I like them better than the stock C230 seats. One caveat-the previous owner of the C63 seats swapped them because he found them uncomfortable. The lesson I take from that is that seat comfort is subjective. You may want to check them out in person before making a decision.

From my perspective the pros of the C63 seats are:
1. Easier adjustment makes finding the right setting easy. It is also easy to adjust them on long drives to vary pressure points.
2. Dual lumbar supports
3. Very nice leather
4. A feeling of “connection “ to the car
5. The adjustable bolsters are a neat feature that you don’t see in many cars, but I don’t adjust them often.

They also provide an incentive for watching my weight. If I put on too many pounds fitting between the bolsters will be challenging.

 

Kevin, this has been a complete blessing! I am trying to adjust the seat back on one of these seats with no motor or switch...any way you could help me out with identifying the wires? Between the pdf and the other instructions, I got confused somewhere.
I managed to find this seat for a sim racing setup but typical me, never thought past that point. Any help you could provide would really be appreciated

 

I eventually determined that these wires controlled the seat motors:
Rear raise/lower: White/Black and Blue/Black
Front raise/lower: White/Blue and Black/Red
Fore and aft travel: White and Black/Yellow
Seat back tilt: White/Green and Black/Grey

The third picture in post #8 shows the connector for the fore and aft travel. By reversing which wire you use as power and which you use for ground you can control the direction of travel. The reason there are 4 wires on each motor is that there are separate circuits for the signal from the manual controls and the memory.

 

Looks like I have a different wiring setup than you. I was hopeful with being the same model and only a year apart we'd have the same!

 

 

Comparing your image to mine it looks like the 12 pin is identical, but the colors you suggested for recline--I don't have white/green or black/gray anywhere as far as I can tell

 

Finally figured it out through some trial/error. Quickly determined thick wires = motors. For mine the 6 pin white and brown wires control the seat back. Thank you! This thread was incredibly helpful in getting me to here

 

Trial, error and persistence are my most effective tools when a YouTube video isn't available. I'm glad you were able to figure it out and I hope I didn't mislead you.

I recently installed the seat memory function in my car. The controls for the seat memory are mounted on the door. Installing the memory controls and reattaching the original wiring deactivated the controls on the side of the seat bottom. I may eventually get around to removing the seat bottom switches (which are very difficult to reach and operate with the seats in the car) and reinstall the smooth covers that came with the seats. Let me know whether you want the switches, and I will contact you when/if I remove them.

 

I’m swapping these seats into my daily LS-swapped Volvo 240, and thanks to this forum, I’ve been able to get the basic seat functions working (movement & lumbar adjustment).

I’ve been following along with the wiring discussions, and I was hoping to get some clarification on this post. Specifically, I understand where the seat needs power and how to change direction by reversing polarity, similar to a car window motor.

However, I’m looking for more details regarding the wiring from the non-memory seat switch to the seat itself. Any insights or confirmation about how the switch communicates with the motors would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for all the help so far!

 

It sounds like you have an interesting project.

I don't have complete understanding of the seat electronics. For the non-memory system, I swapped the harness from a non-memory seat, added the switch and it worked.

The non-memory harness has 2 wires for each seat motor while the memory system has 4 wires per motor. Based on that, I concluded that the memory system has two circuits for providing a movement signal to seat. The first is from the seat control and the second is from the memory module. I don't know how these two circuits communicate with each other, but I assume they do. The memory module under the seat must control this function.

I don't fully understand the challenge you face with this project. If you would like to discuss, please send me a private message and we can set up a time to discuss it on the phone.

 

Thank you for the offer to discuss this further. Unfortunately, since this is a new account, I don’t currently have permissions to send private messages. I’m working on getting access, and I’ll reach out as soon as I’m able to.

In the meantime, I really appreciate the insight you’ve provided so far. To avoid cluttering this clean thread, I’ll create a new forum post here to continue the discussion while I work on getting PM access.

You can also reach me directly at masonl16102@gmail.com if that’s easier for you.

 

Holy Mole'. How did I miss this post? Wow what a project.
I wonder what seat could be swapped into a C Coupe with NO
electric seats. That would be a real feat, and probably require some coding with SDS.

 

You may not have missed it. You probably read my first few posts, correctly concluded that I didn’t have a clue about how to make this work and stopped following the thread. It was so long ago that you forgot that you read any of it.

If I had a coupe, I think I would want set of AMG coupe seats. They are (in my opinion) cooler looking than the sedan seats.
Coupe seat

Another set
I was fortunate to pick up my seats from a local seller for $300. If I had to buy them online and pay for shipping I think the cost would be prohibitive.

I think that using the first method I tried (bypassing the memory system) could be made to work in a car without electric seats. You would need to figure out a way to add a power supply from the fuse box, but you can see how to do that in this thread.

 

Yeah, if i had electric seats I could at least swap from a 209 CLK. Yeah, I suppose I could supply power directly
bypassing the CANBUS. Is that what you did?
Now living on the oregon coast and Eugene is the closest place with a picknpull.
They have $20 seat days!! At least my seats are intact, no tears, despite nearly 260K miles of use.
I've always Lexol'd them regularly!

 

My first installation did not involve the CANBUS. Posts 17-21 in this thread show the details. My car had seats with powered backrests, and I was able to use the existing connections for power and ground. Post #52 by Saabatour shows how he added a circuit to the fuse block and used it for power.

My second installation did use the CANBUS for the memory and easy out functions. I'm not familiar with the pre-facelift coupes and I'm not sure that the process I used involving the CANBUS in a "facelifted" sedan will work for you. Some components such as door cards with the switches may be rare and difficult to obtain for coupes.

Another issue is that the C63 seats were a tight fit in my C230. The side of the seat does rub against the B pillar and the trim on the bottom of the door. You may want to take detailed measurements of the seats in your car and the seats you are considering before you move forward. I had a very bad moment during my installation process when I thought the seats wouldn't fit in my car. I assume that the dimension of the coupe in the front seat area are similar to those in the sedan, but if it is an inch or two smaller you may have a problem.

Good luck.

I think that if you find the right seats you could make this work for you.

 

Yeah, living in the So Bay area of Cali,
there were THREE picknpulls in San Jose, and at least
5 within a 50 mile radius, and even more if you were willing to go 100 miles
to Sacramento. W203's 1st started appearing in the PnP yards around 2010-ish.
All those 'hard to find' parts were there for the taking.
But alas I live in the boonies now.
And I've used up my stash of shift modules and most other stuff. I paid $15 for the last one shifter.
$700 new. Window switches were a no brainer.

 

I had to travel to Sacramento fairly frequently at about the time I bought my C230. I had some time to check out the recycling yards in Rancho Cordova. I picked up a really nice steering wheel and the engine covers for my car. Transporting a steering wheel in a suitcase is very easy. You can pack your clothes around it and it doesn't take up much space. The engine covers were more challenging because they were a bit dirty.

The local pick and pull and a part out have been great sources for the parts that keep my car on the road at a reasonable cost.

 

All the PnP down here in SoCal seem to have a network of buyers in direct contact with the yards. Whatever shows up is stripped of its family jewels in a matter of hours or days.