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Ever since purchasing, the driver's seat has made horrible plastic creaking noises when going over harsh bumps or just making turns that shift my weight in the seat. I've driven other W221s and they had similar issues.
I went on a mission to remove all the plastic shrouding from the seat to see what the difference would be and it is night and day. I don't wince and cringe anymore when making a turn, really has made the car more enjoyable. When removing the plastic pieces, nothing was broken or deformed, all looked as it should. I'm sure only a couple of these pieces were the culprit, but I didn't want to put the seat back in and there still be noise. You only need basic tools and some plastic pry bars, and the ability to lift an incredibly heavy seat out without tearing up the interior with the rails. Once unbolted, I lifted it onto the back seat, leaned the head rest over towards the passenger side, then pulled it out of the rear driver's side door bottom first. Would have been much easier with two people, but doable solo.
It doesn't look great without the shrouding, but I personally don't care. I'm going to try and experiment with different ways to coat or wrap these pieces so they don't make noise when rubbing against other components. Only a few of them need to go back on to make the seat look "normal" again.
It's really hard to tell. Yes, in that if I pushed on some they made noise, but others could be making noise too. It might just be a situation where I'll need to add them back one at a time to see which ones are the issue.
My car had a creak when I got it. I was able to isolate it to the plastic covers at the base of the seat belt latch next to the console. I had to remove the front console and wrap the covers in a felt cloth. Beautiful interior BTW. Designo!
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