Heated Seat Pad Replacement?

Dog destroyed. Found a new cover but I'm trying to deal with the heating pad. Trying to get a universal pad off Amazon and splice the wiring in, but I can't figure out what is going on with the factory wiring. Walk me through it?

Or is there another solution I should be looking at?

 

OK, what did you want to know about the factory wiring. I presume it's the factory wiring in the picture.

There's a hot lead, which has +12VDC on it when the seat heater is on, that's the red wire.
It goes through what looks like a heavy capacitor to keep from surge-loading the system when you first turn the heat on, or when the thermostat turns the current on or off. With the current draw of a heater, good idea to have a cap in the circuit so the current doesn't slam on or off. It allows the current flow to increase more gradually, in electronic time, than a simple on/off circuit. Like turning a faucet on slowly. Eventually, it gets to full flow, but not all at once.
Then, there's a "return", or ground. The black wire. Completes the circuit.
The small, thin, black device with 2 brown leads is a thermostat. A simple on-off switch, essentially. When the seat pad gets warm enough, it "opens", shutting off the current to the heating element. Then, as it cools down again, it closes, allowing current to flow again, etc etc.

Looks like a fairly simple setup to me. Without a schematic I can't tell you much else. What did you want to know about it all?
Pat☺

 

When I thought about it more, I'm just going to expose the copper wire in the new pad enough to cut the old copped and solder them where the old pad copper leads were. Didn't occur to me that it's that simple. I was thinking about splicing the new pad leads in further down the wire, but then I'd be messing with all the little...whatever capacitor stuff you're referring to.

Thank you!

 

Glad I could help a little!

Looks like the black lead will be a fairly simple job. Desolder the old wire after pulling off their version of heatshrink. Solder on the new one, put some heatshrink on it, readily available from McMaster-Carr. Just make sure it's a good quality solder join. If you need advice on "how-to" for soldering, let me now. It was a big part of my jobs all my life. The little tips and tricks to make a good solder join.

It looks like the red lead has 3 wires on it. Same procedure. Cut off old set up, strip and solder on the new one, and away you go. Just two solder joins. Again, make a good quality solder join, and heatshrink it.

A side note: If you're going to buy a soldering iron to do this, a 35 watt iron is what you want, no more powerful. Too powerful an iron and you'll not get a good solder join (burns the solder). Reglar, average, acid core solder, and some liquid flux, and you're in good shape. All readily available from McMaster-Carr as well.
Make sure to keep the tip of the iron clean and tinned. Once it's as hot as it gets, wipe it on a damp sponge, touch it to some solder, done. Ok, ok, I'll shut up now.

Good luck! I hope everything goes well for you!
Pat☺

 

Awesome info. Thanks a ton! I was over thinking it. I think I'll just cut the copper heating wires off the old pad and leave enough to solder them to the copper wires on the new pad instead of trying to redo the factory setup.

 

And yes, soldering is really a craft. I keep thinking I'm close to getting it and then I crap out something. So much difference in the materials, heat, etc from one job to the next.

 

It can even be an art. Try soldering something onto a multilayer board, or repairing a lead.

Really, though, wire to wire is one of the easiest. As long as you tin the wires first, use flux (just a drop), keep you iron's tip clean and tinned, and have a good mechanical connection, ie the two wires are well connected physically before you apply the solder, 70/30 acid core, it's a piece of cake
Always clean off used flux, ie: what you apply to get a real good solder join. A small, stiff, brush (we called them acid brushes), and a small dispenser of alcohol, like they use in doctors offices to moisten cotton balls, like when you get a shot, the kind you press down on the top to get it to spit out the alcohol, and the flux scrubs off easily.

It's the little details that count, when making solder joins.

Also, some meltwall, or FIT-300 type of heatshrink, is a huge benefit for protecting a solder join. Just remember to slide it onto one of the two wires before you make the join. Not that *I* have ever forgotten to do that...ahem...nothing to see here. Move along...

Good luck! You want any help, just yell. Working around jet aircraft, and firearms, leaves one a trifle hard of hearing

Pat☺