seats

[PromiseKeeper]

The tech gave me two sets of schematics: one for a seat with memory and one without. After taking apart the wiring under the seat and checking the schematics, I'm now thinking I DO have the seat with the memory. I'm seeing two purple wires feeding into the seat from below and not the bundle that the passenger seat has. From what I'm seeing, these are data wires coming from a memory module somewhere on the car! The ten wires from the control switch feeds into this module and the data is transferred to another module under the seat. Sooo.... off to Pull-A-Part for a module hunt! Funny thing is, I don't recall any kind of memory button anywhere. Hopefully the owners manual is in the car!

Bake, you may have been onto something with the air bag question. I do remember those purple wires (which I now suspect are the data wires) headed toward a box under the seat that was marked air bag. The tech told me there was a sensor that tightened the seat belt connected to the air bag in the event of a crash. As for the adjust, anything is possible I guess! I haven't powered this up yet until I figure out the switch issue.

[jaredts]

Can you not get to the wires directly on the motors or to the module that has outputs to the motors?  It would be nice to bypass all that and run the motors directly I would think.

[PromiseKeeper]

Yes it would be nice to do that, but I'm not sure it would be that simple. All of the motors have a common power supply and the wires that control the functions are the only ones easily accesable. They are a much heavier wire than the ones at the switch. Wouldnt I need a double set of wires to put the switch in line with the motors? I tracked down the module that I THINK I need and am going to give it a try. If you can tell me how to bypass all of the electronics, that would be awesome! Thanks!
Scott

[jaredts]

If you can figure out the electronics, that's great.  If not, you could get a power seat switch out of a vehicle that has a normal setup.  I don't know about yours, but there is commonly:  seat front/back, rear of seat up/down, and entire seat up/down.  In that case there would be three motors that are reversible.  A power seat switch with similar gauge wires to what's on the motors would probably do it.  This is, of course, if you can get to the individual motor wires without tearing up the seat.

[jaredts]

I just thought about the fact that it has memory seats.  I don't know how they work, but it seems that the electronics would require position feedback to know where it is in relationship to where it should be.  It may have a little cylindrical can with a couple of wires (an encoder) on or near the motors.  Hopefully it still has regular two wire dc motors.

[PromiseKeeper]

If you can figure out the electronics, that's great.  If not, you could get a power seat switch out of a vehicle that has a normal setup.  I don't know about yours, but there is commonly:  seat front/back, rear of seat up/down, and entire seat up/down.  In that case there would be three motors that are reversible.  A power seat switch with similar gauge wires to what's on the motors would probably do it.  This is, of course, if you can get to the individual motor wires without tearing up the seat.

I haven't been able to spend much time on this lately but I did get the wiring to work. On the driver's side that had the memory, I did what Jared suggested. There are  a total of SIX motors in each of these seats, which includes 2 for the Lumbar. I found seat switches out of another car with heavy wiring that had power leads going into the switch and wired each function up directly. With a second switch, I wired up the two remaining motors that control the lumbar functions. I've been taking pics and will get them up eventually!

[bake74]

     Looking forward to pics and progress report.

[PromiseKeeper]

Latest update:  Set the seats in the truck to see how much "customizing" would be needed. Pleasantly surprised that a couple of pieces of square tubing should make it work. Now, needless to say, these Cadillac seats are much more plush...and thick. The biggest obstacle is going to be the part that hangs over my belt getting in the way of the steering wheel!!! Now the project may have to include a smaller wheel!

[bake74]

     Now we really need pics, you are teasing us.   

[PromiseKeeper]

Here are some pics of where things are at so far. I wont post about the passenger seat because it was straight forward. I took the door controls off and they wired directly to the existing wiring in the seat. The lumbar switch and heat are mounted on the side of the seat.

Next picture is the wiring on the back of the door switch... notice how fine the wires are

Next is the underside of the seat. There is a fourth motor that isn't shown, along with 2 more in the seat back for the lumbar. I tried to wire up the door switch as I did with the passenger side, but after tracing the wiring, found that it was hooked into the air bag system, the memory, and possibly the remote mirror. The wiring on this side did not coincide with the other door switch.

The fourth pic is the module that I found above the gas pedal. The wires on the left that are knotted together went all the way to the door switch. Look at how many wires come OUT of that box! They went to places unknown! The only wires coming out of the seat were purple. I did try to hook all of this up and use the purple wires that I suspect are data wires... but it didn't work.

That's all the pics I can post in this post.... see the next one for more.

[PromiseKeeper]

After thinking about what Jared said, I decided the best and easiest thing to do would be to eliminate all of the modules and such if I could find a switch that would work. At first I thought about using toggle switches, but soon found out this would be more complicated than that. What I needed was a switch from an electric seat that was powered directly. The switch in the picture has a power (orange), ground (black) and from there, the colors matched up with the colors going to the motors. It came from another Caddy. I brought both switches (driver and passenger) home. I used 2 of the functions on the second switch to power the lumbar motors. Note that the wires are the same gauge as those going directly to the motors.

The second picture is all of the wiring that I eliminated! This includes the door switch, module above the gas pedal, and another module in the seat itself. The module in the passenger seat was where I hooked the door switch to on the other side.

I used a battery charger to power it up and everything works! Next will be actually installing the seats...  stay tuned!

[bake74]

     WOW, you just got schooled in Caddy powered seats.  How do you feel ?   

[jaredts]

Nice job figuring that out.  I'd love to see a pic when its all done.

[PromiseKeeper]

     WOW, you just got schooled in Caddy powered seats.  How do you feel ?   

Like any therapy, it is sometimes painful! I have to admit that I learned alot. It became like a personal challenge! Projects like this are great stress reducers!  Thanks to all who gave suggestions!

[Skunksmash]

Don't forget to post up pics of the finished product!