W163 Comand fitment

[mercman1969]

Ok folks,

have now got my comand unit and I suppose it is the GPS thingy

how best to go about fitting it....is ther a pdf sheet floating around anywhere

Moving from sinlge to Double Din do you need a cradle to fit the unit into
what do you do with the GPS module

Anything else I need to do or is it simply plug n play

Regards

Pete

 

[wobbly]

Fitting Comand into a W163 is really easy.
Remove old stereo, and compartment that is underneath, there is no cradle, the mounts are already fitted, gps antenna fixes on top of the glovebox, new cable harness fits between existing wiring and Comand.
Then its plug and play.

Look here

http://www.mercupgrades.com/COMAND+Retrofit-article-1.html

 

[mercman1969]

NEW cable Harness? from dealership?

GPS on top of glovebox...lierally on top of dashboard or underside of dash?

 

[Alfie]

If your ML is a post facelifted one then it really is plug and play. If you have a CD changer then you will need a small loom adapter nad possibly an antenna adapter.

The factory antenna can go on the roof, the cabling is in place and re-appears behind the existing audio10. You will need to cut two black lugs off the back of the double din housing. Connect it all up and switch it on.

20 minutes tops!

 

[wobbly]

NEW cable Harness? from dealership?

GPS on top of glovebox...lierally on top of dashboard or underside of dash?

Antenna on top of the glovebox, underneath the dash.

New cable dealer or
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Umruest-Adapt...ryZ76084QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[mercman1969]

Am now really confused

Right ok, here goes what I got

I have one of these

I have a square Antenna that has this connection on it

The Car in question is a 52 plated ML320....It also has a CD Changer in the boot and an after market fitted DVD player with twin headrest screens

Do I also require the following

Cheers in advance

 

[wobbly]

Yes you will need the harness in the picture, but you will not need to use the antenna cable in that harness as this is a adaptor from the APS30 antenna with a round connector to a square connector, and your gps antenna already has the square connector that you need.

As for the aftermarket DVD, sorry havnt got a clue

 

[Alfie]

Yes you will need the harness in the picture, but you will not need to use the antenna cable in that harness as this is a adaptor from the APS30 antenna with a round connector to a square connector, and your gps antenna already has the square connector that you need.

As for the aftermarket DVD, sorry havnt got a clue

Yep, I agree with that.

 

[mercman1969]

Ok,

Finally got my wiring adapter....it has a speed sensor wire that is on its own....what do you do with that?

Regards

Pete

 

[richard]

Ok,

Finally got my wiring adapter....it has a speed sensor wire that is on its own....what do you do with that?

Regards

Pete

Ignore it on the W163, speed signal is already on connector A pin 1, and assuming your COMAND is a W163 unit it will be looking there for it

Where did you get your harness from ? Does your car have the CD changer ?

Richard

 

[mercman1969]

Ignore it on the W163, speed signal is already on connector A pin 1, and assuming your COMAND is a W163 unit it will be looking there for it

Where did you get your harness from ? Does your car have the CD changer ?

Richard

Richard,

Got the harness from a chap in Germany..........YEs, Mine does have the CD Changer although having trouble with it at the minute as 1 of the optic cable conectors have been damaged by a guy installing my LPG Conversion

There is light from the cable but for some reason the Red connector at the Changer lights up the White end of the unit connector and vice versa....very odd

 

[richard]

The fibre lighting up is correct - thats because its transmit at one end and receive at the other end and they connectors are keyed so they fit in the correct parts of the connector shell (or the D2B joiner) - If light works, I would be surprised if you have a fibre cable issue. Check its plugged in at the other end, and that the CDC has power (the D2B CDC will eject the cartridge without the fibre connected)

The harness you got from Germany should have 3 wires for the CDC and 1 for reversing. Your supplied has put in the speed signal connection (for W208/W210), and there are 2 twisted together wires on cars with CANbus (all except W163).
2 of the CDC (the power) wires go into the C1 (little) connector, the other CDC cable (wakeup) and the reverse signal go into the C2 connector.

Really speaking the correct harness only has 4 wires for the ML.

Your harness picture above is the MY2002/2003 genuine Mercedes version which also converts the antenna cable to connect to the antenna wiring - you then connect a genuine antenna on the roof.

Richard

 

[mercman1969]

oki koki...........whats the telephone looking thing for?

Does this mean I have got telephone pre wire...o I do hope so as that is next

 

[mercman1969]

Anybody have any idea what this is
I have nothing in my centre armrest so perhaps not pre install

 

[Diesel Benz]

Anybody have any idea what this is
I have nothing in my centre armrest so perhaps not pre install

Looks like the cradle connector and the antenna connector. That should mean prewiring (if you had something more, it would not be prewiring but a whole HF kit, phone pre-installation).

 

[mercman1969]

There are a few more wires behind tucked away....will try and get a photo of them
1 looks like an ariel cable but it has a round hole at the end

Will go and drag out all the cables and get a photo of them

If it is pre wire, does that mean I simply need a cradle? What powers the cradle?

 

[richard]

The European ML from MY2002 facelift has the following wiring in place

a) GPS antenna wire from roof (fakra connector) to back of stereo ending in female version of the connector shown in the adapter (1st picture above) (lets call it a XXX connector as i;ve forgotten the name). In MY2004 it ends in the correct grey connector for COMAND. In MY02/03 you need the adapter coax shown in the 1st picture
b) Phone antenna from roof (fakra connector) to under right hand front seat ending in XXX connector (cant remember if male or female)
c) Antenna cable from there to the mini coax female you show in 2nd picture. In MY2004 it changes to a fakra for the UHI type connector
d) Phone control cable from under seat to the back of stereo (also shown in 2nd picture) - in MY2004 it changes connector type for UHI also.

If you look in www.mercupgrades.com theres a ML phone document which shows a lot of the phone related sections.

Now, heres the trouble, If you are going to install phone, you actually want to install the UHI system not the MY02/03 fixed 6310i system - which means the coax connector on the end at the dashboard is wrong. But, its less of an issue because you probably want to install it in the centre glovebox so may not want to use much of the car's existing wiring.

Richard

 

[mercman1969]

Ok

So in a round about way

1. What is already there is useless?
2. A rewire will be required along with some hardware to install the phone in centre glove box?

Ball park figure of price

 

[Diesel Benz]

Richard, what about the old HF kit with ViseeO? Or is this kit for even older phones?

 

[richard]

This is everything (except the cradle, but be ware you can not use the MB HFP (cheap) cradle, you have to use the SAP cradle whihc means Nokia phone, or a ViseeO.

Now, I happen to know that a cheaper ViseeO for UHI cars with D2B ("mbu 2000") is coming (rather than having to buy a UHI 6310i cradle and a Viseeo mbu-1000- pricing is not yet available, although i'd guess at £300 for it. (I have on for eval, but its got a few bugs still)


Richard