The heater on the floor of my '81 300SD that heats the back seat area does not work. If anyone has an idea of how to remedy the problem, please let me know. Thanks.

I believe this is a fresh air vent. The lever moves a cable that opens and closes the vent behind the ashtray.

Todd

Wow, that's interesting. No wonder I don't get heat out of that vent. That makes sense. Now that I know that, I'll turn the lever off in the winter. It would have been nice if it was a heater but that's just one thing less for me to have to fix. Thanks very much.

I'm thinking of turning mine into a heater, because at speed, the vent leaks enough to make rear passengers unhappy. Then, come time for AC, the rear would receive AC and have some control over cooling. As perfect as we think our cars are, this " no heat, it's a vent only" thing is a design mistake, IMHO. Tying the rear vent into the heat duct work doesn't seem as though it would be a big deal. I have an issue with the front floor actuators anyhow, so I'll be in there come spring.

After owning two W126's over the past 5+ years, I just found out the other weekend that I never had the rear vent completely shut off. It would leak air unless completely shut off.

Slide the lever all the way to the off position. Then push harder in the same direction until it clicks. If you do this, it shouldn't leak air at all (or VERY little).

Hope this helps!

Neal

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Thanks very much for letting me know how to completely turn off that center vent to the back seat. I am going to try and install some kind of 12-volt heater in the back seat anyway.