edform

I have a 61-plate S350 Bluetec with 54K on the clock and have owned it for just on a year. We're off on our usual long drive through France in about 5 weeks time and I look like I may have to sell the car and buy something with comfortable seats.

Not to mince words, the seats are abysmal and I have gradually built up an extreme sciatic inflammation which results in me having trouble walking for the first few minutes after any trip of more than a few miles. the problem is pressure on the base of my pelvis, affecting the right leg and producing burning muscle pain and even tendon pain when I stand up.

The seats are correctly adjusted and do not exert blood-restricting pressure behind the knee but I feel as though my right pelvic base is resting on a wooden board. I'm getting some relief with foam pads, 2 inch thick on the rearmost panel of the seat base and 1 inch thick on the panel immediately behind the front roll.

I already know that this is a common complaint from talking to other drivers and to specialists - the consensus seems to be that the W220 had excellent seats but the W221 seats are truly awful.

Before this car I had an E320CDi which I had reupholstered in light grey hide to relieve it's gloomy black factory look and those seats were over-lined with 1 inch foam immediately below the covers with wonderful results.

Has anyone with experience any advice to offer - at the moment I plan to experiment with a carefully shaped cushion made in parchment leather, to match the seat, with a breathable cloth base. I plan to specify tapered foam, from thick at the rear to thinner in front, and with thinner wings on the side bolsters of the seat, but an in-seat solution is what I'd really like.

Perhaps I should add that this is not a troll, I've wanted and S for years and love the fact that folks in the car can talk at living-room level because of the extremely quiet cabin. I've also driven several earlier V6 diesel S cars and had no discomfort issues at all. That's why the alarmingly poor quality of my seats is so shocking.

Ed Form

Mike5215

I can attest that the 220's seats, at least for my body, were infinitely more comfortable than the 221s. In fact I had become so acclimated to the 220s over eight years that I developed serious lumbro sacral joint pain, pain on the outside of my left thigh and down my calf almost immediately after getting my 221. After sorting out the padding the lumbar pain stopped, the thigh pain stopped, although I never got rid of the heel discomfort completely. It took me a solid year to find the right fix.

I went on Comfysheep.com and ordered a sheep skin center seat insert, basically a wide strip of sheepskin that covers the main seat area between the bolsters. It's comfortable in its own right but I used it to camouflage some foam padding.

I used a 1" thick foam pad on the seat bottom (glued to the underside of the sheepskin insert) that extended from the rear of the bottom (where it meets the seat back) about half the length of the bottom cushion. (There's actually an arch in the bottom cushion that puts extra pressure under your thighs and forces your back to press into the seat back. No clue why it's there).

If you pad just the back half of the bottom cushion and stop just short of the peak of the arch it creates a level surface for your butt and thighs that compensates for the arch. Tuck the foam in between the seat back and bottom cushion. The goal is to have the new flat bottom meet up with the seat back with no gap for your tailbone to slide down into.

The 1" foam plus the sheepskin on the bottom cushion also lifts your pelvis up so that the protruding part of the seat back at the very base that's killing your LS joints now will no longer catch you there. I'd dial out any lumbar too. It'll also reduce the amount of pressure against your outside left thigh from the side bolster. The side bolster starts out aggressive and slowly tapers away. By being raised up you avoid the more aggressive area.

You want two soft, flat surfaces for your butt and back. I also added a 1/2" piece of foam on the seat back starting above the lumbar curve and running up to the headrest. Leave about the first 4" of the lower seat back unpadded. This will create a negative lumbar space and flatten the curvature of the seat back. (If you examine a 220 seat its board flat in both dimensions).

The fix is not perfect but you'll be infinitely more comfortable. It'll take a few days for the inflammation in the LS joints to subside (ice and ibuprofen help).

I traded my 221 for a 205 C Class largely because the seats felt much better, but nothing tops the 220 S/213 CL seats. Good luck and feel free to Pm me any questions.

edform

Thanks for the reply Mike; you have described exactly what's happening to me.

I went to the local Mercedes dealer yesterday and sat in a W222 which has it's seat constructed with deeply padded longitudinal rolls and was immediately aware that the unnatural outward twist of my right thigh [UK car of course] was gone and my legs were immediately comfortable. The side bolsters are equally pronounced in shape to those of my W221 but I could feel no pressure on the sides of my hips at all. I almost bought the car [2015 model with a sunroof and very nice, plus only 12K miles] until they told me how much they were willing to offer for my car -

After a very helpful conversation with a car trimmer yesterday - they re-upholstered my E320CDI for me - and after your reply, I'm going to replicate what you had done with a custom leather centre insert. It will cost a little more, but solves the problem of importing the sheepskin inserts from the US [I cannot find a UK source of the same style]. I'll use a bit more foam than you to substitute for the depth of the sheepskin pile. I'll report how I get on.

I'm still reeling from being offered close to half what I paid for the car after only one year, so I cannot really let it go just yet.

