75ZT Community

Hiya. I have a set of electric seats waiting to be fitted into my car..... They are heated and memory...... I have heard that they can be wired to the cigar lighter........ Is this easier than wiring to the fuse box, above all, is it safe to do so...?

Not safe to do that in my oppinion the seats are high current and the cigar lighter is low. I would wire them to the fuse box on there own seprate output and make an earth for each seat and secure it at the base of the A post.

Just make sure that they have an inline fuse aswell just as a safty measure.

The cigar lighter is high current actually.

Personally I would run power from the fusebox, in fact I did when I fitted mine. I believe some people have used that feed.

How old is the car in question. Apart from really early cars, the wiring is often there and a simple plug in. Have you checked for the connectors under the seat?

Easiest thing to do is to attend the next Wolves Nano-meet, plenty of expertise and help availble to fit them for you.

I believe Devlish wires these up from the cigar lighter all the time, many members have followed his instructions, very heavy duty and saves loads of time

If you look at the thickness of the supply wires to the seats you will see its twice that of the cigar lighter.

What you have to remember is the motors draw alot of current when.running. Worst case is thr fuse nlows or it melts the wires.

Also the cigar lighter is 15 amp and the seats are 30 amp fuse protected so there is extra current draw obviously an if you wear using the cigar lighter at the time also it could be far to much.

Better to be safe then sorry and I only beleave in doing the job once.

As with everything you decide how you want to wire it up.

yl51hfb wrote:If you look at the thickness of the supply wires to the seats you will see its twice that of the cigar lighter.

What you have to remember is the motors draw alot of current when.running. Worst case is thr fuse nlows or it melts the wires.

Also the cigar lighter is 15 amp and the seats are 30 amp fuse protected so there is extra current draw obviously an if you wear using the cigar lighter at the time also it could be far to much.

Better to be safe then sorry and I only beleave in doing the job once.

As with everything you decide how you want to wire it up.

Very much with you on this

Hiya Everyone. Thank you for your replies. Well, It looks like I shall go the way it is supposed to be and have them wired to the fuse box in the correct manner. The information given has been very helpful, very grateful, thank you. ;-)

I don't disagree the fusebox is the better way, and I would and did do it that way. Took the entire dash out to do it too.

Wire thickness isn't everything, though of course it is important. The wire is sized by the current draw, AND the length of the run. Motors also have a very high start current and can stress fuses that are fine for the running current.

I guess it all comes down to what you mean by low current. I don't consider cigar lighter as 'low current' though I agree with your point about 15A rather than 30A. Low current to me is 1A or less, but that's all semantics.

In summary: it is possible to wire them to the cigar lighter circuit but I agree I wouldn't do it that way.