Heated Seats -- No Heat on Lower Portion
 

On both the driver and passenger side, I no longer get heat in the bottom seat cusion--only the back and sides. The fuses seem to be ok.

What's wrong?

welcome
 

Welcome to the infamous mercedes heated seats. You need a whole new seat cover for the bottom portion. Both the heated seats in our 97 C280 and 01 E320 has gone bad, and had to replace the entire leather covers. Its nice because the new leather and the old leather never match correctly. One is broken in and one is new. Seems mercedes just cant design a heated seat that lasts 1 to 2 years. bravo.

Nice. So what do those run to replace?

You probably dont want to know. Pretty sure its a dealer only item. Will have to call them. Let me know, like to have an idea for when my car is out of warranty.

Try Bergwerks they have aftermarket seat heaters that fit under the upholstry. They cost $90 for single temp and $150 for dual temp, that should be a lot less than new leather. They claim that they should be able to fit any car. Try here
http://bergwerks.com/seat_heat.jsp

I have no connection to Bergwerks and dont have these heaters but they seemed to be a good deal for an upgrade for those of us that dont have seat heaters.

Paul

Phil at PartsShop hooked me up with the replaceable elements that go in these highly serviceable seats. My buns are now warm again, thanks to Phil!

What was the price and procedure for parts..?

Peter

In my case, they were $108 for each seat. Basically, you:

• Raise the seat to it's highest position and tilt it back a little so you have room to work between the seat back and seat bottom.
• Remove the electrical connections and take the seat out of the car.
• Pressing down around the seat cushion, unhook the leather around the bottom of the seat.
• Slide whole bottom cusion off the seat frame.
• Unfold the cheesecloth-looking stuff from around the seat bottom.
• Using a flat screwdriver, remove the leather from the jute-type seat bottom by undoing the eight nylon clips (the clips are attached to long, thin metal bars that give the seat bottom it's shape at the seams).
• Once the leather cover is removed, turn it over and remove the heating element by unfolding the ends and sliding the two halves out of their little pockets. The heating elements for the thigh bolsters are attached to the main element but don't require any further explanation.
• Slide the new element into the pockets and remove the backing from the one sticky end that holds the wires and secure it into place.
• Fold the other three ends into the secondary sleeves.
• Put every back into place and enjoy the heat!

If there's enough interest in this, I would entertain the possibility of adding a more complete procedure, with pictures, under the DIY section on the home page of MercedesShop.

Dan

I take it that C-class and the E-class is not that much different.. I had mine replaced under warranty some years ago.. They actually did the whole leather seat bottom.

Peter

I'd be interested in the procedure simply because I need to recover the seats. If you do publish a procedure, keep in mind that it can have a multiple purpose and cover a number of issues related to seats.

Try doing a search for "heated seats" and my name. I posted some pictures of what I went through when I exchanged my old cracked leather with nice supple leather from a wrecked 420SEL. The 420's seats weren't heated so I had to swap my heating pads into the new leather. Quite a chore.