240D Crushed Driver's Seat
 

The driver's seat on my '81 240D sags. It seems that the bottom springs have given out and the pad is worn as well. The result is being lower than the passenger. I have the seat hight ajustment all the way up. Do I just get a new spring box? And pad? How hard is it to replace? Where can I get this stuff? I searched all the online parts stores such as Fastlane and no one seems to have what I need. Any solutions? :D

Get in touch with Phil in Partshop tomorrow. You can just replace the springs. You will more than likely find the seat cover "cushion inserts" missing too. Do a search - Steve B mentioned that he usually has an upholstry shop sew new padding in. You will find that the padding in the seat cover is more than likely gone. This is a good diyer job.

Ridge
 

240Dbenzer,

The upholstery is quite easy to remove and reinstall. take the seat out of the car, unbolt the bottom from the top at the side of the seats. Take the seat bottom out into the yard, turn it upside down and kneel on it. Fold your hands..... just kidding.

Now as you're kneeling on it, you can untuck the bottom edges from the metal slot all the way around. Once you've untucked it, stop kneeling, get off seat, turn over and lift seat cover off. Reinstalling is just the reverse.

As to the springs, I usually get a good set at the junkyard from the passenger side seat, as it's always used less. Removing and installing the springs is more difficult, as you have to take off the seat adjustment mechanism which can be a bear. But that's only because it's difficult to line up the holes in the adjustment mechanism with the screw locations. I fact, I can't even describe it to you without having a seat unsidedown in front of me. A reasonably good DIYSer can do it.

My neighbor around the corner tells me that he bought a brand new set of bottom springs from www.performanceparts.com for $91.00. Don't know whether that's a good price or not. Good luck.

Ben

Seats
 

240Dbenzer.,

Me again. The actual upholstery can be purchased from if Fastlane doesn't have it.

Ben


EDIT: The upholstery link that was provided in this post was incorrect. The link was for a place that reupholsters furniture, not cars, and they do not sell car upholstery. A representative from the company contacted me to ask that I remove the link because she was having to answer all kinds of inquiries all of a sudden for Mercedes seats, and she was getting rude responses in replies.

Re: Seats
 

Ben, do they just have the cushioning, or do they have OEM fabric as well?

My 300D's seats leave a bit to be desired (actually, I think I've got a similar problem to 240Dbenzer's, except the previous owner put tennis balls in the springs on the left side), and I'd love to put new stuffing in and go with a cloth exterior (almost nonexistent on U.S. models, but I never liked leather/vinyl) for the seats...someday, depending on price.

Fortunately, I got a "new" spring set with the car; it's sitting in the truck...haven't done the swap yet mainly due to lack of time...I still gotta change the oil, re-do the air filter housing mounts, and replace the sway bar bushings... :) Haynes manual comes in tomorrow. :)

EDIT: Removed incorrect link from quote, see original reply above.

Hmmmm,so there aren't any hog-rings like on NA cars? Sounds very easy if I can just get my height adjustment to slide(it's rusted solid),because my outer springs are pretty soft.Great,more stuff to fix:D

240DBenzer,

I had the same problem with my 83' 300 cd. The drivers seat was sagging on the back left side. I priced a new spring box from that Worlduphostry place, $250.00. :eek: I think that the coupe seat springs are harder to come by. I settled with swapping the drivers with the passenger side. It took me about 6 hours to do it, but I took my time and gave the interior a good cleaning while the seats where out of the car. The drivers seat is a whole lot more comfortable and the passengers seat sag is hardly noticeable.

Marks88

83' 300 cdt
88' 300 e

Upholstery material
 

Warden,

You may like the cloth but the vinyl seats last forever. Guess after awhile you'll start raiding the local junkyards like me. If you've any used parts that you need call me, I'm trying to clean out my garage.

Ben

I did the same thing Marks88 did....swap driver's seat for passenger seat. Kind of a pain but nothing really problematic and got to clean well in process (and lube adjustment mechanisms). This seems a reasonable way to improve driver's seating without spending money.

Nic
'85 300CD

I've recently been going through the same driver's seat repair. The PO was a "whole lotta man," I guess you could say. Anyway, my dad and I took out the seat, saw the broken springs, etc. Like most people, cleaned out under there, and 24 years means a lot of garbage and change! Even found a few packs of hot sauce from a Mexican restaurant I frequent. Anyway, the job was out of my league, as the only tool I'm proficient with is the ubiquitous hammer.

Instead, I called my mechanic, asked for auto upholstery recommendations. He told me a shop that was familiar with Mercedes (even had a MB calendar in the shop), on the phone the guy even talked about the horse hair mats, so I felt pretty comfortable. They told me $100 for parts and labor. That sounded like a fine price to me, knowing how much the parts alone cost. The only negative is he was booked for three weeks, so I'm not scheduled until the 31st. Anyway, might be worth getting some estimates to see if you really save much by doing it yourself.

I found out that I can get the seat springs and pad for $200.00. I don't know, that kinda sounds a little steep. I might just try going to the salvage yard first and see if I can find a decent set of springs and a pad.

Kyle,
MB also uses hog rings.

240D Benzer,
Spend the $200 and get the pad and seat bottom. If you spend alot of time in the car, what's $200 over many years. You won't believe how much easier it is to climb out of a good seat after an hour of driving.

Good luck'
Peter

I pulled my seats out and placed medium-grade tough green foam padding between my springs, no more sag and seat is like new after re-dying. Should hold up for years to come. Lots less than $200 x 2 +rear seat and I like the feel even better.

seat mech. swap
 

I did a driver's side for pass. side seat swap a month or longer ago...search my threads, and I detailed the steps to removing all the linkages etc., lining up the screw holes etc. it took me a looooong evening...but it was done..and $0 cost. My springs were broken too!...but this fixed it right up! I kind of layed everything out on the garage floor in the order I took it all apart...then I just rev. the order putting it back together... Only thing I would've done diff. is take dig. pixs of the linkages on the bottom of seat to ref. to..

I dunno... it was a cheap fix..that's fer'sure..

Tank,
I still have to disagree with you. I know it didn't cost anything, but I'll bet that instead of sitting in a nicely contoured bucket, you are sitting on a big marshmellow.

Peter