I'm helping someone fix up his W210. The seat will go forward but not back.

I know there's a common electrical issue where the seat will go forward regardless of whether you press the forward or back button. This is not that problem.

I also know there's a problem where the motor seizes and doesn't move at all. This is not that problem either.

The seat goes forward fine. But it grinds and stalls going back, and requires being "helped" by pushing to get it back. Then it will go forward again, totally fine. It doesn't appear to be electrical, as the motor works fine going forward. I imagine the track teeth are ok since it goes forward fine but has trouble going backwards regardless of where on the track it is.

Any ideas?

 

curious how that will respond. I think mine did that before(going forward and not going backward but did not make any noises though) and when I pushed the preset buttons it worked. Since then I have not had issue with it....was kinda weird how the problem went away...maybe it reset itself.

 

I had this problem a while back seems to be common ... in my case particularly in hot weather......

If you do a search you should be able to find a fix.. In my case I pushed the seat to backward since it would not go forward....I pushed the buttone for the seat to go backward untill it would not go back anymore I kept it presses and it the seat moved forward. after theat I let go of the switch and pushed the slider for ward and it worked fine.... It's like it reset the system I red somewhere it was the switch starting to go bad ...but that was 3 years ago and it still happens from time to time... i just do the same everytime.

Good Luck

 

Interesting.

The memory button would still make it go back, but also slowly and with trouble.

 

I did some research awhile back when I was experiencing this issue

all though I had that in common w/ you that it would go back when using the memory buttons it wasn't w/ trouble or slowly ......maybe you want to check that there are no quarters or anythng stuck in the rails ......I had that happen once everything worked but a but rougher than normal.......

If all else fails I it may be the switch mine was giving me trouble when i left the car in the sun ... that was the only time i experienced a problem ....It does still happen from time to time....I just push the slider forward ...or backward depending on what the seat will respond to untill it reaches the limit and starts moving in the opposite direction. then i let go the switch and then it works fine.

I never replaced the switch...btw....