There has been some discussion regarding converting the 4 way seat to an 8 way seat. The recliner motor is located in the seat back & we do not have to do anything with it except connect the power line that is part of the switch assembly. We are only dealing with 3 motors.

Pictures at the bottom.

THE SHORT FORM FOR THIS PROJECT:
Obtain a passenger motor assembly from a MB SLK320
...Available on ebay for $125 - $200 Use the following search titles.
...2001-2004 MERCEDES SLK320 OEM PASSANGER POWER SEAT TRACK ASSY W/ MOTORS
...2001-2004 MERCEDES SLK320 BOTTOM SEAT RIGHT PASSENGER SIDE OEM
Remove the passenger seat from your XF following instructions below.
Install the replacement assembly

SIDE NOTE:
My wife is 5' tall and can just see over the window sill so I found out from Red Dog that I could get an 8 way motor assembly (actually 6 way) on ebay. When the assembly arrived my wife was in the kitchen & asked what it was. I told her it was an ejection seat so that when she was giving me grief while driving I could pitch her out of the car..... She threw a glass of water on me. She has no sense of humor.

The up-down motor will only raise the seat 1.7". Even with the seat all the way up my wife is also using a cushion.

THE DONOR ASSEMBLY
Check that the 3 motors are working by attaching power to the motors & reversing the leads to make sure that the motors run in both directions. Best to position the up-down motor in the up position so you will have room to work during assembly.

NOTE: You may want to review the Power Seat Service Information in the 2004 Crossfire Service Manual Section 8N-94 pg 1020-1033
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ollection.html

SEAT REMOVAL
Remove the four seat bolts with an E12 Torx star bit (you'll need to run the seat forward and backward to access the bolts and easily remove them). Then tilt the seat back forward a bit which will make it easier to remove the seat from the car. Then remove the negative battery cable. Pull the seat upward and toward the door. Remove the 17mm hex seat belt bolt. Lay the seat on it's side and access the electrical connector(s) to disconnect them. You might have to cut a couple of cable ties under there. Make a note of where the plugs are located then remove the seat from the car. DO NOT HOOK UP THE BATTERY OR TRY TO START THE CAR WHILE THE SEAT WIRING IS DISCONNECTED OR YOU MIGHT "HARD SET" THE AIR BAG LIGHT AND THAT WILL REQUIRE A CHRYSLER DEALER TO RESET THE AIR BAG SYSTEM.

Before removing the seat I turned off the passenger air bag. I had to move my car & the air bag light came on. Once the seat was installed & I drove the car & disconnected the battery for 10 minutes & the air bag light went out. I may have gotten lucky. Use your good judgement.

EXISTING 4 WAY ASSEMBLY REMOVAL
Lay the seat assembly on its back on your workbench so the bottom is in front.

Remove the Power Seat Switch assembly. Remove the T20 screw at the front of the assembly from the bottom. Push the side panel with the switches downward and toward you to remove. Disconnect the wiring harness at the plugs. Do not remove any wiring attached to the metal seat pan except the up-down motor wiring.

There is a plastic trim plate at the rear on the door side of the seat. It is mounted with a push pin in a hole. Use a screwdriver to lift it off of the frame. (I managed to break the pin)

Remove the plastic clamps holding the round bar to the seat pan. See attached picture. I used a drift pin in the hole of the attachment pins & a screwdriver as a lever to remove the pins. Once the pins are removed the bracket can be pried off with a screwdriver,

Remove the two rail attachment bolts with a T45 Torx & the recessed Hex shoulder bolt from each side. Note how the assembly is mounted on the seat pan. The brackets that are held on with the hex shoulder bolts need to slide into position when mounting the donor assembly.

Lift the assembly off of the seat pan watching for any interference or wires that need to be disconnected or moved.

NOTE: My donor assembly came with the seat pan attached so I ended up with some extra parts. The plastic brackets securing the wiring & the mounting bar were in really good shape so I had minimal breakage. The rectangular brackets that hold the connectors on can be removed with a 1/4 counterclockwise twist or maybe the other direction. Round brackets can be pried out of their holes with a screwdriver. You will probably not have to remove any of the wiring brackets.

INSTALLING THE DONOR ASSEMBLY
Slide the assembly into the rear part of the seat pan noting the location of the seat rails.

Attach the plastic brackets to the hinge bar at the front of the seat. Note that the center bracket has to sit centered in the seat pan bracket. Install the rear riser motor front attachment bolt next to the hinge bar. You may need to purchase an 8x45 or 50mm long 1.25 pitch metric bolt & plain hex nut. Locktite recommended.

During mounting ensure the harness is routed and secured to avoid potential interference with moving parts. You may want to remove the drivers seat to use for reference for wire routing. You will need some cable ties. It is difficult to see the wiring in the pictures. At the same time you have the opportunity to clean under & behind the seat. Part of the seat back is cloth & can also be cleaned at the same time. Also, note that since the passenger seat is out of the car this is a good time to replace the cabin air filter. Even with the seat out it is still a pain to do.

Install the two T45 rail attachment bolts & the recessed Hex shoulder bolt on each side.

Replace the plastic bracket at the rear on the door side of the seat.

Install the seat. With the seat tipped over plug in the three cables. The red seat belt plug and the black power plugs of the seat are half of a mating plug that is not used. Be sure to install the plugs so that the contacts mate with the vehicle cables. The third cable in the center is for the seat heaters. Install the plug cover & use tie wraps to secure the seat belt & power plugs. Use the drivers seat for reference if you have removed it from the car.

Attach the negative battery cable but do not turn on the ignition. Operate the seat switches to verify that you have power to the seat motors. If there is a problem it is most likely a connector that is not properly installed. Trouble shoot from where the main power plug is located then follow the seat wiring harness from the seat controls to the individual motors.

