2012 merc amg

This is the function when you take a corner that the opposite side bolster inflates which is a helpful function. I noticed when I test drove the car for the first time before I bought it that it was not working. I mentioned it to the salesman that could they please fix that before I take Delivery. Well, they did not fix it. I had a appointment at the same selling Mercedes Dealer Yesterday and waited around for 4 hours while they worked on it. I talked to the tech briefly who was working on the car and he thought maybe it was bad controller. Finally they told me the car was ready and fixed that it was loose wire and it was all set. They refused to give me any paperwork (yes this is a mercedes dealer hard to believe) When I drove away it still does not work, the passenger side works fine, just not the drivers side. The car is still under full factory warrantee, its a 2015, after this coming November it goes CPO, not sure if something like this is covered under CPO so I want to get it squared away ASAP. I guess I'll have to go to another dealer, it's something I want working. Anybody else had a similar issue with the active multi contour seat not working? The massage function works fine and there are no air leaks in the Bladders, no codes were stored. I'd agree with the assessment the tech said that more than likely it's a bad controller, but for whatever reason I don't think the selling dealer wanted to order that part and just wanted to tell me the car was fixed and get rid of me. I do have a 2018 E 63 AMG Wagon on Order through another MB dealer so I think I will try that dealer to fix this car. I just hope they don't try to give me the BS that I did not buy this S550 at their dealer, I know the warrantee is good anywhere, but it seems I always get that thrown at me with car dealers. Customer Service these days is going down the Toilet at a lot of places. I guess I could tell the dealer if they refuse to work on my S550 for warrantee work I'll cancel the order on the E63 Amg, may never get that car anyhow because all the cars have been jammed up at the ports for months on end for who knows what reason? they say its certification issues, but I think it is something more.

Matthayes3741

I'm having similar challenges with my 2014. I decided that maybe it was the seat setting (i.e. drivers side seat lumbar and sides were set differently than passenger). I reset them to be "relaxed" and I felt like I could feel the multi contour better on drivers seat. Now I'm still not sure...
same as you, everything else works. I have to swing by the dealer tomorrow and will ask them to look at it.

2012 merc amg

Keep me posted in this thread what they say. Mine does nothing but when I have a passenger they tell me they can feel their side fine. I have them both set on level 2. Something is not right.

Matthayes3741

Will do. Mine is intermittent. Sometimes I feel it, sometimes I don't. I wasn't sure if sport suspension had anything to do with it. One suggestion is to go into you seat settings (not the multicontour setting) and relax the sides (make the seat flatter or less hugging). When I did that it see,ed to make the function work again. I told myself that perhaps it can only inflate so far and if the seat is already set to hug me, I just don't feel it as much. I plan to ask tomorrow and test drive another S550 as well.

Matthayes3741

They could not reproduce the problem... it also worked the whole drive home for me. I will see if it happens again (when it stops working it's for days at a time) and take it back in. I will update here if they find anything

hyperion667

I've experienced this too.......if I recall, if you have the seats set in a particular way, it will work against the active side bolsters, making them not easy to notice......they work sometimes for me, but not as they do in my AMG.....seems dumb that the sensation itself can be dialed in 1-10......why would you ever want the '1' setting on the side bolsters? It's 10 or nothing to even notice them persuading you to stay centered.
I'd try to play with the controls some more.......versus banging your head up against the wall at a dealership.


Good luck.

MBS63AMG

The right side of my driver's seat makes a creaking sound as it inflates and deflates during the active seat situation , but at least the feature is working. The sound for some reason doesn't bother me.

2012 merc amg

I've tried every possible setting and they just do not seem to work either on the driver or the passenger side now. I think they were working on the passenger side until I had the car at the dealer the other day, had a friend in the passenger seat yesterday and he could not feel the side bolsters at all in corners, yet when I test drove the car the Salesman said he could feel them on the passenger side where he was sitting, lol. On my 2012 AMG I could really feel them, but they were much larger side bolsters, but there is definitely something wrong with them on this car. Oh well, not gonna worry about it too much, the car just hit 33K miles, bought it at 32k miles and they had done a full service when they certified the car. At 40K miles I'll take it in for Service B including the brake flush and the trans oil change which I'm sure will be over a grand, I'll have that dealer in Florida I use try to sort out the side bolster Issue, since I'll be giving some money for the service maybe they will take me a little bit more seriously than my experience this past week at the dealer in Massachussets. I still can't believe they tried to pull the wool over my eyes telling me it is all fixed, it was a loose wire and knowingly released the car and refused to give me any paperwork after waiting for 4 hours at the dealership. Nasty, oh well at least got a free lunch out of it at their Cafe and a free car wash, but I'll never ever go back to that dealer again, and those were the guys who sold me this CPO car. Other than this issue though, the car is perfect.

Nice Ride

I had the same problem, popping noise on one side. Dealer fixed under warrantee.

ItalianJoe1

There's a fix for that, but it involves removing and disassembling the seat, adding felt tape between the bladders in certain places. Almost not worth having done if you don't mind the noise, as these seats are a pain to put together right and odds are, something will not be as good as it was from the factory once you go in there.

