W639 Vito Traveliner seat upgrade options and climate control?

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mo-zz

New Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2015
Messages
18
Location
Birmingham, UK
Car
W209 CLK55 AMG/W639 2013 Vito Traveliner/W213 E220d
Haven't been on the forum for some time since having to sell my car and van in exchange for a house a couple of years back!

Now that I have purchased another traveliner I want to start getting it travel ready for road trips to Europe

I still have my set of leather rear seats from the previous van which I will drop in to the new one in exchange for the useless factory set

Has anyone managed to find a set of front seats from any other Merc models that fit the Vito base? I currently have 3 seats at the front but am looking to convert this to 2 seats and ideally something more comfortable for longer journeys? I spoke to someone a while back who said he fitted 2 clk seats to his vito bases but I'm not sure if they need modifications or fit straight on

Anyone know of any companies that do seat conversion on the Vito from 3 to 2 front seats?

Also another random question but anyone know if it is possible to add rear climate control as a retrofit? I couldn't find a van that had this option used except one which was hugely overpriced from a dealer and so didn't seem worth it.

Currently there only seems to be one duct on the floor just behind the front seats which does a lousy job of heating/cooling the rear cabin.

Any other mods/upgrades I should be looking for? It's a 2013 Traveliner
 
Doesn't your Traveliner have rear air con, with independent controls in the roof above the n/s rear side door.

I can detail fitting ML163 seats into a Vito, but they require a 12 volt supply for MOT at least so may not be as you are looking for.
 
For the Vito Traveliner I fitted ML163 seats,
they were heated with full electric control and memory.
I didn't get around to powering the passenger heater and the drivers seat was only really useful on full 12 volt heat as the system of heating is different to the newer seats in that the reduced 5 volts from the Vito has little effect. There is a way for the 5 volt Vito output to trigger the relay in the controller but it gets a little more complicated.

For the Viano I'm looking out for ML164 seats. The heating on these I'm expecting to be compatible with the Viano 12v / 5v output (same as Vito).
I haven't had need to trace wiring for the seat heaters as my vans have / had this function. But to add the switches to the dashboard switch bank is easy enough. To prise off the blanks (second in from the outsides) while pulling away from the switch some and with a flat blade (scraper) inserted on one side push sideways to release the opposite side clip. With one side released it should be possible to hold the blank and push back the other way for removal. It is easy to see how a heavy hand would break this though. With the blank removed I expect the switch to be there and with a probe should switch and illuminate the LED's. Like I said earlier I don't know where to pick up the power after this as I haven't traced it.

As I didn't want to take chance on the seats flattening the battery I picked up 2 spare fuse ways under the bonnet that were only powered with key turned. I used a couple of the clip on fuse carriers that came with a replacement SAM and fuse board.

Anyone sourcing ML seats must be sure that the seat switches, under seat controllers and plugs into those controllers with some length of wire are included.
I have the connection diagrams to show what should connect where.

It is necessary to power the seats so as to move forward / backward on the rails to bolt to the Vito mounting boxes, and to drill new holes where they don't align to the Vito as the four holes aren't matching.
For the drivers seat I centralised the seat to the steering wheel, as the standard seats don't come centralised. I also shimmed the get the heights right and used repair washers beneath to spread the weight some.

As ML seats come with switches as part of the seat and the controllers beneath, with 12 volts applied there is then full electric control, and if memory is part of that seats function (apparent by the four buttons M, 1, 2 & 3 on the outer front) then there is full memory function also.

For me being able to move the seat a little on long journies made for better comfort, as with the standard seat it can be dangerous to try and move forward / backward while in motion. But my main reason for the conversion was to upgrade to leather as I sail dinghies a lot, and when towing my boat off the slipway at the end of a sail I'm often getting in the van wet.

If I've missed anything feel free to ask.
 
So are all the switches to move the seat actually on the seat itself rather than on the door as per genuine Viano?? You could have fitted leather Viano seats although they aren't an easy thing to find.

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Other mods that may be of interest, or not??

With the 2 captain seats at the front there is space between. Here I have a set of 2 plastic drawers that open toward the front.
On top of that is a plastic box from Ikea and a twin tray type plastic box sits onto that. I've cut some 6mm ply to sit into that at the front and screwed it down. There are 2 holes in that for our 'Thermos' flasks to sit into (good for 6 hours of hot drink- honestly).
Trays good for bits,
Top drawer has many type of bits in that, with the bottom drawer for bags of Aldi sweets (cheapo)
There is an oblong plastic bin behind that lot held by a bungee.
All a bit £ shop but effective

Mine is the tailgate version, a good shelter at times.
Into the hand slots I've mounted 2 DRL style LED's, powered from the interior lights they illuminate the rear area nicely for 20 minutes.
A friend with a machine shop made up 4 tubes with a 40 degree angle so the lights are vertical when the door is open. Otherwise they could be just mounted on a flat surface.
I also mounted 2 orange DRL type LED's, but these face rearwards when the door is open, just to cause other drivers to be aware really. The truth is my first location of the white LED's was incorrect and I was left with 2 holes when I re positioned the whites deeper into the recess due to the extension of the tubes.
I've also a wheelchair ramp and floor straps from anchors for Mums little trips out, when dark the lights are useful for loading / unloading.

