Programming Help - Cooled Seat Swap

[Craig M.]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 2007 CXS that originally came with heated seats from the factory, but over the past month I have swapped in all of the components for the heated and cooled seat option (seats, wiring, door buttons).

However, running into an issue where the car’s programming is not allowing them to work - which I think stems from the BCM (i.e., the car still thinks it has just the heated seats option).

Does anyone have any insight into how these could be programmed to work?

Appreciate the help - Thank you.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

On most Lucerne upgrades a Tech2 is required to identify, manage and program the seat control module. A dealer or a good GM service shop may be a option to consider as on some programming a GM subscription is required to do the programming. The question has been raised on the seat swap but at this point the actual process hasn't been posted so it has been theory that the harnesses, door switches, seats and seat control module could be swapped.

The Cadillac DTS forum could be something to check on the same topic as a lot of the Lucerne and DTS share the same components.

 

[Craig M.]

On most Lucerne upgrades a Tech2 is required to identify, manage and program the seat control module. A dealer or a good GM service shop may be a option to consider as on some programming a GM subscription is required to do the programming. The question has been raised on the seat swap but at this point the actual process hasn't been posted so it has been theory that the harnesses, door switches, seats and seat control module could be swapped.

The Cadillac DTS forum could be something to check on the same topic as a lot of the Lucerne and DTS share the same components

Appreciate the help - it’s actually at the dealer now but they don’t seem to be getting anywhere so I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas to share with them while it’s still there. I’ll also check out the DTS forums as well.

 

[Craig M.]

No luck at the dealer by the way - they had the car all week but from the notes not sure they were headed in the right direction anyways. Will have to try again later I suppose

 

[engmate02]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 2007 CXS that originally came with heated seats from the factory, but over the past month I have swapped in all of the components for the heated and cooled seat option (seats, wiring, door buttons).

However, running into an issue where the car’s programming is not allowing them to work - which I think stems from the BCM (i.e., the car still thinks it has just the heated seats option).

Does anyone have any insight into how these could be programmed to work?

Appreciate the help - Thank you.

I was actually planning on doing this at some point. Remember that the Heated and Cooled seats use a climate control seat module mounted UNDER the passages side seat, so if you don’t have that, it will NOT work. The CCSM requires a 25a power wire to it and ignition switched power too, if you need any of the specifics, you can shoot me a DM since it’s too much to get into here. But as far as I’m aware, the CCSM (Climate controlled seat module) used Keyword 2000 serial data, which isn’t used by any other computer in the vehicle so the BCM shouldn’t be your issue.

 

[Redwingsd1]

I was actually planning on doing this at some point. Remember that the Heated and Cooled seats use a climate control seat module mounted UNDER the passages side seat, so if you don’t have that, it will NOT work. The CCSM requires a 25a power wire to it and ignition switched power too, if you need any of the specifics, you can shoot me a DM since it’s too much to get into here. But as far as I’m aware, the CCSM (Climate controlled seat module) used Keyword 2000 serial data, which isn’t used by any other computer in the vehicle so the BCM shouldn’t be your issue.

I know this is an older thread Im very ambitious about it and am quite curious as I did acquire everything you've listed but I'm stumped on a few things dm me if you could id like to hear your method

 

[engmate02]

I know this is an older thread Im very ambitious about it and am quite curious as I did acquire everything you've listed but I'm stumped on a few things dm me if you could id like to hear your method

I haven’t done this job yet due to not being able to source heated and cooled seats in good condition and the correct interior color. But this is all what I’ve gathered from looking and component description and operation and wiring diagrams inside the service manual. Furthermore, I also went out to a Lucerne in a salvage yard that had the heated and cooled seats and went to check how the wiring was routed around.

It is a lot to cover, but for wiring, you will have to pin into the seat harnesses and the fuse block along with some others most likely if you want to do it correctly; you’ll also need to pull all the wiring from a donor car, otherwise you can make your own wiring but you’d just have to make sure you get the correct terminals.

With all that being said, this job isn’t one where you can just drop new seats into the car, you have to do wiring work which is difficult for some, but there shouldn’t be anything else as far as programming goes.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

Reading the wiring schematics would possibly eliminate some installation theories posted. Also looking at the Lucerne parts list would confirm that all required components needed to make it operational.

