E81/E87 Heated Seat Retro Fit

[Levi1501]

Hi,
I am looking at getting a 130i M Sport and noticed the LE’s have a really nice spec but are missing heated seats. Does anyone on here know of a company that can retro fit heated seats and how much it costs?

[BFleming]

Levi1501 said:

Hi,
I am looking at getting a 130i M Sport and noticed the LE’s have a really nice spec but are missing heated seats. Does anyone on here know of a company that can retro fit heated seats and how much it costs?

This may / may not help you. I retrofitted heated seats to my E90 LCI. I bought the seats secondhand, installed them, then installed the correct button pack which connects to the heater control unit, then the required cabling from the fuse box to the respective connectors under the seats. Finally coded it, whereby you're telling the car it has heated seats. Worked perfectly.
Slightly more difficult nowadays is that BMW has forced newtis.info to shut down, so the wiring diagrams are no longer there. But I'm sure someone somewhere has them (I think it used to be an official BMW retrofit, so there are official instructions about).
The E90 and E87/E81 are more-or-less identical from a wiring viewpoint.

If you wish to retain your existing seats, you need to strip them down & install the heater elements etc. Not impossible - I've stripped some BMW seats and they tend to come apart nicely.

I hope this helps / but appreciate it might not.

[Levi1501]

Thank you for your help! If I was to buy a 130i Limited Edition I would want to keep the original Lemon coloured interior so I would be stripping them seats down. How do you find the retro fitted seats perform? I’ve heard people say they aren’t as powerful as factory fit? Also what would you say is the total cost for retro fitting heated seats?

Edited by Levi1501 on Wednesday 4th November 20:21

[BFleming]

The functionality of the heated seats is the same as factory (if you use the factory elements).
I notice BMW still offer the retrofit kit for the E8x, but caveat it with a "not for leather seats", "not for sports seats". Bizarre. See for yourself:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=UB12...

[Webley]

Some useful info here from someone who has done it and shows part numbers and process.

https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9792...

I don't really miss heated seats in my 130i LE TBH.

Matt

[roadie]

I very much enjoy the heated seats in my 130i when it's cold!

[Mr-B]

Not very OEM but if you want a quick cheap temporary fix Lidl from Sunday have heated seat covers for a tenner.

[Levi1501]

Mr-B said:

Not very OEM but if you want a quick cheap temporary fix Lidl from Sunday have heated seat covers for a tenner.

I did buy one, wasn’t a fan of it at all