P85 Premium Seat Retrofit

[DrakeM]

I can't answer your question directly. The way I got the premium seat to work, was remove the wiring loom from the premium seat and solder an old seat wiring loom to the motors and sensors. The switches and seat control ecu were from an old seat. The switch side panel has to be modified to accept the old seat switches.

I certainly appreciate you responding. I'm pretty good with the switches and modifying the panel but I have no idea what to do with the black connector off the premium controller once I switch to the 2012 controller.

 

[DrakeM]

Hi! Just so I understand this correctly... You gave up on using the ventilated seats? I have a set of those I was planning on using in my 2013 P85+. I was thinking I could get everything to work by modifying and adapting the wiring for the most vital functions, but the fans I was planning on running manually from two switches hidden somewhere, since there is no function for this in my car from new. Would you say I won't make this work?
Will you be making a complete guide for your work? That would help a lot

Thanks!

Gard
Norway

 

[DrakeM]

Hi! Just so I understand this correctly... You gave up on using the ventilated seats? I have a set of those I was planning on using in my 2013 P85+. I was thinking I could get everything to work by modifying and adapting the wiring for the most vital functions, but the fans I was planning on running manually from two switches hidden somewhere, since there is no function for this in my car from new. Would you say I won't make this work?
Will you be making a complete guide for your work? That would help a lot

Thanks!

Gard
Norway

Did youy ever get the vented seats to work?

 

[philip295]

I certainly appreciate you responding. I'm pretty good with the switches and modifying the panel but I have no idea what to do with the black connector off the premium controller once I switch to the 2012 controller.

If you followed what I did, that premium seat connector would be in the bin. I just used the connectors, wiring and controllers from the old seat. As far as the car is concerned, it 'thinks' the old seats are still fitted.

 

[Nogasnohands]

Mind sharing how you got lumbar working with minor change? The 2018 seat has 4 wire on each lumbar motor. Did 2017 have 2 like 2013v View attachment 495738View attachment 495741

The lumbar shares common wire think it's white/red stripe Mayne pinkish so when activates one side is powered forward other side is powered reverse other wire is a ground and other is a line wire which comes from mcu I believe and other is power. Basically use the top two wires facing toward you when plug into connector on lumbar motors the others want be used.

 

[Nogasnohands]

What you need to do is remove your wiring harness from your old seats bottom 1st preferably passenger seat before drivers .. then remove it from your premium seat u the harness connector at motors will be the same. When u do driver side u will use old memory module and harness from old seat in new seat. Page 4 of post talk about seat position sensor u will hard wire it. So far as back rest of seat u will need to take backs off and trace wire color from reclining motor to white connector and lumbar adjustment u will only use 2 of 4 wire.

I can't answer your question directly. The way I got the premium seat to work, was remove the wiring loom from the premium seat and solder an old seat wiring loom to the motors and sensors. The switches and seat control ecu were from an old seat. The switch side panel has to be modified to accept the old seat switches.

 

[DrakeM]

What you need to do is remove your wiring harness from your old seats bottom 1st preferably passenger seat before drivers .. then remove it from your premium seat u the harness connector at motors will be the same. When u do driver side u will use old memory module and harness from old seat in new seat. Page 4 of post talk about seat position sensor u will hard wire it. So far as back rest of seat u will need to take backs off and trace wire color from reclining motor to white connector and lumbar adjustment u will only use 2 of 4 wire.

Thanks to several folks on the forum I finally completed my 2019 premium drivers seat on my model s. . Special shout-out to Philip295 and nogasnohands for inspiring me to take a shot at it. Once I opened up the donor seat and pulled all the wires out things started making since. Glad I decided to buy both passenger and driver donor seats. Spent $500 for both but lucked up and found my 2019 drivers seat in mint condition for $100. I feel like I totally destroyed the donor and I wouldn’t want to do that with my mint condition originals.
The forums instructions are definitely not step by step but they sure are extremely helpful once you get into the job. Everything works great. Lumbar, headrest, heaters and memory all work perfectly. Seat feels much more comfortable. Now I have to find me a premium passenger seat.

Has anyone found a solution for the side panel yet?

 

[Nogasnohands]

$100 for a premium seat man that's what company charge for leather seats out of regular cars. But that's a good price make me think I well overpaid for mine I spent 2k for the set. But came out of a 2018 with only 5k miles on it. I'm glad u got it working.

 

[DrakeM]

Thanks my friend.

