No movement on my side. Given the issues you experienced with the blower not operating correctly, I placed the parts off to the side until a potential workaround was found. Your earlier idea of having dual HVAC units seem plausible as long as the 14-15 pins are able to supply enough power for the standalone Taurus unit to distribute the appropriate signal out to the seats. An additional question arose with this possibility, I assume the heated and cooled seats would be regulated by an internal thermostat as they are on the Taurus, or would you simply have them set up to run as on/off in the various settings?

I recall that you have another car to work out, I believe your wife's Porsche if memory serves, if that is the case enjoy :-) Having had several over the years they are great to own. No rush on my end with this project. I assume most of us plan to keep our Mustangs until we cannot climb in or out of them

 

It is a long shot to try, but it costs nothing to see if it works.

As for the thermostat, not sure. I do know that the heated seats need to be converted form the heated pad to the blower motors. So if this works, then the seats need to be modified to contain the blower motors (2 per seat) along with the ducting. And then I wonder if it will work if the seats are not perforated enough? Not sure about that part.

The best solution is to create a module (arduino?) to interpret the signal from the HVAC box and then send the proper signal tot he heated/cooled seat module. There was a guy on here that did this sort of thing. Finding someone that can do that is near impossible.

 

Hello all,
i have read this entire thread over like 8 times so far today. Trying to make sense of everything you guys have discovered over the past few years without me, but now id like to join in. i recently came up with this exact idea, doing factory 3 setting heated and cooled seats in my car. Then i located this thread

I would love to help bring this issue we are having to a close and get some cooled seats working in all of our cars. I am a ford mechanic so i have complete access to parts, part numbers, wiring diagrams, workshop manuals, and whatever other ford tools we may need. My hope for this project is to be done with it by next april/may, just in time for me to pull my car out of storage.

While i was reading this thread i noticed jim was having an issue with the taurus hvac module using the wrong hvac functions (when defrost it hit, air is sent through the face vents and etc). i was wondering if maybe the f150 hvac module would do the same thing. the 2011-2014 f150 lariat, platium, limited trim levels al had a cooled seat option which had the exact same switches as our mustangs and the taurus stuff we are working with. it doesnt appear that anyone tried that yet, was wondering if maybe that would make a difference? if it does, i think that may be the last answer we need to get this thing sorted out.

I also thought of an idea where those of us that are interested could create a group on a platform where we could directly talk and bounce ideas off of each other....it might help us bring this thing to a close. Let me know what you guys think and how we should move forward. As stated i am a ford mechanic and have access to lots of things that non ford employees wouldn't have access to so that might help us as well. Let me know what we think our next move should be.

Thanks, Justin

 

Hi Justin.

Welcome to the effort and I am excited to build off of your enthusiasm. In terms of parts, I too tried the Taurus HVAC module and was able to get the six lights (3 cool / 3 heat) to respond but, like Jim, they messed up the normal operations of the HVAC. Because of this, I returned to the Mustang module. The F150 is a good idea and is certainly worth trying (has not been done yet) if you have access to one. My only concern in its operation over the Taurus is that the dash layout is significantly different and certain aspects on the Lariat appear to be single-button operations whereas the Mustang control panel uses a cycle/toggle, and so forth. Finding clear photos of the dash and wiring for that vehicle have been a challenge this AM.

Excited to hear/see what you try...I too am confident this can be done, it is just a matter of finding the right combination.

Best,
Charles

 

Hello Charles! Thanks for the response! hopefully we can get this project wrapped up. I will look into an F150 hvac module tomorrow and get a part number and see if we can try that. i dont understand what you mean when you said that the mustang uses a cycle/toggle and the F150 uses a single button. I will try and grab some screenshots of the wiring diagrams tonight as ford lets me log in to the systems on any device (thats super helpful). Just so i know what a good price is for the hvac module, how much did you guys pay for yours? I dont want to spend a lot of money on it if it ends up not working. Also, explain to me how you guys made the switch. You guys switched the circut boards and then did you pry the buttons off of the mustang one? Im not understanding how the buttons themselves got on our modules. I have not obtained a switch yet but as of right now i am going to be on the hunt for a switch and an f150 module. Maybe with the switch and everything in front of me i will understand it more. Prayers something we can come up with works. im highly interested in this project.

Thanks, Justin

 

Prices have certainly changed, but if I recall correctly I believe I paid approximately $30 for the Taurus HVAC module on CoPart. For the buttons themselves, the process is really easy, you simply are swapping out the lower circuit board on the Mustang nav panel with the circuit board from the Taurus unit with heated and cooled seats. I believe Jim outlines the process in the earlier posts of the thread. Once the full panel is out, it takes only a couple of minutes

 

Okay absolutely I will get that taken care of when I get the switches. How tough was the HVAC module? Just trying to figure out what to expect before really tearing it apart.

 

The HVAC module is very easy. It is simply locking plugs (3 if I recall) and it is snapped into its own base behind the nav panel.

 

Hello all,

I wanted to provide a quick update on what I've been working on. I got a switch and one seat to source a module from out of a 2010 taurus. Other seat wouldn't come out unfortunately. I will have a second before we know it. I've brought on the help of the electrical technician at the shop i work at....he knows ford wiring very well and he thinks this is possible but he said we may have to consider a different route. I will update you guys when i have more. Hopefully in the next couple weeks i can get myself a second seat and we can get some stuff buttoned up here. Let me know if any of you have done anything as well.

Thanks, Justin

 

That is great news. Thank you, Jason. Excited to see what you two can come up with

 

Nice to see that this is not dead. Sorry I have not been on here much. Have not been driving my Mustang much these days, and most of my free time has been doing mods to my wife's Porsche. But I have yet to try my piggy back idea I outlined earlier.

