The forward/reverse action is reversed; push forward to go back, and push back to go forward. Also the tilt/telescope function has ceased with the wheel fully up and forward.

I got the car back from the body shop like this. I checked the connections and they seem fine as well as the switch. They had the battery disconnected since I had to reset the CODE on the Radio, Could this cause the seat and wheel control to be out of wack?

Model
97E300D

Sounds like the connector on the seat is reversed on polarity. Double-check the power connector to the seat, or the switch connector -- one of them might be backwards. If the steering wheel doesn't move at all in any direction, my guess is another connection problem. I know they say they're right and that you've already looked -- but given the circumstance, would you trust that? I'd poke around a little more. Wish I had a magic solution, but this is classic reversed-electric-on-DC-motor behavior in that seat.

Cheers, John

__________________
'98 E300TD (W210) | Sold 6/09 with 205k and counting
'04 VW Touareg V10TDI

I thought the same thing.. I already pulled the door panel checked the plub connection and even disasembled the switch they all seem fine. I found this post back in 2001 where the guy had the same issue.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=14126

No.... it most likely was not the switch. I replaced my switch and the exact same problem continued which lead me to think about what may have taken place during the cars visit to the body shop.

Turns out that if the battery is disconnected and reconnected while the switch is unplugged it fail to initialize and causes the odd behavior "moving forward when you push the button back" etc...

I finally just disconnected the battery and reconnected it and the seat and wheel adjustment worked normally again.

This was all discovered after I purchased the new expensive seat switch, that cannot be returned. Oh well at least it’s working...