Adding seat heaters to 97' Tahoe leather seats

[Massboy]

I recently picked up two light gray leather Tahoe seats for the K5 rebuild. I wanted to add seat heat as my wife has a circulatory problem and gets very cold easily in the winter. Seat heat is mandatory in a vehicle if she is going in it. At least it's mandatory if I don't want to hear the music!

What I decided to do is a install thread for anyone who might want to put them in. I ordered a rectangle switch kit for two buckets from eBay. When the kit arrived it had no directions so a quick email to the seller and they were emailed to me.

Reading the instructions it all seemed pretty straightforward but it did say in the instructions, "heaters cannot be installed in seats with glued on upholstery or for people who can't sense heat. I thought I was OK on both issues. I found out different once I got into my seat.

The 97' Tahoe leather seats are actually the standard cloth seats that have had most the cloth seat cover cut off, some of the center seat foam cut down, and a padded leather outer upholstery GLUED on to the seat center! Now I thought I was screwed but I found away around it. What I was able to do is remove the seat cover, almost "skinning" the glued foam off like skinning a deer with a razor blade, then cutting through the sewn on foam padding to expose the actual leather, installing the heat unit, then gluing it back down.

I have successfully done both seats and they are nice and warm with the center sections glued back down they way they were. I will do this thread in steps.

 

[Massboy]

Tools needed:
Sockets and ratchet, 10mm, 12mm
Phillip screw driver
dykes
hog ring pliers and rings
needle nose pliers
10 single edge razor blades
3M Super 77 spray adhesive

Here is the passenger seat before I started. It has power lumbar so the switch and recline lever need to come off. Pay attention to where every thing is when starting dis-assembly. This was a used seat so I also tested the lumbar pump and bladder. All was good. To remove the head rest there is a small hole in each back rest guide. Push in with a punch while pulling up on the shaft. It will come up about a 1/4" and stop. Do the same to the other, then do it again on the same one, this time releasing the shaft. Now do the one you started with and the head rest will pull free. Cycle the slide mechanism one way and remove the 12mm bolts holding the tracks to the seat. Cycle the sliders completely the other way then remove the two remaining bolts and spring for the sliders. Now you have just the seat. When removing the switch both air hoses to the switch need to be pulled apart. The large hose goes to the pump, the smaller hose goes to the plastic tube for the bladder.

 

[Massboy]

Here is the seat bottom with the tracks removed and the hog rings cut. There is a plastic channel on switch/recline lever side that holds the upholstery to the bottom of the seat. Pull this channel out while twisting it down some and it will unhook off some detents. Be careful with the leather as the older seats can tear real easy. Same with the foam. Once you have separated the velcro at the rear of each side of the seat you can get to the recline hinge mechanism on the lever side. Remove the two 10mm bolts, then twist the seat back slightly and pull the seat away from the other side. This side had a nylon bearing and metal pin which just slide out. Be careful with the air tube for the lumbar bladder as you completely remove the back.

 

[Massboy]

Here is the seat bottom ready for dis-assembly. Once I pulled the leather off the corners I realized why leather seats are an expensive option. They just don't put in a leather seat. First they ruin a good cloth seat! You can see the stock gray hounds tooth material which is still on the seat in places. You can now see that the center section of the leather is glued on the edges and also the actually full center areas. Working slowly by hand you can get the glued areas to separate from each other but in some areas you will need to lightly cut with a razor blade to separate it. Keep working it all the way until the pad is completely removed from the lower foam padding.

 

[Massboy]

While you are removing the seat cover from the center section you will notice the seams in the seat bottom upholstery. When these seams are sewn they also sew an additional foam padding and felt to leather. You cannot put the seat heater under this as the heat will never make it through. Once the cover is removed you need to cut right alongside the sewn seams into the foam and felt padding until you just cut through. Immediately on the other side of this is the leather so cut slow and easy until you can get your finger through to help keep a distance between the two so you don't cut the leather. At the rear of the seat bottom pad I cut just a small hole so the wire from the heat pad can come out. The middle sewn seam needs to be cut on both sides all the way. I also trimmed what ever residual foam and leather that was on the seam to remove some "bulk" in that area as the heat pad will be going over that seam. The seam closest to the seat front also needs to be cut all the way so the heat pad can come through.

Hopefully the pictures will help explain.