I had to replace a frame on a front passenger seat in a 65 with limo package, the power footrest and all. It was horrible to get all the covers fit back properly and working as designed. Many mechanics aren't as through as they should be.

2012 merc amg

Strangely enough I am now feeling the right side bolster inflate on left corners but not so much the left side bolster, maybe a little bit. I guess I'm not gonna worry about it, it's not like I come off exit ramps at crazy speeds or anything because this is not a sports car for sure. I am enjoying all this car has to over though, very comfortable and performs well for it's huge size.

hyperion667

I've been thinking about this and yesterday I confirmed that if the side 's are inflated from the other seat option then the dynamic seats don't work.

ItalianJoe1

Right, they can only add to a certain point. If you have the sides on 10 or whatever they max out at, the dynamic can't do more. The whole point of dynamic is people that don't like the bolsters on them all the time, but want them for the corners.

lightninhopkins

I had this feature on and it worked for a while. Totally forgot about this, so I guess it died out or needs to be set again. I'll go check now.

I remember it was a pretty cool feature. Especially when physics does it's thing with heavy people.

2012 merc amg

Yes, I guess the side bolsters have to be down on a low or nothing setting for this to work. It could have been mine was working all along but I just did not know it because I had the bolster setting up high. The Tech at the dealer said it was not working either though and then they said they fixed it. The active multi contour seat worked much better in my 2012 AMG Wagon.

lightninhopkins

Just tested mine. Barely felt anything. Not even sure it was working.

I fully remember it was working and strong during the first few months I had the car.

2012 merc amg

Strange, maybe something with it wears out. My car is nearly 3 years old and has 32K miles on it. Just got the car 3 weeks ago. With the lumbar on zero, I can just barely feel the lumbars inflating in turns, mainly the right side one.

ItalianJoe1

If it's barely working, it's defective.

The PSE pump that drives all the air functions operates on about 1 bar of pressure, not too much really, but the bladders are large so it makes a big difference.

If the pump isn't working, nothing will work at all.

If the responses seem delayed or soft, most likely it's the controller, which is located in each seat and is responsible for directing the air in and out of the desired bladders.

hyperion667

I wouldn't go to the dealer just for that, (that's just me) would be too annoying for something so minor, I'd live without it

2012 merc amg

I might have them take a look at it at the dealer when it goes in @ 40,000 miles for the Service B. It'll be there all day anyhow for that, the only problem is they may have to order a controller and then I'll have to go back to have it installed, the guy at the last dealer thought it was the controller. I think it was then that they just kinda gave up on it and decided to get me out of there, never got any paperwork nor a survey from Mercedes for that service so I guess that one was off the record, they must have got tired of me drinking their free coffee and donuts at the Mercedes Cafe, lol.

Radman991

When I first got the car and experienced the bolsters around a curve, I thought this was pretty cool. Even passengers were surprised by the feeling going around turns. Over the course of a year or so I eventually realized they weren't working any more. It wasn't until I tried to activate the massage function on a long trip that I realized neither didn't work anymore. I turned on the massage with the car in park and could hear the motor was on but the air bladders were not filling. I just traded in the car in for a 2018 so I never got them fixed.

hyperion667

it's that kind of attitude that keeps me and my money away from dealers for any service that isn't warranty.........and even then it's uncomfortable......just thinking about the 'techs' taking the seat apart makes me nervous
Next time drink all the coffee and eat all the doughnuts.........

BenzV12

Sorry, I couldn't resist this partition of the message
By one way or another if it's fixed then it's good

mobinakhtar

I have had this recurring issue on my 2015. Car has been to MB Sugar Land, TX 5 times so far to have the issue addressed and still its not 100% fixed. They replaced the seat frame in 2nd visit due to creaking and also replaced the seat massage pump. Bladder on driver side - left was still not inflating as quick as the drivers-right side so they replaced the bladder on 4th visit. When I brought it back for 5th visit, they kept the car for a week and a half and then told me there is nothing else they can do. I also complained about passenger seat creaking when a passenger sits on it and they told me its fixed but apparently not. I have lost pretty much all faith in their workmanship. Service Manager whom I complained to told me to get a "second opinion" somewhere else because they have done all they could and Mercedes would not pay for in-warranty repair unless their computer fails a component.

2012 merc amg

Ya, I guess those seats are little bit pesky, I didn't have to go back and drink any of their coffee or eat any of their donuts as the problem seemed to pretty much work itself out. I hit reset in the seat settings menu and it zero'd everything out and then I started noticing the Multi contour dynamic side bolsters inflating more and I'm actually finding it acceptable at this point, I was comparing it to my 2012 AMG which had much bigger side bolsters and you could really feel those in your back inflating and deflating while going in and out of corners. I do notice the left side seems to feel a little stronger than the right side bolster inflating but I'm not gonna let it bother me. Like was said above it's probably best not to have the whole seat assembly torn down if it is not absolutely essential.