 

[DrakeM]

Thought I would share one more thing that I found out installing the Premium seats. The lumbar in the seats have two motors. One motor gives you the pressure in your back and the other motor controls the vertical position of the lumbar. While the back was off of the seat I set the motor for the vertical setting to the middle of the seat. I unplugged that connector and plugged it to the headrest motor. Now the lumbar button works the headrest go up and down in addition to adding pressure for the lumbar. Hope this helps someone.

 

[philip295]

Thanks to several folks on the forum I finally completed my 2019 premium drivers seat on my model s. . Special shout-out to Philip295 and nogasnohands for inspiring me to take a shot at it. Once I opened up the donor seat and pulled all the wires out things started making since. Glad I decided to buy both passenger and driver donor seats. Spent $500 for both but lucked up and found my 2019 drivers seat in mint condition for $100. I feel like I totally destroyed the donor and I wouldn’t want to do that with my mint condition originals.
The forums instructions are definitely not step by step but they sure are extremely helpful once you get into the job. Everything works great. Lumbar, headrest, heaters and memory all work perfectly. Seat feels much more comfortable. Now I have to find me a premium passenger seat.

Has anyone found a solution for the side panel yet?

Regarding the side panel, I started with the old seat side panel. I sanded this from the outside, so I ended up with the switch mounting posts attached to a wafer of plastic. I then positioned them inside the new seat side panels. When I was happy with the position, I used epoxy resin to glue them. I patched the holes from the outside with more resin and finished them with satin black spray paint. The switches then screw in place and I can replace them in future.

 

[Alobalo]

Hey guys! Trying to to this retorifit my self!But i am stuck at the lumbar support part... could anyone give me a hint?

 

[Alobalo]

Install almost complete here too!
These seats are so much better than the 2014 ones. Feels like I just bought a new car View attachment 585048View attachment 585049

What did you do when you did drives side seat? Same routine as for passanger? I cannot seem to get my driver seat to work at all... :/

 

[Alobalo]

Hey guys! So stuck at a new point now. Felt inspired to do the driver side seat aswell, did everything same as i did with the passanger side, but the seat wont even funtion at all. Not even the light under the seat is working. Any idea what i could be?

 

[samppa]

What did you do when you did drives side seat? Same routine as for passanger? I cannot seem to get my driver seat to work at all... :/

same routine, but you also need to transfer the memory module. passenger seat doesn't have it.
And there's a position sensor in the driver seat too.

 

[Alobalo]

same routine, but you also need to transfer the memory module. passenger seat doesn't have it.
And there's a position sensor in the driver seat too.

Thanks for the reply man! Also did same wiring as passanger side, did the memory module aswell and the driver seat position (getting no airbag fault) Only thing that works is the seat warmer, but anyting else is not working not even the light undet the seat which is very odd... U didnt get any adapters from tesla no?
I also checked driver side fuse but nothing

 

[Alobalo]

same routine, but you also need to transfer the memory module. passenger seat doesn't have it.
And there's a position sensor in the driver seat too.

Thanks for the reply man! Also did same wiring as passanger side, did the memory module aswell and the driver seat position (getting no airbag fault) Only thing that works is the seat warmer, but anyting else is not working not even the light undet the seat which is very odd... U didnt get any adapters from tesla no?
Maybe there could be a blown fuse?

 

[Alobalo]

Hell yes! Finally I got the seat to work. It was in fact a blown driver seat fuse. Found in fuse box nr2 on 2013-2014 model s. I had previoulsy checked the wrong fuse. But its this big 30A green fuse( marked around with pink. Simply switched over the passangers seats fuse to driver and it worked!
Now I need to get my hands on a fuse... The reason I think the fuse blew is becauseIi connected the seat with the newer memory module and simply had forgotten to swap it. Now I can realax and enjoy new seats in my new old car Thanks to everyone contributing

 

[uktes1a]

Regarding the side panel, I started with the old seat side panel. I sanded this from the outside, so I ended up with the switch mounting posts attached to a wafer of plastic. I then positioned them inside the new seat side panels. When I was happy with the position, I used epoxy resin to glue them. I patched the holes from the outside with more resin and finished them with satin black spray paint. The switches then screw in place and I can replace them in future.

Please kindly check your PM

 

[VegarHenriksen]

Completed. Made a little guide since the documentation surrounding this project is super lackluster.

Also, the lumbar wiring shared in this thread is not correct. It is flipped 90° which will make the buttons impossible to install in new panel. This is the correct wiring:

Pink&white to green&yellow
White&brown to red&blue

Yellow to green
Pink&white to blue

Retrofitting Gen3/4 seats into 2012-2014 Tesla Model S

25 December, 2022 Tesla | Retrofit | Seats

www.vegarhenriksen.com