Air Pump for Orthopaedic Seats

[Paul Grainger]

Does anyone know how to disable the air pump that is fitted to cars with orthopaedic seats?

My car had orthopaedic seats. They weren't heated.
I had the opportunity to purchase a complete set of designo leather, heated, non-orthopaedic seats for my CLK. These seats were from a wrecked car that had only completed 7k miles, and were quite literally 'as new'.

I installed the seats, wired up the heater elements and have subsequently enjoyed the benefit of nice heated seats. I personally think that heated is a better option than orthopaedic (the novelty soon wore off playing with the seat controls).

The problem is the air pump. The two airlines that I disconnected from the original seats now hiss in an irritating way. The hissing stops after approx 5 minutes but it's driving me mad. I cannot see or find the air pump (possibly under the dash somewhere), and I cannot find a fuse specific to it. I have considered plugging up the ends of the pipes, but I am reluctant to do this in case of damaging the pump.

Can anybody help?

Paul G

 

[GrahamC230K]

I understand it's a dealer only jobbie to enable the vacum for the seats, so I guess the reverse is likewise.

 

[Anders]

At least on my C43, the airpump is located in the luggage compartment, to the right behind a latch.

I may be wrong, but I would have thought that on your CLK it would be in a similar place, certainly not behind the dash.

For me, the orthopaedic seats were a major reason for buying the C43, as they really do ensure that long journeys can be completed without back aches.

 

[Anders]

Oh, another thing: The air pump is used to power the central-locking, so you can't disable it if you want to keep that feature.

 

[GrahamC230K]

Oh, another thing: The air pump is used to power the central-locking, so you can't disable it if you want to keep that feature.

No, that's why is a dealer only visit to have the vacum enabled to the seats. The pump may be shared, but I guess there must be something else that opens a valve or something maybe.

 

[Sp!ke]

I suggest you just block the outlet pipes from the pump to the seats. The pump automatically shuts off once it reaches a certain pressure.

It is only running on at the moment because it isnt reaching the required pressure. It eventually times out after five minutes.

 

[mrfiepro]

Paul,

The pump on my w210 is under the offside rear seat along with the unswitched fusebox. If you block off the hose the unit should switch off much quicker, mine takes about 20 seconds.

The pump is hidden by a mass of foam and also has an acumulator of some sort connected to it, which is mounted onto and in front of the fusebox.

I am not sure, but it does look like, all the different air circuits are piped in different colors, so I guess it would be easy to block it off at the pump.


Good luck

 

[Paul Grainger]

Thanks for your help guys.
I hadn't considered the implications of the central locking (derr!). I will try blocking off the ends of the pipes.
I don't want to do any 'major' - I may at some time end up putting the original seats back in again.

Paul G

 

[V12]

Spike is as ever...correct.

On the earlier cars it only had one vaccum outlet, and was split with y pieces outside the pump, on a CLK, it is just split inside the pump for most outlets.

You will not damage the pump from blocking the outlets.

Ricky

 

[MBenzNL]

why blocking the outlets when the vacuum pump can easily be programmed properly by MB? just have the ortopedic seats set to not installed in the vacuum pump variable settings with stardiagnose...

greetingz,