2006 Ram Heated Seat Elements

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Well, with winter aproaching its becoming more and more of a fight to keep the Mrs. hands off of the heater controls. Anything below 60 degrees and she wants to crank the heat at full blast until I’m sitting in a puddle of my own sweat, dang cold blooded reptile woman...

Anyways, I know generic seat heater systems work a bit better and are easier to deal with, but I’m a bit of a stickler for the nice clean stock look.

So, I went ahead and sourced the panels and switches from my local U Pull U Save and wired everything up in the dash all the way to the seat. Now all that remains in getting my hands on the heated seat elements.

From what I’ve gathered, the 06-08 heated seat switches need the proper resistance pads or they start throwing error codes and turn themselves off, so aftermarket pads wont work with them.

But, for the life of me I can’t seem to find any Mopar pads at any of the junkyards down here in Georgia (Heated seats in the deep south just don’t seem to be a hot ticket item) and the dealers around here want near $600 for the set of four pads.

Are there no companies that make replacement pads for the 06-08 trucks...? Dorman seems to offer OE Solution pads for every other vehicle on the road, but not our rams.

Any suggestions, or am I just going to have to start wearing gym shorts and a wifebeater to date night until winter passes...?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Silver Goose]

We have a collision repair shop in town. As an added service they can install permanent seat covers and can add heated elements to the seats.

If you like the heating element can be bought from Summit Racing for under $40.00.

The element is made by Dorman, part number 628-040.

Good Luck

Larry

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Thanks Larry, but I was hoping for a solution that would be able to utilize the factory switches in the dash. The Dorman part number you put up looks like its a universal fit that I’d have to mount aftermarket switches somewhere to use right...? That kit will probably be my last resort if I cant find a set of Mopar pads out of a wrecked truck or a donor vehicle somewhere. Cant find any at my local U Pull yards, and none of the places ive called seems to be willing to seperate pads from the seats they’re in.

I was really hoping for an aftermarket plug and play replacement pad to be on the market. I cant imagine no one having produced a replacement pad.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I saved that part Dorman info on my phone for if I give up on my way.

 

[Silver Goose]

Check the factory switches, if it is a simple reostate type then maybe the Dorman will work. I checked with the rebuilder here and they seem to have not problem retrofitting back into most of the factory system and for sure any aftermarket upgrades. They fit many motorcycle seats with similar heaters, I know.

It should be simple to find a factory unit, have you tried putting your request on the pick-a-part request line? Most of the salvage yards are on a nationwide system.

At any rate the very best of luck to you.

Larry

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

The 06-08 switches are actually momentary solid state relays, so unfortunately its not as simple as a reostat install.

I had been calling around to places on the Car-Part nationwide salvage site, but I had no idea there was a site I could put my info on and they called me. I went ahead and put in a request on there and a few minutes later I had already gotten a couple automated emails saying that some places have the elements, and just needes pictures and part numbers to confirm. Hopefully those will work out!

I really appreciate the help. I’ll probably post back later about how the request line works out, or if I need to keep looking into the Dorman type install you were referring to.

Thanks again Larry!

 

[chrisbh17]

Not sure if you can track one down, but it looks like part number 82210896AB is a heated seat "add on" kit from Mopar that was made for the 06-10 trucks.

The pads seem to have more than 2 leads coming from them, which I believe is what you need....its not just a simple low/med/high/off setup (as you have found). There is probably a feedback circuit in there that allows the BCM to adjust and/or monitor the current flow and react accordingly.

A very similar setup is on my '17 as well, so its almost impossible to mimick with aftermarket parts. On my case I actually bought a set of heated front seats to add seat heating to my truck. I have aftermarket pads for the rear but am still looking for a rear seat from a Limited, etc that came with rear heated seats too, because it would be nice to have the stock setup back there (without buying all parts individually)

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Thanks Chris,

That mopar add on kit is actually just an add on kit with seperate switches, and doesn’t work with the factory set up.

The 06-08 switches have that built in circuitry that you’re talking about and from what I’ve seen it reads the resistence of the wires by sensing the amperage or current (something) as the temperature goes up. It can tell how hot the seat element is by the change in resistance, and adjusts the cycle time of the element accordingly. But, it only uses a two wire set up, it doesn’t need the four wire setup with the thermostat resistor like in the kit.

Thanks for the input though! It was worth a look.

And haven’t had any luck with that part request line, these junkyards that contacted me just want to sell me new ones at list price of $145 per pad! Not a chance. Luckily the temperature in Georgia right now feels like spring time already, so I may have a bit of time before it becomes a necessity.

And its nice to know that I’m not the only one that feels the need to stick with the nice clean factory set up. I had looked at upgrading with leather heated seats, but hadnt found a route that didn’t break the bank. If I upgraded to leather heated seats in the front, I’d have to get leather in the back to match or I’d have an ocd attack every time I went for a drive.

 

[chrisbh17]

Bummer!

Im not sure how it was in 06 model year but now all of the "decision making" for the heated seats goes through the heated seat module under the drivers seat. Now the switches are basically just dumb.

Ive resigned myself to needing aftermarket stuff for the rear seats. Too expensive to get the necessary parts and wiring (even used) to try and make it factory. Further complicated by the fact I have a quad cab and rear heated seats only ever came in crew cabs, so Im not even sure the pads would fit.

Ive taken the covers off one front heated seat and can see Gentherm is the OEM (at least back in 2015). Carbotex is the product and I have both the Gentherm and Mopar part numbers. But to actually track them down (without paying brand new prices) is basically impossible.

I know its more expensive, but have you looked at full sets of seats for your truck? Leather, heated, the whole 9 yards. Pre-2013 seat sets seem to come up for decent prices every now and then. 2013+ remain expensive, presumably because its still technically a current gen truck.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

I had looked at a full set of leather for the truck, but right now its not in the butget. The ones i could find around here are all $1k+ and even those are in awful condition.

And the 06 switches ARE the control module unfortunately. No under seat module to work with. The 06-08s are just the wrong vehicles to do this on.

If anyone has an 06-08 with heated seats and would be willing to ohm out the two pads for me, i might be able to find a comparable resistance set of pads at the junk yard. I know that the manual gives a range of 3.8 - 4.8 ohms for the seat and 4.3-5.4 for the back, but I’m curious what the actual pads come out at. I might just wire up a couple pads that add up to 8.1-10.2 ohms total from other vehicles and call it a day, but id like to stay as close to the actual pad resistence as possible.