Gilly, have you had to fix a loose seat problem yet? My drivers side rocks back some when I take off and goes forward when I stop, sort of a rocking chair effect (53K miles). It's starting to get really obvious. The large mounts and bolts on the floor are all tight, it looks like the seat attachments to the power seat mechanisms are at fault. Is there something to tighten or a bushing or something that needs replacing? I'm hoping to fix it before the wife notices and gets in another quip about how her Grand Cherokee never did that. Thanks.

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If it aint broke, don't fix it.

Never have had a loose ML seat yet, at least not in the manner you're describing. Only problem with looseness has been caused by loose bolts holding the seat to the floor. Usually it's on of the front 2. In these cases it's been due to someone having removed the seat and not tightening properly, not a factory problem.

Gilly

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Lewis,

Once again I have the same problem on my 2000 ML320. The drivers seat rocks a little bit on acceleration.
Sometimes is clunks as well but usually is silent.

Have you found a fix yet ?

Doug

Doug, I had just about convinced myself it wasn't that noticable after Gilly said he hadn't seen any yet, but now you've got me paranoid again. I've been wondering now if the driver and passenger side seats could be swapped, both to even out the wear on the leather and also to get a tighter mounting on the driver's side. Not swapping the whole seat, just the seat bottom and seat backs (not the frames and motors,etc). I haven't pulled the plastic panels from around the bottom of the seat mounts, but it sure looks like the seat pads and brackets may be the same. You could probably figure out which bushing or attachment is loose that way also.

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If it aint broke, don't fix it.

Given the description, I still would think that possibly one or both of the front seat bolts are loose. If you can put your fingers on the bolt and bracket at the front, try rocking the seat forward and back with your other hand and see if maybe there is movement there. Especially if the seat has ever been removed. Most of the early ML's (first 2 years I want to say) probably have been unbolted at least once for a big recall they had to check the seat belt buckles.

I believe that the covers and foam cushions are the same left and right, but that's all, the frames are opposites of each other and not interchangeable.

Gilly

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My 2000 has the same problem with the drivers seat, rocks back on acceleration. Dealer orded new seat "rack", part has not come in yet. Will post when installed...


Dave L.
Maryland

My wife's ML had this problem so bad that I refused to drive the truck. After looking into it, the seat frame had failed on the right side at the tilting shaft. Looked like a bad weld but the vertical metal flange seperated at the tilt mechanism shaft. The dealer in San Antonio actually stocked a replacement so I figured it was a known issue. I have no confirmation on that, but they don't even stock radaiator hoses so it seemed suspicious. They refused to comp the part so at $400+ so I pulled the thing apart and rewelded the pieces together. About one hour and no more problem.

Victor

I hear an awful creaking noise from the seats over bumps.
(no - it's not the suspension - that's been already fixed).

I also feel like the seat is loose...

Any clues?

The possibility of swapping front ML320 seat cushions was raised in this thread. Can that be done easily?

My 02 suffered from this, and the dealer replaced the tracks under wrranty. Now, after +70k miles, It rocks slightly on brisk accel. These little soft plastic washer/bushings came apart from the tracks. Newly installed tracks ripped them apart in about a month. personally, I dont think the new tracks really solved the problem. Worse if anything. Rocking motion didn't get any better or worse, but the tracks feel 'gritty' when moving the seat forward and back. Im going to have to take the seats out and reassemble, when i clean the carpets. No confidence in dealer work whatsoever.