heated seat problem

[joboo]

My driver seat does not seem to be heating. The switch lights up but there is clearly no heat. The fuses are fine and the passenger seat works. Anyone have any input? Thanks.

[mbsickness]

Check to see if current is making it's way down to the seat. If there is current...then more than likely the heating element has a break. And now the bad news...the element is stitched into the seat cover. Both of my front seats now have new leather on them as the heaters did not work on three of the four cushions. The fouth cover was replaced so that the leather would match. This was all covered under my Starmark warranty. The service advisor said that if this were not a warranty job, it would have cost over $3K. The car is a 96 C36 and the covers had to be shipped from Germany.

[manny]

I've read on a german M-B site about similar problems.
What they've done to overcome the problem is, simply by-passing one strand ( defective ) heating elements.
Apparently, there are multiple heating coils & the trick is to determine which one is defective ( measure the resistance with an ohm meter ) & then " bridge " or bypass this element. ;)

[Rocket]

Oh Joy... I need to do the repair on my 95 C36 since only the back cushon is working on my drivers side.

How long does it take to get the seat apart?

[manny]

Originally posted by Rocket

How long does it take to get the seat apart?

In the above mentioned forum, they claim it takes 2 people about 2 hours ( first time ).
It is best to remove the whole seat from the car.
Not sure if you ( or myself ) would want to tackle this project, or let a good upholstery shop do it for you. ;)

[mbsickness]

Originally posted by manny
In the above mentioned forum, they claim it takes 2 people about 2 hours ( first time ).
It is best to remove the whole seat from the car.
Not sure if you ( or myself ) would want to tackle this project, or let a good upholstery shop do it for you. ;)

From what I could tell it is a real pain to take apart the seat. I had to leave the car with the dealer two to three days for them to swap the covers. Also they had to change the rear seatback cover. Apparently the seatback cover gets destroyed when taking the seat apart. Best of luck.

[Denlasoul]

Originally posted by mbsickness
Apparently the seatback cover gets destroyed when taking the seat apart. Best of luck.
Do you mean the plastic cover? I have taken mine off several times with no problem.

[mbsickness]

Originally posted by Denlasoul
Do you mean the plastic cover? I have taken mine off several times with no problem.

Could be, but since I did not do the repair myself I can't give a definitive answer other than the dealer replaced both of mine. So for whatever reason they felt that the covers needed to be replaced.

[Denlasoul]

Strange. If it is indeed the part I am referring to, then it really does not need to be replaced...unless it was broken or something like that.

It is held together by two Philips screws and some tabs that slide into place. Pretty solid piece, hard for me to believe it would need replacing just from removing it.