I screwed 2 ornamental hooks either side of the HU to hang sun glasses from.
New Medium Ball End Curtain Tie Back Tassel Wall Hooks | eBay
 
"So are all the switches to move the seat actually on the seat itself rather than on the door as per genuine Viano?? You could have fitted leather Viano seats although they aren't an easy thing to find."

All ML switches are low and forward on the seat, do an eBay search and the photo's should confirm.
So that is the driver will reach down with right hand below right thigh and operate for all functions, other than heater, including memory.

Anything Vito / Viano is a flippin' high price and although I've seen leather heated seats (for £700 the pair) I haven't seen electric on eBay, or elsewhere yet.
I picked up my ML163 seats, c/w controllers, for £140.
Being a numpty I didn't consider the plugs till later and they cost another £40.
The drivers seat heater was possibly v well used and open cct, so I took the one from my worn out cloth Vito seat and fitted it.
 
So what about the seat switches?? And did you know you can buy a genuine compartment that goes between the front seats..

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No - I would be interested in the front seat compartment, do you have a link?

Does post 7 answer your question on seat switches?
 
A639 810 04 04 is the part number
037f49efe92145fec5e531793a4daf25.jpg


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Wow, away for a weekend and come back to loads of info to go through! Thanks!

So as far as fitting the ML seats into the vito it seems to be the best option by a mile! Was it difficult to get the rails from the seats to fit onto the vito base? I currently have a 3 seat which I want to convert to a 2 seat anyone know if that is a difficult option? I have seen some posts on it previously and have sourced 2 single seat bases with plastics. Is it just bolt out and bolt in for the bases?

When fitting the ML seats was there a lot of modifying to do to the rails? I'm no expert but if its fairly straight forward then would give it a go. I have found a set of the newer ML164 seats. Would fitting these be a similar job to the ML163 in the vito?

So far my plan is to get the ML164 seats if they can be fitted to the bases and wired up without too much stress + find some way of attaching an armrest to them? Wonder if it's possible would certainly make the longer drives more bearable.

Put the 2 sets of leather seats I have in the back which involves fitting an extra floor bracket as the rearmost bench on the traveliner only has 3 floor brackets not 4

That centre console looks like exactly what is needed if you have the 2 seats at the front. Is that available from dealers? Looks like it would be quite expensive though as most vito interior parts seem to be!

Any thoughts on whether it's possible to duct the AC further back as currently there is only 1 vent behind the front seats on the floor for the whole rear which does a pretty lousy job. The rearmost seats always complain its either too cold or too hot! Seems a poor design by MB as also means up front you have to face everything down to the footwell to get anything coming out at the rear so your legs are always too cold or too hot!! I wonder if anyone has ever tried adding some ducting to carry the air around in a better way?

Once the seating and ventilation issues are sorted I want to add a couple of roof mounted screens rewire the sound system and then get the whole floor and headlining retrimmed in something nicer!

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

If there's any more suggestions of how to make it a more comfortable van then please keep them coming will be driving to spain sometime in July so hope to get at least some of this sorted out before that!

Will be picking the ML164 seats up on the weekend unless you think they won't work for any reason?
 
Just to confirm for the seats the seller has the 2 seats which have the controls and switched on the seat itself for adjustment and memory. In addition the control box under the seat and the plugs that clip in to the control box as well as approx 12" of cable left on to the plugs. Is this sufficient or is there another control box that is required?
 
It sounds like your traveliner is different to the 115 I had.

Both 115 and Viano have AC to rear, with their own controls above n/s sliding door, with a permissive switch on the dash.
When cold my legs could do with a stronger warmer flow and to do this now is either more noise from the fan or deprived flow from the screen.

The 115 came with 2 rows of 3 seats in the back, as it was a taxi. Easily removed I ended up with 4 leather captain seats that were roll forward, unclip and remove or rotate as desired.

I haven't experience of the 164 seats 'yet'. It sounds like you have the kit required to get going though.
Read my posts again as I expect you will need to identify the power in for the seats to be moved on their rails, so as to make possible to drill and bolt into the mounting bases. The seat sliders in the rails will obstruct the holes, even if you manage to get your centres you wont get the bolts in.

It's a shame you so far darn sarf or it would have been interesting to work through this with you, good experience for my plans.
 
The centre console is far more attractive than my contraption, but initially it doesn't look as functional.
I'm hoping to google more photos though.
 
Any ideas on how to identify which cables are the power in for the seats? Also do you know if the 164 seats are powered off 12v or 5v? For moving them whilst faffing with the rails and bases would you connect them to the car or just take power from a spare car battery and work outside?

