Adding power seats to 2002 Explorer?

[ProPhotog]

Purchased a 2002 XLS for my wife and she's not happy with the manual seats. My question is, who has upgraded to the full-power seats and is it a direct bolt-in and plug-n-play? I haven't taken the time to see if there's a power plug under the carpet yet so I wanted to ask first.
Thanks in advance.

 

[ProPhotog]

bump

 

[EasyRhino]

don't have a clue whether this would be a plug and play, but I'll give you a bump. I do think that you would not be able to get the memory seat function easily back-fitted, as it includes a separate switch on the door, and integrates with the key fobs. I have no idea how it works.

 

[Donner]

My 03 has one power seat...

I'll go check the other to see if there is anything under there. But because I already have one power seat, my vehicle might have the other seat "power-seat" ready. I'll check and post a pic or two... gimme a second.


These are pics from under the psngr side... I don't know what they are for, but there are multiple plugs under both seats - one shot is from the drvrs side, but the plugs are all there. I can imagine that one at least is for the seatbelt sensor, but the others... You gotta peek under there and see.

 

[Donner]

Have a look at this thread and scroll through the seating and flooring... that's where the good pic are...

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199896

 

[EasyRhino]

another thought - ours also has heated seats, that includes a seat icon on the HVAC that illuminates when the heaters on on (they time out after some pre-set duration), so there are likely some wiring harness provisions for those as well.

Actually, it scares me to think of all the wiring that might be up under there. Probably more wiring in the doggone seats that total wiring in my old Triumph TR4 back in the day. The total number of fuses and relays on these trucks gives me the willies. Come to think of it, I probably learned my wiring willies from that old TR4. Have not enjoyed working on wiring issues since.

Good luck figuring the seat wiring thing out, though.

 

[EasyRhino]

Holy crap, I was right. There is an awful lot of wiring up under the passenger's seat. I didn't look under the driver's. Donner, good pics, I have no idea how you got them.

Anyway, there appear to be two wiring harnesses coming into my passenger's side seat, one from under the middle of the floor pan under the seat, and one which seems to come from somewhere along the tunnel between the seat and console. I am guessing that this one is the power suply for the adjusitng motors, since the wiring bundle appears to wrap around the bottom of the seat frame, and terminates in several locations (adjusting motors/limit switches/controls??).

 

[Donner]

I didn't know either...

So they are pre-wired to do heated seats, and power... nice! So all you have to do is buy the seat and have the power switches installed?

(Those camcorders are great!)

 

[EasyRhino]

So they are pre-wired to do heated seats, and power... nice! So all you have to do is buy the seat and have the power switches installed?

(Those camcorders are great!)

I'm not sure - it would be interesting to compare the wiring going to the seats in an Explorer originally equipped with power/heated seats, and one not so equipped, to see if all of the necessay wiring was there.

Although this is no gauge of the odds, most of the time, I have not found extra wiring in cars that did not come equipped with options. But maybe that's different on these cars?

 

[Donner]

Waiting...

Somebody with one like that will show up...

 

[ProPhotog]

hey guys thanks for all of that. I found a nice set of leather's front and rear and only the driver's side has the power switch so it might be easy enough to at least run a power tap just for the motor because I don't think these seats I'm looking at have heat anyway. Just a basic power seat with the manual recline and whatever.
I bought my wife a basic XLS in essence. Power everything except for seats. She hates it..hahahah but I like it since her 94 exploder had almost 190K on it and started showing and running it's age.
thanks again for the info. I appreciate it.

 

[Donner]

No problem... You might want to hit that link above and ask that young man, he could probably find a real easy way to get power and hook up the heat (even if it's not already in the seats) That one is talented!

 

[EasyRhino]

hey guys thanks for all of that. I found a nice set of leather's front and rear and only the driver's side has the power switch so it might be easy enough to at least run a power tap just for the motor because I don't think these seats I'm looking at have heat anyway. Just a basic power seat with the manual recline and whatever.
I bought my wife a basic XLS in essence. Power everything except for seats. She hates it..hahahah but I like it since her 94 exploder had almost 190K on it and started showing and running it's age.
thanks again for the info. I appreciate it.

I hear what you're thinking - just find a hot source for the one seat, and tap into it. Sounds like it would be do-able. If you have the power point in the console compartment, that would be very, very close to the underside of the seat. Good Luck.

My wife much prefers her '02 Limited to our old '97 XLT (I preferred the old one myself). One reason she really prefers the '02 is the seats - she loves 'em..

 

[ProPhotog]

i just priced a set of leather seats with power at a salvage yard, $300 for front buckets and the rears. I mean the entire set, $300. I'm probably going to take a chance. running power and ground if i have to

 

[Donner]

Take the camera!

post a couple pics if you can... I'm going take out two of those up there, the one is good.

 

[pa944red]

i just priced a set of leather seats with power at a salvage yard, $300 for front buckets and the rears. I mean the entire set, $300. I'm probably going to take a chance. running power and ground if i have to

Did you ever do this?

Tom