[Sir_Pigley]

There's good news (mostly for me) and bad news (mostly for everyone else):

For those who did not see some of my earlier posts I'll recap. My current 330d E90 M Sport has the interior from my old car in it; this means the seats were heated seats, but the car had no wiring to make them work.

Following someone's earlier post about this guy, I contacted him to wire up the heated seats in my car. This guy has no premises and is based in SE London, so I agreed to meet him when I was on a business trip to London so he could fit the wiring. I was a bit nervous abut leaving my car and keys with this guy, but took the risk because he seemed a genuine chap (I also hid a phone in the boot which was trackable using Google Latitude).

He had made up wiring looms to a very high standard (for which he charged £50). The switches I got from Quarry Motors (£45) and a new fascia panel for the switches from BMW (£19).

It was a massively complex process to fit the wiring. The entire glovebox and lower trim under the dash was removed. The fusebox was dismounted (because the looms fitted in to the back of the fusebox so that they used the correct fuse locations as per factory fit). The head unit and climate controls had to be removed as well as both front seats. The wiring was routed from near the back of the head unit down under the carpets to the correct location under the seats. The wiring was inserted correctly into the plastic plug/socket under the seat, just as per factory connections. Everything was reassembled and the airbag lights reset etc. This entire process took over 4 hours and this guy charged £50 (YES that's just £50 - scarcely believable) for labour.

The only thing he could not do (because his mates computer was broken) was program the heated seats to work. Hence I was again nervous that I would get back home and find that none of it worked, because it could not be tested.

So I visited Motorite in Warwick today to get the programming done (they were recommended to me by Crackley Garage in Kenilworth) and basically it all went according to plan. £57 quid fro the programming and I have lovely heated seats working in my car. I am a happy bunny.

I was very impressed with the attitude and competence of the guy who did the wiring. It was done to an almost factory fit standard (maybe there was no other way to do it, but even so I think the standard was excellent). He did forget to put the fuses in the fesebox, but he realised afterwards, texted me the information and put two sets of fuses in an envelope and sent them to my home address. I even lost a Torx bit from my toolset when helping him and he posted one of those to me as well. So I can vouch for his work ethic, his integrity and his competence.

Now the BAD news: he's buggered off home to Vietnam and is not planning to come back - so nobody else can use him for the same job - SORRY!

It is nice to know it's possible though, but I don't know where you could find someone who could do this so cheaply.

[idnan]

I just want to add a +1 to this. I met the same guy on Saturday to have the heated seats retrofitted to my car. My car already had the wiring looms fitted for some reason but so I only had the elements fitted. I may have to do a bit of wiring but I'm fairly confident in doing that myself as I have read that a few changes need to be made to the passenger side looms on electric memory seats. I'm just glad that I managed to get it done before he left.

Great to hear that it was successful and about you finding a local place (to me atleast) able to code them, I will definately go see them.

[acerboo]

Originally Posted by jdcampbell

There's good news (mostly for me) and bad news (mostly for everyone else):

For those who did not see some of my earlier posts I'll recap. My current 330d E90 M Sport has the interior from my old car in it; this means the seats were heated seats, but the car had no wiring to make them work.

Following someone's earlier post about this guy, I contacted him to wire up the heated seats in my car. This guy has no premises and is based in SE London, so I agreed to meet him when I was on a business trip to London so he could fit the wiring. I was a bit nervous abut leaving my car and keys with this guy, but took the risk because he seemed a genuine chap (I also hid a phone in the boot which was trackable using Google Latitude).

He had made up wiring looms to a very high standard (for which he charged £50). The switches I got from Quarry Motors (£45) and a new fascia panel for the switches from BMW (£19).

It was a massively complex process to fit the wiring. The entire glovebox and lower trim under the dash was removed. The fusebox was dismounted (because the looms fitted in to the back of the fusebox so that they used the correct fuse locations as per factory fit). The head unit and climate controls had to be removed as well as both front seats. The wiring was routed from near the back of the head unit down under the carpets to the correct location under the seats. The wiring was inserted correctly into the plastic plug/socket under the seat, just as per factory connections. Everything was reassembled and the airbag lights reset etc. This entire process took over 4 hours and this guy charged £50 (YES that's just £50 - scarcely believable) for labour.

