HOW TO: Add Leather (or power) seats to a KJ

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Frozentoze

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This is a lifesaver

Great thread. Just great - it was like reading the missing instructions for my 2 month long project.

I have an 02 renegade and I picked up Limited wreck seats from Ebay. I had both connectors on the seats but had the same issues with wiring that you did. I didnt go as far as to buy the circuit breaker, because I could never have figured out what hole it went in. I know the area under the driver's dash, but have no idea how I could tell which slot I needed. I was just planning on getting a 12V+ lead put in and running my own power and fuse to the seat motors. I am glad to know I can get the circuit breaker and it will work, at least for the driver side.

For the passenger side, did you say you spliced the driver side power and ran it over to the passenger side? I think I can pull that off, though I would really like to avoid pulling the console if at all possible - my seats are already in. I will probably just run a ground to one the of the seat retaining bolts if the ground under the seat is hard to reach.

The heated part is still beyond me. I may forfeit that. I figure it needs a 12v+ and a ground, but there are two reds in the connector and I cant tell which takes in the juice and which sends it over to the passenger side. You are right all the control wires go between the seats. The wiring diagram I have shows that, but it doesnt deliniate where the connectors are in the wiring. Besides, you dont want to make a mistake with this system and burn a hole in your seat.

If you happen to not be a ham radio operator, put some alligator clips on the terminals of a rechargable drill battery to move the seats.
 

grogiefrog

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A little late... but nice job Chris! They look really good. I do love the leather seats in my KJ. Enjoy!
 

BluPhant

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Re: This is a lifesaver

Frozentoze said:
For the passenger side, did you say you spliced the driver side power and ran it over to the passenger side? I think I can pull that off, though I would really like to avoid pulling the console if at all possible - my seats are already in. I will probably just run a ground to one the of the seat retaining bolts if the ground under the seat is hard to reach.

Hey.. glad to hear this helped, and that you were successful in your efforts. Yes, I spliced into the drives side wire. You may be able to avoid taking the console out if you can contort your arm in weird ways, but you will likely have to take out the seats to get under the carpet. It's not horrible.. just time.

Let us know how it goes.

-Blu
 

springroll

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Nice work, is it possible to add a "Heated Seat" module to the factory-fitted seats? My one has all the power feature but heated seat
 

Boilermaker

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Blu, thanks for the write up...after searching for power seat tracks for over 8 months i finally found a set that didn't come with the seats. I read thru this thread several time before i started putting in the tracks, and since i have an '05 checked my FSM. Turns out my FSM has some mistakes in it (it mislabels breakers no 1 and 3 in a few spots), and without your instructions i would have been toast.

The only thing i have left to do is replace the molding on the outside of each seat. Besides the fact that it's taupe and my seats are gray, i can't get the front part secured on to the track. Don't know if this is because i added power tracks to what were cloth seats. Part of the molding that holds the heated seat switch is being blocked by the bottom cushion. The molding came with the track, and fit before i put the seat on it...and all the other holes lined up well after installation.

Has anybody taken the 6-way switch off? I can dremel out a new hole for the switch and attach it to my old molding...if i can get the swich off.
 

BluPhant

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Ya no probs, bro, glad to help out. Snap us a pic if you get a chance so we can get a better idea of what you're talking about. Prior to me doing this the only other leather seat conversion I knew of was a dude who did leather seats on non-power rails, and I can't seem to find where that was, thinking it was on some other board.

My guess is that with some fanagaling you'll be able to work it out. If you need to buy parts you're going to need a vin # with the right trim color in it, dealer bases all color related stuff off the trim code from the vin.

-Blu
 

mariewash

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The Heated Seats Mystery resolved!

Thanks to this great thread, that my wife found, the plan to upgrade her '05 Sport to heated power leather has been...uh...hanging over my head for a few months now :)

Well, a pristine set of taupe seats from an '03 appeared on eBay from Certified Auto Recyclers in Ardmore, Alabama, and taupe is an EXACT match for those of you with the light khaki interior. I drove the 400 miles to get the seats myself, and these folks couldn't have been nicer or more accomodating. Cleanest shop I've ever seen.

Anyway, covered the seats in garbage bags and covered with tarps and tied into place in the back of my pickup, and that did the job - not a drop of rain the whole way home!

Now to the meat of it. Back seat swapped out just as Blu described, though there was no need to change the belt as it was a perfect match. Got lucky on that one :)

We put the front seats in and they looked beautiful, but we all already know that they didn't move. I purchased the circuit breaker and installed as Blu described, but still didn't get power to the second pin of the power connector as needed. I eventually ran new power to that connector to make it work.

I then sat down with the wiring diagrams for both the '05 and the '03, and it took several hours, but I got it figured out. There are three things needed to make the heated part work;
- Ground on both seats
- Power on driver seat
- Eight wires from passenger seat to driver seat

I made up a wiring harness using 16 gauge red wire for power, 16 gauge black wire for ground, and 18 gauge green, white, yellow, and blue to help separate one from the other for the other connections. I used a fish tape (electrician's snake) to run the wires from under the driver seat to the back of the console, then from there to under the passenger seat. Note that I didn't have to completely remove the console, just took the screws out and lifted it for access to the wires. This was literally a five-minute task with my wife there to guide me.

