14-18 silverado power heated/cooled seats retrofit HELP

Lael Howard · April 21

So I'm trying to do the heated/cooled seat retrofit in my 2017 silverado 1500 and I've found a lot of stuff online about how it would be a whole lot of work because of all the extra wiring that the system has, & that it would be almost impossible if you didn't have heated seats to begin with, but I don't accept that & I am determined to make it happen. I've already bought every bit of interior out of this high country which came with the heated/cooled seats, but now that it comes time to actually do the swap I realize that I probably should have done a little more research before spending this much money on this stuff because If pgamboa is correct that means I just wasted $1500, but I'm determined to prove him wrong(no offense if you happen to see this lol). So I guess My main question is, has anyone been able to do this retrofit successfully, to where the heating, cooling, and power all work as designed & so there aren't any airbag lights or other warning lights/messages on the dash? I'm a technician at a gm dealership so I have access to all the wiring diagrams and oem information that I could possibly need, but I'm a little confused as to the hard parts that I will 100% actually need,& I haven't heard of anybody actually doing this successfully with everything working as it should, so I want to make sure it's possible without wasting a whole bunch of time on it to figure it out. The other main concern that I know will need to be done for it to function properly, and the thing I'm most concerned about figuring out, is the programming aspect of it. Obviously the truck will need to be programmed in order for the system to function, but im not quite sure on how to go about doing that, especially since I'm going to be adding new modules entirely since my truck didn't have heated seats to begin with, but would there not be a way to avoid having to do that & just running power and ground to the heated/cooled seats, but still using thd factory buttons to retain the oem look? I mean their pretty much just toggle switches, so really in theory, for for the low setting heat I would think I could just install a resistor between the switch & seats, and could do away with the need for all the modules , I just wouldn't have the memory features or comfort/convince settings that I would if it were programmed correct? That is obvi a worse case scenario type situation if there's just no way to make it work with an aftermarket programmer or something. Which everyone always says something about how if you go that route & end up taking it to a dealership or something & they reprogram the bcm then it would take away all the other features, but since I work at a dealership I can make sure it never has an mdi hooked up to it. It'd be nice if gm would let you program any module to your vehicle if all the appropriate hardware was there & whatnot I really don't understand why they don't allow that, but apparently it's above my pay grade lol. But if anyone has any info om this, or better yet if angone has actually SUCCESSFULLY done this, please help ya boy out with some info! Please & thanks In advance!

pgamboa · April 21

Man,

I HOPE you can prove me wrong as there will me SO any others that want to do this.

A few things here - check out this video from Goat Rope Garage - He explains the LIN (Local Interconnect Network) BUS system. The LIN BUS is what GM uses to communicate from the BCM (Body Control Module) to the heated/cooled seat module (located under the passenger seat).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ktajtBImgw&t=87s

He has a couple more videos on his channel if you are interested in learning about it. He developed a way to use the OEM buttons, an aftermarket Canny Logic Controller, and aftermarket seat heat elements. I'm not a fan of doing anything outside of GM Factory methods.

The heated/cooled seat is not your typical on/off since it operates on the LIN BUS. Your BCM HAS to be custom programmed to communicate to the heat/cooled module. Without this, there is NO way you can make it work OEM. If you figure out how to do it, please share your update here. I have personally tried 10 dealerships locally to me and have spent more $ than I wish to share publicly for all things BCM. I then learned about WAMS (www.WhiteAutoandMedia.com) and worked with them to get my custom BCM programmed for other retrofits. Luckily for me, I already had factory heated seats, so getting cooled was easy since my BCM was already programmed to communicate to my heat/cooled seat module.

As for getting Seat Memory integrated in my truck, it was a BEAR. I had to depopulate ALL the non-memory wiring and add the memory wiring in favor of it. It was all trial and error. I spent a span of 6 weeks (over the course of 5 months) until I got it all figured out - BUT it also required custom BCM programming. I did the same steps for a close friend of mine @Viktorrocks15 and was able to get his truck with seat memory. But again, this required custom BCM programming, removing ALL non memory circuits in favor of memory. Over the course of 12 months, I was able to get a handful of trucks setup for heat/cooled, locally, at my house.

