Orthopedic seat swap W124!

[mercedeslover]

Hello All!

Can all the parts from a S124 seat be transferred into a W124 manually adjusted seat. How do the covers come off. Has anybody done this before. Pray tell lol!

Thank You. Mercedeslover.

 

[SilverSaloon]

Hello All!

Can all the parts from a S124 seat be transferred into a W124 manually adjusted seat. How do the covers come off. Has anybody done this before. Pray tell lol!

Thank You. Mercedeslover.

are you trying to put an orthopedic seat (controls at side of seat near centre of car) covers into a non orthopedic seat? if so, yes it should be OK as the orthopedic seat has "extra" bit for the difference in size as the seat "stretches". the covers themselves should swap over OK i would imagine. if you want to transfer more than just the covers then it will be harder. if the otho seat isnt electric adjustable and your existing seat isnt either then you could just put the whole seat in.... and either just dont connect up the orthopedic feature or attempt to run a pipe from the existing vaccum system

 

[mercedeslover]

are you trying to put an orthopedic seat (controls at side of seat near centre of car) covers into a non orthopedic seat? if so, yes it should be OK as the orthopedic seat has "extra" bit for the difference in size as the seat "stretches". the covers themselves should swap over OK i would imagine. if you want to transfer more than just the covers then it will be harder. if the otho seat isnt electric adjustable and your existing seat isnt either then you could just put the whole seat in.... and either just dont connect up the orthopedic feature or attempt to run a pipe from the existing vaccum system

Thank you for your reply. I hope that it is still there next week! If you are going to the Families Day @ MB World. Then I'll see you there and try your seat out if I can. Thank you.

 

[bolide]

The construction of the orthopaedic seat is completely different to that of a normal one. You can't interchange the covers

The only "simple" way is to transplant an entire seat plus loom, vacuum piping & associated bits & bobs

I wouldn't take it on unless you are prepared to chase down all the differences & deal with them

Nick Froome

 

[SilverSaloon]

The construction of the orthopaedic seat is completely different to that of a normal one. You can't interchange the covers

The only "simple" way is to transplant an entire seat plus loom, vacuum piping & associated bits & bobs

I wouldn't take it on unless you are prepared to chase down all the differences & deal with them

Nick Froome

surprised to hear that - my othopedic drivers covers appear to be the same when not inflated as my non-othopedic passenger cover. but u know these beasts more than me

 

[WDB124066]

This is something that I also want to do, i.e. make my non orthopaedic seat an orthopaedic seat.

I had asked my MB factory trained 124 mechanic, to look into the part numbers for the leather covers for both types of seats, i.e. ortho and non ortho, and the information passed to me was that the seat covers, both back rest and seat base, had the same part numbers weather they were ortho or not. This is on a late model Sportline Cabriolet.
Now, like SilverSaloon I have no interest in contradicting anybody, especially you Nick, but it is really possible that I have been given the wrong information here? Is it really so that the leather covers are different between ortho and non ortho. Maybe this is only for non forward folding seats? Maybe forward folding seats have the same covers weather they are ortho or not.

Please let me know (if you know), as this will dramatically change my plans for using this particular donor car. I had wanted to keep my covers as they are in reasonably good nick and they are heated where as the donor car's are not.

All the very best, W.

 

[SilverSaloon]

well the ortho backrest cover is definatly different to the non-ortho one on my 124 estate. it has a little extra material at the sides for the seat to expand.

you couldnt put ortho stuff on the seat and keep the existing cover.

 

[WDB124066]

well the ortho backrest cover is definatly different to the non-ortho one on my 124 estate. it has a little extra material at the sides for the seat to expand.

you couldnt put ortho stuff on the seat and keep the existing cover.

Would you mind taking pictures of the differences - please.

It will help me to see if this is the same for the tilt forward seats. I think it may very well be, it means I couldn't keep my heated covers.

Also, may be if we knew what the difference was we could make the extra fitment/s to our covers.

Regards, W.

 

[WDB124066]

So I finally got to go see this donor car with the Ortho seats.

As far as I can figure there appears to be a few different varients for this Orthopeadic option. Appreciate a bit of feedback on my interpretation.....

1) There is one option with a manually inflated back rest that has a "bulb" that is squeezed to inflate a single bladder in the back rest. The bulb has a relief valve on it to deflate the bladder. Not too sure if this is strictly referred to as an Orthopaedic seat or just as an adjustable lumbar??

2a) There appears to be two fully Orthopaedic options where there are multiple bladders in the back rest, the simplest of these consists of only one or two bladders. They are inflated by a pump that sits under the rear seat. The controller for the settings sits between the seat and the console. This type of Ortho seat shows up on the EPC as being compatible with the non expanding seat cover.