The only thing he could not do (because his mates computer was broken) was program the heated seats to work. Hence I was again nervous that I would get back home and find that none of it worked, because it could not be tested.

So I visited Motorite in Warwick today to get the programming done (they were recommended to me by Crackley Garage in Kenilworth) and basically it all went according to plan. £57 quid fro the programming and I have lovely heated seats working in my car. I am a happy bunny.

I was very impressed with the attitude and competence of the guy who did the wiring. It was done to an almost factory fit standard (maybe there was no other way to do it, but even so I think the standard was excellent). He did forget to put the fuses in the fesebox, but he realised afterwards, texted me the information and put two sets of fuses in an envelope and sent them to my home address. I even lost a Torx bit from my toolset when helping him and he posted one of those to me as well. So I can vouch for his work ethic, his integrity and his competence.

Now the BAD news: he's buggered off home to Vietnam and is not planning to come back - so nobody else can use him for the same job - SORRY!

It is nice to know it's possible though, but I don't know where you could find someone who could do this so cheaply.

warm bums all alround then

[DavS1]

Originally Posted by jdcampbell

Now the BAD news: he's buggered off home to Vietnam and is not planning to come back - so nobody else can use him for the same job - SORRY!

He sounds like a nice chap to know! he'll be fixing scooty's in vietnam for fuck all now.

[foxy-stoat]

I have fitted the wiring looms to my E91 but not fitted the new seats yet. If you have the instruction manual from bmw then the wiring isnt that difficult.

Glad you got your warm chairs working tho!

[Cozy]

It looks like this guy is back in business...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E90-E9...item3cc12a6807

We'd probably consider using him if he'd come to your house but I'm not sure I can justify leaving £20k's worth of car (and its keys) in a strange place with someone I don't know. Has anyone else used this service?

[idnan]

Originally Posted by JamJay

It looks like this guy is back in business...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E90-E9...item3cc12a6807

We'd probably consider using him if he'd come to your house but I'm not sure I can justify leaving £20k's worth of car (and its keys) in a strange place with someone I don't know. Has anyone else used this service?

I used him and I left the car at his house so I didn't really have a problem with leaving it. I had the same worry and asked jdcampbell about his experience before I went to him.

[Cozy]

So, being from brum, where did you go for the quoted 10hrs it takes to do the job?

[idnan]

My mate had a place about 20 minute from the guy's house so I crashed there. He was very helpful and dropped us off and picked us up from the tube station.

I think there are some compatibility issues with electric memory seats so that is something to bear in mind if yours has them.

[Cozy]

Yeah I have electric memory so perhaps it's a recipe for disaster. I'm annoyed that the original buyer didn't spec the heated seats but I only want them to say I have them, I'd probably never use them and I chipped the dealer on the price due to not having them anyhow.

Hmmm, I'll have a think but maybe £400 could be better spent on part payment of DP's, lowering or FMIC...

[Sir_Pigley]

Originally Posted by idnan

I used him and I left the car at his house so I didn't really have a problem with leaving it. I had the same worry and asked jdcampbell about his experience before I went to him.

I arranged to meet this guy in London when I was there on business. I had to leave the car and keys with him and go off to my meeting. I was worried about the security issue so I fully charged a Nokia e51 phone, installed Google Latitude on it and hid it in the car. Hence if the car were moved I could track its location via Google.

Neverthe less the guy seemd really straight and did a great job. His coding computer was not working so I had to take it on faith that he had done the job properly as I had to get the coding done afterwards. He forgot to install the relevant fuses in the fusebox after completing the wiring, so he sent me the fuses afterwards, along with a Torx bit from my toolkit that he had picked up by accident. (You don't go to that trouble after having been paid unless you're pretty straight)

The heated seats all worked perfectly after getting them programmed and I am very happy. It was a big job and no damage was done to trim - you could not tell had had the car stripped so comprehensively. On top of that some annoying rattles from behind the dashboard disappeared after he had reassembled everything.

He really seemed to know what he was doing and I'd suggest you try to speak to him regarding the electric seats compatability issue and he may well be able to advise you.

He worked for 4 hours on my car and wanted to charge me £50 for labour. I gave him a few quid extra because he had clearly earned it.

[Dizzle]

You still got contact details for this bloke?

[dajackel12]

Hi

Might be a long shot but does anyone have the guys details or find them?? looking to get heated seats fitted.

Thanks