It is a shame about the lack of rear fan controls for the ventilation. I will probably have the floor out and follow it back and see what is possible with this as I'm sure 'something' will be doable.

Whereabouts are you in Derbyshire btw? I've just moved to Birmingham haven't updated my profile yet though.

I've never really attempted any mods which require wiring up so am a bit nervous about that the most. Where would you tap in for the power supply for the seats? I probably won't bother connecting the seat heaters up for now as I don't really like them so would just need power for the seats really.
 
Spare 12 volt battery should do it.
the 5 volt is the reduced voltage to seat heaters, do you have seat heaters?
Do these 164 seats have heaters?

I can only describe the set up on the 163 seats and hope it has some similarity for you, my finding the correct connections came from stripping down, looking for common rails and google Germand to English translation.

One side of the controller has all the utilities of the seat plugged into, colour coded plugs / sockets and keyed. Little or no chance of error.
T'other side there are 2 plug / sockets. So the tails on the plugs will show you this.
One plug, No 1 "Innen Braum" carried the 12 volts to motors,
Terminal 11 was +ve in orange,
Terminal 9 was -ve in brown.

Power to these enabled all motors to be moved, wrong polarity and the motor worked in reverse, so would likely pass limit switches and cause damage if travelled too far. It would be wise to inch the back rest and check polarity.

Other supplies in to this plug are seat heater, occupancy snesor (but only for passenger seat - air bag disable I guess) , seat belt recognition.

Seat belt is easy two wires change state with blade inserted,
Terminal 12 in pink on drivers controller, in orange on passenger's controller. Both use brown for t'other.

Occupancy sensor (passenger only) 3 wires,
terminal 2 +ve in grey,
terminal 4 'data' in white,
terminal 6 -ve in brown.

It is far from certain the 164 will be the same and clearly the seat heaters will be different.

It may be logical to see what you have when the seats arrive and consider further after comparing.
 
I don't have seat heaters in the van currently, the 164 seats that I am picking up do have seat heaters however I doubt I will wire them up as I rarely use them even if fitted.

Sounds like it's going to be interesting trying to figure out what wiring goes to where. Sounds like the main things that I'll need to figure out are power to the seats (and where I'm going to take this power from) and then seat belt sensors and occupancy sensor for the passenger side.

Was is difficult to line the seats up on the bases and drill/bolt them together?

I should get the seats this weekend and looking to pick up the single bases either this week or next week so I can start tinkering next week with it. Where I'm getting the seats the breakers haven't removed them from the vehicle yet so I'm hoping I can get a meter on the cables and at least figure out the power before stripping them out of the ML

Anyone know of any merc indies that could help with this if I get stuck?
 
If you're going to the vehicle aim to get some clip on fuses of the under bonnet fuse board, y'know with a length of wire for connecting to.

It would be interesting to see what stage they are at with their breaking, but the luxury of battery being in place and being able to check 12volts from known fuses to controllers seems unlikely.

If I remember by opening up the controllers it's possible identify the relay 12v control points, from there the -ve common links.
Again following the tracks from 'Innen Braun' (the input plug) you should see common connections to the relays (but not control points), that being +ve.

To identify the seat movement relays the 12v +ve will go to maybe 6 or 8 relays.

This still assumes the MB have followed a comparable format to the 163, maybe see what you have come w/e.

Under bonnet fuses on the Vito were both on the F35 bank,
I used Fuse 28 for drivers and Fuse 27 for passenger seat, both rated at 20 amp.
The max current of the 163 seats when motor stalled was 12.5 amp.

When you come to match up the 3 passenger seat occupancy sensor wires for me there ass a mis match of colours, ask later and I can give you the Vito colours. If lucky they may be the same as your seat 164 sensor.
 
What area of B'ham are you,
I may be travelling through soonish.

As soon as I resolve a MAF problem with mine that is.
 
"So are all the switches to move the seat actually on the seat itself rather than on the door as per genuine Viano?? You could have fitted leather Viano seats although they aren't an easy thing to find."

All ML switches are low and forward on the seat, do an eBay search and the photo's should confirm.
So that is the driver will reach down with right hand below right thigh and operate for all functions, other than heater, including memory.

Anything Vito / Viano is a flippin' high price and although I've seen leather heated seats (for £700 the pair) I haven't seen electric on eBay, or elsewhere yet.
I picked up my ML163 seats, c/w controllers, for £140.
Being a numpty I didn't consider the plugs till later and they cost another £40.
The drivers seat heater was possibly v well used and open cct, so I took the one from my worn out cloth Vito seat and fitted it.
Hi, just read this re seats. I have some electric leather seats from a viano and the matching door trims with control switches. Do you have instructions to activate them. I assume SCN coding is required. I can control the seats via actuations in Star Diags and the switches show activation in same but how do I make it all work?
 

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