All E63 sedans did have the ski pass-through. It was not an option on the E63 wagon in the US and very few of the E350 wagons had it. It was not a regularly ordered item for dealer stock cars, just special order cars may have it, but again only the E350. For some reason it was NOT allowed on US E63 wagons, while it was an option on Euro cars.
As many know – it’s a great feature if you are a ski family. So many times you are driving kids to races etc where they are bringing some skis and you really don’t want / need to put a whole box on the roof. The W213 cars has a 40/20/40 split rear seat which is the best solution.
I knew I wanted a ski sack and was encouraged by Nathan’s aftermarket installation (Nathans build thread)

There is a great writeup on how to remove the setback (Rear seat removal) and also used my WIS copy to get some more data and instructions.

When I started researching how to do this things turned a bit interesting. Nathan was unable to obtain part numbers or parts from his regular suppliers and I therefore started digging myself. The plastic cover pieces were pretty easy to find, but the metallic seat back was another matter. After a lot of research it seemed like the sedan and the wagon has the same seat backs! Weird but true (as long as you have foldable rear seat of course). Most cars, including Mercedes, have different seat backs for sedans and wagons (and the W213 does, partially due to the 40/20/40 split).
Managed to find a part number for the seatback with a hole in it, but it turned out to be discontinued worldwide. Finally I found a very helpful dealer in Sweden that was able to locate a stash of 8 remaining (new) ones in Germany. Which means that if you are to do the conversation in the future (ones that stash of 8 are used up) you will be chopping steel out of a standard seatback. Or buy a used seat, which could be an option. Especially since it’s now proven the seatbacks are the same for sedan and wagon! Sadly there at not yet enough totaled W212s to find the used part, or you have to buy the entire seat (which is more expensive). In 5 years you can likely pick up the entire back seat for less than what I paid for the spare part ($120). Bit that doesn’t help me , I want this feature now…..

Part numbers used for this:
2129200932 Seat frame with hole (discontinued)
2129230762 Seat back rear cover (carpet)
2129200486 Rear pass through cover
2129200786 Front pass through cover

Picture of seat back pre installation.



Start by removing back seat cushion, just pull in the front straight up and remove



Remove seatback



Remove existing plastic cover and remove fold down arm rest.



Remove cushion and leather. Makes sense to work on a soft surface as to not mar the leather. If I would have known how long time this job would take, I would have put the blanket on a table…



Transfer over wire loom, headrest extenders, and pivot sensor to new seatback frame.



The hardest part was to reinstall the rear carpet piece. It is wedged into groove in the eat frame together with the back piece of the seating surface (front cover). It was close to impossible and required plastic interior removal tools, picks, rubber mallet, and bunch of curse words… But finally it was done!



The center headrest requires some trimming of the support pillars. I just cut them and used a file to deburr the edges.



Reinstall the seat back and works perfectly.




I did not order the actual ski sack. Partly because it’s expensive and partly because it actually work better to use a separate ski carrying case and slide the entire thing through the opening. It’s a removable part, and if someone is not using their's and is looking to get rid of it – let me know!
The part number for that piece is 2128400062

Lastly, this is the original seatback frame. You obviously could cut out the square hole, but it’s not prepared for that. That is, there are no obvious marks highlighting where to cut, so without a reference piece to look at, it wouldn’t be easy.





All in this was a fairly easy job, using he instructions included above, EXCEPT the freaking carpet cover. It was hell.

 

Great job, and great tutorial!

 

My God. Did you ever consider calling may day and going with roof racks?

 

During the work - nope - already committed.
Before? Of course. But as I mentioned in the beginning: "As many know – it’s a great feature if you are a ski family. So many times you are driving kids to races etc where they are bringing some skis and you really don’t want / need to put a whole box on the roof. The W213 cars has a 40/20/40 split rear seat which is the best solution."
Many reasons for not going with the roof box:

1. It's noisy - the whistling noises can drive you crazy....
2. It's much harder to load, esp for kids, and especially for kids when wearing ski boots. I want the kids to load up the car themselves so they are taking more responsibility for those early morning rides to races.
3. Just using a rack (without the box) is not advisable, esp in climates where they use a lot of road salt. If you use no bag or protection of the skis, the salt eats away on the edges and bindings, and screws up the ski surface. And they get dirty and messy to deal with If you use a bag in the rack, it's hard to avoid the bag flapping in the wind.
4. It's heavy to put on/off and hence many people end up leaving it on for long periods, and you risk some nice scratches when you do mount and remove.
5. Depending on location etc, here is the theft issue to think about as well.

