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How to remove and replace leather or cloth seat covers

136K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  MercedsBeans  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
This reply is for Sean Ng. (from HK>?)

My car is a W210 1996 so bare this in mind as your car may have a slight difference.
The tools I used were a Phillips screwdriver, torque srew driver, pliers, and a bent piece of the stiff metal tube.

There are photos of how to remove the seat covers back to the bare frame, To install the new covers the fitting is the exact reversal. And I have put a separate post on what the seats look like with the new leather seat covers and door trim in place on... How the replaced leather seats look after the swap.

Cheers....A1EK
 

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#3 ·
Hi A1EK

I have been able to dismantle the leather seat cover in the way you show me. When I try to dismantle the cloth seat cover, however, I am stuck as I cannot remove the plastic seat handle as shown in the photo. I wonder if you know how to remove it. Please let me know if you do or point me to the right direction.

Thanks again
Sean
 

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#4 ·
I know excatly what you are talking about mate... I too had the same damn problem.....! All I did was remove the screws on the plastic trim and then rotated it a little to get it out of the way and raise the seat base to suit. I tried to see if the black handle pulled off, but it didnt come. Once you have losened the plastic trim, try with long screw drivers or something to lever the edge trim of the seat cover, you can just about get it. (but it is tricky!)
 
#6 ·
i have just succesfully completed turning my update 210 2000year from cloth to leather and it is not no straight forward task.. but after i had done the passenger side i did the drivers in under a hour... only real trouble was getting the membrain from the passengers in the new cusion i had to cut a hole in the straw like wood stuf that pads the seat... lol got it done tho no srs faults
 
#7 ·
Thanks for posting the great pix and instructions.

I decided to swap seatcushions and backrest from left to right seat to even out the wear. Generally, it went as described in your post.

The back cushion and cover assembly wear easy enough. The headrest easily snaps out of the electric adjuster once you got the backrest cover with the two screws off. You will have an easier time if you remove the headrest mechanism. to do this, push the headrest mechanism to the left, a quick gentle tap against the base where it snaps onto the steal structure should do. to remove the two headrest dowels, on the backside of each dowel, inside the seat structure, use a long screwdriver to depress the locking tab.

I intended to swap lower seat cushion assemblies, ha ha, don't bother if you have the airbag sensor under the cushion of the passenger seat. you will have to swap leather covers, the cushion material will have to stay with the respective seat, as the pax seat cushion has a extra cutout for the module that is connected to the weight sensing grid. Swapping covers was a real pain in the @!!!%&*.

All in all, the job from start to finish took me about 6 hrs, and it's not like I am unskilled or anything. If I did it again, I suspect it would still take me 4hrs. Lucky me, my car does not have the orthopedic seats with inflateable lumbars, otherwise i suspect it may have taken longer.

Result was worth the effort!
 
#8 ·
I should add my seats have the electric adjustments, I raised the seatbottom as high as it would go front and back, moved the backrest as far forward as it would go, and retracted the headrest all the way. The fore and aft adjustment on each seat was such that the forward and aft mount bolts were accessable. Remember with the electric seats, once removed, no adjustment is possible. This is the position i did the entire cushion swap in, worked well, and easy to remove from car too.
 
#11 ·
I know this is a very old thread, but I want to add a piece on removing the headrest grommets at the top of the seat back. That's the place I got hung up on when I referred to this article.

Once you have the leather or cloth out away from the frame, you can reach in with a long screwdriver and push in a tab on the grommet.
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Here's what that tab looks like on the grommet. The blue rectangle part needs to be lined up with a notch in the metal seat frame too:
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While you push that tab (yellow) you need to pull out on the top of the plastic grommet and it should come out.
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