Now for the tricky part, and again keep in mind that these are '03 seats in an '05 Sport.

There are eight wires on the passenger seat and ten on the driver seat for the heater control. Before cutting off the connector on the driver seat, note that there are two fat red (with white stripe) wires in the connector. Mark the wire from Pin 5 so you know which is which. I use a small piece of electrical tape as a quick way to mark the wire.

There are two wires to ignore for the moment; the red/white one you just marked (from pin 5), and the brown/light blue wire from Pin 1. One at a time connect the other eight from seat to seat by matching colors. That may sound silly, but on the '03 seats, the wires are not in the same place in the connector on the passenger side as they are on the driver side.

Here's how the wiring worked out based on the pin numbers from the DRIVER seat.

Pin 1 (Brown / Light Blue) - Okay, I admit it. I've got no idea what in the Wide Wide World Of Sports this wire does. Not in the diagrams, no match on the passenger seat. I taped it off and everything still works fine.

Pin 2 (Pink / Black) - to the Pink / Black on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 3 (Red / White) - to the Red / White on the Passenger Seat. Again, this does not get 12V hooked to it even though it looks just like the "B+" line - it's the heater feed from the controller box on the driver seat to the heater in the passenger seat.

Pin 4 (Brown / Pink) - to the Brown / Pink on the Passenger Seat AND to power (+12V).

Pin 5 (Red / White) - Power (+12V) - no problem with connecting this along with the Pin 4 wire.

Pin 6 (Tan / Dark Blue) - to the Tan / Dark Blue on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 7 (Tan / Light Green) - to the Tan / Light Green on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 8 (Violet / Light Green) - to the Violet / Light Green on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 9 (Violet / Black) - to the Violet / Black on the Passenger Seat.

Pin 10 (Black / White) - Ground. I grounded this on both seats using the rear seat mounting bolt.

For testing purposes, I rigged up a 15Amp fuse to a male connector and used the relay power feed for the Daytime Running Lights that my Sport does not have. Sorry the picture's out of focus, but you get the idea.

The only thing left now is to find a good switched line for the power so there is no chance of leaving the heaters on when the Jeep is off, and to adapt the '03 seat to the '05 air bag and seat belt sensors.

Marie took it on the test drive, and aside from loving the power leather, she did complain that the leather is awfully hot. And then she turned off the heater and decided they weren't so bad :-D

Here are the pictures...

- Running the new wiring harness from under the driver seat to the back of the console...

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- Running the new wiring harness from under the passenger seat to the back of the console...

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- Another view of running the harness on the passenger side...

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- The new console, as seen pulled tight in the back of the console (and the console fit right back down over the top of it)

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- This is me pointing to the location of the pin numbers on the connector. It took me a while to find them, so I thought this would help...

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- Here we go! Passenger seat connector now cut off...

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- First couple of connections made. I did one color at a time, passenger side first then driver side. Also, you can see the less-than-professional grounding job I did...

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- Here's the passenger seat side all connected before using an entire roll of electrical tape over the top of the whole thing... :)

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- And here's my temporary rig for testing. Sorry for the focus - Marie took the good pictures! Note that this shows a 30Amp fuse - a 15Amp is more appropriate.

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Questions welcome, feedback appreciated and more pictures available!
 

mariewash

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Whoops! Forgot the best part!!

I think I've earned bragging rights :) Here are two pictures of the seats when completed.

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Boilermaker

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Blu, thanks for the reply, sorry i didn't see it til now. I'll pull one of the trim pieces off the seat this weekend and take some pics. I got the trim to attach flush to the seat, but i would still like to switch the power switch over to my gray trim.

mariewash, great write up. Wish i had waited a while to do my install. I have 03 tracks (same wiring) in an '05, so this would have been perfect. Would have needed a part or two, but would have been great to get the heater working.
 

Frozentoze

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Finished 'er off

Thanks Mariewash for the further detail. Ive got my project fully finished off now.

('03 pwr/ht seats from limited in an '02 renegade)

I originally put in the breaker Bluphant pictured and it worked for my driver's side. I soldered onto the power (red/lt blue) coming up from the floor and ran it over to the passenger side. My ebay seats came with both sides of the original connectors. The manual seats had 2 wires in the connector for the airbag, so I cut them and connected them to the same 2 in the ebay connector that had leads for the power and ground. Connected up the driver seat power to the power lead, ran a ground to a mounting bolt (both drv&pss) and the power positioners were set.

The heated function I thought would never work, but I wired them us as the previous post described. I didnt have the mystery wire you mentioned on your post - I had the wires as they were shown on the wiring diagram only. I made a harness of 16g and strung it across, driver to passenger. I made a ground and 3 wayed it into the positioner ground, and I ran a power line up under the front dash. You can get the console to be a little more cooperative if you remove the 7 screws under the flip top catch all bin and pull the black plastic insert out. You can pull wires from under the seat under the carpet into this spot and out the other side, and run them up to under the dash. Easy to remove, and with some finger twisting you can get the wires where they need to go.

