Jump to content
Ultimate Subaru Message Board

Swapping manual front seats for power and heated


Recommended Posts

Hi, I am new to the forum but hope I can get some help and also help out.

 

I want to swap manual seats for power heated ones in a 2000 legacy L.  I already know 2000 to 2004 are interchangeable. I also know the fancier seats are in Outbacks.

 

OK.  To put LL Bean leather power seats from a 2003 outback  into the 2000 Legacy is easy.  You may have to change the seat belt receptacle but other wise the bolts are the same everything goes right in.

 

In the 2000 Legacy I have the line for the power seat is right there under the driver's seat.  OK so far. But it has no power.

When I looked at a 2001 outback with a power seat there were no extra fuses but I think an extra circuit breaker or some such creature under the left dash.  

 

Where is the end of this seat power cable and are the input lines for the circuit breaker under the dash?  

 

Also for the seat heaters the situation is similar.  No power lines, but if you take out the switches and cable from the Outback you have what you need and again there seems to be an another circuit breaker under the dash that I need to hook up to.

 

Any suggestions and info will be greatly appreciated.  If, no when I get this working I will let you all know how to do it.

 

Thanks, Ken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like other cars that that have heated/non heated options, it's a matter of searching for all the missing bits and assimilating them to be like the donor. So grab the switches, the wiring to the switches leading back to the main harness, any extra wiring feeding the donor's fuse box, etc. Then it's a matter of installing and feeding power to it. 

 

If you want to save time and effort (and possibly potential headache...like say you wire it up improperly and it overheats and melts wiring for other components) you can buy your own wire (better be correct gauge or a step thicker), some wire connecting spades (or whatever they are called) a fuse holder receptacle, fuse, etc. and wire the fuse holder to a main 12v+. Find a REALLY good METAL spot to run a ground bolt through, and wire the switches to the 12v+ and ground (leave fuse holder EMPTY ;) until finished) Use the factory points from the seat and marry them to the switches. Viola' you have heated seats. I think Auto Zone has a 30amp breaker that might work good for that in lieu of a fuse assuming each front seat only pulls 15 amp (I have no clue what they pull, but that's probably close. Suppose Heartless' link might show). If you are doing front and rear heated seats, run the rear independently with it's own, separate fuse. Also, another thing to consider is upgrading the alternator to whatever the donor car has. You probably have the 85 amp alt which can struggle powering lights, heater full blast, rear defrost on, wipers going, brake lights on, turn signals on, etc. while idling at a stop light as an 85 amp won't produce a full 85 amp at idle (probably doesn't see a full 85 until 2-3k rpm). Even a 110 amp alt would be a big help which is probably what's in the donor. If you run aftermarket stereo and small amplifier to big amplifier, consider retrofitting a 130 amp from a 2010 or newer 3.6L Tribecca, Baja, etc. I'm running one in my 95' Legacy (takes minor mods to get it fitted) and it works great so far. Even running a heavy amplifier that can pull as much as 75 amps on it's own and I get ZERO dimming at idle with everything ON at a stop light ;) GL and post updates how you worked it out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Sorry for the slight necroposting but I'm considering something similar. I'm eyeing the interior from an Outback Limited for my new (to me) Legacy L. We have a dog that sheds like crazy so the leather interior is highly desirable. HOWEVER... I just saw on one of the pictures the oval indicating the front seats are equipped with side airbags, and cars101 confirms this. It also mentions something about seat belt pre-tensioners (which I presume the L doesn't have) and which I assume should be wired somehow.

 

So... the question is: is it safe to install the Limited seats on the L wiring just the bum heaters, or do I need to take care of something else electric-wise?

 

(maybe another question would be: should I wait for a GT leather interior to be available instead?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

jarl,

 

All air bag equipment, including seat belt pretensioners, have a wire harness connector that is yellow in colour. Only these yellow connectors fire the bags. That said, if you wish to install the seats with the airbags, and the seat belts with pretensioners, and don't wish to hook up the SRS components, don't hook them up.

