So Im about to try and tackle installing my seat heater kit on my 13 JK tomorrow and looking for some advice or instruction on removing the seat covers. I have done some researching and haven't really been able to come across much info on how to properly remove the seat covers on the 13 interior. I anyone has done this or knows of a good write up to help make things easier for me that would be appreciated. Thx.

 

I dont have what you are looking for but am curious since I ordered my jkur w/o heated seats and would like them.

 

Ditto. Curious as to what kits are recommended? I saw two on Amazon that seemed OK.

 

I went with the Check Corp kit from quadratec. It has 3 pads, backrest and seat for driver , and backrest only for passenger due to airbag sensor 13 up. It is all plug and play and wiring looks like the easy part. I just have never messed with upholstery and was looking for some instruction before I try and rip my seat apart.

 

For anyone with seat covers, you can simply install then under those and get very good results. I did this with the Trek Armor seat covers and they work great, and a lot less trouble to install. I went with the Warm Seats weather proof kit.

 

I installed the Check Corp seat heaters in my 08 last winter. One of the best interior mods I've done for the cold winters in NY. This is all from memory so apologies on the lack of detail or pics. I did the install with the seats in the jeep as I couldn't get the bolts out of the floor! So I made due with what I had.

Hopefully this recap helps give you some pointers and some confidence to do the install.

First things first.....disconnect the battery and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Then you can disconnect the airbag connections underneath the seats. Believe that's all included in the instructions but don't forget!

Remove the seat height adjuster first. Then there are plastic retainers around the edges of the seat that you have to wedge out of the seat frame. One in front and one on each side of the seat.

Once you get those out, you can start to pull up the upholstery and you'll find that there are plastic dowels that run front to back along the seat bottom that are held in through the cushion using hog rings. I used pliers to remove them one by one to give me enough space to slide the seat heaters in. There was nothing to remove on the seat back but you do need to shimmy up the upholstery from the back of the seat to give yourself enough slack to position the heating pad properly.

I think the directions tell you which side of the pad is face up vs face down. Use the double sided tape they provide and position the pads on the seat bottom and back. You have to fish the wiring down through the seat in between where the seat bottom and seat back meet. Just be careful not to put it somewhere that will get pinched.

To put the upholstery back together, pull it back down into position and use zip ties in place of the hog rings. I bought a set of hog ring pliers expecting to reuse the rings I took out, but in the end, it was easier to use zip ties. You will see exactly where the zip ties are supposed to go. Through the cushion, back up through the dowel thingy, and then through the loop in the upholstery. Tighten them up one by one and snip the ends of the zip ties. Try to use pliers to push the knuckle of the zip tie as far down as you can into the cushion so that nothing pokes up when you're all done.

Muscle the retainer clips back in place keeping in mind that the inside one is going to be a huge pain in the a$$ because no normal human has hands small enough to get in between the seat and the center console.

Repeat this all for the passenger side.

The wiring is actually really simple if you bought this from Quadrated because they give you the plug-n-play connector.

Open the center of the dash as if you were pulling your Mygig out (there are some really good write-ups on this if you search how to install a lockpick). Behind the cigarette lighter on the drivers side (I think) is the switched power. This means that when your seats will turn off when you remove the key and exit the jeep even if you didn't turn them off using the switches. The other side will give you constant power so if you don't turn off the seat heaters and you leave the jeep, you can run the risk of running down your battery. Make sure you follow the instructions to chose the proper side.

The plug-n-play connector literally fits into the back of the cigarette lighter and then the plug that was in the lighter now gets plugged into the port on the connector that it fits in. There is only one way this can be done so don't worry about messing it up. In essence, all you are doing is putting this new plug in-between the current plug and the outlet.

From there, connect the bottom and back heating pads underneath the seats and run the wires from the seat heaters up to the dash, and into the central control unit provided. Again, I don't think there is a way to mess this up. From the control box, you then just need to install your control switches. I used the switches provided and installed one on the driver's side below, and to the left, of the steering wheel next to my other Aux switches and then another on the passenger side below the horizontal handle bar. There is plenty of room behind there to install and you can get back there by popping out the AC vent and then removing the side panel of the dash (towards the doors). I drilled the holes for the switches using a spade bit. I marked it out using masking tape and then drilled through the tape to minimize and damage to the dash. It came out perfectly. Just be careful to use the proper size drill bit. I think you can use a step bit but I didn't have one and I found something that showed me the right size to drill. Do a search to be sure.

Hope that helps. It's all from memory from over a year ago. And I drink a lot.....so I may have just decribed how to make an omlette instead of installing seat heaters in a JK.

Good luck and let everyone know how it goes.

 

Well just got done(or almost done, going to button my dash back up in the AM) and let me say that was a PITA. I took my drivers seat out( Almost gave myself a hernia in the process lol) and started to deconstruct the seat. Putting the seat element in the backrest was not bad at all, but the one that went into the seat cushion was a huge pain in the ass. I first tried to slide it in from behind haha and that didn't work so well and the cushion had like 10 hog rings holding the front part of the cushion on, I finally managed to get it about where it needed to be, but when taking the adhesive tape off that was when the real nightmare started. It was just really hard to move or slide the element back where it was supposed to be. The dam thing stuck to itself a bunch of times and i had to try and un peel it(not fun). I managed to get it about right(a few spots kinda bunched up and couldn't un peel all the way but it seems to be fine. I guess the right way to do the cushion would have been to really take the entire seat apart, but that would have taken forever. The wiring part was the easy part as I had already taken my dash part before to install my Kenwood touchscreen. All in all it seems to be working ok, as long as my jeep doesn't set on fire lol. I would recommend this kit for the wiring but not to sure about the elements, really didn't need to make them out of thin foam with one side adhesive, it just made it very hard to slide under the seat cover. Hopefully they will work fine for some time to come

 

I just finished today ...feels like minus 10 in NJ
...I installed Amazon $59.99 kit ...( I installed previously on another car )...
I also install the mopar kit on my 2010 ...nice plug & play but about $200 more than the Amazon ones ....
My JK is nice and Toasty ....didn't have much of option on the rocker switch placement




Heated Seats is a Great Mod !!!

 

Any reason this wouldn't work for the rear seats? How do these get power?

 

The Check Corp ones would totally work in the back. You may have to extend the wiring but otherwise, there's no reason it wouldn't work. You'd be somewhat limited in where you can put the switches, but I'm sure you can work something into the back of the center console. Or, run it up into the sound bar. I guess even the B pillar could be done.

Now that I think about it....there's more options for the rear switch placement than the front!