Power Seat Cable Repair
on the 1994 E320 (W124)
by downeyjc
5/6/08
Power Seat Cable Repair on W124 - This DIY may be applicable to all MB vehicles with power seats from 1978 to 1997
Problem
My power seat has malfunctioned with the seat bottom at maximum vertical height. When you try to lower or tilt the seat bottom, only the left side of the seat adjusts--the right side stays at max height. This causes the seat to twist markedly to the left--not good. If I leave it at max height, the seat is straight but my head touches the sunroof.
After researching the problem in the site archives, I concluded that one of the seat flex cables is broken or has popped out its drive socket. I removed the seat and located the offending cable. I removed the retaining clip from the motor end and twirled the cable and it freewheeled. So I then tried to seat the cable deeper in the square drive socket to see if it would engage the seat adjuster, but no dice--still freewheeled. Tried to remove the cable to look at the square end that goes into the seat adjuster mechanism to see if it was perhaps rounded, but it won't come out. I removed the retaining clip on the seat adjuster end, and the black outer sheath slipped right off the flex cable, but the steel flex cable is still firmly stuck in the adjuster drive socket.
Solution
Here is my resolution of this problem. It turned out that my seat adjustment cable on my 1994 E320 was defective (square drive cable had a "rounded" end that would not properly engage the square drive socket). As a temporary fix, I devised the "Redneck Power Seat Adjustment" tool that may be of interest to some of you--picture attached. In response to my wife's desire for a more "technically pleasing" solution, I decided to perform surgery on the offending cable by adjusting the length as described in several posts on this site. I am including pictures of the process for modifying the cable--sort of a brief pictorial DIY. Since I can only post 5 attachments with this posting, the remaining pictures are in a Part 2 posting that follows. I am happy to report that it fixed my problem. Cheers, John Downey
These are the remaining pictures on how to modify/repair the seat adjustment cable:
Discuss this DIY here.
-downeyjc
CategoryDiy