So, I used the DTL circuit as described, and everything worked great. No issues. Then 2 days later I forgot to turn the heat off and almost killed the battery so I got to the job of finding some switched power. I looked over the fuses and found the sunroof fuse, 20A that is switched with the ignition. Good luck finding those wires under the dash, but I tapped it in the front of the fuse box. A 12g crimp on fork terminal pushes into the slot the mini fuse goes into, so you can terminate your in-line fuse with one of these and plug it right in the fuse bank and pull ignition switched 12V. Works great, and I have no plans to buy a sunroof on ebay and install it myself so this job is 100% polished off.

There was not any possible way I would have gotten this job done without this website. Also, Im no electrician so if I described something you think is dangerous please let me know. Thanks guys.

I'll get some pictures on here sooner or later.
 

BluPhant

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Nice work! Glad you've gotten everything sorted out. Using the sunroof fuse is brilliant! I may take your lead on that one if/when I ever decide to hookup the rumproasters on mine.

Glad we were able to help get you started!

-Blu
 

max pain

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Hi everyone! Can somebody please tell me where to order the leather seats, links would be nice, as i'm not from USA and i'm gonna have to order those by mail! Thanks in advance!
 

BluPhant

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hey-

I've not heard of anyone who has bought the same seats I installed retail, the prices would be cost-prohibitive, even in the states. From DCX, the seats would have been thousands of dollars. I'd look at local junkyards to find a set...

-Blu
 

max pain

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Thats the thing, there's not much libertys here and even less limited ones...and again i do have the leather seats now, i just wanted to install new ones, mine dont look as new as they used to be...
 

BluPhant

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Might be time to take them out and see if you can get someone to put new leather on them? Not sure what to suggest.

Best of luck-

-Blu
 

Tork

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Airbag lights on...

I put some 05 Leather seats in my 05 CRD. Now, my airbag light is on in the instrument cluster and the passenger airbag light is lit up on the grab handle. Did anyone else run into this and how was it solved?

Thank you for any assistance.
 

BluPhant

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I put some 05 Leather seats in my 05 CRD. Now, my airbag light is on in the instrument cluster and the passenger airbag light is lit up on the grab handle. Did anyone else run into this and how was it solved?

Thank you for any assistance.

I dont know the specifics, maybe it was '05, but the airbag sensor did change between model years. If your new seats came from an older vehicle, you might have to snag the sensors out of the seats that came w/ the kj and replace the ones that came w/ your seats.

Also, the airbag light will come on if the connection is not made as well, found that out. :)

-Blu
 

max pain

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Might be time to take them out and see if you can get someone to put new leather on them? Not sure what to suggest.

Best of luck-

-Blu


Yep, there's plenty of companies specializing in this area, although i'd really want to know the price of new ones first and if its not acceptable, i'll change the leather...
 

retmil46

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Thank Heaven LOST Went Down....

or I wouldn't have found this forum - and wonder of wonders, a how-to thread for one item I've always wanted in my CRD - decent power seats!

As of today, I've got a set of '02 white leather seats with power and heat on their way. Now to order the '05 wiring harnesses for them, so it will be that much easier to match up the wiring to my '05 Sport.

I did a little research, and you can order the wiring harnesses for the seats themselves. On any of the Mopar parts sites, look under Seats and Components, then under Tracks and Components, then click on Wire Harness. You can order the seat wiring harness that will match up to your model year KJ.

Seat wiring harnesses seem to be broken up into 4 groups by years - #1 - 02 and 03, #2 - 04, #3 - 05 and 06, #4 - 07 - at least as far as the power seats are concerned.
 

retmil46

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There are two wires to ignore for the moment; the red/white one you just marked (from pin 5), and the brown/light blue wire from Pin 1. One at a time connect the other eight from seat to seat by matching colors. That may sound silly, but on the '03 seats, the wires are not in the same place in the connector on the passenger side as they are on the driver side.

Here's how the wiring worked out based on the pin numbers from the DRIVER seat.

Pin 1 (Brown / Light Blue) - Okay, I admit it. I've got no idea what in the Wide Wide World Of Sports this wire does. Not in the diagrams, no match on the passenger seat. I taped it off and everything still works fine.

I'm in the process of adapting a set of 02 pwr/htd seats to an '05 Sport CRD. I printed off the circuit diagrams for both the 02 and 05 from the TechAuthority website.

The mystery wire at Pin 1 on the drivers seat 10 pin connector is actually color-coded Tan/Light Blue according to the diagrams. But you are correct - this wire has no function outside of the drivers seat and can be left out of the harness to the passenger seat altogether. This wire runs from Pin 8 on the Heated Seat Control Module to the Heater Contol Switch in the drivers seat, serving as the temp sensor ground. For some reason, they spliced off of it and ran an additional connection to Pin 1 on the drivers seat 10 pin connector - I verified this using a multimeter, showing all 3 points above were connected. Someone in IT probably screwed up when they printed the circuit diagrams, and production just built them according to their instructions.
 

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