My 2010 W204 drivers seat started ripping last winter and its just been getting worse. I really dont care since and can live with it since maintenance on this car is never ending and other things to spend money on. I am worried it will keep getting worse and maybe ruin the cushion underneath and maybe mess up the heating function, I do love heated seats in winter. I always search around on eBay and come across used seats for around $100 but worried its just going to rip since they are all around the same age.

Came across a listing for two seat covers for $74 or one cover for only $34. Decided to order one and see how it looks. There is one review with a photo for the cover and it looks good to me.

Figured I would document how it turns out. The cover should be delivered tomorrow so will update. It wont take alot to make me happy.

The review in the last photo is not from me.

 

I bought one last week, from another ebay vendor for $40 shipped, to replace the driver's side that ripped at seam. hope it is easy to replace.

 

Received it in the mail today. When I opened the package and saw it i was disappointed because it looks like a darker grey color as opposed to a lighter grey. But then went out to the car to compare and I really cant tell if i like it or not. The color changes with the lighting. I dont want to open it just yet in case i want to try to return it. Its vacuum packed so its folded and wrinkled.

 

Found some instructions:

 

They are super easy to replace. Three only two issues likely see are the heater for three seat is a bear to get off there old one but it will come off with some tearing of the padding. And once you get it all on there's likely to bee a little looseness off the new cover. If you want it right and tidy pay attention as your putting over the seat cushion to try and get all three slack out.

 

I cant seem to find any good photos of what the heating pad looks like in the seat, i'd like to know what im up against.

I still havent even removed the new cover from the package yet. Since im seeing wrinkles I plan on spending some time trying to iron it the best I can. Im guessing low setting on the iron would be safest.

I was reading thru some threads on repairing a heated seat and one person mentioned right before theres failed the seat felt extremely hot. I noticed on mine that the seat felt screaming hot when I reached back trying to take something out of my back pants pocket while driving. Hope its not a sign of faulty wiring.

 

The heading element is inside of foam and it's glued to the bottom of the original cover. I just carefully tore away at the foam with a sharp razor until it was free. In hind sight I could have spray glued the heater to my new cover but I didn't do that. So my next cover will be easier as I'll assume the ebay special won't last as long as factory one did.

Yeah the wrinkles are real but expected for a folded up cover. And I didn't expect a perfect fit for the small price I paid. The heater is the only pain about the whole job both the element and it's plug. But I'm not saying that was hard but the hardest part IMO.


This is the driver's seat knock off that I didn't get the creases out from being folded up. But I'm always sitting on it 😁

This is the factory passenger side seat cover fits perfect. The dents are from my bag sitting there is perfect because nobody ever sits there 😁

 

Nice write up.
I also went the eBay route and replaced mine about 2 yrs ago I ended up adding 1 inch foam also, used fabric glue to secure it.
The quality of the seat cover is really excellent and matched the passenger side seat.
Just noticed the picture here before I re-added the extra foam.

 

Did your car have heated seats or no? Did you leave the heating element out when you added the extra foam or did you put the heating element back on top of the added foam? I guess I'm trying to figure out why the added foam. for extra comfort? or to fill the new seat cover that was bigger than original?

 

I don't have the heated seat.

 

Thanks. I have my new seat cover now but need to find time to install and hopefully it's a good fit.

 

I watched a few videos on replacing the seat cover and most are installing a Genuine MB replacement cover so does me no good. Came across one videowhere the person doesnt even bother reinstalling the heated pad so thats useless. Watched a video from Richmond Auto Upholstery and while it shows what the original heated cover looks like and it explains how to install there cover it doesnt show much and im left with questions.

Heres the video I watched:
In the original MB seat the heating element seems sown/installed in the padding. The padding seems easy enough to remove from the cover. Then sown onto the bottom of the padding is a cloth sleeve that has a wire going thru, this wire is what clips down onto the base of the seat.

Looks like they expect you to make slices in the original heated padding to be able to fit the new covers plastic sleeves that clip to the base of the seat. They say make full slices in the pad for the two vertical side sleeves, but for the horizontal sleeves just make small slits in the pad where the clips are located.

From the comments in the video it seems people have done it and the heating still worked afterwards. My question is how does this effect the heating element, im sure slicing thru the padding results in some of the wiring cut.

Im floating the idea of cutting off the sleeves on the new cover (blue part in photo) and only leaving it where the clips in the base are located. That way I can make small slits in the heated padding, stick the small sections of the sleeves thru and clip to the bottom that way.

Screenshots from that video. Shows the white cloth sleeves with wires inserted used to clip to the bottom of the seat.



Screenshot of the bottom of the seat showing the blue clips.




Instead of the wires the new cover has blue plastic strips that are supposed to clip to the bottom.



Wondering if it will work if I cut away most of the plastic strips and leave it just where the clips are located on the bottom of the seat. Can make small slits in the heated pad instead of long slices.

 

Came across another good video that shows everything. Seems they installed everything and the heat did not work in the end.

 

I think im wrong in my original thoughts about the heating element. I can see the wires for the heating under all the taped areas but I also thought there were additional heating wires imbedded in the padding that I cant see. because when I search for heating pads for heated seats im seeing pads with alot of wires zig zagging everywhere. Is that all there is for the heating in these seats, just the wires under the tape?

Now im thinking i can just peel off the tape to remove the wires off the pad, slide the pad accordingly for the new cover, then make some slices in the middle sleeve part to fish the wise back thru and tape down.

Wonder if i can install the wires on the cover instead then put the padding on top?

 

time consuming. maybe I should've just bought the heated seat base for $200 so it's just plug and play. Other option is to just leave the heating pad out when changing seat cover. There were two wires that were disconnected in the video and I'm assuming one for the heated seat pad and the other for the heated back pad. or is that second plug some kind of occupancy sensor for the drivers seat, which I thought only the passenger seat had?

 

Heres a video where someone installed an aftermarket seat cover in a GLK. It came with the heating element already installed which looks like a carbon fiber heating pad.



I guess another option is get a regular seat cover and install your own 12v heating pads. Should be able to just splice on the original connector.

I love my heated seat and would not go without it. I really hadnt put much thought about what goes in to replacing the cover until now actually looking at it. I think peeling off the wiring, slicing the pad where needed to fit down onto the new cover then taping the wiring back on is a good way to go. I do think I will have to trim some of the blue tab areas, not much just maybe on the sides.

 

@TimC300 - what did you wind up doing? Did you install it or send it back?

 

I havent done anything with it yet. With the cold weather here I dont want to screw up my heated seat.

I was floating the idea of buying aftermarket heading pads or even pads for other Mercedes that have a larger heating area and installing it.

From my understanding the W204 just has the one heating wire running along each side, which isnt really that much.

 

Ha Ha.
I know what you mean, it's crazy cold here in GA too!

 

I bought the seat cover from professional seat covers on ebay. It was folded tight in a bag for mailing and my mailman didn't do it any favors when he stuffed it in the mailbox. I took off the OEM seat cover and could tell that the cushion material that is part of the stock cover was a lot thicker that what was on the replacement cover so I took both covers to a local shop and they used some material to fill the void so the new seat cover filled out better and charged me $80. For what it all costs I am satisfied. Hopefully the creases get better over time.