13 replies to this topic

[benmoffat]

Hi All,

Wondering if anyone can help me with this one.

My Mini came with electric seats in it, but not connected up. I took the passenger seat out to see if I could wire then up, but theres a whole bunch of wires and Ive no idea which ones are the power cables.

Does anyone know of a Mini friendly auto electrician in the Somerset or London area that would be up to the job of wiring them in please?

Thanks

Ben

[evansisgreat]

Hi All,

Wondering if anyone can help me with this one.

My Mini came with electric seats in it, but not connected up. I took the passenger seat out to see if I could wire then up, but theres a whole bunch of wires and Ive no idea which ones are the power cables.

Does anyone know of a Mini friendly auto electrician in the Somerset or London area that would be up to the job of wiring them in please?

Thanks

Ben

If you've got a spare battery lying around, or way of getting a 12v supply to it, couldn't you just play about with it? Also any chance of posting a picture, or do you know what seats they are. Ive been looking for electric seats that fit on a mini.

[benmoffat]

Yea I do have a spare battery and could just connect it up to random wires to check, but didnt want to do any damage or blow the lot. And theres a 3 bunches of maybe 30+ wires alltogether, so 60 possible combinations before I find earth and positive. All the wires are the same gauge too so no indication there.
I will get you a couple of pictures though when I get home. The seats are Jaguar cream leather one, although not sure from which model. They are really comfortable and fit nicely, just want to be able to adjust them

[pantera2075]

I've got electric Scorpio seats in my van, and the wiring sounds a lot more simpler than what you've got.

Even then, when working out what wire did what, I set off the seatbelt pretensioner charge and nearly filled my pants.

Even a competent Auto electrician would have a challenge finding what did what without playing about with a battery and guessing.

Are there colour codes on the wires or are they all black?

Remember they've probably got heaters in there too.

[benmoffat]

Hmm, all the wires are different, some solid colours and some striped. There are no plain red or black ones which I would assume to be positive and negative and try them first. I dont think there are any heaters in, I cant see one and theres no heater button on the seat. But then I suppose it could have been in the dash on the original car.

Didnt know if an auto electrician would have test equipment that I dont have access to that could help, or find another way round it?

There are 5 switches on the side, 2 with 4 way adjustment, so I guess thats why theres so many wires.

Thanks for the replies.

[benmoffat]

By the whay what does a seat belt pretensioner look like? Dont want to have the same experience! How did you work out which wires did what on your seats? Did anything go wrong if you connnected the 12v supply to wires other than the power wires?
Thanks

[pantera2075]

You may have a seatbelt pretensioner if the catch bit of the seatbelt is fitted to the seat and not to the floor - it's a metal tube about 4 inches long.

A quick google suggests you may be missing the control module which would explain the numerous wires.

If it was me, i'd go for trial and error, you will get big nasty sparks and wires getting v hot v quick if you get it wrong, and possibly small sparks if right. It's unlikely you'll blow the motors just by testing it out.

Get a notepad, and write down each thing you find as you go. If it does have a heater it will need a relay if you want to power it up permanently on the car.

[benmoffat]

Havent seen a metal tube like you describe, will definately check though.
By control module do you mean the switches? I have those, the original switch panel on the side of the seat.

There are 2 wires coming from each motor, so I think I could just connect each motor straight to the battery with an inline fuse, and an inline switch. Do you reckon that would work?
I know I could find some necessary switches but would have to find somewhere to mount them, maybe in the dash or a centre console, just would have preferred to use the original Jag ones.

[pantera2075]

No, control module would be a little box of tricks probly under the dash. These are possibly memory seats.

The motor wires should go to the switches, then the other wires on the switches would be for the power

Sounds like you've got wires from the power to the switches, then wires from the switches to the control module, then wires from the control module to the motors.

What you might find is that the switches are not man enough to power the motors directly, but it's worth giving it a go.

You need a multimeter and we'll go from there.

[benmoffat]

I see, didnt realise there may be stuff missing. Could be an expensive job then if I do need to find the control modules, I bet they are not cheap.

I do have (borrowed) a multimeter, but dont really know how to use it fully. My first thought was to test for continuity, by touching on 2 wires, whilst turning a switch on until it beeps to find which wires go to that switch. But its not as easy as it sounds, as always!

[Sleepy Stu]

Surely if you know what car they came from then you just need to get a hold of a wiring diagram for that car?

Ok so the mini one used to fit on an A4 page but maybe the manufacturer produced a book containing all the wiring diagrams?

Edited by Stewart_GT, 12 January 2010 - 05:22 PM.

[benmoffat]

Thats the problem I dont know which car they were from. Just Jaguar, no idea which model.

[Sleepy Stu]

Thats the problem I dont know which car they were from. Just Jaguar, no idea which model.

Get some pictures up im sure someone on here will recognise them instantly!!

[benmoffat]

Yea will try that, thanks.