southerndeal

Hi there. All of a sudden, mi front passenger seat made a weird noise, and broke. when going forward or backward, it started to tilt left or right. After some research, I found that the most possible culprit could be an ill designed steel plate (bracket) that holds the power motor and steel rod that makes this movement. In the past there was a company that sold a more robust bracket in aluminum, but for safety reasons they where prohibited to sell them anymore.

I decided to take out the seat (medium effort job for 30-40 minutes for first timers) and take a look. I learned then a few things:

1) Ours is not metallic, but worse; plastic

2) Mine had been repaired before (bought the car pre owned). You can see the repair in the first two pics, which consists in a mesh with melted plastic to hold it in place. Well, that repair was good enough for some 2 years now. The problem is that the mesh provides tensioning strength, but not bending strength.

I tried to quote the parts, but it was too painful, so a new repair was my choice. Mercedes sells the part WITH THE MOTOR; you can buy an used one, without the motor, but it will still be plastic, and weak in itīs narrower section per design.

This was when I imagined what I call the "Sandwich solution", which gives the extra strength that our OEM bracket lacks in the weak point. It is AWFUL, an if anybody looks our seats from the bottom, it looks terrible; fortunately no one will ever.

In the third pic, you could see the sandwich prior to be installed. It was made of 4mm aluminum (steel is an option), and 4mm bolts, with 2 washers and one pre-tension washer (sorry, I am not a native speaker and must invent some words).

In the last pic, you will see the sandwich installed.

Installing the seat back took me some 10-12 minutes, and it is working now for some 3 weeks. It looked very solid.








A FEW HINTS:

1) I secured all of the boltīs heads and the nuts with silicone glue, so as to avoid them to loose with vibrations.

2) Prior to taking out the seat, when it is still energized, manage to have the seat the most aligned with the rails that you can; otherwise once finished, you will have the issue solved, but the seat will end with a little (1, 2 or 3 degrees) angle, which is hardly noticeable, but it is a nightmare for perfectionists.

Hope this helps.