It's not a comfortable ride when your time in the saddle exceeds a half day, is it? It's not my back though, that hurts. Those seats seem to be made out of hardened concrete, so it's my *** that hurts! I bought one of those "wedge-cushion" things and although it doesn't make the Xfire ride like a 1970's Cadillac, it does make a journey bearable.

 

Not everyone's cup of tea, but swapping in seats from an R171 was one of the best upgrades I ever made to my Crossfire. If you are not as particular about the looks of the button panel as I am, then it would be super easy, as the R171 seats bolt directly into the Crossfire.



p.s.- I am told the R172 seats are even better, but I have not looked into them, nor if they will bolt in as easily to our R170 platform.

 

they look great what model did the seat come out of and if you don’t mind me asking the price 😉. Lastly do the heated seats work as well.
thanks. Rich Barry

 

These came from a 2006(?) SLK55. Heated seats do work, and I have a plan for the Airscarf to work both heated and unheated in the future. This swap would be easier on a 2005+ Crosffire, as the 04's use different seat connectors. Still wiring will have to be done to make it work, as these seats originally had individual computers, and push buttons for seat position memory. I bought these seats without the computers, and because those were missing, no one in the SLK World forums wanted them. I paid $300 picked up for them. The seats bolt into the Crossfire, but the side panel where you see the controls in the pic is totally different. I wound up cutting the plastic of the SLK55 control panel, and then cutting a similarly sized rectangle out of the original Crossfire panel, epoxying the Crossfire controls into the SLK55 panels, and then some sanding, and color matched interior paint. You can see they're not perfect when you get right down and look at them, but from more than 5' away, you really can't tell. What I can tell is that my backside is a whole lot happier with these.


Here's what the original buttons looked like. Nice, but without the original computers and a ton of interfacing that the Crossfire doesn't have, it would be difficult to use these as is. Plan on some "arts & crafts" time to graft in the Crossfire buttons, then put your electrician hat on to splice the Crossfire seat wiring hardness into the motors of the SLK seats. The good news is that it all works, 100%. No computer programming, no extra electronics, just time with wire cutters, a soldering iron, and some zip ties to hold all of the wiring out of harm's way. I spent two evening doing the grafting, mainly just waiting on epoxy and paint to dry. I spent one other evening doing the wiring. Once I figured out which set of Crossfire switch wiring went to which motor in the seat (I used a small 12v battery to run things for me outside the car), the second seat took me less than an hour to wiring up, neaten up, and get ready for the car.

Now, word of caution. The way they make your backside feel better is that they have more cushioning in them, which raises your seating position. For my 5'8" frame, they are fine. When we did the Fall Dragon event this year, I let my 6'3" son drive, and he was hating the increased height, as he was having to bend down to see out of the windshield adequately on the tight, uphill turns. Normal driving he sometimes complained, but he also liked the support better. My Wife and I are both the same height, and like these, and plan on sticking with them. Also, the side bolsters are far more effective, and keep you planted in the seat during any hard cornering.

 

Installed Mopar 82208313 Wheel Locks. Still one set available on ebay at a pretty good price:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/26497655756...QAAOSwpk9f13Tp

 

I drove it to work. First time it has been on the road for over six months.

Just haven't had the time to enjoy it.

The drive today was as thrilling as the first time back in 2007. It never gets old.

 

Will you take a picture of 1 wheel on your car that shows the difference in appearance between this lug bolt & the originals?

 

WD40, Here is a pic of the wheel lock bolt on my stock SRT6 wheels...

 

WD40: Another pic, this one not so darn close-up...

 

Drove the car for the first time
A whole 50 feet !

Had to move it from one carport to the other to keep it away from the guys doing repairs to my parents house from a tree falling on it.

One of these days I'll leave the driveway with it.

 

LovIng that garage floor !

 

We had a record high temperature today. 85 degrees F. I took advantage of the nice day and finally removed the alarm from my Crossfire before the old batteries caused problems. Went out for a fun drive afterwards.

 

Obviously the words of a wild man!! You sir are COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL! Have you ALWAYS been this reckless?

 

Yep living on the edge

I went to the next town over today to get something from mcdonalds for an excuse to actually "drive" it.

What I learned...

There is no place to put ANYTHING inside storage wise if someone is riding with you.
The doors are very tall. George was 6 foot tall. Im 5'10 or so and arm on door sill isnt happening but the arm rest seems to low.

Visibility with the top up is very limited. Weather is to nasty and cold to try it with the top down yet. Does have decent pep getting up and go wise so no complaints there.

Ride is harsh. No idea what George put on it shocks wise so that may be why. Handling is good in curves and tracked decent straight road wise.

Heater controls make no sense.
Where is floor only?
Best I remember its laid out like this :
I have icons on the **** for defrost at 12'oclock.
Face only at 9'oclock.
Face and floor at 6'oclock
Everywhere at 3'oclock.
With lots of dots in between them all.

 

Put it on face and floor and close the dash vent openings.

 

Thats what I did. Just seemed strange since I imagine like me most people cant reach the passenger side vent while driving

What are the dots between the settings for?

 

The dots are a form of 'Blending' between the top/right/lower/and left direction arrow airflow indications. For instance, if you place the indicator to 3 oclock and turn it clockwise one click, it'll partially direct the flow to the 6 oclock position vents indicated at that 6 oclock position. See, it blends 2/3'rds to the 3 oclock position and 1/3rd to the 6 oclock positional vents listed. You might have to download the owners manual at the forum page for the documents collection (if I have totally flummoxed you trying to follow my overly detailed explanation). Good luck! And welcome, I know you'll do George proud caring for your new XF!


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Thanks !

The manual may be in the car somewhere but with the constant raining I havent had time to back it out and search for it. I downloaded the manual already and found the section on the climate control stuff but its a bit thin on real info on what the settings do.

Im going to download the mercedes manual for the slk 320 and see if it has more info on it.

 

Like James1549 & GraphiteGhost stated below, you will have to close the dash vents to direct any significant air flow elsewhere. Air flows thru dash vents always unless you close them. Simplified the HVAC control system. Germans kept it simple for years. When I owned Merkur XR4Ti's back in the day (mid to late 1980s), the HVAC system functioned the same way. Our 2006 VW New Beetle Convertible HVAC system also functioned like this.

 

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Got one of those 4 wheel tire stem (sensor) TPMS systems, I say they are quite fun to play with! The BEST Bang-For-The-Buck I've spent for quite a while! Damn little thing is awesome! All 4 wheels tire pressure and tire temperature (not really interested in the tire temperature part but what the heck). Still a firm believer in using the tire pressure gauge, it's just a toy that keeps on entertaining!


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