 

[Redwingsd1]

I haven’t done this job yet due to not being able to source heated and cooled seats in good condition and the correct interior color. But this is all what I’ve gathered from looking and component description and operation and wiring diagrams inside the service manual. Furthermore, I also went out to a Lucerne in a salvage yard that had the heated and cooled seats and went to check how the wiring was routed around.

It is a lot to cover, but for wiring, you will have to pin into the seat harnesses and the fuse block along with some others most likely if you want to do it correctly; you’ll also need to pull all the wiring from a donor car, otherwise you can make your own wiring but you’d just have to make sure you get the correct terminals.

With all that being said, this job isn’t one where you can just drop new seats into the car, you have to do wiring work which is difficult for some, but there shouldn’t be anything else as far as programming goes.

I essentially have gotten power to the heated And cooled seats and all the switches outside of the car currently if I'm able to find one I'm going to cut the connector at the door buttons and on the modules for the heated and cooled and see the wire colors and butt connect them together (Something I should have done when I originally got the modules and door buttons boneheaded move on my end) and see if it works and I'll update this further and give details at a later point because then all it requires is just finding a good switched power in the car ontop of a few inline fuses (for safety of course) then tucking the wires in and bolting the seat down.

 

[engmate02]

I essentially have gotten power to the heated And cooled seats and all the switches outside of the car currently if I'm able to find one I'm going to cut the connector at the door buttons and on the modules for the heated and cooled and see the wire colors and butt connect them together (Something I should have done when I originally got the modules and door buttons boneheaded move on my end) and see if it works and I'll update this further and give details at a later point because then all it requires is just finding a good switched power in the car ontop of a few inline fuses (for safety of course) then tucking the wires in and bolting the seat down.

You should probably know that the seats heating and cooling function input goes to the climate control seat module (CCSM) THEN goes to the seats; whereas the on the heated only seats it is controlled by the Memory Seat Module (MSM), the wiring and how it works are completely different between the two systems. If I were you I’d re-pin the OEM connectors so have it wired properly; if you are going to use butt connectors make sure they are of the heat shrink variety. I can send the wiring schematics here if needed, but just be careful and double check where you connect things.

Also remember that this system requires TWO power inputs, one is ignition switched power and the other is constant 12v. The 12v constant line requires 10 gauge wire to not overload the wire and cause an electrical fire.

 

[Redwingsd1]

You should probably know that the seats heating and cooling function input goes to the climate control seat module (CCSM) THEN goes to the seats; whereas the on the heated only seats it is controlled by the Memory Seat Module (MSM), the wiring and how it works are completely different between the two systems. If I were you I’d re-pin the OEM connectors so have it wired properly; if you are going to use butt connectors make sure they are of the heat shrink variety. I can send the wiring schematics here if needed, but just be careful and double check where you connect things.

Also remember that this system requires TWO power inputs, one is ignition switched power and the other is constant 12v. The 12v constant line requires 10 gauge wire to not overload the wire and cause an electrical fire.

My apologies for the late reply could you Dm me It won't let me message you directly for some reason but I really wanna spit ball this with you I got everything both heated and cooled seats the connectors the buttons and I'm genuinely interested in hearing your success with this as well as some tips and the detailed specifics you mentioned in the earlier post thank you so much I have everything to make this work but I'm solely stumped win not having proper advice and knowledge of the wires colors

 

[Craig M.]

Well hello again everyone,

Didn’t realize we had some traction here! Thanks to engmate and redwing for hopping in.

I am still in the same spot… Any traction on getting everything to function Engmate? Would definitely appreciate any tutorials - again to my knowledge I have all the hardware and (I think) wiring done but still no luck. Funnily enough they seats still heat up but the fans only come on for a second and turn off, and then still no response from the cooled seat buttons (no lights or anything)

For the other users here, I made PPT files that show the differences in the wiring connectors between just heated and heated and cooled seats if those help for completing the wiring swap / re pinning those connectors. I can attach or put screenshots if helpful.

 

[WalmartTech21]

Well hello again everyone,

Didn’t realize we had some traction here! Thanks to engmate and redwing for hopping in.