 

Thanks For Coming By & Updating the Folks!

Nice to Hear From You!

Been a Minute!

Best Regards,

KC

 

Hello everyone, first time poster here. I stumbled upon this thread a few days ago and I have been combing over the information and seemed to have come to a conclusion. Between the Taurus and Mustang HVAC modules, they are sending different data via CAN BUS. I think we came to that conclusion prior to me posting. An Arduino could be used to interpret the data correctly but I may have a different idea. Would it be possible to use Forscan to change one of the HVAC modules to correctly communicate with the individual modules within the car? Maybe a longshot, and I won't lie I do not really know how Forscan works for something like this, but perhaps you can overwrite part of the Taurus modules data with Mustang data and leave the seating controls alone while doing it. Also just thought of another idea. Since the actuators are controlled via CAN BUS signal, maybe it is possible to replace them with Taurus actuators. For example, on a floor vent actuator in the Mustang the part number is AR3Z-19E616-E and on a Taurus its AR3Z-19E616-C. They look identical but the parts number and the car they correspond to is different and specific. I'd love to see if the latter option would work and I genuinely think it would.

 

I had thought of this, but what I tried was to change the pinouts in the connectors to that of a Taurus. Didn't quite solve everything. With the summer here, I may dive into this again. Been a long time since I played around with the Mustang. I had been thinking about trading up for a new Mustang, but I like the looks of mine much better than the new ones - and mine has a glass roof!

 

I've been eying that glass roof, I've seen the swap done

I've made a lot of headway on the heated cooled seat project since I first posted. First of all, the Taurus (or F150, MKZ, MKS so on and so forth) HVAC module do not work. scrambling the controls because of the configuration of the mode doors. The Mustang has 2 of them, one for defrost and front vents and one independent for the floor. The floor mode door in particular does not have a potentiometer on it to receive or send a "position" voltage back to the HVAC module. The new HVAC module is looking for the position of all 3 modes and its only seeing 2 (There is no way to add the ref and signal voltage either). From my understanding, no other Ford vehicle has this mode door configuration besides the Mustang, and of course none that have heated and cooled seats (I've looked through the diagrams of dozens of Lincolns, Mercurys, and Fords). So what we are left with is utilizing an Arduino in place of the HVAC module. I'm not suggesting replacing the Mustangs, I'm suggesting adding it to the CANbus system standalone only for the seats logic. I have found a thread similar to what we are attempting to do where they did this from scratch and provide the code, albeit, I am missing 1/3 of it. If I decide that this is the only route to go down I'll build a CAN sniffer and figure out the other 1/3.

What I'm attempting tomorrow will be much more user friendly if it works. So I have a 2012 Taurus HVAC module and everything else for this project. My theory is, using Forscan, I should be able to make the Taurus HVAC module brain dead to everything besides the heated and cooled seat messages (basically turn every function in the module off besides the seats). Then it can be added to the CAN network as a standalone seat module while being able to properly communicate with the DSCM and FDIM without making a mess of the Mustang module. It can't be added right off the bat because of how CAN operates, brain deading the module to everything besides the seats would be necessary first.

The Arduino WILL work, there is zero doubt in my mind of that. It has been done like that before but in a slightly differing application (why I'm missing that last 1/3 of code). If Forscan prevails and can turn off the functions of the Taurus module We'd be golden. Like I mentioned, I'm planning this tomorrow

 

This was great to read. I am very happy to see you have maintained momentum on the project. If/when you get the Arduino to work as you described it will certainly be a milestone moment for the S197 community, similar to Jim’s navigation efforts.

Wishing you the greatest of luck this weekend on the project. With summer fast approaching and having a black car with black interior this would be an amazing addition

 

Yep, black car here in Florida so I feel your pain. Should for sure be interesting. I'll post back with an update later.

 

Alright so I've attempted tapping into the HVAC modules to no avail. They simply do not show up for our generation Ford vehicles. Interestingly, I did find that through Forscan it is possible to see the position of the mode doors and what the HVAC module is commanding of them. I'd have to look into it a little more but maybe it is possible to swap different mode doors into the Mustang and add some logic behind the floor mode door. I don't know, but at least it is potentially an avenue to go down. Anyway... It seems that using an Arduino is a must. I'll start putting the information together to make this possible.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...on-wiring.html

I highly recommend giving this forum a read as this explains exactly how to make the DSCM work with an Arduino. The difference is that they are not attempting to use factory button locations and we are. This is important and helps explain how some of the code is missing. This whole system works on multiple messages taking place between 3 modules over MSCAN. The user commands the seats on via the buttons, this sends a command to the HVAC modules which in turns sends a command to the DSCM. Once received, it returns a confirmation to the HVAC module and from there is sends a message to the FCIM telling it to turn on the accompanying yellow status lights. I'm fairly certain the modified control panels in our cars have no issues sending out the signals so that's step one. They detail the command that the HVAC module sends, that's 2 down. The DCSM will send its confirmation code back to the HVAC module (the Arduino) which should set the status lights. The issues is our Arduino will not have the logic to talk back to the FCIM telling it to turn the lights on. So that's what would need to be determined and put into code.

 

Thanks for the efforts in moving this forward!

I can confirm that when I had the Taurus HVAC module hooked up in the car that the cooled seat and heated seat buttons did indeed light up in stages as they are supposed to.

 

That's good info, confirmation that nothing about the components will get in the way once a standalone Arduino is created and tapped into the CAN network. I might be able to get to that before the end of the summer but no promises.