Hi, I thought I will pass on some useful info. on a cheap alternative heated seat fix I just carried out on my SLK, rather than forking out £280 for a brand new seat cover!
I proceeded to carry out my own repair on the dreaded heated seat issue which has been bothering our SLK32 owners. I ordered up two heated seat pads which where designated for the non-AMG SLK's (part no. MA170 820 08 98) @ £60 sterling each. Upon arrival I removed my seat and dismantled the seat cushion following the WIS manual instruction, all-in-all it was pretty straight forward to do except that you will need to be careful not to rip the leather cover whilst removing it from the base frame where it attaches to the edge. With the covers off it was immediately obvious where the elements had failed, there was a black burn mark about 1" diameter at the top-centre part of the seat cover (between your knees) on both drivers and passenger covers! It was so bad that it had burned through foam section of the cover all the way through to leather, and good job it was leather or else you would have a great big hole in your seat! I did not bother to remove the remaining elements as it was stitched into the cover and doing so may have damaged my seat cover. I then proceeded to offer up my new pads onto the seat cushion. I would say fit was 95% perfect as the cushion were of a similar design as other SLK models, I also cut the existing connector / wires off the old cover and offered the new plug (which is the same connector type) to the existing loom and re-assemble everything and works a treat!
The only drawback is that the base takes a little longer to heat up compared to the seat back as I have left existing element part in place on the seat cover, but I'm not complaining 'cos I've spent £120 to repair both seats without the fear of it failing in a years time.
I proceeded to carry out my own repair on the dreaded heated seat issue which has been bothering our SLK32 owners. I ordered up two heated seat pads which where designated for the non-AMG SLK's (part no. MA170 820 08 98) @ £60 sterling each. Upon arrival I removed my seat and dismantled the seat cushion following the WIS manual instruction, all-in-all it was pretty straight forward to do except that you will need to be careful not to rip the leather cover whilst removing it from the base frame where it attaches to the edge. With the covers off it was immediately obvious where the elements had failed, there was a black burn mark about 1" diameter at the top-centre part of the seat cover (between your knees) on both drivers and passenger covers! It was so bad that it had burned through foam section of the cover all the way through to leather, and good job it was leather or else you would have a great big hole in your seat! I did not bother to remove the remaining elements as it was stitched into the cover and doing so may have damaged my seat cover. I then proceeded to offer up my new pads onto the seat cushion. I would say fit was 95% perfect as the cushion were of a similar design as other SLK models, I also cut the existing connector / wires off the old cover and offered the new plug (which is the same connector type) to the existing loom and re-assemble everything and works a treat!
The only drawback is that the base takes a little longer to heat up compared to the seat back as I have left existing element part in place on the seat cover, but I'm not complaining 'cos I've spent £120 to repair both seats without the fear of it failing in a years time.
