W202AMG

Hi all,

The air bladders in my seats are all splitting and leaking due to age.

See attached pic of the seat controller:



Does anyone know where to get these ait bladders?

Not so much concerned with lumbar support bladders, but the side bolster bladders i would like to have working.

The little hoses and controllers are both fine, its just the bladders that are split, patching them is out of the question.

See VIN below:



Cheers

mickey13

side bolsters stopped working on mine, all the other supports work though. Not sure if it is the bladders as both seats stopped working at once. wondering if it would be a hose somewhere

W202AMG

In your case it might be, but try this:

• Turn all seat air controls to minimum or empty setting
• Turn off ignition and remove key
• Put key back in and turn on
• Test seat controls ( probably passenger will have better chance of working )
• Listen for the air pump in the boot, on my Euro car its on the right, you should hear it making a noise, if you hear it running for 3 seconds then shutting off, itll do that for a couple minutes then stay off til you fix the leak.

DRBC43AMG

Have you checked the air tube connectors in the rear of the seat?
Simple check.
Remove the two screws on the lower edge of the seat cover and lift out. You have full access to the inside of the seat.

W202AMG

Yeah mate, as i said, the bladders are all split or splitting. Tubes are fine.

DRBC43AMG

Guess then you need new bladders... Don't know if they are still available at the dealer.

W202AMG

Im thinking of how im going to make something that will work.

Ive thought about a rubber sleeve with small diameter tyre tubes folded over, but would be great if i could find something rectangular that would push directly against where it has to in order to push the bolsters in.

DRBC43AMG

If you need the details here are two pdf files taken from the EPC:

W202AMG

Thanks mate

vinceC

The bladders are available from the dealer. In the US they are not very expensive; I don't know about Australia. Every air bladder on my son's 1999 has failed over the last 1-2 years. They split near the seam where the parts were fused together. The side bolsters are easy to change with the seat in the car. The most difficult is the knee bolster. We have to do the lumbar next.

KJI3jflarryfe93

if you decide to do this air bladder repair and removing seat rear covers don't fogget to take pictures of the broken parts and how you fixed the problems

how much are these airbladders

vinceC

US online retailers typical price the side bladders around $40 USD, the lumbar around $103 USD and the knee around $45 USD.

I have to say, other than the side bladders, this is not the sort of job that lends itself to a photographic tutorial. The knee bladder requires complete disassembly of the seat, i.e. seat track adjuster assembly removed, backrest removed, bottom seat cover removed, etc. Just to do the previous steps requires air lines and wiring to be disconnected from plugs, brackets and the bladder adjustment console (on the side of the seat), removing the bladder adjustment console from the seat frame (it is riveted), etc. And the bladder is stapled to the fiber pad in 4 locations. It requires some knowledge of how seats are built and some specialized tools (which i have), in addition to a full set of torx sockets. And refitting the edges of the cover into the retaining grooves is a real pain. It takes me about 4 hours on hard work to do a knee bladder.

Only the side bladder is simple. Take off the seat back, release the edge of the seat back cover from the metal seat frame, take out one screw between the now loose cover and the bladder (use an angle screwdriver), take out the old bladder and reverse the process. The bladder has a plastic support. There are 2 tabs that fit into the metal seat frame. It is pretty obvious if you look carefully. A small inspection mirror is helpful.

I haven't done the lumbar yet. I have a general idea of how I will approach it but I don't know if my ideas will work. I do not want to remove the cover - that is a very tough cover to reinstall on the AMG seats (clips at the top are really hard to engage) due to the shape of the seat back (high bolsters)

KJI3jflarryfe93

when you press the switch to inflate side bladders on both front seats, do you feel side bladders inflate?

my lumbar supports inflates so does the front seat bladders supporting legs, side bladders I have never felt to inflate.
maybe they are screwed?

vinceC

When working correctly the side bolsters are very noticeable. To check pull the seat back, carefully disconnect the hoses to the bladders from the "Y" fitting and apply 1 PSI air pressure. If the leak you can hear hissing from the leak. You can just blow into the hoses if you don't have a well regulated air source.

If the bladders are tight check to see if you are getting air pressure to the "Y" fitting.

None of this is weird science.

KJI3jflarryfe93

thanks mr. Vince

i suppose this is a common issue with pneumatic airleaks in the c43 seats?

vinceC

It is a common issue with many M-B of the era. They used the same system on almost every line they made.

DRBC43AMG

No problems with my seats now that the plastic tube is fitted tight in the correct place

vinceC

Yes, as long as the hoses are all connected life is good. But eventually all of the bladders will fail. Keep in mind these are old cars - the newest ones are 17 years old.

mickey13

I had all of my air bladders repaired by the dealer. I don't know what they did exactly, but they kept the car for almost 2 weeks. I was cruising around in their loaner the whole time. When the car was ready all they told me was they had both seats entirely disassembled to repair. The side bolsters went out about a year later at the same time on both seats. The rest of the supports still function and it is well over 2 years now.

W202AMG

My lumbar bladders only just split last week, the knee one works passenger side but nut driver, and one side bolster bladder was broken when i bought the car. When i figured it all out, i swapped one from the passenger seat, which lasted 2 days and split while i was turning a corner.

Still trying to figure out what else i can stick it there thatll work perfectly...

mickey13

I'd just buy the new bladders if you cant fix the old ones. I'm going to check my connections on Thursday. It's going to be really nice out!

W202AMG

Cant get them over here, dealer wants to sell the whole seat.

Cant find anywhere online that sells them.

vinceC

Are you saying that no US supplier will ship them to Australia? Here are a couple sources you might e-mail about the possibility:

http://www.mbpartsworld.com/productSearch.aspx
https://www.mercedespartscenter.com/...?siteid=215720

Here are the part numbers if it helps:

Side (L) 202 910 09 75
Side (R) 202 910 10 75
Lumbar (L) 210 910 01 75
Lumbar (R) 210 910 02 75
Knee (both sides) 210 910 03 75
Staples (8 required - 4 each side) 210 914 02 53

I can't find a part number for a whole seat so I am going to speculate that your dealer is full of it. And not selling parts violates their franchise contract with M-B. Have you tried calling other dealers in Australia?

W202AMG

Have not tried any in USA, but yeah, dealer here told me some time back that they were not able to get those parts and that i have to order the whole seat, which im obviously not likely to consider, and i too felt it was rediculous.

Thanks for the part numbers though, i might try another dealer here that i bought my electronic steering lock from, they were far cheaper and posted it to me free.

Some item are just outrageously dear through the dealer here locally to me.

mickey13

Australia is like Hawaii, maybe worse, extreme mark ups on everything that has to be shipped there which is almost everything.

My favorite go to is mbdirectparts.com, not sure they will ship international, if so probably worth the cost if you can order a few things at once.