LAZARU5

When moving the front seats forward, or backward, the head rest moves up until it reaches the highest position. Driver and passenger seat exhibit the same behavior. Is this correct? I normally keep the head rests in the lowest position. So I find it annoying to have to move the head rest down after adusting the seat postion.

DWP

My '03 doesn't do that. Headrest vertical movement and seat horizontal movement are totally independent. I can't think of a scenario in which the headrests going all the way up (which is the "remove" position, BTW) when the seat moves horizontally would ever be correct behavior.

interpol

My '04 does that. Dealer said it was a feature

rtrider

The headrests in my '03 move that way. I just program the memory settings to include the headrest position(s) I want, and move the seat with the memory buttons most of the time.

TPAbnz

The assumption is that as the seat is moved rearward, a taller person will be in the seat. Hence the rasing headrest for crash protection.

jim256

fgwinn: Mine operate as you described, and fyi, the headrest really should be positioned near the top of the ears in the event of a collision or the occupant may actually experience worse injury because the top of a low headrest acts as a fulcrom to pivot the neck in the C1-C7 cervical range.

Kev04C320

My C does that too and I think it's normal. The taller the person, the higher the headrest should sit.

LAZARU5

I can believe this. But, why do the head rests go up when moving the seat forward from the most rearward position? My main reason for posting was to confirm that this was normal behavior. I suppose mention of this "feature" might be buried somewhere in the manual. But MB owners manuals put you to sleep with lots of duplication.

LAZARU5

Jim, could you be more precise? Are you saying to align the top of your ears with the top of the head rest, or the top of your ears with the middle of the head rest?

Fred

jim256

fgwinn: My MB manual says "Adjust the head restraint to support the back of the head approximately at ear level." My other car ('05 MINI) says:"You can reduce the risk of spinal injury and whiplash by adjusting the head restraint to a height at which it is centered roughly at ear level." Both if those seem consistent to me. USAA once had an article, and I recall they added that if you have the pivoting headrests like we do, the headrest should be 1 to 2 finger widths behind the head so it can better absorb the initial shock. The key is probably our normal terminology is "headrest" while the safety experts are thinking "head restraint". (Also, regarding the "up" movement when you power the seat forward, you probably need to run the seat fully forward and fully back as a reset, then the headrests should work as intended by MB.) (edited: top of ears is not pertinent when I checked it on my car)