The wife has a 2007 ML500. This weekend, started smelling burning and saw a glowing hole form in the back of the drivers seat. Almost burned her. Turned the seat heater off and it stopped. If we hadn't turned it off, sure it would have caught fire. I literally saw red glowing under the leather as it burned a hole. Now we have a hole in the seat and no seat heater.. It's actually something the wife uses as it has been 22 degrees.

A quick Google search shows others back when the car was newer. Anyone else have this happen and anything we can do to try and get it covered? Obviously, warranty ran out a long time ago, but it seems that that is a significant hazard..

The frame and motor is good.. Can I just recover with a cushion? I didn't see that option online and the options I did see was $1,000. Did find some used seats on eBay which looks to be my cheapest option.

Thoughts??

Todd

 

Simply like you say replace the seat heater and covering!

 

Any suggestion where to buy the seat covers and seat heaters? Looked online at a few sites and only saw seats at $1,000

 

Both items are a separate part sold at any dealership.

 

You should submit this to the NHTSA for consideration as a recall candidate.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

 

Same thing happened to us. It even burned a whole into my t-shirt while I was driving. We took the car with the quarter-sized burn hole in the drivers seat back, along with the burnt tshirt and pictures of reddened, heat-irritated skin where the burn happened to the dealer. Threatened to sue. They made us sign a liability release form and fixed it all free of charge to us.

 

Good for you!

 

How some dealerships consider this to be the sole responsibility of the owner, regardless of the age of the car, is beyond me. This is clearly not wear and tear. Clearly a significant threat to the safety of the occupant(s) and those drivers around them. Clearly not negligence on behalf of owner. Again, regardless of age, this should have never happened.

 

this happened to me on my c55, the dealer had replaced it with no charge

 

Had the same problem with my W211, had to fight with mb canada. They should cover it, if they say its normal, then tell them it's a defect