I am still in the same spot… Any traction on getting everything to function Engmate? Would definitely appreciate any tutorials - again to my knowledge I have all the hardware and (I think) wiring done but still no luck. Funnily enough they seats still heat up but the fans only come on for a second and turn off, and then still no response from the cooled seat buttons (no lights or anything)

For the other users here, I made PPT files that show the differences in the wiring connectors between just heated and heated and cooled seats if those help for completing the wiring swap / re pinning those connectors. I can attach or put screenshots if helpful.

actually that's intentional; its a Soft Start mode designed to get the TEDs up to temperature faster. here's an excerpt from SI that explains the SoftStart Mode better than I can:

Heat SoftStart Mode--While in transition to the heat mode, the CCSM will initiate the SoftStart Mode. The intent of the Heat SoftStart Mode is for the module to bring the ventilation module fin temperature up to the pre-determined Temperature Set Point of the Max Heat Mode. The module does this by setting the blower motor speed control to a pre-determined voltage while ramping up the ventilation module voltage from 0 volts to the maximum voltage, not to exceed 5 seconds, at which point the system transitions to Max Heat Mode. The Heat SoftStart Mode will only be attempted once per ignition cycle

 

[Craig M.]

actually that's intentional; its a Soft Start mode designed to get the TEDs up to temperature faster. here's an excerpt from SI that explains the SoftStart Mode better than I can:

Thanks for this… Going to read up on the service manual for both this and the wiring diagrams to see if I can figure out what might be preventing full function and will let you all know if I get anywhere.

 

[Craig M.]

Success! Thanks to you all for commenting and making me re-think my (clearly wrong) assumptions… appreciate the help along the way.

I assumed the logic to control the seat heat/cooling buttons was in the buttons themselves - and when they didn’t work I jumped right to the BCM. If I had read the service manual more carefully - it’s pretty clear this was incorrect. Goes to show the importance of doing the due diligence before jumping to a conclusion!

In actuality, the seat heater buttons are controlled by the window switch - which is also the door control module. This weekend I picked up window switches from a car of the same year with cooled seats at the salvage yard and now all the buttons work. No issues!

Will take some time to write a more detailed walkthrough for how to complete this swap if anyone else is crazy enough to try it, but can confirm that it is indeed possible to swap in cooled seats to a car that didn’t have them from the factory.

 

[Craig M.]

Solved - Cooled Seat Swap Guide - Buick Lucerne
As promised writing the below guide if helpful

Is it possible? Yes. Should you probably just buy a car that already has this feature instead of going through all the hassle? Also yes. But, if for some reason you are up for the challenge or your car is sentimental, then sharing the below guide & tips for the ~2 other people who might be interested in taking on this project.

Caveats

• Attached PDF: Included a diagram I made myself showing the exact wire differences between a car with heated seats and one with heated and cooled seats for the driver / passenger seat connectors (C315 and C314 respectively). The service manual is also very helpful for this. Note the colors may differ for a non 2007 vehicle.
• This Project’s Vehicle: This was done on a 2007 Lucerne CXS with just heated seats. I don’t think much if anything with these components changed in other years – but who knows. I only got parts from other 2006/7’s to try to keep it consistent.
  • You will probably need more parts / wiring might be significantly different for vehicles that never had any seat heating – would do some junkyard research before tackling this.

Skillsets Needed

• Interior Disassembly
  • Have to remove front door panels, seats, center console, and front/rear carpet
  • Might have to remove seat covers depending on what path you take for acquiring parts
• Wiring
  • De/re-pinning connectors, properly splicing wires

Parts Needed

• Cooled Front Seats (I would recommend getting the entire seat – that’s what I did, integrating in the wiring / modules / proper mounting points for the climate control fan modules would be pretty challenging on your existing seat frame)
• Wiring
  • You specifically need the additional wires between the front seats (see attached diagram), an additional power wire from the fuse box to the front passenger seat, and a signal wire from the front passenger seat to the OBD II connector
• Door Switches (the heated/cooled seat buttons)
• Window Switches (the window switch contains the logic that properly runs the heated seat buttons)
• If you’re a clean freak like me, I got new filters for the cooling fans on Amazon (Motorcraft PN FS100)
• Note: These parts may be hard to source, and in my experience the interiors of junkyard cars can be pretty gnarly for things like seat covers, etc. I bought a wrecked CXS of the same year at auction for ~$400 plus fees that had a clean interior and no bags blown – which would probably be the most cost effective way to take on a project like this (plus you get a whole car’s worth of parts as a bonus, I got a spare set of wheels, etc.)

