I'm quite new here and am really struggling with the seats in my Aston Martin DBS. The car was burned, so I bought what I think are Vantage seats. I ordered brand new ECUs from Aston Martin, paying the full price including "Aston tax" for the missing original ECUs, thinking I could just plug and play.

That didn't go according to plan and now I can't figure out how to connect the seat module ECUs.

I'm able to match and plug in four plugs (one white and three gray) to the car harness, but there are no ECU harnesses present on the seats. Does anyone know the code for the harness or what I'm missing to get the ECU connected to the seats?

 

a control unit for a vantage seat and the DBS harness in the car may very well present the same type of problems you had with the ECU. it would help you to know what year, model and seat options were on those vantage seats and the same info on the DBS for starters.

...wish i could be of more help.

 

I think you have bought seats that have no memory what so ever. The current to the motors go directly from the switch to the motors without any seat ECU inbetween.

If you look at the scuderia website, there seems to be a switchpack that is "high current". I'm imagining that those are for the seats you have.

The connectors, from top -> bottom, left -> right:
1. OCS unit connector
2. SIP airbag connector
3. Seat adjustment motors power
4. Seat forward sensor (small sensor in lower right corner, have to do with airbag system I think)
5. Seat movement signals, OCS canbus (two twinned wires, one yellow/black and one yellow).

In a "regular" seat with ecu, connector 3 and connector 5 goes to the ecu. From the ecu the motor wires go out to the motors. Alla motors also have a sensor on them returning back to the ecu with position data. Those sensors are not present on your seat. Also, one can see in the picture that the heavy wires from connector 3 goes directly to the motors (yellow and green for example).

I'm sorry to say there is no easy way of doing this.

To get the ecu to work you need motors with the sensors and you need new wire loom to get the signals and everything to the ecu.

To only use the seats as is you need new switchpacks for high current. Worth noting though, the seat ecus are connected to the CANbus system of the car, and if the main CEM unit is looking for them there might be a fault code stored for this.

I changed the seats in my car from memory 07 seats to non-memory 06 seat (both with ecus though), and had to resolder connectors to get it to work as it should. I have not connected the CANbus though, and have no error messages popping up on the screen.

 

What year Vantage seats are they, the early heated seat wiring is completely different and doesn't involve the ECU and klone of the connectors will be for that. The white connectors are for airbags and also aren't involved with the ECU.

I have later DB9 seats and my 2006 and that needed the wiring modified, look like you are going the opposite direction, earlier more basic seats in a later car.

 

my 2007 seats have no heating or memory whatsoever. they simply go up and down in an odd way, tilt and back and forth. if they are the same as mine and they do that, then you're done.

 

Thank you, guys! I was worried that I had older generation seats, as the motors only have two cables coming from them without any sensing function. However, I went ahead and tested them on a cheap 10A PMW motor controller board with a 12V battery, and at least I can move them to nearly any position. The seats look good, as I only paid €1000 for both.

From tracing the cables from the motor, here is the schematic for the connector:
A - not sure what it does
B - not sure what it does
C - rail movement
D - back seat angle adjustments
E - front tilt of seat
F - rear tilt of seats also changes height

Does anyone know what A/B is for ?
To get this on other side anyone recognizes the plug for motor seats?

I hope this information helps someone if the ECU fails. It looks I might program my own controller now

 

I seem to remember that red and black heavy gauge wires are for seat heating and probably lumbar support pump. The lumbar support is an air pump with valves that fill upp bladders placed in the backrest.

Try connect red and black to + and - and press the buttons on the side of the seat?
When I did the seats in my car I had tremendeus help from the scematic. Do you have one? If you search for db9 electrical schematic you will find it. It's not for DBS but they use the same parts and wire colours for all models.

 

i agree that they are most likely for heat and possibly lumbar support. as i forgot to mention that my seats do have those functions... or at least the heat.

 

Thanks again! Getting the seats to work was pain hope this will help someone in the future, I picked up an ESP8266 and connected it to a PWM motor controlle and made "app" to control the seats. Once tested, I'll share it on GitHub (https://github.com/tomaslieven/aston-martin-seat-controller/)

Also I recovered my other burned manual controller so will try to trace switches and implement into app,

 

the "app" sounds like it might have a fun project.

 

If I remember correctly, the seat heating & lumbar support are fed from the small switch panel on the inner side of the seat. The power gets fed into the switch panel and redistributed.
The seat heating is connected via the white 3-wire connector (visible on the above picture). 3-wire to power the high/low heating function.

On a sidenote: Wow, amazing what some guys are able to acheive by playing with electronics!