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Upgrade to heated/cooled cup holders

38K views 45 replies 14 participants last post by  13Daytona1625 
#1 ·
Has anyone installed heated/cooled cup holders in their 2011+ that didn't come from factory? My wife really wants them, and our R/T has pretty much everything but those it seems like. Looked online at Moparonlineparts.com and they have the replacement cup holder assembly with heated/cooled for $264.... Will this fit in the none heated/cooled spot? I'm sure a wiring harness is also needed.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Your best bet would be to get the wiring harness, too.

I did the upgrade on my '13 Charger, after I bought an entire center console from a Chrysler 300 on eBay for about the same price you're looking at.

You will want to get the wiring harness, since the connector is different for the two different cup holder types. The non-heated one just has two wires for the lights, but the heated one has two different lighting wires plus the power for the temperature, for a total of 4 wires (if I remember correctly).

The wiring harness will be a little wonky, because it will also have the connections for the rear heated seat switches, so if you don't have them, you'll have to tie them up somehow. In my '13, I just installed the rear plate from the 300 back there, so that car has rear heated seat switches that don't do anything!

You'll also need to jumper a couple of wires in the center console harness, because the wires that feed the cup holders will not be present on the car side. I tied the wires to the rear 12V accessory plug, since it can handle the power and is controlled by the ignition.

You'll need to completely disassemble the center console to swap the cup holders. Take your time, there are a lot of screws and tabs to pop out, and you've got to be careful with some of them or they can break. It's best to pull the console out and bring it inside to a nice, well-lit area like your kitchen table. The heated cup holder assembly is huge and heavy - it's made of solid metal and has a huge heat sink and ventilation system, but it will fit once you manage to wedge it in there.

After it's done though, you'll be glad you did it. It's a really cool (pardon my pun) feature, and that cup holder is an engineering marvel.

Here's one on eBay that will have everything you need: Console
Another one, with a red lid: Red Console

With this console, you could just swap the entire thing out after adding the jumper wires to the harness that comes with it. That way you wouldn't need to rip the console apart, plus you'd have a spare for the inevitable console cover tear...
 
#3 ·
Thank you! That looks like the easiest route to go. I do have rear heated switches and that console looks identical to what I have in there now.
 
#4 ·
In that case, I'd just buy the console, then. For the cost plus shipping, it might be worth the headache saved in finding the right wiring harness and stripping your console down to swap the cup holder. The console that I bought was for an 8-speed transmission, so I couldn't just swap it with my 5-speed one and I needed to transplant everything.

If you already have heated rear seats, the harness in the car may already have the wiring for the heated cup holders present. You may not need to do any jumper wires for the cup holder, if this is the case. It might be as easy as plug-and-play with the replacement console.

When you pull your console, be very careful with the USB cable that routes behind the passenger kick panel. If you forget to disconnect it there, it the locking clip on it will break very easily if you try to remove the console, and it will want to work itself loose after that. Make sure it's the very first thing you disconnect, in order to prevent any potential trouble. It's easy to forget, especially if you're working from the driver's side.
 
#9 ·
It turns out to be much easier the second time. I bought a '16 recently, and of course the new cars don't come with the heated/cooled cup holders. I grew very fond of those, so I picked one up on eBay a couple of days after I got the car.

Actually, the eBay sale was for the entire console, but I convinced the seller to just send me the cup holders for a lower price and avoided shipping a huge box.

The first time I did this, I took the cup holders apart to see how they worked and how to wire them up, then I removed the whole console out of the car, swapped the wiring harness for the console, then soldered a jumper wire. All, as it turns out, unnecessary.

Here's what I did the second time:

1) Scoot the seats back all of the way, then lift up the transmission bezel. I didn't take it all the way off, I just lifted it and rotated it out of the way.

2) Pull the driver and passenger console kick panels away from the cup holder area. They don't need to come all of the way off, just enough for clearance for the next step.

3) Open the center console lid, then use a plastic trim tool to pop up the rear side of the plastic bezel surrounding the cup holders.

