bobgodd

I don't really see it being too hard, but I don't have the luxury of having down-time with the car. I'm too lazy to complete the project in one day lol... and I would need the car to get to work the next day.

As it is, I've been driving around with my seat back panel off since the weekend! Haha.

nanayaw6

Thanks, I'd greatly appreciate that

mikeevo

now lurking, looks and sounds like a great upgrade for everyone in TX.

bobgodd

Crap, wrote that too fast.... It is a 2.5" fan.

nanayaw6

Thanks again man,.gonna test out some fans tomorrow and yeah I noticed in my car too that the fans feel like they push air out of the seats rather than pull through them

bobgodd

Yup. I made an interesting discovery tonight.

The seat padding actually has some give to it. Instead of cutting out new space for the fans, I was able to make a small slit in each "corner" of the hole where the old fan fit. I would say about a 3/8th inch slit, and that allowed me to massage in my bigger fan without having to cut away any material.

I think my choice of fan was probably slightly large, at 3 1/8th inch. I would be willing to bet you can squeeze in a 2 3/4 inch fan without having to cut anything. I may in fact, go pick one up to test that theory.

mikeevo

any specs on the fans. CFM , speed and db ratings. just for FYI.

bobgodd

I don't have info on the stock fans as there are literally no markings on it.

As for the fans I bought, they were about $6, brand is Enermax model UC-8EB.

Noise: 14 dBA
Speed: 1500 RPM +/- 10%
Airflow: 24 CFM


I'm actually pretty bummed I didn't get to start it tonight. The tap splices I bought were for 18-14 gauge wire which is apparently too large. I need to go buy some smaller splices tomorrow after work. I want to use a tap splice just to make sure everything works ok without permanently damaging any of the stock components; then if it all pans out, I will hard-wire it in.

Eurohorses

Supscribed...

abrim

Any updates on this?

03'55AMG

Cold air would create back pain??
They obviously forgot about the heated portion of the seat..

bobgodd

I ran the fan last night and sat in the seat but to be honest I didn't feel much.

I was only running one fan in the seat back and I only sat there for 5 minutes.

My new plan is to leave the larger fan in, and try to find a high CFM fan much closer to the stock size and run around with those two for a while and see how I like it.

timeToy

You fan spec are weak (Noise: 14 dBA, Speed: 1500 RPM +/- 10%, Airflow: 24 CFM), specifically the speed, as there is a lot of back pressure that will be build (the air have to find it's way through the seat), you definitly need a MUCH more powerfull fan (at least 2500 to 3500 rpm I would said) so you have the "torque" to fight the back pressure and push the air through the seat.
A bigger fan will help for both pressure and noise, stick with a 92mm fan.

Got a Q: can you measure the voltage when you change the cooling setting, I assume that I'll be 12v at full power and going down from there ?

bobgodd

I guess I forgot to post that information; the high setting starts off at 12V then goes to 10.5V, then if I remember correctly the low setting is 6.5V.

As far as fan choice goes, I don't know if I'm prepared to go bigger than what I have now. I did at first, but now I really don't want to cut away material from the seat. Maybe I can find a more powerful fan in the same size, or slightly smaller? I shall research.

Oh yea, and for anyone trying, the brown wire is ground and the other wire - I believe it is orange with a red stripe) would be the 12V source. These should correspond to the black wire, and the red wire of your fan, respectively.

mikeevo

you may want to look at this fan, its a 80mm 12v high flow

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556093862.html

3400 RPM and 46 CFM airflow , they have others on the site. I will look thru some smaller ones.

70mm
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556068709.html
3400 rpm and 34 CFM.

if the original is 2.5 inches then a 60-70mm will be close. but if you want to move more air , then a larger fan is always easier.

bobgodd

Did you read that first link says ultra-high output with RPM sensor, I wonder if it will still spin that fast without using the sensor wire? I think it should but I don't know for sure. It seems like it would be loud though at almost 40dBA, que no?

Roverron

yea its like a computer 3 wire fan you just feed them 12V. Also if you look for prossor fans they usually run higher RPMs. I was thinking of running a duct up from the rear floor for cooling

timeToy

The sensor wire is useless it is just for the motherboard to read the fan speed, you can cut it out for our application, the fan speed will be determined by the voltage applied to it, so it may be loud at setting 3, but will be less at 2 and even less at 1

mikeevo

I dont think it would be very loud due to the fact it is encased in the seat and with stereo , road noise and motor whine you could really think the fan was loud but cutting the speed down will help.

bobgodd

Bought a new fan and it's a bit more powerful. I stayed with 80mm so I wouldn't have to do any more "massaging" to get it in the car. I didn't sit in the seat but I did put my hand on the seat back, and while I couldn't feel air coming through like a breeze, I don't think it was designed to do that in the first place. I can feel the presence of airflow at the seat back and the leather actually felt like it was getting slightly cooler.

I dremel the other fan and fit it tomorrow and then go for a drive; hopefully it was worth the $10 or so for the two fans.


I looked again at the stock fan, and the brand is Papst, and there are a couple numbers there but couldn't find anything online.

PBT-GF20-FR
and 6294 002 009


New fan specs:
80x80x25mm
38.2 cfm
3000 rpm
32.1 dBA

nanayaw6

This seams to be the exact fan I ended up getting too. I picked up a collection of fans last thursday or so including the one you recommended before and figured I'd power them up indepently and test the flow rate. I finally settled for the 80mm with the same specs as you just stated but haven't trimmed the fan housing yet to make it round(since that would require the least modification of the seat backing). I must say though that I am most curious now about how to change the fans in the seat buckets so I do everything at once. Picked up 4 fans for now.

I noticed something weird with my stock cooled seats though, there doesn't seem to be a change in fan speed from 3leds to 2 leds. Did you notice this as well on yours?

timeToy

I have started to mod mine, check my gallery for pics, I will post a large DIY once finished.

The stock fan is a 60x60x10, the more powerful 60x60x10mm fan I could find on DigiKey was a 21.2 CFM, I think significantly more air flow is needed, so I have ordered 4 of theses fans:

80x80x15: 3800 RPM, 41 dB, 48.8 CFM - http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...me=603-1159-ND

I'll keep you guys posted!

nanayaw6

Is there a limit as to the watts the fan can use or the max current draw?

timeToy

The current draw is 172mA for the stock fans together (if I believe the sticker on the part), the fans I ordered draw 330mA each (so 660mA together).
I did roll the dice on this and hope that the system can handle it! If someone with a electrical diagram wants to chime in ?

bobgodd

When I took the initial voltage readings, there was only about a 1V drop between the two settings, versus a drop of almost 4 volts between the middle setting and the weakest setting.