ssaylor

The driver's seat in my 200 C230 seems a little tired after 120K miles. The upholstery is in excellent condition but when you get in, the lower seat cushion sinks a little like there are tired springs? I have reviewed the parts diagram and can see no reference to springs, only pads. Are the springs/elastics part of the seat frame?

ptcruiser

I know what you mean... I have a skinny butt, and it was very uncomfortable. I had an upholstery guy re pad the center section. The side bolsters were fine.
He used a good quality foam and it has stood up just fine.
Seats are fairly easy to remove with the right Torex sockets, but be careful getting them out the door so you don't scratch the pillar post paint with the base rails of the seat.
Cost me $30.00 a seat, and I did the removal and install.

ssaylor

So, additional padding was added between the seat & springs? Seriously, this is like sleeping on an old, sprung mattress. I expect a coil to shoot out and hit me in the butt any minute!!

ptcruiser

The factory padding is sewn into the seat, so don't slice it open to put in a new pad.
At least I didn't.
The seat cover is easily removed, but I recommend someone that knows what he is doing.
Place the new foam on the seat frame under the original padded area, and reinstall the seat cover. Do a trial butt plant before reinstalling to be sure your happy.
The previous owner was probably a fan of Doughnuts :-)

ssaylor

I got my answer from the stealer. The seat springs are part of the frame so it looks like I'm in for the frame and pad.

ptcruiser

I would say that any good upholstery person could make up a spring set up that would work. Other option is to check out Ebay for a used one.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-MB-C230...83b1fa&vxp=mtr.
Just change the used seat cover for yours.

ssaylor

The problem with a used one is that it may not be any better than the one I have. And, note that the eBay listing is not a Sport seat found in the C230 & C280 Sport and C43. I assume they use the same frame, just a different pad, but I need to clarify that too.

vinceC

Are you sure the springs are the issue? These seats use very sturdy flat springs (made from a combination of flat spring steel and large diameter spring steel wire), not coils. Further, the springs are covered by a fiber pad which actually gives the seat it's shape and isolates the user from the springs. Then the seat cover (the upholstery with sewn in foam) goes over the fiber pad. If I were to guess the problem I would look to the fiber pads, but the only way to know for sure is to remove the seat cover.

My family and I have owned a total of 5 W202s with mileages up to 254,000 and have never had a seat spring fail.

ptcruiser

Vince has a good point...I guess the weight of the previous owner might be a consideration, but if it was a super large person, the bottom and seat back bolsters would be quite worn.

ssaylor

Yes, weight was an issue. I bought it from my old neighbor's wife. Her husband passed recently and he had 4 Mercedes, he weighed almost 300 lbs.! The car was a Starmark car with 30K mi. on it when he bought it. It now has 120K so those seats have 100K of almost 300 lbs on them. I'm pretty sure it's the springs but will have a upholstery shop evaluate & report.