Install the 17mm seat belt bolt & cover. Wrestle the seat into final position & install the 4 seat bolts E12.

PROJECT IS COMPLETED!!!

PICTURES:
Donor motor assembly on seat pan
Donor motor assembly removed from seat pan
Switch Assembly with wiring harness
Plastic Trim Plate removed
Removing plastic clamps holding the round hinge bar to the seat pan
3 Rail attachment bolt locations
Drivers Seat
Passenger cables installed
Note: Pictures with a 17/07/2017 are of a different installation that have been added.

If there are corrections to this How-To please give me a PM or email & I will incorporate the changes into my post so that all of the information is in one place. Good luck with your installation.

 

Thank you for the excellent write-up, I've been thinking of doing this for several years now. Not realizing the SLK passenger seat offered full adjustment, my thoughts were to get the driver's side assembly from a right hand drive Crossfire and make the switch. Well done!

 

Nice write-up!

 

A VERY nice job of writing this up with accompanying photos . . . Making this thread a "sticky" here in the "How To" forum category . . .

 

Do you mean the "Seat Belt" light or the "Air Bag" light?

 

Yes, I meant Air Bag light & has been corrected in the How-To.

 

I was looking online for parts to do this and found something I didn't know. The SLK has a sticker saying
"MFG by DaimlerChrysler Stuttgart" That was on a 2002 SLK320, also a 2001 AMG SLK32

 

Thanks Red Runner. I used these directions to convert my seat today. Much appreciated.

 

Thanks Stan . . . my Wife is really please with this modification . The 2002 SLK 32 track received last week from Florida was plug and play for my 2005 coupe . And no problem at all with electrical connections .

The only problem I had was that I also broke the plastic trim plate at the rear on the door side of the seat. I could not find where the push pin is .Only after I broke it , I was able to see where is the hole to push the pin . I managed to fix the cover by making this small hole bigger and used an old motorcycle fairing plastic clip push pin type , to hold it in place .

Now ,I will have to try to sell the original track and motor to someone that need it .

Daniel

Pictures :1 and 2 is the SLK track / 3 ,4 and 5 show my 2005 XF original pan and track .Note the wiring harness position and unused connectors coming from switch before taken appart / 6 is the two track side by side / 7 is my XF pan with the SLK 32 track installed in place .Note the wiring harness position and the two connectors .

 

I performed this mod yesterday. Found an SLK320 track on eBay for 124.99, offered him 100.00 with free shipping and he took it. Did the swap in about 2.5 hours. It would have taken me much longer without the awesome tech data written in the above posts. Thanks guys, the wife loves it and is now looking thru the center of the windshield. It does look very odd to look over without a passenger and see that seat above where I am used to seeing it, lol.

Just a quick note for anyone else doing this... The 1st post by Red Runner only mentions removing 2 T45 rail bolts. There are actually 4 T45's and 2 hex head bolts as shown in LagDans picture 13.

 

I performed this modification over the course of 3 afternoons. Found a 2004 SLK320 track on eBay last winter for 125.00, offered him 75.00 plus 38.00 shipping and he took it. The instructions and pictures were very very helpful. I went slow, paid attention to the details, took pictures and because of the heads up on the push pin I did not break it. Before I started I hooked up my battery charger to the replacement track to make sure the 3 motors worked in both directions. I also lubed the gears and tracks before final installation. The step which gave me the most trouble was the removal and reinstalling of the power seat switch assembly. The assembly just did not want to come off or go back on easily and of course, I didn't want to break the assembly with too much force. Probably spent an hour on that step. Happy with the end result of 8-way power passenger seat. Thanks again for the instructions.

 

Performed this upgrade while swaping leather out.
It was 50 bucks plus 25 shipping for slk track on Ebay.
I had already swapped seat bottom out on drivers side so knew the seat assembly well enough to do it all in same afternoon.



Did the bottoms of both seats, then did top of drivers later on.

Convertibles collect tree debris as a price they pay for shade. Good time to vac and steam clean carpet. This mess came out looking like new.

Passenger side seat out and cleaning begins



the pin

old skinz gotta go... Amazing how much better new leather feels to sit on.

Steam them rugs while the seats out. Yes clean new smelling carpet is nice bonus to these swaps.

 

This seat swap may not work for 2006-2008 because the occupant sensor system on the bottom of the seat doesn't have the clearence for the screw drive and motor mechanism. I bought a slk seat rail and could not make it work.

 

I used a 2001 - 2004 SLk 230 power seat track.
Worked perfectly!

 

I have a 2007 Crossfire convertible, would this seat swap work? Thanks.

 

Yes.
The wiring is the same, etc.
Its well worth it having power "Seats"

Of note I only have passenger seats in my Xfire now.
The drivers seats are angled in a way that made me uncomfortable on long trips.
I swapped a passenger seat for my drivers seat and it feels better on my back.
The only other difference is there is cloth on the inside seat bottom so the seat belt doesn't squeak when it rubs, where as my passenger seat swap has leather where seat belt rubs it.... It does not bother me as I shoved one of those seat gap fillers in the space and that prevents noise.

Good luck!!
CaughtInaXF

 

I am going tomorrow on a 6 hour round trip drive to pick up a 2001 R170 SLK complete passenger seat with full power. Will follow up on the install.

 

This by far is the best modification I have ever seen to improve a car. Thank you so much for your research and post. My wife is thrilled. When I picked up my seat I discovered it was a 2000. I had taken measurements and all of your pictures with me so I bought it and it worked out fantastic. If they had not used the same wiring harness as the SLK it would have been a lot harder but it was a snap to put it in with all the new connectors already on the Crossfire.