But yes, I wish we had it as standard (as the sedans did), OR that we had the 40/20/40 split (which is the best solution, esp for dealing with other long or cumbersome items)

 

Indeed, this feature should be standard on all wagons. It's hard to fathom why MB would make it an option.

 

Great Job! Looks Clean!

You know what I find the greatest benefit to the pass through in my sedan? Not sticking skis through it. Actually it's awesome when you put a high powered sub in your trunk and then open that door!! Blows the hair on my head around! lol. And when I want things a bit more subtle, I close it.

Of course this benefit is not there for the wagon as it is all opened up in the back over the seats.

Cheers.

 

Yeah - but you sedan guys can't do THIS!



Mad **** carpet! (pic courtesy of www.automotiveaddicts.com)

 

 

DANG! I gotta have it! The Gatorade holder really sets it off!

 

Hi!
Thank you for a great report.
This is some plastic mechanism with wiring at the pass-through place at the picture below.

Where did you move it?

Thanks!

 

It's the headrest actuator/sensor. It;'s a parallel circuit so no need to worry about it. Just left that connector unconnected in the new install. There are one each of those devices for each headrest.
Yes, if there is an accident, with a passenger in the middle seat, and they are taller that the top of the headrest, and the headrest is not manually raised, I may have problem.
How often do we three kids in the back? 5 times / year. Usually for local, short distance drives. Last time I had an accident? 15+ years ago.
Is this a calculated risk? Yes.
BTW - the factory ski sack also removes that functionality from the middle head rest. I sleep well at night....

 

Thank you for the fast and detailed response. You even predicted my question about factory installation
Everythink is clear now.
I'm thinking about retrofitting this option but I'm going to cut the metal plate.

 

I've just made the same using your and the next reports
https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/...ml#post6398253

I cutted the center headrest support pillars and the headrest became very loud. It rattles.
Should I change center headrest guides to 2129700641 and 2129700741 (282 option)?
I guess they are white at the picture below

 

Unsure - mine does not rattle (or I don't hear it). That said, I have the headrest lowered, not raised - in which position do you keep it?
I will check next time driving and listen more carefully, but generally I'm pretty sensitive to rattles and other noises.
You are based in Kiev, so maybe just go ahead and order those and try? Can't be that expensive....

 

I can easily rattle it with my hands. It's not fixed. It's lowered for sure.
I ordered new guides yesterday

 

Interesting. I checked my car last night and the headrest can move but it's not ratling. Let us know if the new guides fix the problem, and please share the final part numbers is they do fix it!

 

So, here is the answer.
Here you can see the problem.
I found that the loud metal noise was not from the headrestraints, but they were noisy too

For ski pass-through option another headrestraint guides are used.
Their numbers for black ones are:
A21297007419051
A21297006419051
Their price is less then 4 euro for one.
Pictures

With usual ones

They are more tight then usual ones.
And now my backrest is silent.

 

And one more trick.
I saw one strange part (30) and one screw (50) when studying pass-through retrofit.
Partnumbers:
A2128400049
N910143006001
http://ci.catcar.info/mercedes_2017_...007.110525.png

We can't find where to put them during installation.
But I found the answer in the car guide.

It is a special fixture to tight skies inside the car.
So, installation is easy.

 

That is a very good find! Well done. I used a separate ski bag, so not very needed but it s a good safety feature.

 

I followed the path laid out by Yura and installed the tighter headrest guides and the attachment point for the bag. And even though I said before I would use a separate bag for skis, I could not resist the Ebay.de find of a used ski sack (turns out the part number works for many versions, so there are a decent number for sale in Germany). Price of 20 euro compared to a new one for 200+. Issue is that many of the cheaper dismantlers in Germany do not ship to US, so I have it shipped locally and then picked it up during a recent trip. All in cost was therefore around $40.
As can be seen it's used, but not broken or with any holes in it and it's removable which is a nice feature (so you can chose when to use it versus a separate bag).