4) This is the tricky step. The front of the cup holder plastic bezel isn't held on by the normal metal clips, it uses plastic tabs. There are some openings in the front where you can insert a small tool to push the plastic tabs in on the two plastic pieces. If you just try to yank it up, you'll break the tabs. Once you push the tabs in, the bezel will lift up.

5) After the bezel is removed, take out the screws holding the cup holder and slidy-door thingy in place. After they're out, you can lift the cup holder out.

6) Pop the cup holder connector up from where it is secured to the console, then disconnect it.

7) Here's where it might be different on the older cars. From what I remember, the connector for the new cup holder will plug into the same jack as the old one, but the older cars might not have all four wires going to that connector. Someone will need to verify this. On the '16 car, the connector had all four wires on it, but one of them (the red/blue rings wire) wasn't live.

The four wires in the new cup holder are (my numbering is not related to the actual connector!)
1: Ground
2: ACC (12V when car is on) used for powering the heating/cooling element
3: ACC (12V when car is on) used for powering the red/blue rings when heating or cooling.
4: Dash lamp, so the blue rings light up when the dash lights up.

On the connector, the ground wire is closest to the dash wire. The two ACC wires are next to each other on the other side.

Ground is the black wire with the white stripe.
Dash lamp wire is the orange.
One ACC wire is pink, the other one is white or light grey, can't remember..

When I plugged the new cup holder in the car, the rings lit up with the other dash lights, and the cooling/heating worked fine, along with the tiny LED indicators by the switches, but the red and blue ring lights didn't work. I figured that the current draw from those lights was trivial compared to the heating/cooling element, so I just used one of those hinged plastic wire splicers to connect the pink and white wires together.

The only drawback to this solution is that I'm pretty sure that the voltage at the wire splice is significantly lower than 12V due to the current draw from the heating/cooling elements, so the colored rings may not be as bright as they could be if you wired them to a different 12V source instead. The cup holder is a pretty well-designed piece of hardware, and it has its own switching power supply inside of it to boost the voltage back up regardless of how much is lost in the wires going to it.

After you test everything out to make sure it works, just reverse the steps to put it all back together. All in all, it should be a pretty fast swap.
 
#10 · (Edited)
My car is 2012 dodge charger sxt, I sawpped the cup holder with 2013 dodge charger rt, just plug with the same connector, and checked the fuse as well with 10A fuse 52. The original ring are on but nothing work when I hit the button cold or heat. What would be wrong here, do you think?
here are some pic





It turns out to be much easier the second time. I bought a '16 recently, and of course the new cars don't come with the heated/cooled cup holders. I grew very fond of those, so I picked one up on eBay a couple of days after I got the car.



Actually, the eBay sale was for the entire console, but I convinced the seller to just send me the cup holders for a lower price and avoided shipping a huge box.



The first time I did this, I took the cup holders apart to see how they worked and how to wire them up, then I removed the whole console out of the car, swapped the wiring harness for the console, then soldered a jumper wire. All, as it turns out, unnecessary.



Here's what I did the second time:



1) Scoot the seats back all of the way, then lift up the transmission bezel. I didn't take it all the way off, I just lifted it and rotated it out of the way.



2) Pull the driver and passenger console kick panels away from the cup holder area. They don't need to come all of the way off, just enough for clearance for the next step.



3) Open the center console lid, then use a plastic trim tool to pop up the rear side of the plastic bezel surrounding the cup holders.



4) This is the tricky step. The front of the cup holder plastic bezel isn't held on by the normal metal clips, it uses plastic tabs. There are some openings in the front where you can insert a small tool to push the plastic tabs in on the two plastic pieces. If you just try to yank it up, you'll break the tabs. Once you push the tabs in, the bezel will lift up.



5) After the bezel is removed, take out the screws holding the cup holder and slidy-door thingy in place. After they're out, you can lift the cup holder out.



6) Pop the cup holder connector up from where it is secured to the console, then disconnect it.



