chutia

I love the 55, but the Drive Dynamic seats entire back simply sucks. Having deflated every bladder (including having it in to the dealership (who are great!)) twice, the fully deflated bladders simply seem to intrude in the entire lumbar area (no matter how you adjust the actual lumbar position, in-out, up-down) so that the shoulder area simply does not get any support at all. Horrible experience. Even the C230 loaner car I had had far more comfortable and better seats. Anyone else have similar problems or any suggestions greatly appreciated as I love this car, but this just debilitates the fun or driving it. Thanks for any comments or thoughts!

juicee63

I loved those seats in my 55 and was pissed when they stopped working. Yours seem to be over inflating. Do you drive with drive dynamic on? Those seats massage you, cool you , they are complex and can malfunction. Sounds like your seat is defective. Is the passenger seat comfortable? I use to bolster under the leg, bolster the side and lumbar would slightly stick out into the lower back. The seat would grab me and I really liked it but then it failed. I could never get enough air, the massage unit got real dull and I was sliding in the seat. What did the dealer say, was the seat repaired?

BMWEATR

How much do you wiegh? or how big are you? maybe its time to go on a diet. So you fit better.

DaCeptak0n

Favorite feature in the E is the Driving Dynamic seats. Everyone is so amazed when they sit in the passenger seat...

chutia

Thanks all for your response. The DD driver seat has been completely checked out and deemed in "100%" factory condition by the dealership, who's been great to work w/. NO weight or girth problems here, so no "go on a diet" needed at all. Frankly, it's "just" that the damn seat back middle/lumbat area protudes so much that there is no way to get any shoulder contact and that makes it extremely uncomfortable (please see illustration attached). I'm talking to the dealership about simply permanently deflating all the seatback bladders and flattening them out. Kind of a waste after paying > $3k for the premium II package....

eddietr

I see what you're saying. So are there no bladders you can inflate in the shoulder area to get the contact you want?

And have you tried putting the seat back more upright and at the same time lowering the front part of the seat (knee area). (in other words rotate the base of the seat so the front is lower)

juicee63

It cannot be deemed normal if it is sticking out like that. It is adjustable and can be completely deflated and set int mem. You have a defective bladder , it is over filling with air. The sides should be surrounding you , unless you are really tall?

chutia

eddietr-
thanks. You are correct, there is no bladder that I'm aware of that can be inflated/deflated at the shoulders, only the lower ones. I'll try your suggestion re adjusting the seating position itself, but have played w/ that quite a bit already. How do you find your DD seating comfort (not referring to the other "gizmo" features)?

chutia

juice-
you are absolutely correct, if only it were so. The bladders are functioning correctly, memory works, has been made keylessgo-independent so that a "wrong" setting cannot make them inflate b/c the key is present. I'm 5'10", so height not a problemo. Beats the f---k out of me........

juicee63

I wish I was in Dallas, I was a master on those seats because mine did fail but it was not inflating at all. I know the seat can be confusingt but dam , it was awesome when it was functioning. Does the seat grab you when you go around a sharp turn? It could be the dynamic is not functioning the sides should secure around your body and your trunk should be sitting back , so sliding around makes no sense. Lower the seat to the floor then tilt the lower leg upo a bit so it pushes you back into the seat, fill the sides till they gently squeeze you , put the head reat low and deflate the bladder that is in the low back. I would demo this for your service advisor and make em switch out the seat if you cannot get comfy. Try sitting in some other dynamic cars. What was your previous car?

chutia

Huice-
appreciate the suggestions; will try out tonight. Would be great to have you work your magic on these seats...but I could forget about it all IF I had those big jiggling ***** right in front of me: the...who would care about the damn seat...what seat???!!!! LOL. Thanks again, man!

chutia

Juice-
I currently have a Carrera4S and a Lexus GS; had an Audi RS6 immediately previously, since you asked.

Fikse

I know exactly where your coming from..... I had ordered a 545i with just about every option and when I finally got it I HATED the seats..... I had the same issue you are having, too much lumbar, and I could not get rid of it..... I sold the 545i lease on leasetrader after a month.....

