A couple weeks ago I was sitting in my 2008 e350 waiting for my son to finish practice and since it was cold out, so I had my seat heater on. A started to smell something burning. I didn't think much of it until the smell became stronger and once I got out of the car I noticed a cigarette sized hole in the low back area on the left side of the drivers seat. Upon getting out I also noticed the same sized hole in my jacket.

I had since not used the seat heater as I was planning to bring the car into the dealer, but first wanted to do some research on the issue. However, my wife drove my car and again used the seat heater. The same damn thing happened and now the hole is the size of a nickel and she said the smell was unbearable. Noxious. I look through the recalls for Mercedes and shocked to not see this issue as a recall. WTH?

I have a 2008 E350 4matic and was on my way to work which is only 3 miles from my home. I was a little chilly so I turned on the seat heater. I felt a really bad sting about 3 inches below my waist on my left hip area and it just kept stinging. I reached down to rub it to see if a wasp or bee was stinging me and it was so hot I could barely touch that area. I had no idea what was happening. I looked down and I saw smoke shooting out of the seat, and when I did, I veered off the road and almost went down a very deep ravine. I was so scared !!

I immediately turned off the seat heater. The smoke in my car smelled awful and I'm sure it went into my lungs. I stopped my car got out and it was still shooting smoke but it seemed to be stopping. And, then did stop. I got back in the car and drove 1 more mile to work. All this happened 4 hours ago, and my hip area is still stinging from that occurrence. Even though I didn't use the heater on the way home from work, the seat area seemed to still be very warm, when I got out of the car after arriving home, so now I'm afraid to even drive the car thinking it could burn any time at all. What can I do?? Anyone's help would be greatly appreciated!!