Keep in mind, this was all done during the time with BCM programming was available.

At the end of 2021, www.WhiteAutoandMedia.com suspended the offering of custom BCM Programming. Don't know if/when they'll release that offering again.

As for swapping entire dash/cabin harnesses - this will introduce more errors than you'll gain (which is none) since all of this all starts with custom BCM programming. So if you go down this path swapping entire harnesses, you'll be chasing your tail for days/weeks (or in my case, months). If anyone reads this in its entirety, the cost I spent at dealers was 2x what you spent on the seats. There was SO much time & money wasted with having to leave my truck at the dealer with false hope as each dealer said they could do it, paid for their time, only to be told they couldn't do it. I understood the risks, accepted the costs, and drove away days later each time, with no change to my truck.

If the above is not what you wanted to hear and feel you have wasted $1500 on your purchase, then I'd recoup as much as you can and sell the seats now while you can. If you are ok with just getting power to the new seats, and want to explore Goat Rope Garage's method, then go for it. But for now, you won't be able to get heat/cooled to work factory GM. If you somehow can get it done via your dealership network, props to you. Steak Dinner/Beer/Bourbon on me my friend. But you'll need to understand the path to get there IF they can custom program your BCM. Simply swapping the dash/cabin harness won't get you there.

-pgamboa

Lael Howard · April 22

@pgamboa

That makes sense actually, of course it wouldn't be as simple as an on/off toggle switch, not in this day and age where everything is connected through and controlled by modules lol to be completely honest with you I hadn't looked at any of the wiring diagrams yet or even closely at the buttons that control the heated and cooled seats so i really had no idea I was just making an assumption lol. & I know forsure that there's no way to program the bcm through the gm programming platform, I mean theoretically you could but you'd have to call gm & have them send the files through the cloud & then download them to the vehicle like that because we just had to do something of that nature for a bunch of highway patrol cars at work, but as far as what were talking about gm would never do that because they'd rather you go out & have to purchase a new vehicle that has the options your wanting instead of upgrading an older model that they've already gotten paid for. Here's my question for you though - in one of your videos on YouTube, the one about the custom bcm programming you had done by wams, you said something about it making it to where you could add heated seats if you didn't have them & later on could add the cooled seats if you wanted, so did you not figure that out & get them to work on your truck? I know it wouldn't be the same as mine because yours had factory heated seats, but if I could get wams to do the custom bcm programming would I have an inkling of hope for being successful in getting this retrofit installed & functioning? I know you said you were the 1st person they had done that for to see if it worked, did it ever end up malfunctioning or do you know why they stopped offering the custom bcm programming? I know it's still an option on their website so I went ahead and shot them an email, so I guess we'll see whay they say. I really wanted that custom programmer you had that plugged into the obd2 port but apparently they discontinued that as well, which sucks. I did go watch those videos you were talking about, I wish7 that guy would have actually showed what after market controller he used and the way it was all ran and connected & the controller he used, cause I would def like to atleast try to give it a go if this doesn't end up working out. I'm guessing you didn't happen to have any videos showing the processes you went through when doing this retrofit on the couple you were able to help with?

sk · April 26

Lots to read here , but Phil knows his stuff. He is spot-on, especially concerning the BCM. Before that you may even need a different HMI for the higher-level trucks (the heated/cooled option will need to be enabled in the programming, and your current HMI may not even support the option). As he said, contact Chris at WAMS for those components and programming.

Lael Howard · May 5

Yeah I talked to him & he pretty much said they don't do bcm programming anymore because it ties up their bench for a whole day & was honestly kind of a d*uche bag when I emailed him asking about it but I found someone that sells the autosync device that wams used to sell for $375 so I got one of those that I'm still waiting on to get here & found someone that will fully unlock my bcm for another $250 sp hopefully after those 2 things happen It will allow me to be able to use them! I'm sure there is still alot of stuff and wires that will have to be ran and removed in order to get them to function properly, I know it won't be just a plug and play even though I've found someone to unlock my bcm but atleast now there's hope. Even if I needed the new modules that'd be fine cause the guy that sold me his complete interior gave me all the modules and everything. Too bad there's not someone out there that had done this already, if only they had made a video showing the wires that needed to be ran and removed (*uhhh uhmmmmmm @pgamboa ) lol

Lael Howard · May 15

On 4/20/2024 at 11:10 PM, pgamboa said:

Man,

I HOPE you can prove me wrong as there will me SO any others that want to do this.