2b) Then there is the full Orthopaedic option that had 5 separate settings for inflation of numerous bladders up and down the back rest, some giving a little extra side support. They seem to inflate in pairs for each of the five positions. For each setting there was a separate control for the amount of inflation, 4 stages of inflation I think for each of the 5 positions. The controller for the settings was fitted between the seat and the console & had two dials one for the position of inflation and one for the amount of inflation. For this type an expandable seat cover was fitted to allow for the expansion of the multiple bladders, the expandable cover was on the back rest only and allowed the perforated section of the back rest to protrude forward independently of the side bolsters.

3) The final and most complex form of the Orthopaedic seat included 2b) above but also had adjustable side bolsters. This was referred to as a “Multi contour” seat in the EPC. Not too sure if the covers were altered further to accommodate the adjustable side bolstered or not. The controller had the same controls as 2b) above but had an extra lever to enact the adjustable side bolsters.

Would appreciate comment regarding all of this because; as far as I can figure I think I have got it correct, but you never know till you actually see all the options of course.

The donor car had the 2b) option but alas it was not to be because the covers were the expandable type and were not in very good condition. A further constraint was the need to reinstate the donor car afterwards, which meant reconditioning all the leather parts that did not come from my car. Then of course we would have been faced with having to refurbish the covers from the donor car to match the remaining upholstery in my car. A task that is not that difficult on its own, the real killer was having to refurbish the donor car’s interior.

So; the long and the short of it is I am still after a very good second hand right side seat, mushroom, heated, leather, memory, ortho or non ortho.

I think I could live with the lumbar support option, it is a lot simpler and I think it would do 75% of what I need.


All the very best to all.

W.

 

[SilverSaloon]

hi.

i think my w124 has your option 3....

it has a dial (0 to 6 i think) and then 3 buttons that you press for the 3 contours (lower, middle, top) and then a bar that adjusts the side bolsters in/out.

the seat has the extra expandable bit.

i will try and take some photos and even a video of it working if you want....?

here is a photo of the ortho seat (extra bit highlighted red):

here is the non-ortho seat: (note that there is no "gap"):

 

[WDB124066]

Spot on Silversaloon, you have the full monty there, the "Multicontour" seat.

Would you kindly take a shot or two of the controller? Sounds like it may have been different to the one on a 91 Coupe.....

WBD1240512B350793

......and what are your seats doing out of your car?

 

[SilverSaloon]

Spot on Silversaloon, you have the full monty there, the "Multicontour" seat.

Would you kindly take a shot or two of the controller? Sounds like it may have been different to the one on a 91 Coupe.....

WBD1240512B350793

......and what are your seats doing out of your car?

yes i'll take a photo later and post it up. the seats were out as i removed the carpets and cleaned them & cleaned all the seats aswell.

 

[SilverSaloon]

here you go;

the orthopedic switchpad at side of seat:

here is a pic of the extra material that allows the seat to strecth/resize:

 

[DMDM]

Sorry to hijack this thread........ from a post elsewhere, I'm to believe if donor seats have/had air hosing underneath them, they are ortho seats?

The donors I've just took have the textured lines going along them the same, rather than vertical panels like currently in my coupe, but the lines dont extend right to the edge of the seat, nor can I see if there was a control unit, pics following in a few mins if you can help me please.

 

[219]

If you are looking at coupe or cabriolet seats , the presence of a vacuum line is for the backrest locking mechanism which operates by vacuum only when the doors are closed AND the engine is running .

I rebuilt a pair of ortho seats found in a 190E donor car , I had only been looking for a replacement seat base for my 190 2.6 but decided to incorporate these as I found them .

I did previously post the full sequence of pictures showing how to remove , dismantle and rebuild the seats , however , for this thread I'll only post a few showing the ortho bits .

This was my drivers seat with broken springs in the base

The springs were OK in the donor car seats , but the covers were a mess : I used the spring base and fitted the cover from my own seat back onto it .

The donor backrest shows the condition of the covers , had the seats not been orthopaedic I would just have thrown this away

Here is the small control unit on the side of the seat

Looking inside the backrest there are air pipes to each bladder from the control unit

These can be unplugged for removal of the cover

 

[219]

The backrest minus cover showing the side bladders

and revealing a central bladder behind the horsehair

I took the pressure reservoir and all the tubing associated with the seats from the donor car , not realising at the time the pump was different to the standard item . When I went back the next week for the pump , the car had gone ,

Never did get them working . Car now passed on to another owner , complete with seats .

The standard covers did fit on over the bladders and looked fine .

I am keen to add this feature to my w126 at some point .

 

[DMDM]

Cheers for the pointer Derek and that was brave work you did!!