Newby here. I've been lurking for awhile thought I'd ask about my driver's head restraint which can only be adjusted up/down if no pressure is on the backrest. (it used to work). I have to be out of the car or lean forward to take pressure off the seat back inorder for the head restraint to function.
Anybody have this happen to them?

 

It definitely sounds like a malfunction to me. I can totally adjust my headrest when there is pressure on the backrest.

Steve

 

The headrests in the w211 are terrible. Even the HR's in the C230K rental I got were more comfortable.

 

I think that you are right. The headrests are not as good for resting you head back when you are driving for hundreds of miles non-stop. However, the reason they are like that is because the main purpose for a head rest is to protect against whiplash, not to be comfortable.

For protection against whiplash they are much better than the old ones. So I don't know if I would complain about their everyday comfort since there actually is a good reason for their design change this time. This was not one of those needless changes like the center console.

However, the problem that is being pointed out here is that they are not moving up and down. That part should work just like the old ones did. Mine do.

Steve

 

Steve, Just wanted to say that I always enjoy reading your replies!!

 

Sorry to hijack your thread but I think MB could have come up with a better way to protect against whiplash and at the same time provide the consumer with a comfortable headrest. I think it's just a bad design and the angle (or lack thereof) at which the HR is positioned was not well configured.

Even if the HR was exactly the same but they used a slightly softer foam inside it wouldn't have been so bad. I thought maybe it was just because the HRs needed to be "broken in" but the C230K I rented had only 1500 miles on the clock and felt a lot softer to rest my head on. My wife won't even go on long trips in my car anymore because of the HR issue. Especially because she thought that the CLK had the softest and most comfortable HRs of any car and the E was supposed to be an upgrade (for me at least).

I have found that the only way to make the headrests even slightly comfortable is to put it all the way down and then tilt it forward (from the bottom) to fit into the back of my neck. This probably makes it a lot less safe in terms of whip-lash protection but I am more likely to suffer from a stiff neck while sitting in traffic so I just have to take my chances.

 

My problem is a bit different in that the driver headrest became completely inoperable yesterday. I’ll be bringing it in next week to have the AGW replaced for a 05 unit and I’ll post how they corrected it – might give you a heads up as to what needs to be done.

 

I think you just hit the nail on the head Brian! This headrest works totally differently than my other two MBs (or the 10s of MBs my family has had). This headrest is designed to extend forwards on the bottom part so that it follows the contour of the upper part of your neck, just bellow the head. I am not short enough to need to lower the headrest all the way down, but I do have it lower than I did on my W124. The top of this headrest should be at about the same height as your eyes are (if you drew a horizontal line from the front of your head to the back). The rest of the headrest should be pulled forwards and it should fit to the back of the neck.

Believe it or not, this is a lot safer. The reason is that the old headrests still left your neck relatively unprotected. This design will actually get part of your head and most of your neck and absorb your head's backwards momentum by compressing the adjustable part of the headrest. It is a proven design and MB knows what they are doing on this one.

I notice that the headrests tend to be way to high on must people (on the W211). Also, the seat automatically adjusts the height when you are moving the sear forwards or backwards, but tends to still leave them to high.

Steve

 

Glad someone brought this up.
Why did they program the seats to raise the head rest when you move the seats up or back? Makes absolutely no sense. There is an adjustment for the head rest. If I wanted to change its position then I would. The way they have it arranged, one has to make a whole separate new adjustment every time the seat is altered even a little. Dumb.

 

Yeah, I agree. I never could figure out why the HR raises when I adjust the seat forward or back I also can't understand why some of you complain about the lack of the ability to "rest your head" on the thing while driving. It's not a pillow. It's a HR = head restraint not HR = head rest.

 

I know, I agree, it is a head restraint. Also, if you adjust he headrest correctly, it seems to still be an OK place to rest your head if you are driving for a long time or stuck in traffic. About the moving up and down automatically here is the reason:

Since the average passenger is clueless on why headrests even exist, much less how to properly adjust them. Mercedes is trying to think for you. It is logical to raise the headrest if you are adjusting the seat backwards since if you need that much legroom, you are probably a taller person and need to raise the headrest. That is 100% dead on and a good thing, for the most part.

What I don't get is why the headrests move up when you move the seat forward. I noticed this because when I release the rear seat to have the trunk pass-through open, the front seat (on the respective side) moves forward and I noticed that the headrest moves up!

I don't understand the logic there!

Steve

 

There you go, trying to apply LOGIC to what the design engineers do. They never took logic in college just engineering!

 

Steve is definitely trying to give the bonehead designers here the benefit of the doubt. The HR should be entirely independent of the seats. The world is filled with folks who have long legs and short torsos. They often need the seat way back and the HR down low.

 

As far as the headrests - what it is, is what it is. Now then if you’re having trouble with your headrest, try reclining the affected seat to its furthest most rear position, forcibly pull out the headrest, reinstall, then return seat to normal position before traveling down to the dealer. This solved my problem.

 

Finally got this fixed!! As an update (should anyone be interested), dealer had to replace the head restraint motor :

Here's what they wrote on the Tech report:

"FUNCTION CHECK DRIVERS HEAD REST INOP REMOVED DRIVERS SIDE SEAT BACK CHECK VOLTA GE TO MOTOR FOUND 12.VOLTS CHECK GROUND 3 OHMS OK PULLED DTCS FOUND CODE 9203 HALL SENSOR M27M4 OUT LIMITS REMOVED AND REPLACED DRIVERS SIDE HEADREST MOTOR COMPLETED REPAIR"


Works fine now!! No charge$$