$100 self installed instead of ~$1,000). I have most of my parts in, but wedding planning/event stuff is consuming most of my weekends lately.
( :wub::happyanim:/:mad0259:)
At the rate I am going I will have it done by July haha.
If someone with a BRZ Limited/Monogram has pulled apart the seats to reupholster or to move the sensors to other seats their feedback on what they observed would be much appreciated. If I have time this weekend I will be digging around the Subaru parts catalogue to see what I can find.

:lol:

There's gotta be something with the passenger seat though. I drive with my passenger side seatbelt buckled because I plug my phone into the aux and listen to music and set it in the passenger seat and that alone will make the seat think there's a person in it. Also my sound system alone will make the seat want the seatbelt buckled or else I listen to beeping the entire drive.

on another note. the FRS has a big empty spot where the buttons go. any ideas on a nice way to fill it?

Best thing to do with that is get the techstream software and connector off of ebay, and turn the beeping off. I finally installed seat heaters under these seat covers http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28813. Then I turned off the annoying beeping with the techstream http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...ght=techstream. Overall it turned out awesome, I'll try to do a writeup when I have the time.

Thanks my dude. I bought a seatbelt buckle, just the end part like if you took off the strap. And I have it plugged in right now lol. much more low key than the seatbelt across the seat.

Here in south africa we also have heated seats, no known problems.

I had heated seats on my GTI. Sweet Jeebus it was heaven. I almost bought the BRZ partly because of this but I couldn't get past "the mustache".

look at the original post's date. the frs had pretty much no options availible back in 2012. i should know since i own one of the first in colorado lol

I know this is an old thread but I am trying to find info on this subject and searching didn't come up with anything.

Have people figured out an aftermarket solution yet for the passenger bottom element? Or can you just order the OEM element from a monogram or BRZ and install it?

I know katzkin offers a heated option, do they install it on the passenger side?