My Tiguan heated seat upgrade

[roooms]

I bought a Tiguan Mk2 R-line interior a few weeks back and have been enjoying the comfort of the front seats using adapter plates (bought at Busfest from BiTurbo).

Today I wired up the seat belt switch successfully. Nice and easy following the electrical track diagrams for the T6 and the Tiguan. I had to cut the connectors off, so I used some temp blocks while I got everything working, then will fit new connectors once I know what I need. It's just a 2-pin, but I might combine it with the heated seat wiring, which would need five points, so likely a 6-pin connector.

The heated seats are proving trickier and I'm looking for some help working out where I'm going wrong. My T6 has factory-fitted heated seats so all the wiring and controls are already there.

On the T6 side, the connector from the van has Yellow, White and Brown wires. Below is the wiring track diagram...

• Yellow is 0.5 wire to G59, which is the driver seat temperature sensor, earthing in 136 in the seat wiring harness
• White is 1.5 wire to Z6, which is the heated seat cushion, that also goes on to Z7, the heated backrest cushion, earthing in 136
• Brown is 1.5 wire from 136 back to earth 19 in the main wiring harness

So far, so simple. But it's matching this with the Tiguan where I'm getting confused...

For starters, the Tiguan diagram is more complicated/noisy as there are so many variants, meaning different wire terminations. I think I've got my head around most of the RHD/LHD differences. The Tiguan diagram calls this the front passenger seat rather than the right seat in lots of places, but the TISVR says it is the right seat and the wire colours do match up. For me, this is the driver's seat...

• Brown/Blue is 0.5 wire to G345, which is the driver seat temperature sender (wondering if this is the main issue as it's not a sensor and looks like it's built into Z8 heated seat cushion) and it looks like it grounds through Brown/Yellow (0.5 wire) back to the main 17-pin red connector for the seat, rather than a common seat wiring harness earth
• Red/Yellow is 1 wire to Z8, which is the heated seat cushion. With all the variant options, and having looked under the seat itself, it looks like this also powers Z9 which is the heated backrest cushion, then earths through Brown (1 wire) back to the main 17-pin red connector for the seat

With the information above, I made the assumption I should connect the following...

• Yellow 0.5 from the van wiring to Brown/Blue 0.5 from the seat. This assumes the sender on the Tiguan seat replaces the sensor from the T6 seat. Wire size matches but I don't like the difference in sensor/sender.
• White 1.5 from the van wiring to Red/Yellow 1 from the seat. This seems to match as the wiring diagram for the heat pads in both seats is similar.
• Brown 1.5 from the van to Brown/Yellow 0.5 and Brown 1 from the seat. I assumed this was bringing both separate earths from the seat back to a common earth on the van wiring harness.

However, having done this, I don't have working heated seats...

• The open circuit fault in Carista is gone, but I guess that's just because it isn't an open circuit anymore, but it's still not wired correctly.
• Checking the voltage at the connector, I get 9.5 volts across yellow and brown or yellow and white. Nothing across white and brown (which I was kind of expecting)
• When I press the heated seat button (changing between 3/2/1 heat setting) on the dash, I see a small fluctuation from 9.5 to 9.6 volts then it settles at 9.5. When I press the button enough times to switch the heated seats off, the 9.5 voltage drops to 0.

I'm unsure what to do next and don't want to break anything, so I thought it best to ask here. I am an electrical novice, so I could well be doing something obviously wrong and I would appreciate any help. Other posts seem to suggest some folks have this working. @Steview does any of this make sense to you? I think you have them working.

My goal was to work this out and then share the solution, but here I am stuck
Once we have it worked out, I can update this thread and it can remain as a detailed guide on what to do.

I'm attaching the Tiguan wiring manual as the diagram is hard to see. I have combined pages 326 and 327 in the image.

Side note: The passenger seat is very similar, but on the Tiguan side I don't need to use the passenger seat belt switch, or occupancy sensor (my T6 doesn't have those).

Thanks in advance to any of the electrical wizards on here who might be able to explain where I'm going wrong.

 

[roooms]

Quick update on some trial and error testing today. Using a Noco Genius 10 as a 12v supply, I connected to the Red/Yellow and Brown wires on the Tiguan seat for about 10 minutes and found both the seat cushion and backrest cushion warmed up nicely. So the heating elements are working, but I just don't know how to incorporate the sender/sensor wiring. I'm reluctant to run through other wiring combinations including the sender/sensor wires in case I break something.

@Dav-Tec sorry to call you out directly, especially since I am too far from Chesterfield to book any work with you, but I wondered if you could offer any guidance having seen the above wiring diagrams for the van and the Tiguan/seats. I see you commented on a few other electrical/seat-related threads so would appreciate anything you can suggest via a reply.

