My other car has heated seats, and it was the first car I've owned to have them, and absolutely LOVE having them as they are warm before the heater warms the car. But since the Legacy took over as the winter car, that feature was lost. Would really like to add some from an Outback or something, but I'm not a fan of leather.

 

Was wondering if there are any cloth covered, heated seats installed in any Subaru? If so, what model/years? What's an exact fit with the 95' Legacy? Suppose I could always try and harvest the heater elements from a leather Outback or something worse case scenario, and pull the fabric up on the super basic manual seat in the car now, then fit the fabric back over. Pirate a heated seat switch and the relay from the Outback, then wire it up to a stand alone fuse. Any help would be appreciated and only looking to do the driver seat.

our 03 H6 has cloth w/heat

My 05 Outback 2.5i has heated seats but that _may_ be part of the 'canadian package' because I think they all came with heated seats and mirrors here. At least for a while.

I've seen heated cloth seats in Legacy & Outbacks 95 and newer.  Yes they are nice.  Easy to tell, just look to see if the switches are there and then confirm the extra connectors are under the seat.

Edited October 11, 201411 yr by lmdew

My 99 Outbach had cloth heated seats. Should be a direct bolt in, but you might have to run a relay and wires. I replaced my cloth ones with leather.

I swapped in leather heated seats into my 99 OBW from a 97 OBW. It was easy to swap the seats in. I took as much of the wiring from the wrecking yard 97 to wire my seats, as looked appropriate. I tapped into the cig lighter wiring for power, but could never figure out how to wire them in The leather seat is so much more comfortable then the cloth seat.

MY 98 FORESTER HAS CLOTH HEATED SEATS

I installed 2nd gen legacy Cloth, heated seats into both my DD wagon, and my old EA81 Sedan.

 

Just gotta find them...they are out there look in 95-99 Outbacks often had them......not in the limited though those had leather.

many of the 2000-04 outbacks and legacy GTs had heated. Direct bolt in for earlier cars.

 

Also - DO NOT install heaters into a seat not designed for them. Learned that lesson the hard way when I worked for a dealership. An upholstery shop had patched a torn seat cover in a VW GTI and I picked it up form them and drove it home on a cold winter day. Turned on the heated seat. 5 minutes later I smelled smoke about the same time I felt a burning sensation on my rear. Burned a hole in the fabric and scorched my pants!   Apparently only certain fabrics and materials are compatible.

Edited October 11, 201411 yr by AdventureSubaru

i have driven 2 98 outbacks with heated cloth seats.

outback limited came with leather,

but the cold weather package, heated seats and wiper glass area,

did not include leather.

but lots of folks who ordered ''cold weather'' might also order leather.

 

so look for outbacks non-limited.

2002 Forester 'Sport'

Heated cloth seats

Excellent replies everyone! The handful of times I peered into a cabin, the seats were already snagged, or were leather + heat. Only thing against leather is if it wasn't treated from day one and maintained, they dry out and wear too quickly, and in the summer you can't breath through them. Granted the stock cloth seats in the "L" sit really low and aren't exactly plush, they are super light.

 

I'm guessing the burnt fabric in retrofit was due to forgetting some safety fabric or a pinched element. Will definitely keep an eye peeled on the fabric seats now that I know it was an option in them. N/E Ohio might not have a huge influx of the heated variety though in the 90's as heated seats were still somewhat rare then.

 

Any idea what amperage they draw? i.e. what fuse is running for a seat? Are they split into separate fuses per seat? Or do they share the same fuse? 

 

Only thing against leather is if it wasn't treated from day one and

maintained, they dry out and wear too quickly, and in the summer you

can't breath through them

 

one other thing,

the cloth seats heat up quicker.

leather is thicker and insulated more.

 

 imho, that is the only draw back.

i have a full under seat wiring harness including heated seat wiring and I think the switches for 95-99 Legacy's, yours for $35.

 

i'm not sure if there's another reason or the seats are better but the OBW and such seats have felt notably better than the L seats I've been in.

What size fuse?

My 2002 Forester has a 20A fuse. It supplies the two seats, and the 'rear accessory power supply relay'.

i put heated leather seats in my 97 GT. (from an 97 - 98 obw)

they did not work.

apparently i was missing either a fuse / holder or a relay.

so i just ran another power wire.

i have a full under seat wiring harness including heated seat wiring and I think the switches for 95-99 Legacy's, yours for $35.

 

i'm not sure if there's another reason or the seats are better but the OBW and such seats have felt notably better than the L seats I've been in.

Thanks Gary, I'll keep that in mind. I have pull-a-parts near me that are not only cheap for parts, but I think I could get a bulk of the seat-side wiring included in the seat price. If they only need 20 amp fuse for the pair, then 10 amp for a single seat is pretty low demand and easy to run something to it. I was figuring 15 amp per seat, but 10 amp is even better as aftermarket radios pull that much.

 

 

What size fuse?

My 2002 Forester has a 20A fuse. It supplies the two seats, and the 'rear accessory power supply relay'.

That's a big help. can't always rely on a junked car's fuse being there for reference.

 

 

i put heated leather seats in my 97 GT. (from an 97 - 98 obw)

they did not work.

apparently i was missing either a fuse / holder or a relay.

so i just ran another power wire.

I haven't seen any wiring plugs under either seat, and being a factory manual seat they might have left most of the stuff needed out of the car i.e. a power seat car might have the plug section already included for the seat heaters.

 

 

Was thinking of reusing the manual seat track with only the heated element wiring left in, which would be a lot simpler to mess around with. As I'm assuming most heated seats were electric? Any heated seats out there in a manual seat track?

95-99 heated outback seats are not power tracks.

95-99 heated outback seats are not power tracks.

 The news keeps getting better and better Never would have thought before a non power seat would have come with heated elements. Wouldn't have even bothered looking in the past. Excellent news and thank you!

it has been my experience that if your car was offered ''heated seats'' as an option when new,

then the wiring would be there.

one connector under the center console is BLUE.

if it is there you have the wiring.

at least most of it.

 

remove the 2 screws where the console meets the arm rest ''compartment'' and take a look.

it has been my experience that if your car was offered ''heated seats'' as an option when new,

then the wiring would be there.

one connector under the center console is BLUE.

if it is there you have the wiring.

at least most of it.

 

remove the 2 screws where the console meets the arm rest ''compartment'' and take a look.

 

Are you talking about where you lift the arm rest, remove the 2 screws, then lift the cover that sits over the e-brake handle? And there should be a blue wire terminating into an empty plug? Is the wire fused and hot?

 

Are you talking about where you lift the arm rest, remove the 2

screws, then lift the cover that sits over the e-brake handle? And there

should be a blue wire terminating into an empty plug? Is the wire fused

and hot?

if the seat wiring is present,

there will be 2 multi wire connectors,

one blue, drivers seat,

and one white, passenger seat.

 

no connectors means no wiring.

 

yes about the 2 screws.

Thanks for the tip John. Will have to check it out. Do your seats just ground out at the seat bracket? Meaning 1 hot wire, and the chassis of the seat serves as the heater element ground?

Edited October 13, 201411 yr by Bushwick

i doubt it, but i do not know.

 

 

My buddy has 98 outback and it has cloth heated seats.

Edited October 14, 201411 yr by grimaceNMike