7) Here's where it might be different on the older cars. From what I remember, the connector for the new cup holder will plug into the same jack as the old one, but the older cars might not have all four wires going to that connector. Someone will need to verify this. On the '16 car, the connector had all four wires on it, but one of them (the red/blue rings wire) wasn't live.



The four wires in the new cup holder are (my numbering is not related to the actual connector!)

1: Ground

2: ACC (12V when car is on) used for powering the heating/cooling element

3: ACC (12V when car is on) used for powering the red/blue rings when heating or cooling.

4: Dash lamp, so the blue rings light up when the dash lights up.



On the connector, the ground wire is closest to the dash wire. The two ACC wires are next to each other on the other side.



Ground is the black wire with the white stripe.

Dash lamp wire is the orange.

One ACC wire is pink, the other one is white or light grey, can't remember..



When I plugged the new cup holder in the car, the rings lit up with the other dash lights, and the cooling/heating worked fine, along with the tiny LED indicators by the switches, but the red and blue ring lights didn't work. I figured that the current draw from those lights was trivial compared to the heating/cooling element, so I just used one of those hinged plastic wire splicers to connect the pink and white wires together.



The only drawback to this solution is that I'm pretty sure that the voltage at the wire splice is significantly lower than 12V due to the current draw from the heating/cooling elements, so the colored rings may not be as bright as they could be if you wired them to a different 12V source instead. The cup holder is a pretty well-designed piece of hardware, and it has its own switching power supply inside of it to boost the voltage back up regardless of how much is lost in the wires going to it.



After you test everything out to make sure it works, just reverse the steps to put it all back together. All in all, it should be a pretty fast swap.
 
#11 ·
Ok, the pics help.

It looks like your cup holder has been modified kind of like what I did, but instead of the jumper on the console-side of the harness, it's on the cup holder. Same principle.

You're going to need some kind of voltage tester, either a voltmeter/multimeter or one of those light up voltage checkers. Make sure you have voltage on the yellow wire when you turn the car on. You know the green and black wires are good, since the regular rings light up.

Dumb question, but does your console harness have 2, 3, or 4 wires going to it? If it only has 2 wires, you'll need another jumper wire.

Let me know what you find, and we'll proceed from there.
 
#13 ·
No, the switches are tied to your BCM, and can't handle the current that you need to run the heating/cooling elements. I'd stay away from those, unless you want to risk an expensive repair...

Please take a picture of the cup holder connector wires on the console side, that will help determine what to do next.

Also, in the picture of the cup holder, the shroud is missing. Did you take it off, or did it come that way?
 
#17 ·
Don't worry about it until you get it working, then put it on before you put everything back together. It'll work fine without it, but it will work better once it's inside the console so the airflow is directed.

The main issue right now is to determine if you're getting voltage to the pink or white wires on the console connector when the car is on. If you're not getting voltage there, it's not going to work.

Just because the wires are on the harness doesn't mean that they are connected to the car on the other side, Chrysler uses different harnesses for each particular model, so those wires might not be doing anything in the console harness.

Check both the pink and the white for voltage.
 
#21 ·
You'll need to get the unlock code from a dealership's parts department. Some dealerships will give you the code over the phone, but others want you to come in.

You'll need the new radio's model and serial numbers, and your car's VIN. They might ask you for the original car's VIN, but it isn't necessary for generating the new unlock code. Make sure you write the number down in your owners manual or somewhere, because you'll need to re-enter it if the the radio looses power, like if your car's battery dies.
 
#24 ·
Thank you all!!
I just got the code from dealer ship. Since you bought the used radio you have to have the radio and the original car VIN (not the car you will install it on, but the old car used to have it) to generate the code. If you buy a brandnew radio, then they will just need you car VIN and the radio.

Back to my process:

I have swapped the beat audio system which are the amplifier 12 channel, comes with 2 more rear door speaker, one sub rear dash and one big Beat in the trunk. I still didnt know how to connect or wire those 2 rear door speaker and the Beat sub in trunk since they do not have the available wire, I did install the rear sub because They have 2 extra wire available which one connect to that rear sub, and one I think is for the Beat in the trunk, but they are not same connector. (PLEASE HELP)

I did swapped the panel memory seat on the driver seat which comes with button 1 S 2, But it did not work (PLEASE HELP)

I was trying find our what wrong with the cupholder heated and cooled ( @tamban as you said I tried to tied those 2 orange and grey wire together but it still did not work, what do you think, It should be a fuse or something??
 