Install Guide / Tips

• Minimizing Cost: Like I mentioned, I would go with a donor car if you were to take on this project so you have everything you need and more – or wait until you get lucky and a clean one with the right features shows up at the junk yard and set aside a chunk of time to hack it apart.
• Seat Tips
  • Electronics: Like I said above – would get the whole seat, I am not sure what specifically would be needed to transfer parts over separately.
  • Seat Covers: I had a CXS with heated seats – which means my seat covers were already perforated. Kind of shockingly, it turns out GM made separate seat covers for the CXS with just heated seats, and then any other car with the cooled seats that require the perforated leather (mine has a thin foam layer under the perforations, the cooled seats have this like gym bag mesh material under the perforation for better airflow). Honestly, they seem to still work fine with my wrong covers. So if you’re in this boat with a CXS – you can could any color interior’s seats and just transfer over the seat covers / air bags from your car onto the donor foam/frames – or you could source perforated covers from a car without cooled seats and be fine (if you’re comfortable with the rest of the project, you should be fine doing this. Front seats have no hog rings, just elastic clips and Velcro holding the covers on. Tricky but not hard in my book, just time consuming. Hardest part is getting the 8,000 plastic trim covers off without breaking any clips)
• Wiring Tips
  • Doors: If you have heated seats, the harnesses in the doors are go to go – you only need to swap in the cooled seat switches and the window switches (door control module). You have to take off the door panel to do the heated/cooled switch – panel can stay on for the window switch swap (they just pop out)
    • For the window switches – you can swap your existing switch’s decorative cover / switches themselves onto the ‘main’ board that has the right programming for cooled seats (this will make sense when you unscrew everything and see how these are put together). Just noting that you don’t have to buy a perfect color match switch set or worry if the switches are all dinged up – you can keep yours.
  • Body:
    • Seat Connectors: For me, I used the attached diagram I made to determine exactly what wires I had to remove from the donor car and de-pinned then integrated them into my car’s harness. If you stay organized and loosely keep track of where the factory harness bundles start and end, I managed to keep this looking almost exactly factory. I pulled out all the new wires I needed from the donor harness, organized them into the rough layout that matches how they are in the car, then undid my factory harness bundles in the car, properly pinned in the new wires, then re-bundled everything how they had it in the factory. Again, staying organized and taking it slow this wasn’t too hard.
    • Passenger Seat Connector (C314) Pin 8: This gray wire goes to F47/#129 in the fuse box – but was spliced into an existing wire that was already there for me (was spliced roughly in the middle of the rear footwell). In my case, it looked like from the factory the wires of the donor car were literally twisted together and electrical taped. So hopefully you do better than that and use a real means of weathertight connection 🙂
    • C314 Pin 39: This black/white wire goes to the OBD II port (DLC Port). From the factory, the harness goes back around the dash. If you are a true maniac, you can take apart the dash, break every fastener, and keep it factory. Personally, I re-routed this wire along the harness on the floor (across to the driver side, up the diver side footwell) and then pinned it into the OBD II/DLC port (it goes to pin 7 in the OBD port). I added a pig tail connector right by the OBD II connector so that it is still serviceable without de-pinning that connector.
  • Fuse Box: For my CXS, the F27/#60 fuse where the additional power wire goes was all set to just plug in the wire and the fuse. The wire goes to C314 pin 3. Definitely a user error – but I really struggled removing the wire & pin from the fuse box of the donor car and had to get a bit violent (and I couldn’t find the right terminal connector online to just cut the wire and re-pin it)
    • I ran this wire on its own in parallel to the existing harness on the floor of the passenger side and used some wire sleeve to protect it, then integrated it into the smaller seat specific harness at the C314 connector as described above (it’s the only wire that goes to the fuse box I had to add)
• Interior Disassembly Tips
  • You can probably find tips/videos on this elsewhere… But a few random things that helped me:
    • Seat Bolts Removal: The bolt attaching the seat belt to the seat frame has to be heated to loosen the factory lock-tite on it. You don’t have to undo this to get the seat out of the car – the belts are long enough to let the seat sit on the ground outside the front door. I’d recommend this so you can more safely apply heat to this one bolt – but definitely be careful not to set your car on fire or singe any carpet/seat material. The two floor bolts should come out fine.
