pullejo

Anyone have a list of the wires that need to be cut/spliced on both the passenger & driver seats of an '02 C32?

Both of mine are shot. (Kept draining the battery - had to get a new one)

Along with the driver's side seat heater.

And my radio.

All in one month.

pullejo

Found this:

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w203...ower-seat.html

Can anyone on here verify the wire colors?

Gramma_Benz

Does this help?

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w203/262131-temjinx2s-20-seat-control-battery-drain-fix.html#post3068555

pullejo

This one is less complicated and looks like it will do the trick:

NOTE: This will work on all W203 BUT you may have differnt colors. Please check the voltage before splicing.)


Here is what you need.

2 -Wire Clamp or Splice (I dont know what its called but look at the picture its Blue)

1 -Electrical Tape

1 -Wire Cutter



First Step.
Look under your seat.
Find the connector with the 3 wires. (BROWN),(RED WITH GREEN STRIP),(BLACK WITH WHITE STRIP) and disconnect it.
The Brown Is Ground
The Red Is +Positive Constant 12v
The Black is +Positive only when key is turned on position 12v


Second Step
Remove the Extra electrical tape.


Third Step
Cut the Red wire and Splice it with the Black wire. ( !!!Make sure you tape off the 12v comming in and only use the part of the red wire that gose into the connector.!!!)


Forth Step.
Wrap everything up with electrical tape and your done. Now test.


Thats it your DONE

ScottW911

Pardon my electronics ignorance but, what exactly are you accomplishing here? Are you turning the Seat Controller to an ignition powered device instead of constant?

willc55

That would be my guess.

pullejo

Yep, you got it. In our cars...the seat controller modules pretty much always fail (well...their "memory" fails and they forget to turn off after 45 seconds of inactivity). What results is a constant draw on your battery. For me - because I travel a lot and my car will sit for over a week at a time at the airport, etc. - this resulted in a dead battery. Twice. And finally killed the battery.

My passenger side went about three months ago - and then my driver's side just went a week and a half ago. They're $700 each.

I just completed this mod and it works PERFECTLY. The only drawback is you can't move your seats when the car is off.

Memory on the seat controllers is still in tact.

Took 15 minutes, $2.33 for the line splices from Radio Shack...saved me $1400 and I can turn the car on whenever I need to move the seats. :-)

AWESOME!

evilsaint

This is fantastic! I knew you could find used ones, but I never knew that you could modify 'e like this to "repair" them Just had my extended warranty company shoot me down for replacing these - to Hell with them!

francoisisp

+1 i paid $1400 to fix this becasue they say they have to change both then I found the 3 dollar fix after i got the car back from the dealership

pullejo

....uggh....I was seconds away from paying for them myself...but that would have brought my total that day to $2500...so I said skip the seat controllers....went home...and googled the fix. I actually found that on a different board.

Hopefully, we can save some folks in the future.

But look at it this way - you can move your seats when your car is off and I can't. :-)

francoisisp

lol funny i was looking for papers to do my taxes and saw the bill $1785.56 i told my wife what i spent the money on she asked me if i got brand new seats for that price case the ones in the car didnt look brand new to her and she always brings it up how waisted money on seats

Panzerknacker

So what happens if I just cut red wire and leave it at that?

Panzerknacker

In response to my own post. If you cut the red one only the control will not work.

This is a very easy fix. I did it with a pair of scissors and some electrical tape on both seats in about 15-20 mins.

pullejo

And just an update...mod worked great. No drain. Seats are fully functional except for the ignition off functions.

OCKlasse

Someone should sticky this for you guys!

MountainStone

Agreed; this should be a sticky or at least included in the stickied thread of common questions/solutions. In any case I am subscribing to this thread...

link146

Let me make sure I have this right before I go and start cutting. The crazy thing is I just figured out what was causing the drain, i.e., command fan running 24/7 last night after a couple weeks of fuse pulling and trouble shooting.

I want to cut the constant 12v and tape it off, thus closing the circuit permanently. I then take the end of the constant 12v wire that remains attached to the connector and splice it in to the black. Is that right?

Thanks

link146

never mind. the job is done.

MountainStone

Does the seat module also control the COMAND cooling fan?

ScottW911

Somehow, yes. It also can keep the overhead module running 24/7 also.

MountainStone

I'll be damned. Considering the cost/benefit ratio of this fix, this thread really SHOULD be a sticky. Has somebody notified the 'regular' W203 sub-forum?

MountainStone

It occurs to me I have heard my COMAND fan run after shutting down the car. It was not running the next time I entered the car, so I presume it operated for a prescribed amount of time or until the temperature of the COMAND unit dropped below some threshold. I wonder if any harm will come to the expensive COMAND unit if the fan is unable to run after the car is shutdown. Perhaps a timer could be spliced somewhere into this circuit to maintain power for a set time after the car is stopped, allowing that fan to run when needed. Does such a thing as a solid-state timer exist?

ScottW911

It has already been posted within the "How-to/instructions" sticky that was just put up this last weekend.

ScottW911

The COMAND fan should run for 45-90 seconds after ignition shut off. I sat in my car listening to it run for 15 minutes straight before I finally gave up hope of it shutting off. That, eventually, led me to the seat controller.

link146

This is precisely the kind of nutty problem that scares people out of buying a sophisticated car like this. When I explain to friends how i fixed my battery drain I compare it to brain surgery. When they do brain surgery they keep the patient awake and responsive so as the doctors are doing their work they they things like I am touching subsector 2 of the left cerebral cortex, therefore, you should feel a tickle on our left fourth toe. Same crap with this car, I am removing seat module controller fuses, you should hear the command fan turn off after 30 seconds. Totally random but it took a lot of trial and error to narrow it down.

Obviously, this would have been much easier if I had looked to the forum first and tried to pinpoint the symptoms. Nonetheless, I am proud my diligence and patience allowed me to save a look of damn money in easily fixing this problem. Had I been a bit more impulsive and a bit more care free with my cash, I would have taken the car to the MB dealer as soon as I jumped the battery after the first time it died on me. God only knows what kind of damage the dealer would have done, i.e., diagnostics, parts, labor. Easily $1500+.

I did it for $4. It may have taken me the better part of a month using about 30mins after work to perform some fuse pulling/trouble shooting, but it was time well spent. The moral of the story is: Look to the forum when you notice you have a problem, do not wait until you've figured out the problem and need to figure out how to fix it. I figure I would have found an answer or received a response in less than 24 hrs. Well, live and learn.