Driver's Seat Noise: Fixed!
 

hey guys...

kinda sad that the first pictures i'm putting up on the forums is of when i'm trying to fix a noise problem. o well... now that me and my baby are through this together who knows... maybe it just made our relationship that much stronger. (yes, baby = my car)

ok, so i'm thinking that this noise problem was similar to if not the actual noise heard in this thread:

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ing-noisy.html

idk if they actually are this same problem, but in case it might be, i'm posting this to give an idea of what i tried to do. if it's an issue at the plant where the car was assembled on a certain day or something, who knows. it could be something in not just my car.

my c300, less than a couple weeks old, had this strange noise coming from the driver's seat. i could hear it when i'm driving (and trust me, it was pretty loud. i would have people in my car tell me if they heard it to make sure i wasn't going crazy, and we all concluded that it was pretty darn loud). it sounded like a creaking noise, almost like a spring that was loose or metal parts shifting when the weight would shift. it would happen more during weight shifting (acceleration, braking, moving my ass around...). so i decided to try to see if i could fix it.

first, i needed to localize the sound. i found that i could easily replicate the sound when i got in the back seat by moving the seat back back and forth at a certain pressure. interestingly, it became worse (sound appeared at less force applied to moving the seat back with my hands) at certain seat positions, specifically when the seat bottom was lower to the ground. it got to a point where i could replicate the sound perfectly. i set this seat position to memory now, since i have to move the seat way up to work on it and i want to get back to this position quickly to see if the sound was fixed.

i actually used a stethoscope (i'm not kidding) to try to hear the resonance of the sound. listened in the seat itself, very muffled, didn't sound like it was coming from inside the seat. listened on the ground right under the seat, and viola.. metal resonance. it had to be something attached through some metal or something to the car body.

then i moved the seat all the way forward and up. i circled in red the area where i became sure the sound was coming from.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/1633/16090056lg9.gif

this next photo is a closeup of the part i approached first. it's the mechanism that controls the height of the seat bottom (rear portion). notice the wear pattern on the metal? it seemed to be more worn than the passenger side counterpart (i don't know if that's really important, but that's what got me to notice this part first).

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/7811/66247026el2.gif

so from here i did 2 things. first, i got my wrench and loosened the nut shown below. it was barely anything, just enough so i could relieve some pressure in that joint. it's a 1/2 inch bolt. (that's like a 13mm, right?)

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5193/15721681mb9.gif

second, i got some good old WD40 and greased up that joint. careful, of course, not to get it everywhere.

after this, i returned the seat to the memory position where i had originally heard the noise. moved around. no sound. started shaking my ass. no sound. test drive around the block. no sound. excitement. happy. celebration. another test drive just to make sure. no sound. post!:y

sorry its so long and wordy, i wanted to be as detailed as possible in the case anyone else might find this helpful. hopefully, not many will have an this kind of thing. if ya do, hopefully its something easy to fix like an over-tightened bolt.

i missed my classes today for this. i'm just glad it's gone. stupid mercedes for making me fix a noise on a new car! but i still love my baby. :D

and yes, my car was made in south africa. it's an "R". coincidence? shrug. :rolleyes:

excellent post! I have the exact same creaking on my car. i will be sure to try your fix. Thanks a bunch! You've saved me a trip to the dealers!

And if it makes you feel any better, my car was made in Germany, not South Africa. So it must be a design issue and not a build quality issue.

Mine is more like the cushion sound from the seat, only happens when I get in and out from the seat.

mine is from safety belt, sprayed WD40 at belt's buckle; solved the problem !

i hope you get yours fixed, brother. and hopefully it's an easy fix for you too. i know mine was annoying as HELL. feels different when i drove it this evening.

mine actually sounded just like how you described right now. did it sound as if the sound was coming from the lumbar area or inside the seat cushion? mine did. and it drove me crazy because it didn't make sense to me that there would be a creaking sound in there. that's why i was going crazy trying to localize the exact origin of the sound in my car, and it turned out that it had nothing to do with the cushion at all. you should check it out and see if theres any difference. if this or mkmm's fix below doesn't help, then maybe it is something else. either way, hope you get to the bottom of it.

awesome man, what a easy fix! someone else had posted something like that in the other thread and was the first place i looked, hoping that would fix the problem. but alas, it was not.

Memory position?

A light spray of aerosol grease might be a fix if the noise returns returns. I find WD40 is a very light lubricant & does not lubricate for long.

yea i agree... WD40 always seems a little "watered down"...

but i think the fix honestly had more to do with the loosening of the bolt, because i tried lubricating all the metal joints in first without any result. of course, now that it is loosened enough where it is normal, the little lube will make a big difference.

btw... to those without this issue this whole thing might seem trivial, but let me just say...

WOW. i'm so so happy that this creaking sound is gone. it really feels like a new car now.

excellent post and wonderfully detailed photos. thanks for sharing

Thanks for going to all this effort. This noise drives me nuts when it happens - but it's sporadic in my car. At least now I know what to do!

Hi and Hello!
My first post here and had to do it because I have the same situation and will try it right away. Yes it is driving me a little anxious. :crazy:
Thanks so much!
Blessed be, Excellent your post! :bow:

thanks for this!

I will work on it tonite when I get home from work, this problem was driving me nuts too...almost called the dealer about this today...good thing I came here first...

thanks again!

Wow! It did worked tchockie !
Thanks for your excellent post!

just did this, while I can't say this fixed the problem 100%, it definitely works and its exactly where the squeaking sound comes from...

now instead of this loud SHRIEK!, i get a very soft squeak which I can tolerate...truly thanks for this...it definitely works...

and for those that wonder just how to see the screw, you don't need to take anything off...just adjust your seat so that it tilts completely forward and UP....

thanks again!

hey, glad to hear this worked for you guys.:y

its crazy how much difference a little creaking sound makes when you know you're driving in a car of this caliber. stupid mercedes for overtightening my screw!

sanjuro, hope you can somehow get rid of it 100%. maybe some more grease? :nix:

hey dude, yea the problem is 100% gone now (was shaking my car/seat/ass like a mad man this morning), I guess the WD40 hasn't "sunk" in yet lol...but yea gone...

thanks so much!

Thank you for taking the time to post this information. I've had my car at the dealer and that told me they couldn't find the problem. That noise was ruining my experience!

i still think its interesting how 1 bolt can make such a difference. the exact same bolt in a bunch of different cars. :smash:

Great post; I'm unsure whether or not the "creaking" noise that I'm hearing is coming from the driver's seat or the rear roller shade. I'm going to have to check that bolt...

I took my car in for service and mentioned this, apparently there is some kind of "recall" for the seat's back cover and a replacement part for the seat bottom area.

They are currently ordering the part and I'll have to wait a few weeks...its not a big deal tho...since I already got rid of the sound, they just said its under warranty, so watever...

interesting...

keep us posted on what they end up replacing, sanjuro.

Sanjuro:

Can you kindly post the recall number or notice?
I would like this changed. :smash:
Thanks!

Any news guys?
Mine is @ service again...
Either I didn't do it well or mine is not the bolt.

I am experiencing the same issue - driver's seat squeaking. I'll try the solution posted thankfully by tchokie.

However, as Sanjuro Makabe posted, I wonder if there is any replacement solutions for seat issue? Could you let me informed?

Sorry to bring up an old post, does anyone know what is the star bolt size that holds the seat frame to the floor of the car? Thanks. I have a case of creaking sound that would go away from my driver seat and I wanna investigate by myself... Thanks a bunch for any help.:y