Hi all, some time ago I posted an inquiry about switching in power/heated/cooled seats into a basic 2012 Ram 1500. Quite a few of you reviewed the post, but there wasn't much help offered so I though I would summarize how I did it for any of you considering the switch. First, this turned out to be totally worth the effort. I was able to find some leather, fully optioned seats in good condition for a fair price. The addition has made a relatively base model truck that I don't owe any money on really cool! Here is what I did: Spent about 4 hours studying the wiring and connection diagrams from Tech Authority. There is no way I could have done this without these diagrams, wire specifications and part #'s for the necessary connectors and wire terminals. Tracking down the parts took about 4 weeks. Initially I tried to find a used harness to scavenge, but these were few and far between and the ones I did find were too much $$. I finally sourced new connectors and terminals from a variety of parts suppliers online who were willing to sell me less than 1,000 units. I found a wire seller on ebay that put together a custom wire order of the correct gauges and lengths and enough different colors so I didn't get confused when assembling the new harnesses needed. It was necessary to bring 3 new circuits in from the fuse box, through the firewall and to the drivers side seat. It was necessary to cut splices in the CAN (Controller Area Network) circuit immediately in front of the drivers side seat ( the dashboard switches are not really switches that complete circuits, instead, they send signals via the CAN system which in turn trigger relays in the control module under the drivers seat). These circuits and originals + new grounds had to be fitted into a new connector that matched up with the one fitted to the new seat with the proper wire terminals. I purchased a special tool for wire terminals off amazon that worked great. A new wire harness from the new drivers side seat to the passenger side had to be assembled with the correct connectors and wire terminals. This harness brought power and the heating cooling module connections under the drivers side seat to the passenger side power controls and heating cooling elements. The dashboard control module for the heating and cooling elements was installed into a blank in the center console-fortunately there was a CAN pigtail just for that purpose already wired into the dash harness. The physical work of gutting the interior, assembling the new harnesses and installing all of this stuff took about 10 hours (one long Sunday). About the time I was splicing into the CAN circuits I had some doubts about whether this was going to have a good ending. For the most part it did- everything works great EXCEPT- the on/high/low LEDs in the dashboard switch do not light. The manual says that a new switch is needed. I bought a new switch module and still no lights. I figure there are 3 reasons why this might be: 1- the control module under the drivers seat is faulty and not sending signals to the switch LEDs. If any of you have any ideas to solve this last issue that would be great. Hopefully it isn't the dealer codes because my local dealer has been less than helpful in this effort. Cheers!
2- since the dealer codes programmed into the truck don't know about the new seats, some other computer in the truck is not sending the right signal to the switches.
3- the outside chance that I have purchased TWO faulty switch modules.
Source: https://www.ramforum.com/threads/2012-ram-1500-switch-to-power-heated-cooled-seats-done.124821/
Posted by: elsaelsarockholdowe0266539.blogspot.com
