Sti Seat heaters doing a lousy job.

[xtea]

I currently have 2011 sti heated seats installed in my outback. The seat heaters hooked right up the only problem is the heat is not nearly what it was in my outback perforated leather seats. Its possible it could be because my old seats had the perforation, but I am wondering if its worth it to swap my legacy/outback seat heaters into the 2011 sti seat? Or is there a switch mod I can do get the sti's to stay hotter longer? The outback heated seats lasted much longer and got to a hotter temperature. I wonder if its because I am using a outback switch on sti seats.

 

Also because of hog rings how likely am I to destroy the seats in the process? The legacy disassembly was a pain and the seats are now destroyed.

 

Could I just put the legacy pad over the sti heater pad? Could I wire them both together?

 

I think some of these ideas might be deadly.

 

This feature is important to me because of back issues.

[MilesA]

The thickness of the material or perforations is not going to make that much difference since the upholstery material is so thin. The heating element in the STI seats might be damaged. If I were in your shoes, I would replace the STI seat heaters with the ones from your Outback with stock Outback heater switch. That setup worked well for you before.

 

Hog rings are pretty awful. Just cut them off. Use new hog rings with hog ring pliers (special tool).

 

An auto upholstery shop could do this for you if you're paranoid. Not sure of the cost but this stuff is routine for them.

[Max Capacity]

FWIW, our 2016 Outback seats don't heat up nearly as fast as the Spec B or my wagon.

 

Think its just the way Subaru figured they needed to be.

 

My wagon's I used today, it was 38F at the house at 6AM.