Ed Form

alx

I find the 221 seats very comfortable. I have driven 1700 miles non- stop with my wife switching over every few hundred miles and I have no complaints.

What you should try imo is experiment with the angles of the seat and back cushion - try counterintuitive angles - what feels right might be wrong on the long term, etc. Also you need to exercise- every 10-15 miles as you drive anchor each of your feet against the dead pedal and push slowly but very hard a few times. Also don forget to... wiggle your butt on a regular basis. Think static twerking it does help a lot at least as far as my body is concerned.

compaddict

iTrader: (1)

My 2011 S63 has very comfortable seats. Different from my old 2005 S55 but very well thought out and no issues with long term comfort. I am fairly sensitive to bad seats as well.
Vince

edform

I've tried every seat adjustment from the obvious to the ridiculous, and I have always practiced static exercising as I drive, but nothing stops my right leg from becoming numb in a short time - nothing, that is, except the blocks of foam I'm currently using.

The rear panel of the seat base, the one that slides under the back to change the seat length is not padded at all; it's suspended on some form of springing but that doesn't accommodate the contour of the bones in one's tush. My left leg is fine but the right leg, which is interfered with by the gas pedal, is twisted outwards and aches to beat the band.

Ed Form

edform

I think we must be driving different cars Vince. Mine are truly awful. I just posted a reply to another contributor this morning and told him that I tried a W222 yesterday. Those seats were wonderful, but the design includes several longitudinal bolsters which a visibly bulged with soft material and feel sumptuous, with no tendency to rock my right leg outwards.

Don't get me wrong on this, I'm not dissing Mercedes; the car is very good indeed but the seat design is terrible. I've now spoken to six or seven car trimmers, all of whom were aware of the problem, so I'm pleased for you that your car suits you but I have to sort mine out or sell it because it's crippling me.

Ed Form

Mike5215

Ed do you have the "active" front seats with massage or the ones that basically have the thigh extension and a single adjustment for lumbar? The base seats are very firm on the seat back and there's not much in the way of adjustments. They'll dig into your low back. The active seats are still hard to get set up for some drivers but at least there's some variables to work with.

edform

I have the standard seats with air bladder lumbar adjustment and the sliding bottom cushion which changes the length of the seat.

Ed Form

Mike5215

Got it. Those are pretty bad IMO. I sat in a few and decided I'd better go with active just to have some flexibility in the contours. So your side bolsters upper and lower are stiff and basically feel like the multi contour bolsters but fully inflated. Is your thigh pain caused by contact with the lower bolster on that side?

Basically you want a seat that forms a perfect "L" with a flat back, a flat bottom and no gap where they meet.

Can you post a pic of how your foam pads are set up?

edform

That contact adds to the discomfort, but the primary source is the hard pressure on the base of my pelvis at the RHS with no padding to spread the load. The fact that this leg needs to be cocked slightly back to clear the accelerator pedal means that this side of my posterior carries more weight than the left - on that side the footrest is perfectly placed and the leg lies straight forward so the load is actually carried in the muscle mass and not concentrate on the bone.




I have experimented with the thin piece only at the rear of the seat, the thick piece only and this arrangement. The layout in the image is is best but what I really need is a wedge. I've sent for an 8-degree wedge to try.



This image shows the seat controls. The button on top of the squab control moves the squab fore and aft relative to the seat back..

Ed Form

Mike5215

You've got the right idea. I used a sheepskin seat insert to lock the pads in place, like this one:



Or this one:

Jakeu

sheepskin on a Benz, its a Mercedes not 1997 altima

Mike5215

Sadly, you can't afford either one.

Jakeu

you are the one driving C class, my s class is way better

Mike5215

No, it isn't . You don't have an S. I'm surprised you can manage to pay rent on that dump in New Jersey.

edform

I thought I should wind up the discussion with the results of my own tests.

All the trials of foam blocks and foam wedges failed for me - the same symptoms persist - I get out of the car after even a thirty minute drive and I have difficulty walking for the first couple of minutes. So I have given up.

I went to the Mercedes dealers on Monday last and part-exchanged the car against an E-class. During my evaluation of the car, I drove it for about 35 minutes and when I got out, back at the dealership, I was comfortable and able to walk without the initial problem of pain and reduced strength in my right leg. A no-brainer.

I was actually shocked at the loss of ride quality and the increase in noise in the E over my S but I'll get used to it. Before the S I had an E320CDI and loved it, so the adjustment to the decrease in sophistication is not likely to take long - one thing for sure, I won't be in any pain during the adjustment period.

Ed Form

Mike5215

Wow. In the long run though seat comfort is the number one priority. After one very bad experience with a beautiful A5 I decided that if I couldn't sit comfortably for 30 mins then it didn't matter how good the rest of the car was.

I bought my current C Class only after having one as a loaner for three weeks and realizing I had zero discomfort. It is not even close to an S by any stretch but it's a nice little car in its own right.