W126 memory seats

[219]

Anyone upgraded from 'standard' electric seats to memory ones in a W126 ?

I'm going on Saturday to get a complete interior from a donor car on which the front seats are electric and memory ; those on my own car are electric but not memory .

I'll obviously get the switches , connectors and relay/memory modules from under the seats - but I wonder if the looms are different ?

As the interior is going to involve a change of colour from mushroom to dark blue leather ( the car is low mileage and this interior is in too good condition to pass up ) I'll be taking carpets , door cards and all coloured trim as well as the seats . As long as I can remove the seat looms then I'll get them - otherwise I'll at least get the connectors and add any wires to my existing looms as required . Also need to get the seat heater looms as my car missed out on this option . I already got the switch panel along with the rear window blind the other week .

Just wondered if anyone has done this before ?

 

[ianrandom]

Cant imagine its goping to add that much in the way of complication. Once you're doing all that already.
The looms should be easy to get out seeing as you are removing all the trim anyway. they run from the door obviously, but the difficult part was where they run on past the seat since they go over the transmission tunnel under the centre console plastic. They hook up power at the front of the console area on the left i think. But it wont take too long with the trim out. Good luck.
BTW seat heaters are excellent, i spent many hours in the freeezing winter extracting mine and fitting them and it was well worth it. You wont regret it

 

[WDB124066]

Derek,

Please keep an eye out when wondering around those breakers yards, rumour has it you have a legendary eye, I am still on the lookout for a decent driver’s seat for the Cab......

 

[jaymanek]

The loom is different and not easy to take apart.... you will probably be best to cut it in the door and then pull it out through the car.

 

[219]

Thanks all for the above info . The other thought occurring to me is - do late W126's have comfort locking ( this donor car is on a J plate and a sin to be being broken as there was no visible damage ) ? Is there a particular module I would need to get for comfort locking ? Had it on two W124's and found it very useful .

Re the seat for the cab - Shewalton autobreakers in Irvine , Ayrshire still have the red W124 coupe with full mushroom leather interior . The car has been there several months now and doors , bonnet & bootlid have gone , but amazingly the leather interior is intact although must have been rained on a fair bit lately . I imagine coupe seats are the same as cab seats ? Don't know how they will have suffered from rain exposure over several weeks ( doors disappeared maybe a couple of months ago ) ? Car is/was a 230CE

 

[ianrandom]

What's comfort locking? I haven't heard of it.

 

[MOCAŠ]

What's comfort locking? I haven't heard of it.

Usually means that the windows/sunroof automatically close when you lock the car, or can be closed remotely.

 

[219]

Yes , hold the key in the lock position and windows/sunroof close ; also - hold key in unlock position and everything opens before you need to get in the car , just the thing for hot summer days when the car will be roasting inside !

 

[ianrandom]

Ah yes, the work people carrier has this, very useful. I suspect it could be retrofitted with an alarm system that incorporated the feature.

 

[MPG]

I've got a very late 91 build W126, registered as an August 92 "K" plater. Just tried out the comfort locking lark with both the key & the original factory fit scorpion alarm. Unfortunately it looks like there's no comfort feature fitted as neither would close an open window for me. To be honest, I can't say I'm fussed about that function as I always make sure roof and windows are closed before I get out - I do wish I had heated seats though......

 

[khimani_mohiki]

the switches in the central locking elements are latching so you would need additional microswitches on the barrels

 

[219]

It is all a bit academic now .

I went over early this morning and was there for the yard opening at 8 am ; the car was much as I'd left it the last time , save for the front wheels having gone .

I set about removing the interior - the back seat was alrady unclipped from my last visit so I put it on the roof meantime . I started unbolting the passenger seat and , as anticipated , the rear fixing bolts were very awkward as , not being able to motor them back and forward , access was not easy - finally got the seat freed after about an hour and first removing the centre console which made it easier . The drivers seat , unfortunately , proved impossible to get undone : I got the two centre bolts undone but no matter what I did could not get the other two out .

In the end , I gave up on the seats and concentrated on getting what other parts looked useful . I came away with the leather steering wheel and gearknob , indicator and cc stalks , cc amplifier and instrument cluster , a few bits of wood which looked in better condition than what I have , also the sensor for the otg and one rear lamp lens I needed for the 280 . So not a completely wasted trip . On getting back , I fitted the wheel , stalks , amplifier and instruments - a quick road test showed that my previously inoperative cruise control was now fixed , so I'm more than pleased .

I may pop back and see if I can get the last seat undone , but really it is a lot of bother changing so much , so maybe I'll hols out for a better set of mushroom seats which can be changed over on their own .

 

[khimani_mohiki]

if you can unplug the seat motor or access the wiring it can be operated with a 12 volt cordless drill battery

 

[219]

I can't get at the wiring right under the seat as the front where the connectors are is right down at its lowest position , but maybe I can power the switch in the door by this method !

I might return in another two weeks when I get paid again ( spent a fair bit of what I had put aside for the interior on the other parts ) armed with a better selection of spanners , sockets etc , plus as you say , a small battery of some sort .

I was never that keen on changing the colour scheme of the car , so if it is going to be a lot of hassle I guess I'll just leave it . A nice facelift mushroom interior will turn up sooner or later as it was a pretty popular choice . Ideally , I'd like the individual rear seats sometimes seen in 560's !

 

[khimani_mohiki]

I can't get at the wiring right under the seat as the front where the connectors are is right down at its lowest position , but maybe I can power the switch in the door by this method !

Im not sure if the seats power supply goes into the door switches and back out or straight to the motors from the relays in the fuse box, either way if you can tap into the wires it should allow you to move the seat in all directions. Have a look at the workshop manual circuit diagrams.

 

[219]

Derek,

Please keep an eye out when wondering around those breakers yards, rumour has it you have a legendary eye, I am still on the lookout for a decent driver’s seat for the Cab......

I just popped back down to the Shewalton Auto Breakers yard in Irvine to get some material to trim the rear blind housing to match my interior : I cut out the rear half of the headlining from a W124 E280 which also had mushroom interior , this has given me a large area of matching material to play with

While I was there , I snapped a few pictures of what's left of the coupe - the interior is still complete , save for the door cards , which I guess went along with the doors !

These were just taken on my iPhone , but should serve to illustrate what's there . Some scuffing to side bolster of driver's seat as usual , otherwise all pretty good .

The E280 saloon I got the bit of headlining out of ( I reckoned the saloon one was a bit longer ) had a full mushroom interior in at least as nice condition , if not better , complete with door cards , burr walnut trim and instrument panel complete with OTG . There was the roll top cubby box between the seats as this is an airbag car , but someone had broken the roller top