I have a 2008 Grand Caravan I just bought with 5k miles. The build sheet says it has cloth non-heated seats. The van has leather seats (drivers is power passengers not) the driver's seat has a large plug that is connected (I assume for the power) and both seats have a smaller connector that is not attached to anything (it is either yellow or orange) Is this the heating element in the seats for heated seats? If so what is involved in adding this? Is it just a new switch and harness (I see there is a heated seats control module available) or is it more involved?
RickMN
12-23-2008, 06:45 PM
The yellow connector is to detect weight on the seat to enable or disable the airbag. Do not mess with these. You can always add electric seats. Check the web for places that sell retro-kits. They run about $175/seat. The hard part is disassembling the upholstery to get the grid in place.
rbr115
12-23-2008, 09:29 PM
There is nothing connected to either yellow connector that is why I asked, should there be?
Rick99
12-23-2008, 10:36 PM
Check if the seats have an "SRS" label on the side. They may have airbags in them. It's strange that the build sheet doesn't match what's in there, but if the seats were badly damaged somehow or if someone decided to "upgrade" them from a wrecked vehicle it's possible someone swapped in some different seats that don't match (ie from a vehicle that had side airbags). All airbag connectors are yellow as a safety measure to distinguish them from other connectors so technicians will not start probing them accidentally which could set off the airbags. If these seats have airbags, connecting power or even a multimeter to the connector could set them off.
RickMN is right that the best way to add heated seats to a vehicle that doesn't have them is to install an aftermarket kit. I got a good set of carbon fiber kits for my Durango a couple years ago for $70 per seat. The guy is still selling them on eBay, but I think they are now $90 per seat. I have had no problem with them, but I did have to learn how to take the seat apart and put it back together when I installed them.
Swapping in a factory heated seat system would probably only be practical if you had a donor vehicle that you could remove all the electronics from. The trouble is that all of the electronics these days are integrated with eachother in ways that can be difficult to figure out. The vans with heated seats have a "memory-heated seat and mirror module" that communicates with the switches that activate the heated seats through a data network via the body control module. If you plugged it all in would it work? I don't know.
knix
02-22-2009, 11:07 PM
My 2003 dodge caravan is suppose to have side curtain air bag seats, that were damaged (by vandals with a knife, cut X's in the seats) before I purchased the van, between when I looked at the pics and picked up the van from them they did me a "favor" and swapped out the seats for non air bag seats. The told me that the airbag light on the dash was "no big deal easy to get turned off it just meant it doesnt have the side curtain air bags anymore.
The problem is I cant get anyone to touch this and turn off the air bag light for me, I did find one set of replacement seats and installed them air bag light off. But, the back of the drivers seat was broken, and i couldnt drive it ganster style. So, back went those seats.
My question is if I keep the current (nonairbag seats) Can the airbag light be turned off at the dealership? should they know how to do it? and I just need to call more dealers?
or do I have to find the replacement air bag seats to make sure that the airbags deploy correctly if needed.
Thankyou ,
Knix
Rick99
02-23-2009, 10:17 AM
Each airbag has a certain amount of resistance that it applies to its airbag circuit. The airbag connectors also have a short-out feature that makes them short out when nothing is connected to them. These two features allow the airbag computer to monitor the airbag circuit for any breaks in the circuit or for connectors that are disconnected. Your airbag computer is programmed for side airbags and it expects to have the proper signals from these circuits-- since it is not getting the proper signals, it is lighting the airbag light.
Since this "fault" exists in the physical system, it would be impossible to simply turn off the airbag light with a scan tool, because the light would immediately come back on again.
I think you will have a very hard time finding anyone that is willing to mess with this system in any way except properly installing the correct seats with side airbags-- there is simply too much at stake in terms of liability for this important safety system. I don't know all the circumstances, but it seems like you should go after the original place you got it from to get you a set of correct seats. Failing that, you should get the correct seats.