    • Center Console Removal: My car had front bucket seats – Not sure what you have to do with a bench (it’s probably easier honestly). For me, you have to remove the bolts hidden under the carpet panels on each side on the console (that just pop off), two bolts inside towards the front of the console, as well as the shift linkage. I used a trim tool (or a screw driver) to pry loose the yellow clip that connects the shift linkage to the console’s frame, then you can pop off the bushing that connects the linkage to the shifter itself. Then you can pull the console slightly back – and disconnect the one electrical connector that’s in the back on the diver’s side and carefully remove the whole thing.
      • You’re messing with the shifter – put the e-brake on! Also note that you’ll lock your key in the ignition if you put it in after you remove the console (since it doesn’t know it’s in park) so I’d leave it out until that is all re-assembled.
    • Seat Removal: If you’ve never done this before… Get the seat in a position where you can access all bolts, disconnect the battery (since you are messing with air bag connectors), I’d recommend removing the head rest, and then disconnect the electrical connectors (one for the air bag and one for the rest of the seat electrics, either C314/C315) under the front of the seat. If you don’t have a friend… These are heavy and awkward. They fit in the car by bolting in the back (two bolts), and then there are these two ‘hooks’ at the front of the seat rails that slide into the body of the car. So you have to tilt the seat up (leaning on those front hooks) and get it at the right angle to where you can pull back and the hooks slide out of the notches in the body to free the seat. If it’s just you, I’d lean the seat back against the rear seat at this point and tape some rags or something to the seat rails / all the sharp metal at the bottom. When you’re struggling with this 70lb seat trying to finesse it out of the car at the perfect angle… It is very easy to do some major damage to the interior if you’re not careful. Better safe than sorry here. For me, that perfect angle is usually turning the seat sideways so the back is in line with the center of the car, and then carefully bringing the seat bottom out of the front door. You’ll need both doors open since to fish the seat bottom out, the seat back will be poking out the rear door.
    • Carpet Removal: With the seats / console out, you have to undo some retainers & panels all around the floor to get the carpet out. These are pretty self-explanatory and just pop out for the most part. Word of caution… The clips holding the center pillar trim into the B pillar are made of glass and will probably break. Orange ones at the bottom are PN 11570047 – can’t find the PN for the yellow ones in the middle but I believe dealers still stock them if you call and ask.
      • You shouldn’t have to remove the whole center pillar trim to get the carpet out, but if you do be careful putting it back and make sure you have the spring/adjuster assembly set right for the seat belt height adjustment before locking everything in – very easy to get this messed up, not notice, and spend 40 minutes struggling to fix it with the car all together, losing the microscopic spring 14 times (ask me how I know)
  • Since you have to strip everything in the interior for this project… might be a good to plan to make some lemonade per se and add in some sound deadening, speaker wiring, deep clean the carpet, or other upgrades while you’re at it

Personally, I had fun doing this and learned a lot – but hopefully this also helps anyone else in understanding what’s required to make this happen and avoid some pit falls I had to work through.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

Nice write up, but didn't see a PDF attachment.

 

[Craig M.]

Looks like my file didn’t attach… posting it here with the wiring diagrams I made to help me through that part of the project

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

Thanks as the subject comes up on other sites. Some claim they get it working but honestly it's doubtful as they don't have the door switches and the windows master control lol.

 

[Redwingsd1]

Looks like my file didn’t attach… posting it here with the wiring diagrams I made to help me through that part of the project

Darn im late as usual Lol! If you have anymore PDFs or pictures I would deeply appreciate it the wiring diagram is a huge help unfortunately the two donor switches I was testing with burnt out because I've been trying to get it to work on a car battery outside of the vehicle but this is a huge success if in anyway you can make a YouTube video on it that'd be super and if you have any pictures of how you have done it would be awesome! Unfortunately it's 5° otherwise I'd be doing it right now! (I'm sorry I'm a visual learner lol)