jnejah

Since my car has the memory seat option, when I fold one or both parts of the rear seat backrest forwards, the respective front seat automatically moves forward slightly, in order to avoid contact with the rear backrest. Under normal circumstances, I should then be able to move the driver's or front-passenger seat back again to my desired position. On the passenger's side only, I am unable to make any adjustments to the backrest once the rear seat is folded. The driver's side seat is working properly and can be adjusted.
I don't remember having this issue with our other wagons in the past but found this prior thread. https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...eats-down.html
Has this been an intermittent problem that should be resolved via software updates?

Arrie

This is not an intermittend or other issue as MB for some strange reason designed the passenger seat to behave like this. It makes the passenger seat useless if you have cargo that requires folding down the rear seat on the passenger side.

I had this problem with my previous 2011 E350 and current 2010 E550. Both of them were fixed by the dealer by changing coding for the passenger seat to behave like the driver's seat.

In my invoice it reads:

"C/S PASSENGER SEAT WHEN PUTTING REAR SEAT DOWN GOES FORWARD, BUT WILL NOT ALLOW ANY MOVEMENT BACKWARDS WHEN THE REAR SEAT IS DOWN

SEE SERVICE ADVISOR

359 CP

CHANGED CODING TO SUIT CUSTOMERS PREFERENCE."

jnejah

Arrie - thanks for your information. I will bring the MY13 to the dealer for coding change as you suggest. Strange but we have an 09 estate that seems to work fine and I don't ever recall bringing it to the shop for it. In any case, sounds like a common issue that MB should address!

Arrie

Or they should mention it in the car's features that front passenger seat is useless if the rear seat is down on that side...sometimes they can be so stupid...

Live Oak

I had exactly the same issue with a 2011 E550 with folding rear seats.

It's a completely insane problem. Apparently some MB lawyer got involved in coding the computer.

My dealer (under threat of a car return for insanely stupid misleading advertising) fixed it, per se:

". . . FOUND R/F SEAT CODED FOR ANTI-CRASH WITH REAR SEAT ACTIVE, RECODE TO NOT-ACTIVE, NOW ABLE TO ADJUST R/F SEAT WITH REAR SEAT BACKREST DOWN. NOTE, ITS [SIC] CLIENTS [SIC] RESPONSIBILITY TO AVOID CONTACT WITH REAR SEAT AT THIS POINT."

This thing is crazy. MB's real legal exposure is if somebody puts a passenger in the R/F seat in this condition and has an accident with the passenger's face getting blasted by the air bag!!

SKYKING44

My 2011 E350 wagon's front seats do move forward when I but the back seat backs forward, however, I am able to put them back into place using both the seat memory or the seat controls.

I would be very upset if either seat could not be adjusted with the back seats in the down position.
Let's hear what your dealer has to say.

Arrie

Your car's coding has been changed since it left the factory.

Arrie

It is is so stupid it makes me laugh! They care about "crashing" between the back seat and front seat when folding it down. Ok, it is a nice feature to have the seat move forward to make room for the rear seat head rest but for heaven's sake why make the front seat useless. They obvioulsly realized that you cannot drive the car if you can't readjust the driver's seat after folding. Why the fu.. did they think that it is possible to sit on the passenger seat under this condition...?

And that point of the air bag killing you is very valid...