 

[Massboy]

To help get the pad in I roll it into a tube and then lift the padding away from the leather to insert it. I guide the wire through the small hole I made at the rear of the seat cover then keep pulling the wire as I work the heater pad into the area. In these seats the pad just fits between the sewn side seams (the instructions call them the longitudinal channels). They need to be worked to get all the folds out so they will lay flat. It is a job getting the adhesive backing paper off because working between the leather and sewn on padding. This needs to be done carefully so there are no folds in the heater element. I left the paper on in the front of the element that is not between the leather and foam padding. The kit includes some additional adhesive felt pieces that I used to join the cut seam areas so the contact adhesive will hold this area down. Once I spray on the Super 77 and let it sit, then I put the seat cover in position so the foam center is once again glued down. Once it is in place I then remove the the remaining backing paper sticking the pad down to the seat foam.

 

[Massboy]

With the seat cover back over all the foam I weighed it down with a bag of wood pellets. I haven't put any hog rings or anything else back yet as the seat back needs to be done and installed back on the seat bottom before all the hog rings start going back on.

At the base of the seat back cover there is two screws. The screws are hidden under the leather and you have to move the leather slightly to get a phillips driver on them. Once the screws are removed, you need to work the tabs out of the holes in the leather. Once you have both tabs out you can pull down on the back panel and remove it. Removing the back exposes the lumbar bladder. You do not need to touch that. You need to remove the two guides for the headrest by squeezing the end tabs that are at the bottom of the metal tubes shown in the picture then pushing up. The guides can then be pulled out.

 

[Massboy]

Pay attention to the routing of the lumbar air tube as it need to go back this way and I ran the wire from the heater pad the same way to prevent any binding during the reclining movements of the seat. The seat cover gets removed much in the same way as the bottom one did but there is an armrest involved with the seat back. You can remove it like I did on the driver's seat or leave it in place like I did on the passenger seat. The leather seat cover is glued down in the arm rest depression and I did not remove the seat cover from this glued area. I didn't want all the additional work of gluing it all back. If you want to remove arm rest you will need a window crank remove tool as the arm rest is held on the same way. One advantage of removing the armrest is it will allow you to remove the entire seat back metal frame from the seat foam. Doing this makes it easy to remove the seat upholstery off the foam. Like I said I didn't do it on the passenger seat which I did after the driver's. Once you do one seat, the other was pretty easy.

The process of installing the heater pad is the same as the seat bottom. A small hole at the bottom of the seat back allows the heater pad wire to come out. Opening both sides of the seam in the middle allows the pad to go into both padded areas. I trimmed the carbon fiber pad to fit in this area and did not use the entire pad. Again, I used supplied self adhesive felts to cover the cut carbon fiber wires in the pad end.

Once it all glued back down and the wood pellets have sat on it for a while the assembly starts again. Redo everything like you took it apart and you now have seats with heat. The wiring is pretty self explanatory. I will be putting the switch in the plastic skirting at the seat bases.

 

[Massboy]

Here is a picture of the piece of the element that I cut off and the two seats all done with heaters installed. Now a good cleaning and conditioning. If you wonder why I didn't clean them first I wanted to make sure I could get the heaters installed before I put any work into the cleaning as the guy I got them from said I could return them.

All in all this was a good project but it took a lot of time. I am not a upholster by any means so I'm sure a pro could go it a lot faster but I'm also no slouch. I would say it take about 2+ hours per seat to do the job as it is tedious and you have to be very careful when cutting the seat cover padding. You absolutely need a very sharp blade so having a bunch of new single edge razor blades are a must. The glue and leather will dull them pretty quick.

 

[Richcz28]

Awesome! Thanks for posting this up with detailed pictures.

I hope to heat my seats some day in the distant future.

 

[Big Ray]

this should be stickied...

 

[evolve991]

Awesome Massboy!!! You've got talent and patience!!!! I do believe you've talked me right into finding a heated pair in a junkyard and taking the time to trace and remove every wire,harness and switch I don't have that kind of patience

 

[Massboy]

Awesome Massboy!!! You've got talent and patience!!!! I do believe you've talked me right into finding a heated pair in a junkyard and taking the time to trace and remove every wire,harness and switch I don't have that kind of patience

Thanks for the compliments. My wife says I have patience also. I don't have any patience with stupid people though! LOL I've got good news for you. If you find a pair of buckets with heat from a 97-98 the switch for the heat is built right into the side along with the power controls. The power to the seat is just a positive and negative I'm pretty sure. Cut the plug on the truck side so you can wire it in on your truck. Then if you ever need to remove the seat then you just unplug it.

 

[evolve991]

Same here with stupid people...makes it tough sometimes doing drywall in someones house THANKS man heated seats would be like paradise on our backs after a long day with a long drive home!