 

[Knightroturbo]

I’m in a similar situation, have the seats fitted from Tiguan in My 6.1 but no seat heating controls in my van. I have just bought an ac unit with the switches on and I assume I need a heated seat module and wiring loom (kufatec maybe).

 

[Dav-Tec]

Yeah let me find 10 mins I'll cast my eye over a few diagrams it's a new one on me

 

[roooms]

I’m in a similar situation, have the seats fitted from Tiguan in My 6.1 but no seat heating controls in my van. I have just bought an ac unit with the switches on and I assume I need a heated seat module and wiring loom (kufatec maybe).

Yeah I saw your fitting thread and was hoping my post could at least help with the seat wiring but I got stuck too. I’m really happy with the seats and comfort. I don’t miss the arm rests but I appreciate many will.

Wiring up the seat belt switch is nice and easy, but you’ve got a few more steps to go through than me for the heated seats since you need to fit the whole system to your van first.

I was hoping mine would be fairly straightforward since I had it all there already and thought I’d just need to match up the wires.

Yeah let me find 10 mins I'll cast my eye over a few diagrams it's a new one on me

Thanks. I really appreciate it.

 

[Steview]

It’s been a while since I fitted mine, I had to do it all including the Kufatec loom. I’ll try and have a look this week to see what wires I used. I’m sure I only needed 3 wires from the Tiguan loom for the heated side and didn’t bother with the seatbelt warning.

 

[roooms]

It’s been a while since I fitted mine, I had to do it all including the Kufatec loom. I’ll try and have a look this week to see what wires I used. I’m sure I only needed 3 wires from the Tiguan loom for the heated side and didn’t bother with the seatbelt warning.

Thanks @Steview that would be really helpful.

Yeah, I have no seat belt warning or occupancy sensor on the van passenger side (maybe was a bench seat before original conversion?) so it’s just the heating wires needed from the Tiguan seat. As you say, it’s likely three or maybe four. I’d love to know which colour wires you have matched up to the three from the van. Thanks!

 

[Steview]

Thanks @Steview that would be really helpful.

Yeah, I have no seat belt warning or occupancy sensor on the van passenger side (maybe was a bench seat before original conversion?) so it’s just the heating wires needed from the Tiguan seat. As you say, it’s likely three or maybe four. I’d love to know which colour wires you have matched up to the three from the van. Thanks!

I’ve had a look and these are what I’ve used
N/S Tiguan wires-
2 wires-Br+Br/Bl- pin 3 on T6
Br/Y- pin 2
R/Wh- pin 4

O/S Tiguan.
2 wires-Br+Br/Bl- pin 3 on T6
Br/Y.- pin 2
R/Y.- pin 4

Hopefully this will make sense if your T6 plug is numbered.

 

[roooms]

Thanks @Steview that's got them working!

Compared to what I was doing, I had the sender wired in the wrong way around on both driver and passenger seats.

 

[bmc054]

I’ve been thinking about swapping mine out for these
Where did you source yours and the adaptor plates please ?

 

[Steview]

Thanks @Steview that's got them working!

Compared to what I was doing, I had the sender wired in the wrong way around on both driver and passenger seats.

Excellent result. Hopefully this will help anyone else fitting them.
My driver’s seat also has massage function but was only one extra permanent live from the fuse box.

 

[CRS Performance]

I’ve been thinking about swapping mine out for these
Where did you source yours and the adaptor plates please ?

The adaptor plates are from Rob ( biturbo on this forum ) other wise call him on 07568073593

These are way superior to what we have seen from other companies . NO drilling, no cutting, no welding 30 to 40 mins to fit , can be used with swivels as well .

 

[roooms]

Adding a wiring diagram here that I hope helps. Steview explained it well with the pin numbers (as wire colour can sometimes be different) but in an effort to make it super obvious and assuming your T6 wiring is the same, here's a picture...

 

[roooms]

I’ve been thinking about swapping mine out for these
Where did you source yours and the adaptor plates please ?

As CRS says, I got the adaptor plates from @BiTurbo (while at Busfest) and they are fantastic.

They are four pieces of thick sheet metal (a bit like wings for either side of your seat base to make them wider) rather than a square plate per seat and they come with all the necessary fixings to fit to standard seat bases. The driver's side adapters add a slight height increase to the seat as the fixing points for the adapter to the base and the seat to the adapter overlap slightly, meaning a vertical offset is needed. This is crucial to make the new seat dead-centre with the steering wheel though. Also, the Tiguan seat base is slightly shallower than the T6 one, so the height change is negligible.