 

So if your base car doesn't have the wiring for the side airbags and the pretensioners on the seat belts, put the LTD seat belts and seats in anyway and just don't hook them up. BUT if you can wire them in and find the cable work you need to do so, you'd be much farther ahead ... and much safer in an accident. Good Luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Jarl If it were me, I'd search out a set of NON airbagged seats with heat. It'll be safer and MUCH lighter. Airbagged seats on average (other cars) can add 20-30 pounds per front seat. More weight = slower car with exaggerated handling and slightly less MPG city. My Saab 9-3 has heat (front/rear) and bags (both front seats) and weigh 62 pounds each for fronts). Pulling just the passenger seat made a huge difference with handling and acceleration and that was with a turbo and slightly above stock HP levels at the time. Given a non turbo Legacy with roughly 1/3 the HP as my Saab and roughly 500 pounds more curb weight, adding 50-60 pounds of dead weight will probably be disgusting. Also, leather + dog toenails = scratches and sliding dogs. Better off folding down back seat and putting a heavy blanket down to catch the hairs. Get some cheap seat covers for the fronts and invest in a $40 shop vac from Lowes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you people.

 

Excellent points. I had not considered the weight added by the bags... My concerns have mostly to do with carrying explosive bags attached to the seat back or the seatbelts not working correctly in case of an accident. BTW: adding stuff to the airbag system is a no-no in my book, unless the car's system is already wired OR you replace the entire system with the one from the donor car. The timing of the bags is too critical, and it's something I definitely want to have working as designed all the time.

 

I had to laugh with the "sliding dogs" line :D Our outback has leather seats and our minivan (which I managed to overturn in an ice-covered road this winter) didn't. Guess which car he didn't like to ride on :D And yet I still want the leather seats (the dog is not the only one making a mess inside the car... our son matches -or surpasses- the dirtying capacity :) )

 

Actually I wouldn't mind carrying the dog in the rear cargo area but my wife insists in letting him sit beside our son :/ My plan is to find a rubberized fabric (neoprene?) and cover the side of the rear seat where he -sometimes- goes, so he'll have some traction.

 

Now I just need to wait until a GT with dark gray interior shows up on craigslist :/ (I had to anyway... the guy parting out the outback ended up selling the whole car)

Edited by jarl
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi All,  I appreciate all the comments.  My project is not completed but well on its way, hard to do wiring in the winter.  Here is an update.  Heartless from Wisconsin gave me the most help, the listing for all the shop manuals for years and years of Subarus.  If you are patient you can slowly learn to read wiring diagrams if you don't know already.  When working on the car the challenge is to find where the connection joints are.  The diagrams give the general vicinity but it is not always obvious.  However the wiring diagrams give the wire colors so if you are in the right area you can eventually find the connectors.  After that it is a matter of laying out the wire runs and the work of getting in there and splicing, etc.  Here is an example.  My 2000 legacy does not have a power seat but it does have the connection for it.  So you think piece of cake but no because although the ground is connected the power line is not.  But if you study the wiring diagrams you will find that the power line goes(counter intuitively) under the passenger seat and into a connector in the right side kick panel but there, unfortunately it ends.  If you then study the wiring diagrams you will find that a car with power seats has a dual connection to the window circuit breaker and sure enough under the dash right in front of the driver is a circuit breaker with the same green and white wire that dead ends in the right kick panel.  Get some connectors at the junk yard and you can do a nice clean install from the kick panel connector to a splice at the circuit breaker and your electric seat should be all set.  

 

Air bags in the electric seat, like another person said, just  don't connect them and you should be fine.

 

Heated seats, process is similar to the power seat, but here is a warning.  If you hot line the power seat with a fuse you should be OK, probably not as good as the circuit breaker.   But with heated seats it is a different story. If you hot line heated seats and forget to shut them off, bye bye battery!!  The wiring for heated seats is a little more complicated, harder to get to the main power line and more connections to do.  Here is the deal.  You need to use at least the circuit breaker and relay for the heated seat system so it only activates when the ignition is on.  This is not so hard to do, just study the wiring diagrams and draw it out and you will see all the connections you have to make.

 

One other thing, for the seat belts to work you have to probably toss the power-heated seat belt receptacle and replace it with the one from your original seat as Subaru changed the bucket insert. 

 

Good luck to all

 

Ken 

Edited by keggy3
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 years later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...