I have 2 bad driver front seats that I can make 1 good seat out of. I want to know what you guys think is the best approach.

Seat 1: Bad seat bottom cushion. The leather is torn where the driver butt goes, but all the motors working fine.

Seat 2: The motor/gears for raising the front of the seat is broken. Motor turns and makes sounds but the seat doesn't move. Raising the rear of the seat seems to only move the rear left corner and not the rear right. But the leather is good.

Is it easier to swap the seat bottom itself from Seat 2 onto Seat 1 or swap the motor assembly from Seat 1 onto Seat 2? I've never taken apart seats before so I don't know what I'm getting myself into. Is this a huge undertaking or not really?

John5788, although I have no experience with swapping seats I would opt to swap the Seat 2 cushion to the functional seat mechanism. I would expect that 4 bolts secure it.

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Fred Hoelzle

Option 3 is to replace the leather. The leather hem tucks into a channel around the base of the seat. Press down on the seat so there’s slack in the leather skirt then pull the hem out of the channel. Work all the way around until the leather is free. Have a stiff spatula to pry open the channel where necessary. Once the hem is free, slide the leather forward and free of the seat base. Do in reverse to install. Mind how the spring base slots into flaps in the leather padding.

All but the earliest 124 seats have fry catchers that make working on the inside edge tricky. Otherwise you can do this job without removing the seat from the car.

This assumes the same seat. Leather and tex might not interchange. Sport and standard don’t interchange. Ortho and standard don’t interchange. Heating elements are sewn into the upholstery but I believe can be removed and sewn into unheated upholstery.

Hey, my 20,000th post! I hope this one is useful.

Sixto
98 E320s sedan and wagon

Thanks, that does seem like a good third option. Both seats are identical from 95 E320 so the pieces should interchange.

The seat adjustment assembly is held to the seat bottom frame by three fasteners on each side.

The forward - aft track has to move in order to line up a window for the middle fastener.

If you try to separate the seat back from the seat bottom, you will end up destructively removing the plastic covers on the hinge.

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

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