what are the vents on the floor of the rear seats (W124)?

[renyf1]

Hi,

I was wondering what are the vents at the bottom of the rear seats in my e320 (1994) are for? Since I never sit in the rear and don't have much passengers I never paid attention to them until I was cleaning the car.

My guess was for the A/C but when I turned on the A/C I didn't feel any air coming out.

Reny

94 320

[A. Rosich]

I hope you are referring to the vents UNDER the front seats that point to the rear footwells:

They serve HOT air to the rear passenger's feet.

In W124s with the full automatic A/C system, like all U.S. cars come equipped with, you will only get air down there if the heater is working (turn the temp rocker switch all the way to the red area).

In Euro W124 with the regular A/C where you can can control the temperature independent from left to right, you also have more control on WHERE to direct the air, so you may apply cool air to the rear footwells.

With my W124 E320T I made the stupid mistake of overpaying for the full automatic A/C systems. Now I really regret it, since the regular A/C system on my previous W124 300TE worked excellent and gave you more control on what type of air and where to send it.

A. Rosich
S320, 1998
E320T, 1995

[Lebenz]

I think the above pretty well covers it, except that the vents also work remarkably well at capturing things in the rear foot well of the car and turning them ever after into rattles

[renyf1]

Thanks for the insight.

[David C Klasse]

I don't know exactly how it works on a W124, but couldn't you direct air to the floor and turn on the A/C? I am able to do that with my car, and other Mercedes'.

[A. Rosich]

As stated above, it all depends on the type of air conditioning system your Benz comes equipped with.

The fully automatic A/C system or "Automatic Climate Control" as M.B. calls it (code No. 581) is much less flexible than the regular A/C system (Code No. 580).

With the 581 you could get the system to throw you "some" cooled air to the foot wells, but only if the system wants to do it. With the 580 system you can get air to any position at the temperature you want, even independent temperatures to the left and right sides of the car.

A. Rosich
S320, 1998
E320T, 1995