I figured I'd post what I did in case it's helpful to others. It all started when we bought our 2011 C30 and it did have automatic heated seats. Our 08 had manual seats and no heating, and we really liked those seats in the 2011. So I spent a bit of time in the forums and figured I needed:
I now took my time swapping the leather covers/skins from my manual seats to the automatic ones I just got from the C70s. It's a bit tedious going through all the rings and then using twisty ties to secure the skins back. Make sure you have a few hours and take your time, it's not the funnest thing to do and it requires a little more patience than I really have. So I took several breaks during the process. If you do go from manual seat skins, you will find that you will need to cut a hole in your skins by the head rest to insert the back & forth buttons. Also, you will have a hole of about 1 ½ inch diameter where one of the manual adjustments used to be. This hole will be at the bottom of the back assembly to the outside, so facing the door. I bought this set from Amazon (50 Piece Flush Mount Black Hole Plug Assortment for Auto Body and Sheet Metal - - Amazon.com) and covered the holes (glued) after I found one the right size. It's not perfect but I don't notice the holes now.
As has been document before, all the wiring is there, so now that the skins have been swapped the new seats are in. Power adjustments and memory work fine, but no heating yet. I should also note that the plastic covers for the seat rails no longer fit, nor do the ones from the C70, so I will need to make some changes (cut the plastic as it's too large now) if I want to put these back.
At this stage I need the CCM and the programming. The first thing I did was put in a CCM that had the heated seats buttons already there, it came from the 2007 C70 if I remember correctly. However, it did have dual climate zones, which my 08 C30 is not equipped for, and the "auto" button for the A/C. After getting VDASH programming ($109 way less than going through Volvo, VIDA, etc.) the heated seats were working great, but the A/C was not engaging anymore. Also, pressing the "auto" button would change which vents were activated and obviously wasn't working. A few things were now off.
So next I took the heated seats buttons and moved them from the C70 CCM I had just put in, to my old CCM. A/C comes back, everything is working as expected, but while the heated seats lights come on there's no heat. Sounds like there's more to the CCM than just the buttons. Tried to disable/enable the heated seats function via VDASH and no change. After some reading, my guess was that I need to find a CCM that matched my 08 C30 CCM in terms of buttons, etc. but that also included the heated seats buttons already installed. Fortunately, back at the yard a 07 V50 had just that. Plugged in the CCM from the V50 and the A/C is working and so are the heated seats.
Ok, so long winded post to say that this can be done. The seats were $40 a piece, the CCM $20, programming $109 and if you need to cover the holes from a manual seat add $10 and glue. So a little over $200 and some patience. I think the main hurdle was the CCM and buttons. If you decide to do this, find a CCM that has the same buttons/features as yours but with the heated seats buttons. Adding the buttons, while looking like it's working (lights), did not work for me.
I now have quite a few leftover parts from this project as I spent a little more with my trial and errors (mostly CCMs and seat parts), so PM me if that's something you can use or if you have questions while I still remember. I'll probably start listing these parts on eBay next.
- A set of automatic, heated front seats from a C30 or C70
- A CCM with the heated seats buttons, or at least the buttons
- Programming via VDASH
I now took my time swapping the leather covers/skins from my manual seats to the automatic ones I just got from the C70s. It's a bit tedious going through all the rings and then using twisty ties to secure the skins back. Make sure you have a few hours and take your time, it's not the funnest thing to do and it requires a little more patience than I really have. So I took several breaks during the process. If you do go from manual seat skins, you will find that you will need to cut a hole in your skins by the head rest to insert the back & forth buttons. Also, you will have a hole of about 1 ½ inch diameter where one of the manual adjustments used to be. This hole will be at the bottom of the back assembly to the outside, so facing the door. I bought this set from Amazon (50 Piece Flush Mount Black Hole Plug Assortment for Auto Body and Sheet Metal - - Amazon.com) and covered the holes (glued) after I found one the right size. It's not perfect but I don't notice the holes now.
As has been document before, all the wiring is there, so now that the skins have been swapped the new seats are in. Power adjustments and memory work fine, but no heating yet. I should also note that the plastic covers for the seat rails no longer fit, nor do the ones from the C70, so I will need to make some changes (cut the plastic as it's too large now) if I want to put these back.
At this stage I need the CCM and the programming. The first thing I did was put in a CCM that had the heated seats buttons already there, it came from the 2007 C70 if I remember correctly. However, it did have dual climate zones, which my 08 C30 is not equipped for, and the "auto" button for the A/C. After getting VDASH programming ($109 way less than going through Volvo, VIDA, etc.) the heated seats were working great, but the A/C was not engaging anymore. Also, pressing the "auto" button would change which vents were activated and obviously wasn't working. A few things were now off.
So next I took the heated seats buttons and moved them from the C70 CCM I had just put in, to my old CCM. A/C comes back, everything is working as expected, but while the heated seats lights come on there's no heat. Sounds like there's more to the CCM than just the buttons. Tried to disable/enable the heated seats function via VDASH and no change. After some reading, my guess was that I need to find a CCM that matched my 08 C30 CCM in terms of buttons, etc. but that also included the heated seats buttons already installed. Fortunately, back at the yard a 07 V50 had just that. Plugged in the CCM from the V50 and the A/C is working and so are the heated seats.
Ok, so long winded post to say that this can be done. The seats were $40 a piece, the CCM $20, programming $109 and if you need to cover the holes from a manual seat add $10 and glue. So a little over $200 and some patience. I think the main hurdle was the CCM and buttons. If you decide to do this, find a CCM that has the same buttons/features as yours but with the heated seats buttons. Adding the buttons, while looking like it's working (lights), did not work for me.
I now have quite a few leftover parts from this project as I spent a little more with my trial and errors (mostly CCMs and seat parts), so PM me if that's something you can use or if you have questions while I still remember. I'll probably start listing these parts on eBay next.
