MG F/TF How-To| Fit heated seats to

[simesb]

With an impending trip to France coming up, the GF has been on at me to fit heated seats. I had noted comments on here before about the hog-rings, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

The kit seems to be good quality, with 2 separate wiring looms, 4 pads for the seats, and some odds and sods like switches and replacement hog-rings.


The first thing to do is take the seats out.


The kit is for the F so I have to improvise with the relay mounting under the bonnet. There is a new grommet to replace the blank (on left) and the new black relay can be seen mounted above the fuse box. You can also see the orange wire direct to the positive battery terminal


The black and white wire feeds through to the passenger compartment fuse box. The back goes to the ground out of sight, and the white connects into a spare in the fuse box itself. Picture was taken before the new white wire was cable-tied to the loom.


The other wiring loom comes from the relay across the passenger footwell to the seats via the switches. You can see the new cable exiting from the seatbelt pre-tensioner hole in the carpet.


I was a bit nervous about the hog-rings, but you only need to remove 2 on each side (at least on my daytona seats). The self-adhesive pad fits nicely.


Top Tip; the hog-rings are easier to replace if you pre-close them. This enables you to get at them with a small pair of pliers. Once I had worked this out, the hog-rings were easy.


RAVE says to attach some string to the seat rest bungee cords and it really makes life easy. It helps detach the bungees from the frame, and helps pull them down again to reattach. Once again, the seat pads were a great fit.


The two seat pads connect together (yellow tags on the cables) and the other cable connects to the wiring loom. Make sure the cabes exit on the seatbelt pre-tensioner side so that they are hidden when the seats are back in.


Drill a hole in the panel next to the footwell light and fit the switch.


All that's left to do is cable-tie the wiring looms, put the seats and panels back into the car and connect up. It all worked first time - testimony to how easy the kit is. The only visible sign in the car are the switches.

[Chris T]

Great set of instructions, is this the MGR kit?

[simesb]

Yeah - took about 4 hours all up, but was the first time I'd had seats out, glovebox out etc and I was having a bit of a nose around while I was at it.

[Tim.]

Good post and pictures, thanks Simesb

One for Pete methinks.

[Catweazle]

Great set of instructions.

Everyone take note, for mechanical buffoons such as myself, these type of instructions as really exactly what I need when starting a project.

So more please from all of you.

[LuCkY]

If you're not too anal about using original parts, you can substitute hog rings for small zip ties when refitting the covers - easier to use and work just as well

[Baracus]

excellent! i've been looking at getting these myself but i was a bit nervouse about foinf them....looks like it's straight forward now you have shown it

looks like i'll definatly get the kit now

[LuCkY]

Rimmers list this kit - i was looking at it last night, funnily enough. Is it the same kit as fitted here? was about 180 squid on rimmers part list irc

[Chris T]

The kit is £152.02 from the forum shop less 10%.

[simesb]

Originally Posted by LuCkY

Rimmers list this kit - i was looking at it last night, funnily enough. Is it the same kit as fitted here? was about 180 squid on rimmers part list irc

I did get this from Rimmers (I find them cheapest on average) and I think it was £140 for the OEM.

Nice lateral thinking on the zip-ties. I spent about an hour trying to work out how to get the base pad in without undoing the hog-rings (based on comments here before) but I never thought of that.

[Baracus]

are all the kits the same? is there a difference in quality?

[LuCkY]

Originally Posted by simesb

I did get this from Rimmers (I find them cheapest on average) and I think it was £140 for the OEM.

Nice lateral thinking on the zip-ties. I spent about an hour trying to work out how to get the base pad in without undoing the hog-rings (based on comments here before) but I never thought of that.

Little trick i learned when recovering a pair of saxo vts seats - the hogrings were a NIGHTMARE to get off and i couldn't face putting them back on again (i didn't have hogring pliers back then). Zip ties worked perfectly, so i did the same again when i put the TF alcantera covers on my F seats - went on a treat and still going strong

[Baracus]

Originally Posted by LuCkY

Little trick i learned when recovering a pair of saxo vts seats - the hogrings were a NIGHTMARE to get off and i couldn't face putting them back on again (i didn't have hogring pliers back then). Zip ties worked perfectly, so i did the same again when i put the TF alcantera covers on my F seats - went on a treat and still going strong

how easy/hard is it to fit brand new covers on the seats? are they expensive or is it cheaper to just buy the seat?

I wouldn't mind a new set of covers and do the heated seats at the same time

[simesb]

In the end I didn't find the hog rings too bad. Snip them off with wire-cutters, pre close the replacements in the kit (they give you about 20). Put one end through the seat cover, one through the seat base and you still can get some small pliers in to close them if you compress the seat base.

Thought about hog-ring pliers, but warming the GF's posterior was costing enough already!

[LuCkY]

Originally Posted by Baracus

how easy/hard is it to fit brand new covers on the seats? are they expensive or is it cheaper to just buy the seat?

I wouldn't mind a new set of covers and do the heated seats at the same time

I got a pair of brand new OE covers, leather armrest pad, and leather handbrake handle off ebay for around 150 quid as a job lot. Because the TF frames and foam are slightly different to F ones, and F covers are designed differently, it took some thinking about to get them fitted and right, but its doable.
A straight like for like swap is easy enough thou, if you understand how they're fixed to the frames.

[Baracus]

Originally Posted by LuCkY

I got a pair of brand new OE covers, leather armrest pad, and leather handbrake handle off ebay for around 150 quid as a job lot. Because the TF frames and foam are slightly different to F ones, and F covers are designed differently, it took some thinking about to get them fitted and right, but its doable.
A straight like for like swap is easy enough thou, if you understand how they're fixed to the frames.

Nice one, i may have to look into that then! might be worth doing it that way rather than buy the new seats and then having to take them apart anyway for the heated pads

[liamfleming]

ooh i like the look of this kit! i think ill buy it ! and how do i join the members section??

[Loaky]

Very good guide!!

[Lee121]

Great post and pics/guide....well done chap, have had heated seats on past cars.....very nice on those chilly mornings.....seems easy enough to do as well.....may investigate before next winter

[Petevick]

excellent how to, I'll be adding this thread to my site if you have no objections simesb ??