#28 · (Edited)
Don't worry about what you've already done. Just unplug the cup holder and check the voltages on the console-side of the connector.

You know the black and orange wires work since the regular rings light up. Turn the car on, and check the voltages on the pink and white wires.

Just because the wires are there doesn't mean that they're actually connected to anything in the rest of the car.
 
#29 ·
Don't worry about what you've already done. Just unplug the cup holder and check the voltages on the console-side of the connector.



You know the black and orange wires work since the regular rings light up. Turn the car on, and check the voltages on the pink and white wires.



Just because the wires are there doesn't mean that they're actually connected to anything in the rest of the car.


can u please look back my picture and see if the original ring work, so tell me from the cup holder side which wire are good, and from console side which are good. cuz I dont have the volt tool with me tonight, so I have to guess thankkkkk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#33 ·
(Trying to write this for novice modders, excuse my terminology)

The connectors for the cupholders have four openings for wires.

The non-heated/cooled cupholder only has two wires that go from the cupholder to the console connector, one that has +12V that lights the blue rings when the interior dash lighting is on and one for ground.

The heated/cooled cupholder has four wires that go from the cupholder to th console connector. The same two as the regular cupholder, plus two +12V ACC wires. One of the new wires powers the heating/cooling element, and the other one powers the red and blue ring LEDs that light up when the cupholder is heating and cooling.

The wires that come from the car and go to the console connector vary from car to car, if the heated/cooled cupholder is not stock. Some cars only have two wires, some have all four. Even if the car has all four, some work, and some aren't connected to anything on the other side where the console connector joins the main car wiring harness at the front of the console, so they're just dead wires.

For example, my '16 SP had all four wires. The +12V ACC wire that powers the heating/cooling element was live, but the one that powered the red/blue rings was dead. All I needed to do was use a clip-type splice to connect the dead ACC wire to the live one. I did this on the console side of the cupholder connector.

If you don't have the extra two wires coming from the car, or if they're both dead (test them with a voltmeter), you'll need to add a +12V ACC wire from somewhere else in the car to the wires that come from the cupholder. You can tap the +12V ACC wire that goes to the power jack for the back seat in the rear of the console - it works fine and has enough current to run the powered cupholders. Do not modify the two wires that already went to the normal cupholder, they are always correct.

If you add new wire from the 12V plug, use at least 18 gauge wire.
 
#34 · (Edited)
Can anyone confirm the function of white / grey wire? I appear to have a fully functional cup holder with the wire unconnected. I've got:

Orange/grey: Ring Illumination. 12v to 8v from dash for lighting and dimming the rings
Pink / green: Heat, cool, red and blue LEDs, as well as switch LEDs.
Black: Ground

Not sure what the grey wire does, as it seems 100% functional without it. That pink / green wire works wonders when it's hooked up.

Thanks for any feedback from folks that have done this mod!
 
#36 ·
I used a bench supply to test mine when it came in, but I needed all four wires to make it work correctly.

I don't recall which wires were which, but on the one I had, one wire powered the blue rings, one wire powered the heat/cool and switch LEDs, and the last one powered the red and blue operating rings.

I suspect that the operating rings were separated in order to make sure that they had maximum illumination. The hearing/cooling elements suck a lot of power, so there might have been enough of a voltage drop along the high-current wire to make those rings dimmer than they should be.

The cupholders have an internal boost converter to bring the sagging voltage back up, so there is no reason why they couldn't use that to power the ring LEDs. Maybe they made that change on the one you have.

This could also be the reason why one of the four wires in my '16 wasn't powered. Maybe they didn't need it in the later cupholder builds. I needed to add a jumper for my rings to light up.
 
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