I am fairly certain the adapters work with most/all aftermarket swivel plates as well. I have a slight issue as I'm using lowered seat bases which means the doorside passenger adapter plate now fouls the b-pillar by about a centimetre. I will fix this by trimming a small amount from the adapter plate though. If you're installing Tiguan seats and want to swivel them, you'll also likely need to trim the seat runners about 2 inches so they are about the same length as the T6 ones, otherwise, they overhang off the back of the seat base a bit. The Tiguan seats have much more range of motion than the T6 ones.

For the seats, it was just an ebay search. Something like this. I got a full Tiguan MK2 R-line interior. I'm actually fitting the rear seats in the T6 as well. But that's a post for another day!

I'll post pictures of my front seats fully installed (and now clean!) so you can see.

Excellent result. Hopefully this will help anyone else fitting them.
My driver’s seat also has massage function but was only one extra permanent live from the fuse box.

I was hoping this might be the case. I'm on the lookout for other Tiguan interiors now... maybe the 2020-2023 version, or some with extra functions. My second car is a Tiguan Mk2 R-line TSI, so I have very similar seats in that, with programmable seat positions and electric position adjustment. I was hoping all that might be in the seat and just need a power feed.

 

[bmc054]

As CRS says, I got the adaptor plates from @BiTurbo (while at Busfest) and they are fantastic.

They are four pieces of thick sheet metal (a bit like wings for either side of your seat base to make them wider) rather than a square plate per seat and they come with all the necessary fixings to fit to standard seat bases. The driver's side adapters add a slight height increase to the seat as the fixing points for the adapter to the base and the seat to the adapter overlap slightly, meaning a vertical offset is needed. This is crucial to make the new seat dead-centre with the steering wheel though. Also, the Tiguan seat base is slightly shallower than the T6 one, so the height change is negligible.

I am fairly certain the adapters work with most/all aftermarket swivel plates as well. I have a slight issue as I'm using lowered seat bases which means the doorside passenger adapter plate now fouls the b-pillar by about a centimetre. I will fix this by trimming a small amount from the adapter plate though. If you're installing Tiguan seats and want to swivel them, you'll also likely need to trim the seat runners about 2 inches so they are about the same length as the T6 ones, otherwise, they overhang off the back of the seat base a bit. The Tiguan seats have much more range of motion than the T6 ones.

For the seats, it was just an ebay search. Something like this. I got a full Tiguan MK2 R-line interior. I'm actually fitting the rear seats in the T6 as well. But that's a post for another day!

I'll post pictures of my front seats fully installed (and now clean!) so you can see.

Thank you

 

[Knightroturbo]

Yeah I saw your fitting thread and was hoping my post could at least help with the seat wiring but I got stuck too. I’m really happy with the seats and comfort. I don’t miss the arm rests but I appreciate many will.

Wiring up the seat belt switch is nice and easy, but you’ve got a few more steps to go through than me for the heated seats since you need to fit the whole system to your van first.

I was hoping mine would be fairly straightforward since I had it all there already and thought I’d just need to match up the wires.

Yeah, I would of thought it would be just changing the plug type to match! Hope you get it sorted, it’s set me off again trying to do mine not even sure if this ac unit will work

 

[Knightroturbo]

@rooms just read the the thread! You have got them working hope it’s similar on the 6.1 then

 

[Knightroturbo]

Just thinking out loud, do I need the heated seat module for a Tiguan or Transporter or is it the same?

 

[roooms]

Just thinking out loud, do I need the heated seat module for a Tiguan or Transporter or is it the same?

So if I was you I’d look for the transporter modules.

The reason I say that is I’d try and set the van up with parts it might use if you’d picked those options during the original van build spec. That way you know all modules will play nicely. Mine had all this in place already as the example. Then (from this thread) you know you can just match the wires up from Tiguan seats to a complete transporter heated seat install (modules and harness etc) and have them working.

It may be possible to use more Tiguan parts than just the seats, but I’d worry about compatibility with the transporter or even just ease of install wherever those modules are located as they might be different shapes or have different fixings.

 

[Knightroturbo]

So if I was you I’d look for the transporter modules.

The reason I say that is I’d try and set the van up with parts it might use if you’d picked those options during the original van build spec. That way you know all modules will play nicely. Mine had all this in place already as the example. Then (from this thread) you know you can just match the wires up from Tiguan seats to a complete transporter heated seat install (modules and harness etc) and have them working.

It may be possible to use more Tiguan parts than just the seats, but I’d worry about compatibility with the transporter or even just ease of install wherever those modules are located as they might be different shapes or have different fixings.

Good point, that was my plan to use the transporter module. Do you know where it is mounted on yours?