Rear seat headrests

[renault19]

Yeah, thanks wtzouris and camaroguy. I got mine down this Sunday, after giving the headrests another "shock". There seems to be tiny legroom beyond the headrest's upmost position, into which I first brought (pulled up) the headrest. From this upmost position, it takes a few firm blows while holding the locking/release tab, and the headrest easily goes all the way down, flush with the rear seats.

It's also correct that now I can completely remove the rear headrests, after having done the above operation. And the locking mechanism for raising or lowering the headrests to a particular height does continue to work and wasn't damaged.

 

[leousa]

Yeah, strong hit with a fist solved the problem

Thanks for the advise.

 

[leeheath]

I went to the dealer and they said the headrests could be removed but then it would not be possible to put them back. My car is leased so I didn't do it.
It's so crazy, because the front headrests can be removed & put back!!
Should I try the heavy duty "pounding"…..??
I have the 2014 model.

 

[renault19]

Hi leeheath and welcome to the mybced forum!
I cannot tell you what is right or not right for you. But I can assure you the rear headrests will go all the way down, can be taken out, and will fit back in normally. You will discover many interesting postings to this forum by folks who share their experiences and know at least as much if not more than what the average MB dealer may tell you.

 

[JeffRay]

Lee,

So, it sounds like MB safety speak. They really don't want us to remove the headrests so will tell us we cannot and make it hard to even do so. There must be some safety engineer at MB who says to themselves, if the customer removes the rear headrests to put the seats down, does not replace it, and has an accident where the rear passenger gets whiplash, they don't want that to happen. If someone else has a theory other than ignorance, please post.

 

[leeheath]

Buy why then is it possible to remove the front seat headrests????
I really don't understand!!!!

 

[JeffRay]

Lee,

So the story continues like this. But Mr. MB safety engineer, why is the front headrest removable? Of course, we had our reasons. The front seat does not fold forward so there is no reason for a customer to remove the headrest. So in that circumstance, there is no safety issue. Therefore, we do not need to spend a few pennies and ounces more for the pin and the hole. Kapiche?

 

[GlennD]

I had the rests pulled up so I could see through the bars. When I got the car back from the body shop they had them in the full down position so it looks like they broke them.

I also found the battery meter much lower than when I dropped off the car. It looks like a few joy rides in a seldom seen electric car. I had more than enough juice to get home but if not I would have been really pissed since I removed the L1 EVSE before dropping off the car.

 

[curmudgeon]

So has anyone discovered a more elegant way of removing this locking pin, short of brute force?

 

[oilerlord]

Bump.

Hey guys...looking at a way of (gracefully) removing the rear headrests - without resorting to undue force. My wife comments how they take up a lot of rearward visibility - and she's right. For that reason, we pretty much drive around all the time with the rear seats down. I suppose that's one solution, but I'd rather just be able to lift the rear headrests out (like every other car we've owned). Any update on this?

 

[curmudgeon]

No, but the brute force method doesn't actually cause any irreversible damage. You can still raise them to their "normal" position.

Just raise them all the way, and, while holding in the button, quickly push down the headrest all the way. It's more speed than strength.

Pretty sure removing them would cause a permanent change to some mechanism.

 

[GlennD]

My 2017 b had no stops. I just slid them off and I put them in a box for lease's end I recall forcing my 2014 though.

 

[JeffRay]

I forced my 2017 down. Easier this time having done it once before.

 

[oilerlord]

After using the "speed" instead of the brute force approach, the headrests now easily move all the way down and are easily removed. No doubt this must have forced some safety catch a millimeter or two out of the way, but they still lock in all positions. No idea why Mercedes would design them this way. Makes no sense. I'm going to keep them in the down position as Murphy's law would suggest the one time they need to be there - they won't be.

Thanks guys!

 

[JeffRay]

Oilerlord,

My theory is that they don't want the rear headrests removed for safety reasons. By making us use force, they can argue that it was a deliberate action. Such is the mind of a safety engineer with all due respect to what they otherwise have done to make our cars much safer than decades ago.

 

[GlennD]

Oilerlord,

My theory is that they don't want the rear headrests removed for safety reasons. By making us use force, they can argue that it was a deliberate action. Such is the mind of a safety engineer with all due respect to what they otherwise have done to make our cars much safer than decades ago.

Either the dealer broke the stops or they changed something. I was prepared to force the headrests off but it was not necessary.

 

[barsaec]

Got mine down yesterday. Just a simple tap with an open-hand, and down they went. My wife thinks I'm a hero now. Thanks! Visibility is much improved.

 

[dot4f]

Brilliant! Such an easy fix. Took me all of 10 seconds per seat. Thanks a million for the tip. Here's my recap of the really simple procedure:

1. From a rear door fold a rear seat slightly, put your knee on the seat
2. Extend the headrest fully out
3. Hold in adjustment button
4. Slam headrest down/in as fast & hard as you can
5. If you don't get it on the first time, just try again. Got one on the first try, the 2nd one took 3 tries.
6. You may hear a little noise of the clip falling out - this is good & normal
7. You now can fully remove the headrest, fully lower the headrest, and it locks in all the positions like normal - no harm at all.

This is how the car should have shipped, but it's such an easy fix, and it didn't harm anything.

 

[Envador]

We just bought a 32k mile 2014 BED this weekend. First google result ends up here. I tried the Hulkamania slam suggestions and failed. I felt like if I body slammed any harder I was going to damage the headrest cushion and I'd be real sorry then.

I have another way to get these headrests down all the way! My way involves a metal file so proceed with caution.

First, the stop pin is on the side opposite of the adjustment button.
You can actually lift the headrest high enough to reveal the notch that catches against the stop pin.
My solution is to file down the 90 degree notch into a 45 degree slope to allow the pin to slide past.
Will try to post some photos here:

Finished photo first. The rear side headrests don't go all the way down. There is a stop pin that prevents the headrest from being completely removed or pushed all the way down. Left headrest is post-modification and pushed all the way down for comparison with the right headrest which is pre-modification.

Lift the headrest high enough to reveal the notch that catches the stop pin preventing the headrest from lowering all the way down. In the photo, this is the bar on the right side, the side opposite the height adjustment button.

Closeup of the notch that catches the stop pin that prevents the headrest from being pushed all the way down.

Partway through the filing. File the perpendicular cut of the notch to become a slope so the stop pin can slip past.

Finished filing. Not as "slopey" as the original, but it shall pass! (with a bit of force)

Trusty metal file and banana for scale.

In case these images don't show up, you might be able to see them by going to imgur here https://imgur.com/gallery/U1NkTt9 First time posting, so not sure how bad I'll be moderated. Imgur gallery id is U1NkTt9 fwiw.

Safety concerns? I doubt filing down that notch will weaken anything enough to make a difference. Note that this mod only allows all-the-way-down, but still doesn't allow you to remove the headrests all the way out of the car. You're going to have to resort to Popeye-ing that pin into submission for full extraction.

Maybe I simply got lucky with a very strong stop pin? Hopefully this helps someone else who might have an invincible stop pin -- or Olive Oyl arms!