My husband and I have a lovely 1976 W115 300d and we are going to redo the interior a bit. We'll try to stay with the original medium brown as it is a fairly pleasing color. My question is about the seat rails, primarily. As we live in the northeast (Connecticut), it can get a little chilly in the winter. I'd like to find a pair of electrically heated front seats as we have them in our '88 300TE wagon (which is going to be for sale, btw), and MY '91 500sl. My question is, are the seat rail dimensions fairly standard throughout the MB sedans? Yes, it may be a bit of a pain to have the wiring attached to the harness and then find a console that will fit and have the switches but... I really must say, I LOVE heated seats in the winter! Any thoughts?
Carrie

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'91 500sl; '88 300TE; '84 280sl; '83 240d; '76 300d; '75 300d; '72 220d... Okay, so we LIKE Mercedes...

Don't expect later model seats to bolt right in. Check and measure the seat mounts in your 300TE and 500SL. You'll most likely need to fabricate some adapter plates, channels or rails strong enough to support whatever heated seats you select, as well as hold up in case of an accident. Then you'll need to fabricate a wiring harness as it's unlikely the donor-car will have a complete easily removeable harness just for the heated seats. At best you'll be able to cut off parts of the harness, with all the special plugs and connectors, then you'll have to make up the rest. In addition to the switches, you'll need to install any relays, timers, etc, that the heated seat originally came with.
Might I suggest sheepskins?

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Hi Mark,
I think that sheepskins will likely be the way we go (sigh)... Funny, that's what our MB shop suggested, too. Thanx for the reply!
Carrie

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'91 500sl; '88 300TE; '84 280sl; '83 240d; '76 300d; '75 300d; '72 220d... Okay, so we LIKE Mercedes...

Wouldn't it be possible to transfer the heating elements to your current seats?..Maybe the seat pads will fit with trimming.

If you keep the same insulating material and possible the surrounding foam you should be able to keep the stock look.

I would place the switches somewhere under the dash... one on each side.

Any competant upholstery guy should be able to remove the seat covers...

As a plus, your seats will match the rears..

Anil

Trouble is that features such as heated seats are engineered into todays cars as a system. The heat pad would need to be installed in such a way as to prevent damage by seat springs or any other sharp objects, not only at time of installation, but over many years of use. Then, in addition to the switch, the heater may use a relay and/or timer and/or circuit breaker that must be included in the circuit.

While swapping a complete set of heated seats would eliminate the hassle of retrofitting heater pads in the originals, it creates new problems, as seats in modern cars are also engineered in as a saftey system, especially in cars like Mercedes. So there are issues with insuring that a replacement seat installation will perform as well as the original factory design, not just in normal use, but in case of an accident.

Then you still have the problem of wiring in the rest of the components, to factory standards, so there's a minimal chance of having a short-circuit, overload or fire. You wouldn't want those heaters to cause a REAL hotseat!

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Lookit what Yahoo came up with!

I'm liking what I see and thank you for asking this question

http://www.seatheater-heatedseats.com/?OVRAW=heated%20seat%20cushions&OVKEY=heated%20seat%20cushion&OVMTC=standard

Michael

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Usta haves '69 250/8, '76 280C, 1971 250C 114.023, 1976 450SEL 116.033
Current have, 1983 300SD 126.120

I started to think maybe someone out there made some kind of aftermarket seat heaters. One of these kits looks more do-able to me than trying to swap seats or heaters from a different car.
Of couse, a good installation depends on the quality of the kits, as well as the installer. Perhaps the simplest option might be one of the external cigarette lighter powered heating pads under a sheepskin seat cover, taking care that the wiring is carefully routed and protected so it doesn't get pinched in the seat mechanisim.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Seat heater just goes under the cover, I think. Problem will be getting the cover off and back on in one piece. By now, that MBtex will be getting brittle, and I wouldn't touch the leather.

Wiring and relays, etc go without saying, but I'm sure you could wire something up.

Sheepskins are indeed a much simpler answer.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!