It seems that my driver's side seat heater has failed. First only seat (no back) and now nothing.

Any clues, fuses or ideas on fixes?

TIA

JPW

I have heard you can get a replacement heat pad from eBay and have them installed. A little labor intensive though!

Happened on a BMW of mine some years back. The heat pad failed and was replaced. You have to remove the seat cover and then reinstall. Bit is a pain in the butt of a job

I did the heaters on my C32 AMG, which is notorious for failing.
In the 32, they are sewn into the leather, so you need to replace the seat cover if the shop does the repair.
In my case, I slid eBay replacements under the leather, and while not as quick to respond, they are heating my backside once again.

The R230 seats are very heavy, so you should get help to remove them. You may find the heaters are part of the leather. If so, I'd consider sliding a heating element under the existing leather for $25, rather than buying new leather for $???.

Let us know how it goes.

As has been stated, the elements in the seats are notorious for failing.

While it is possible that you have a controller or connection issue it is unlikely. You can, of course, rule that out by checking the continuity of the 2 heat circuits in your seat (unplug under seat, check element on ohm scale).

Chances are (99%) that you have bad elements. The original heating elements (generally, 2 separate elements, in parallel, per seat) are normally one continuous conductor/element that fail as soon as there is a break anywhere in the element. BY CONTRAST, the ebay replacement elements have a matrix of sorts in that there are many conductors in parallel (so if one or a few conductors ever break it will have little or no affect on the output/function of the element.

My experience with fixing this issue is similar to that which others have posted here. My understanding and experience is that the elements are usually sewn into the cover. I priced an OE solution (on an SLK32) and found the seat covers were close to $3000 . While an Ebay kit (that comes with 4 elements) was less than $100

here is an example of what I have used (these kits are sold as a universal retrofit solution, so they come with switches, relays, and wiring that you wont use) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Carbon-Fiber...RYPVbc&vxp=mtr

On the SLK32, the lower cover needs to be removed in order to install that element, however, the upper element can be slid into place without actually removing the upper cover (seat bottom must be removed first to gain working room). The Ebay elements use less power (so no worries of over-taxing the controller and support wiring, etc) and as indicated, don't heat up as quickly (or as warm).

The Ebay pad gets inserted BETWEEN the original seatcover/element and the foam. The new cover is spliced directly to the existing wires in the seat (no polarity).

Not sure how much of this applies to the SL55, but I do have one element out in my SL55 (2003) and one of these days (when I run out of other projects , I will fix it and add some more specific info here.

hope that helps,
Chris

Interesting to see these. Sounds like a possible solution.
Do these hook up to the existing wiring? Do you use the same controls as stock (buttons on door)?

thanks!

JPW

"The new cover [element] is spliced directly to the existing wires in the seat (no polarity)."

It uses all of the R230 controls as normal

" (these kits are sold as a universal retrofit solution, so they come with switches, relays, and wiring that you wont use)"