[Sam Cogley]

As part of the rehab of the memory seats that I'm swapping into my '98 ML320, I checked the continuity of the heating elements. Three of the four (both seat bottoms, one seat back) were in the 8-12 ohm range. The fourth registered around 32 ohms. I could see if one of my other seat backs (these things are being rebuilt out of a set that had good leather and cushions but trashed frames, and one that had good frames and worn-out seating surfaces) has an element that matches the three around 10 ohms, but it looks like the heating element is sewn to the upholstery at one end. Swapping that won't be impossible, but inconvenient. Anyone have thoughts on why the one element has 3x the resistance of the other 3?

 

[mattml430]

As part of the rehab of the memory seats that I'm swapping into my '98 ML320, I checked the continuity of the heating elements. Three of the four (both seat bottoms, one seat back) were in the 8-12 ohm range. The fourth registered around 32 ohms. I could see if one of my other seat backs (these things are being rebuilt out of a set that had good leather and cushions but trashed frames, and one that had good frames and worn-out seating surfaces) has an element that matches the three around 10 ohms, but it looks like the heating element is sewn to the upholstery at one end. Swapping that won't be impossible, but inconvenient. Anyone have thoughts on why the one element has 3x the resistance of the other 3?

I do remember there was an issue with heating seats burning upholstery in one spot. Maybe you have one of them.

 

[Sam Cogley]

I do remember there was an issue with heating seats burning upholstery in one spot. Maybe you have one of them.

I read about that in some older threads. The upholstery and foam don’t show any signs of heat damage, and they were replacement seats in the dead ML I removed them from (2000 ML430, but the seat cushions are date coded 2005).