I've owned first year BMW's, Audi's, Volvo's, and even Fords that were totally reliable cars. What's going on with the first year American W205 is way beyond what one would expect from first year teething issues. It's just shoddy implementation of an otherwise excellent design. Cars produced in Germany, South Africa, and China do not have the same issues ... certainly not even close to what's happening here.

First year buyers, myself included, are prepared to deal with some early build issues. For at least some of us, this is just a bit more than we could have anticipated.

 

I wonder if Mexican made vinyl will install confidence for those who have chosen "MBTex" ? Not surprised that Lear is the manufacturer of the seat covers; they have a huge chunk of the North American market for seat manufacturing.

 

Well I would have to agree with you. And thanks for sharing your updates, it gives me some comfort that it will be corrected. It just has taken the excitement out of the new car experience!

 

Well its been a week without my car.... I've been told my car should be ready tomorrow. With brand new upholstered seats from Germany. Can't wait to see! I sure hope it's all fixed.

 

Saw a guy at a car wash with a white C400. I was in my E wagon and chatted up on how he liked his car. He said he loved it. I asked him about his seats and he said they were great other than turning white. So I had a look and sure enough it was incredibly shiny and some white marks as well. I told him to bring it in and get his car reskinned, pretty happy he met me for sure!

 

Well this was the back seat prior to it going back to the dealer to have the seat covers replaced. As you can see the problem is incredibly bad!

 

lol that's pretty bad, looks awful

 

I took mine in to the Oakville dealer on Monday and they said it will only take a couple a of days after warming up overnight indoors.

 

I originally posted the post below back on Feb/09/15 on another thread and to date the bleeding has not returned.
My dealer called me today telling me that my parts are in to do the seat cover swap.
I told them that the so called bleeding has not presented itself since it's last clean 7 weeks ago so I have decided to do a wait and see.
They didn't have a problem with my approach to the matter and said anytime I decide to have the seat covers replaced they would do the swap if I so desired ( with a courtesy car ).

It has now been 7 weeks since they were last cleaned and no sign of bleeding. We had very cold temps last night ( -15 ) and tonight we are in for a bitterly cold -20
Could my problem be solved?




"Well.........

I have a bit of a dilemma.
My bleeding seats have stopped bleeding it seems!

I live in Canada and we have have some very cold temperatures where I live and -20C at night and colder is not uncommon.

I suspect pre-delivery the seats were bleeding and they were cleaned before I picked up the vehicle. All looked good when I picked up the vehicle so I would not have known they had been bleeding in the first place.

After about a week of ownership they started to bleed and I cleaned them up with warm water and diluted Sudsy Ammonia.
I waited about one month and once again cold weather was upon us. However this time there was no bleeding except for a very small area in the back seat along a seam.
I cleaned the area once again with the Sudsy Ammonia and it has now been three weeks and nothing! No signs of bleeding whatsoever!

The dealership has been fantastic throughout the bleeding seat issue and I am waiting for the parts to arrive so they can be replaced.

The seats have been cleaned I am guessing once by the dealership and twice by myself.

But.......now it seems they have stopped wicking whatever it is to the surface of the MBtex.
I am not sure what to do. Did the Sudsy Ammonia solve the issue?
Is it going to bleed again? It has been three weeks and the conditions perfect for bleeding seats to bleed but no signs of anything
I would rather not go through the hassle of having the car repaired if it is not necessary.
Is it possible that the seats stop bleeding after a few ( 3 ) cleans ?"

 

I suppose its possible. Have you had below freezing temperature followed by warming at least above freezing? I believe this pattern is necessary for the problem to manifest itself. My bleeding stopped for about 2 weeks after a dealership cleaning during which time temperatures were consistently below freezing. The problem reappeared when temperatures went from below freezing to warming. I'm having my seats recovered March 9 assuming parts arrive.

 

Hi TorontoBenz.

I live in Calgary and the temperature this winter has fluctuated between -30 to + 15 because of the Chinooks we typically receive during the winter.

Right now it is -18 and the seats look perfect the daytime temperature for tomorrow will be in the high single digits.
This pattern has been very common for Calgary this winter, so one would think this would be the perfect storm for bleeding seats.
Perhaps 3 times is a charm for cleaning the seats.

I told my Dealer to put the seat repair kit back into inventory ( which arrived yesterday) and I will wait and see.

 

Another earlier post mentioned humidity also being a factor. Perhaps your low humidity in combination with the 3 cleanings is preventing the bleeding?

 

I agree but we do have a fair amount of humidity here in Cowtown this winter because of the drastic change in temps.
Not only that I have purposely driven my vehicle from being outside in -20 directly into a warm and very humid environment ( +22 with water pooling on the floor ) and nothing.
Initially when the seats bled it was nasty and after cleaning them with the Sudsy Ammonia product it has never reappeared.
It's a mystery I know but for now i will ride it out.

 

I am in Toronto and I have not witnessed any seat bleeding issues at all.

 

Curious to know what those of us out here in the warmer states like AZ can do about this? I bought a C400 back in December off the dealer lot and have not experienced the bleeding seat issue to date since we don't have the temperature changes like those in other parts of NA, but it sure as hell isn't something I want to run into should I end up taking a road trip somewhere that could lead to this issue.

From what I've read in here (haven't had the time to read all 16 pages so forgive me if this has been asked befor) and per the TSB is the seats aren't showing signs of bleeding then they won't do the fix even though it's clearly within the production time frame for those that are showing signs?

 

Got the car back today. The seats look brand new, well they are lol!

 

Maybe not a bad idea if you don't need to have them replaced. It requires entire removal of all seats and I noticed some scratches in mine once I got home and took a closer look. They're minor but my car is virtually brand new, and I'm quite particular when it comes to my cars.

 

My dealer informed me that there have been many cases of bleeding MBTex seats in the Toronto area. If your new C400 has MBTex and it was built after Jan.5,2015, you should request new seat covers under warranty.

 

All the MBTex problems were on cars built *before* Jan 5.

 

When I picked up my fixed car, I asked the service advisor about all the other cars with the same issue. He said Mercedes has a list of all the affected vehicles and will eventually reach out to all, but right now they're dealing with the ones showing the obvious problems....and up here there's a lot of them he said. So perhaps they'll do the same in the U.S.

 

Given the shortage of parts, it makes sense to fix all the cars that are actually showing symptoms before fixing cars that are not yet showing symptoms. Not surprising at all that MB will eventually (or already has) identified all impacted cars.

 

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for the info!

 

My advice to anyone who has a car that was built before Jan 5 2015 is get those seats replaced, expecially if you are in Canada. Also, to the people who have the cars in warmer climates, I would still request and demand that the seats are replaced. No question about it, they need to go.

My husband brought the car in just yesterday, and we should have it back for Friday.

Hope all goes well. I'm sick of this.

But I guess bleeding seats are better than the new Audi A4s that have air bags that are failing to deploy......lol

 

Got my car back today after 2 days in the shop at Mercedes Benz Oakville, ON.


All I can say is... Perfect!!!

 

Yes, thanks for correcting my error.