Mat-One-T
Member
Hi Everyone,
The seat drawer in my 2017 MP has been a constant source of irritation, and I believe others experience the same issue of the sliders pulling out of the bearing races and spilling ball bearings everywhere. There are two reasons why this happens:
1. The runners supplied by MB/Westfalia are pretty low quality, and not fit for purpose in my opinion.
2. The plastic drawer is really flimsy, and the sides pull together when you add load to the drawer, which is why the sliders pull out of the bearing races.
The runners seem to be a standard length (350mm), but the hole positions for fixing may not be. Most generic runners have lots of holes for fixing, so you may get lucky. I've attached a photo with a steel rule next to the original runner fitted to my model (top of the picture is the back of the runner as installed).
The runner replacement took 2-3 hours, I have done this kind of thing before, and I already had all of the tools (drill, bits, rivets, rivet gun).
I opted for a double extension runner from Amazon (YENUO Heavy Duty Drawer Runners Slides Full Extension 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 1000 mm Ball Bearing Side Mount Rails Track Glides 68 kg 1 Pair : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools) and they were about £22. The main difference with the runners I chose is that they are about 50mm tall instead of the original ~30mm. You can buy heavy duty single extension runners, but I wanted to be able to pull the drawer further out, which is why I opted for these ones. The build quality is far superior to the originals, the steel is at least 50% thicker!
I opted not to remove the seat, as it is pretty heavy (130kg?), but it is a bit of a squeeze to get underneath, particularly as you need to drill out the rivets holding the original runners in place.
My drawer was already hanging loose when I started the replacement, but I believe there are a couple of black plastic release arms on each runner that need to be bent in order to remove the drawer.
I drilled out the rivets holding the old runner in place (5mm rivets on my model), and the grey block at the front of the runner (torx screw) as the new runners were taller and would have fouled on it.
Runner removed, try avoid dropping rivet bits into the seat slide channels! There is a spacer between the runner and the seat under one of the holes, so watch out for this and refit with the new runner. At this point I measured the distance between the seat where the runners are installed, then subtracted the thickness of the new fully assembled runners to confirm the drawer would still fit. It turned out that the drawer was slightly too narrow, so I spaced the sliders attached to the drawer using washers. The draw slider bits are held on with torx screws, so are easy to remove and replace.
I put masking tape over the old holes and drew a straight(ish) line through them as I knew only two of the holes in the new runners matched up (the hole furthest back matched, and this is the most important as it locates the runner so that the drawer will latch when it closes). I offered up the new runner and realised it was fouling on the seat cross member (to the left of the tape), so I cut the corner off the runner, and that fixed the problem
I then fixed the runner in with the two matching rivets and drilled a new hole for a third. This seemed enough to keep it in place, but the originals had four rivets, so time will tell!
New runners (sliders?) installed on the seat, and the re-spaced mating parts screwed onto the drawer. Lined the draw bits up with the sliding seat bits, and it all just went together and latched first time! The grey plastic slide supports don't fit any more, but I think they were only there as the old runners were so woeful. One options I wondered about is putting a support underneath at the front of the drawer that has about 5mm clearance from the floor, as this would protect the runners if the drawer weight gets to heavy, or you accidentally stand on it when open.
I didn't get a picture of the drawer re-fitted, but did record this video: Drawer Video
Hope this helps, was in a rush to get it done so didn't take any more pictures! Happy to answer questions..
Mat
The seat drawer in my 2017 MP has been a constant source of irritation, and I believe others experience the same issue of the sliders pulling out of the bearing races and spilling ball bearings everywhere. There are two reasons why this happens:
1. The runners supplied by MB/Westfalia are pretty low quality, and not fit for purpose in my opinion.
2. The plastic drawer is really flimsy, and the sides pull together when you add load to the drawer, which is why the sliders pull out of the bearing races.
The runners seem to be a standard length (350mm), but the hole positions for fixing may not be. Most generic runners have lots of holes for fixing, so you may get lucky. I've attached a photo with a steel rule next to the original runner fitted to my model (top of the picture is the back of the runner as installed).
The runner replacement took 2-3 hours, I have done this kind of thing before, and I already had all of the tools (drill, bits, rivets, rivet gun).
I opted for a double extension runner from Amazon (YENUO Heavy Duty Drawer Runners Slides Full Extension 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 1000 mm Ball Bearing Side Mount Rails Track Glides 68 kg 1 Pair : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools) and they were about £22. The main difference with the runners I chose is that they are about 50mm tall instead of the original ~30mm. You can buy heavy duty single extension runners, but I wanted to be able to pull the drawer further out, which is why I opted for these ones. The build quality is far superior to the originals, the steel is at least 50% thicker!
I opted not to remove the seat, as it is pretty heavy (130kg?), but it is a bit of a squeeze to get underneath, particularly as you need to drill out the rivets holding the original runners in place.
My drawer was already hanging loose when I started the replacement, but I believe there are a couple of black plastic release arms on each runner that need to be bent in order to remove the drawer.
I drilled out the rivets holding the old runner in place (5mm rivets on my model), and the grey block at the front of the runner (torx screw) as the new runners were taller and would have fouled on it.
Runner removed, try avoid dropping rivet bits into the seat slide channels! There is a spacer between the runner and the seat under one of the holes, so watch out for this and refit with the new runner. At this point I measured the distance between the seat where the runners are installed, then subtracted the thickness of the new fully assembled runners to confirm the drawer would still fit. It turned out that the drawer was slightly too narrow, so I spaced the sliders attached to the drawer using washers. The draw slider bits are held on with torx screws, so are easy to remove and replace.
I put masking tape over the old holes and drew a straight(ish) line through them as I knew only two of the holes in the new runners matched up (the hole furthest back matched, and this is the most important as it locates the runner so that the drawer will latch when it closes). I offered up the new runner and realised it was fouling on the seat cross member (to the left of the tape), so I cut the corner off the runner, and that fixed the problem
I then fixed the runner in with the two matching rivets and drilled a new hole for a third. This seemed enough to keep it in place, but the originals had four rivets, so time will tell! New runners (sliders?) installed on the seat, and the re-spaced mating parts screwed onto the drawer. Lined the draw bits up with the sliding seat bits, and it all just went together and latched first time! The grey plastic slide supports don't fit any more, but I think they were only there as the old runners were so woeful. One options I wondered about is putting a support underneath at the front of the drawer that has about 5mm clearance from the floor, as this would protect the runners if the drawer weight gets to heavy, or you accidentally stand on it when open.
I didn't get a picture of the drawer re-fitted, but did record this video: Drawer Video
Hope this helps, was in a rush to get it done so didn't take any more pictures! Happy to answer questions..
Mat