I don't have these issues with my E55, but I don't have the dynamic seats....

moldowan

dang bro,
you just can't seem to shake those problems with your cars huh?
over on the rs6.com you had lots of issues with your old audi too!

gotta say my car is still the best i've owned yet.

you gonna get an R8??????? what about the new rs6????

oh and BTW did you find a mgnt. company for your property in SA? Looks like I'm going to have my 1st eviction in 6 years this month!-LOL
My property in Schertz is going gangbusters though- couldn't be happier!
-Moldy

slang500

i concuer i hate them too.

eddietr

I find the seating comfort to be fantastic, actually. Especially now that I've had the car a month and have really fine tuned the adjustment. And I ended up really appreciating the dynamic feature, even though I was skeptical for the first day or so until I got it adjusted correctly.

My wife loves hers, too. It's a must have for a smaller person in such a big seat.

But in the 221, I do have a little inflation in the shoulder bladders and I do get proper contact in the shoulders which I'm sure makes a difference.

Good luck finding the right combination of adjustments. It took me some time, also. Although I didn't hate the seats at first, the dynamic feature felt strangely "disconnected" until I got the seat adjustments right.

chutia

Fiske- too bad you wound up having to sell your 545i; I certainly am not going to let the DD seats be the cause of that!

eddietr- thanks for advise. I'm taking a methodical approach to problem solving here, rather than drastic steps. So I'm scheduled to see the "top DD tech" at the dealership tomorrow to try to adjust the seats.

Slang500-please see above re a possible solution for these seats that you hate also. Let me see what comes of tomorrow and I will report back to you any workable solution, OK?
thanks all!

m_berman

After seeing your drawing, I would visit a Chiropractor for some adjustments. The seats work perfectly for me and the vast majority of other owners with DD driver seats.

m_berman

Juicee63---

Maybe your Avatar girl broke your DD Seats? Under those circumstances it may not be covered under warranty.

chutia

m berman-
you obviously did not read the cavaet on the drawing that clearly states that the angles have been exaggerated for illustrative purposes. But, good for you if the DD seats work well for you.

Schiznick

I hate the drive dynamic seats....... the reaction is just too slow.

m_berman

My underlining concern is that the MB design works for most of us. What are you doing different? Did you try the DD seats in another car? Are you outside the MB Design parameters by being exceptionally tall or short, underweight or overweight?

I'm an average Joe in height and weight and they work fine in my car for me. I really appreciate them at higher speeds and rear sharp cornerning.

If you can't resolve your concerns, I suggest escalating the issue to the level of a MB Rep.

chutia

This has apparently become a little bit of a "sticky" topic. Interesting.
Slang500-I promised you an update after visiting the dealer this morning. After disconnecting the airpump line into ALL of the different bladders in the DD seats so as to ensure that they all had no pressure, i.e., flatten the bladders, the tech (the dealer's most experienced tech on these DD seats and a great guy) had me sit in the seat and then compare how the lumbar bladders felt totally deflated v. hooked up AND then in their fully-deflated settings. Surprisingly, the latter resulted in a slight inflation b/c the tolerance v. a zero-inflation baseline simply is not that tight, so that manually deflating it each time will deflate them after starting the car (doesn't matter what you do w/ you memory settings). The tech also told me that 2 other owner had had the same problem w/ no better results. The seats are the seats. After messing around w/ it for quite a while, I found surprisingly that inflating the side bolsters to be much tighter will affect the visceral feeling in the lumbar area, even though nothing has changed in the lumbar settings. Also, there is (obviously) no way to inflate or deflate anything in the shoulder area, as there are no bladders there. Bottom line: play around repeatedly and regularly until you get the "best" settings you get. Then...that's it. That's all she wrote. Since I otherwise love the car, I guess I'll have to live w/ it....unless I can come up w/ some other solution. Oh, BTW, a "retro" install to the regular CLS seats is approx $15K. How about that?