RNLD

I purchased a highly *******ized '03 SL500 and boy what a journey it's been learning all of its quirks. Today's task is to determine what these seats came out of so that I can find replacement seat belt panels on the driver side then chase down what could be keeping those buttons from functioning (both sides). The dials on their bases also seem to do nothing..

Many thank yous in advance!

MikeJ65

They look like standard seats with custom upholstery and alien head rests.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Those are the ugliest seats I have ever seen. Did the empty Coke bottle come with the car? I hope you didn't pay a lot for the car. Heck, even if it was free, you're going to be spending a lot of money on it.

Frederick NL

Wow let's be a li'l bit more encouraging! Someone upholstered the seats but the original is still lurking below. One route to go if you want the original look back would be a car being parted out and/or a wrecker. The defects may be very manageable, the mechanics should be original.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Sorry. I was a bit harsh. But those seats just sent me over the edge. 😱 "Lurking" is the right word.

Still, these older SLs are not inexpensive to own. They are attractive to people who want to own a $100k for a cheap price. I was one of them. I got my SL500 with 50,000 miles on it for $10,000. I knew the original owner and the car had been garaged and dealer serviced from day one. I did my own work on the car and still put at least another $10,000 into it for parts and tools necessary to work on the car.

If you don't have the knowledge, skills, and tools to do your own work, they become very expensive to own.

RNLD

I used the term *******ized intently..That said, I did this to *all vehicles growing up and try my best to see it all with some form of appreciation as an auto-enthusiast, tacky as it all may be in the moment or down the road.

So, these damn seats..It's the headrests that are throwing me for a loop. Long-time lurker, never poster, but I guess I should have measured to see if the headrests spacing was factory as that's what bothers me (the diamond stitching is *fine for now).

RNLD

I should add that, while I'm not a new MB owner, I'm new enough to this model to be unfamiliar with some of its functions. Genuinely haven't researched seat functions, what could be causing some of disfunction, etc. All door controls seem to work, but whatever dial on the seat base, nadda, and the buttons at the upper seat belt retractor, also nadda. Of course the headrests: yuck.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Every time I see those seats, I think Aliens (extra-terrestrials). Perhaps they are out of some spaceship. Who says aliens have to have human or animal form? How do we know Transformers aren't real?

MikeJ65

The dial is for lumbar air cushion adjustment. Common issues are broken air lines, bad bladder, or bad PSE pump.

Buttons are for rear storage access. If the seat movements are all working, you might have to normalize the seat. That involves moving the seat to the end of travel for each adjustment. Usually this is done with diagnostic equipment, but can be done manually.