A few things here - check out this video from Goat Rope Garage - He explains the LIN (Local Interconnect Network) BUS system. The LIN BUS is what GM uses to communicate from the BCM (Body Control Module) to the heated/cooled seat module (located under the passenger seat).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ktajtBImgw&t=87s

He has a couple more videos on his channel if you are interested in learning about it. He developed a way to use the OEM buttons, an aftermarket Canny Logic Controller, and aftermarket seat heat elements. I'm not a fan of doing anything outside of GM Factory methods.

The heated/cooled seat is not your typical on/off since it operates on the LIN BUS. Your BCM HAS to be custom programmed to communicate to the heat/cooled module. Without this, there is NO way you can make it work OEM. If you figure out how to do it, please share your update here. I have personally tried 10 dealerships locally to me and have spent more $ than I wish to share publicly for all things BCM. I then learned about WAMS (www.WhiteAutoandMedia.com) and worked with them to get my custom BCM programmed for other retrofits. Luckily for me, I already had factory heated seats, so getting cooled was easy since my BCM was already programmed to communicate to my heat/cooled seat module.

As for getting Seat Memory integrated in my truck, it was a BEAR. I had to depopulate ALL the non-memory wiring and add the memory wiring in favor of it. It was all trial and error. I spent a span of 6 weeks (over the course of 5 months) until I got it all figured out - BUT it also required custom BCM programming. I did the same steps for a close friend of mine @Viktorrocks15 and was able to get his truck with seat memory. But again, this required custom BCM programming, removing ALL non memory circuits in favor of memory. Over the course of 12 months, I was able to get a handful of trucks setup for heat/cooled, locally, at my house.

Keep in mind, this was all done during the time with BCM programming was available.

At the end of 2021, www.WhiteAutoandMedia.com suspended the offering of custom BCM Programming. Don't know if/when they'll release that offering again.

As for swapping entire dash/cabin harnesses - this will introduce more errors than you'll gain (which is none) since all of this all starts with custom BCM programming. So if you go down this path swapping entire harnesses, you'll be chasing your tail for days/weeks (or in my case, months). If anyone reads this in its entirety, the cost I spent at dealers was 2x what you spent on the seats. There was SO much time & money wasted with having to leave my truck at the dealer with false hope as each dealer said they could do it, paid for their time, only to be told they couldn't do it. I understood the risks, accepted the costs, and drove away days later each time, with no change to my truck.

If the above is not what you wanted to hear and feel you have wasted $1500 on your purchase, then I'd recoup as much as you can and sell the seats now while you can. If you are ok with just getting power to the new seats, and want to explore Goat Rope Garage's method, then go for it. But for now, you won't be able to get heat/cooled to work factory GM. If you somehow can get it done via your dealership network, props to you. Steak Dinner/Beer/Bourbon on me my friend. But you'll need to understand the path to get there IF they can custom program your BCM. Simply swapping the dash/cabin harness won't get you there.

-pgamboa

So I was able to get the custom programming that we talked about. I got one of those autosync devices from BTDieselworks & the custom bcm programming through custom calibration engineering but I'm only seeing an option to add heated seats it doesn't say anything about adding cooled seats or the memory function, do you know if selecting the add heated seat option will enable all of it to work, & then it will be just adding the memory/cooled & heated seat wiring in place of the non-memory circuits?

GTPprix · May 17

On 5/4/2024 at 11:31 PM, Lael Howard said:

Yeah I talked to him & he pretty much said they don't do bcm programming anymore because it ties up their bench for a whole day & was honestly kind of a d*uche bag when I emailed him asking about it

Yeah that can happen when you ask someone the same question over and over and keep pushing people; crazy right?