Wires to heated seats

[motodan]

'08 R1200RT winter project now needs heated seats hooked up. Stock seats had been replaced by a Sargent's heated seats which have proprietary connectors. I've gone back to a stock seat, so now I have BMW connectors on seats and Sargent connectors on bike. Trying to go cost effective route I requested two connectors from Sargent's to put on seats. However after two weeks and a couple of calls these "free" connectors have not arrived. So thinking of removing both BMW and Sargent connectors, to go with a 2 Pin Quick Disconnect Harness, which has a standard SAE plug on each end of 12" wiring....cut in half - one lead each seat/bike...make for easy connection. Will need a separate 4 wire connector for rear seat. Question is, since leads are for heated seats, will difference in wire gauge create any problem? The quick disconnect wiring is 16 gauge, seat/bike wiring is smaller gauge, the BMW brown ground wire size. Thanks

 

[beemerphile]

I doubt the Sargent connector is "proprietary", just different from stock. There would be no reason for them to re-invent the electrical connector. From pictures, it looks to be a Molex connector which is widely available. I'd look for a matching Molex connector to put on the OEM seat.

What I do on all of my bikes is cut off everybody's connectors and replace them with Delphi Packard Weatherpacks.

 

[omega man]

From the heated seat thread-

I don't know what it looks like....Here are a couple of places to look-

https://www.mouser.com

https://www.digikey.com

Sometimes the push-in connectors are actually repairable.

OM

om

 

[pauls1150]

No problem. Larger wires - and/or larger contacts within the connectors - have less resistance than smaller wires (or contacts). Without having seen the items first-hand, I'd say the 2-prong SAE is a good choice. This would be better than adding a little adapter harness in between.

Typically, das Faktory uses the smallest size of wiring that it can get away with ("zer vill be ziss much foltage drop over ziss vire") for cost-saving and ease of assembling & installing the harnesses.

Just make sure that your new splices are properly done (many definitions of that...), well-insulated and weather-proofed, and cannot get pinched somewhere along the run.
(And just a little bit of dielectric grease is also recommended...)

 

[azgman]

Solder and heat shrink wrap the splices and you will never need to look at them again!

 

[bdfbeemer]

Why not just get the BMW part?

 

[motodan]

Why not just get the BMW part?

Price...$80.00+ for connectors is nuts and appears you'd still have to splice. There are lots of better connectors (waterproof) for less than $5.00.

 

[temesvar]

Solder and heat shrink wrap the splices and you will never need to look at them again!

...unless you forget to unplug them when removing the seat!
Ask me how I know that