CD Changer cable

[mercman1969]

Removed my audio10 today to begin the comand retrofit

Had the lpg serviced last week and garage had to remove radio to re site the switch.....cd changer not worked since and so once got radio removal keys removed radio to see what was what

Looks like 1 of the fibreoptic cables has been crushed when garage refitted the radio....question is can you simply cut out the crushed area and re terminate or do they have to be a finate length?

If you cant reterminate how big a job to rewire the cd changer

Cheers

Pete

 

[Alfie]

Removed my audio10 today to begin the comand retrofit

Had the lpg serviced last week and garage had to remove radio to re site the switch.....cd changer not worked since and so once got radio removal keys removed radio to see what was what

Looks like 1 of the fibreoptic cables has been crushed when garage refitted the radio....question is can you simply cut out the crushed area and re terminate or do they have to be a finate length?

If you cant reterminate how big a job to rewire the cd changer

Cheers

Pete

Best off replacing that length of fibre. You can try cutting it but I wouldnt hold out much hope of it working myself.

What car are we talking about?

If the garage broke it then they should fix it!

 

[mercman1969]

Car is a W163...Waiting to hear back from garage......it is in wolverhampton and so may be easier to replace it myself rather than 2 hour drive

 

[Alfie]

Car is a W163...Waiting to hear back from garage......it is in wolverhampton and so may be easier to replace it myself rather than 2 hour drive

Ah. The fibre goes from the Audio 10 head unit to the back of the car, right hand side of the boot/load area. Its a pain to replace.

 

[mercman1969]

Ah. The fibre goes from the Audio 10 head unit to the back of the car, right hand side of the boot/load area. Its a pain to replace.

Yeah, Thought it might be....was hoping there might have been a break in terminal somewhere in the line

Trouble is with optic you cant really adopt the 'pull thru' method can you

 

[edges]

Being from a comms background fibre cable is pretty tuff stuff. If you can I would put a light source at one end and see if it appears at the other end. Fibre cables can be cut and reterminated but you would need special tools and suspect cable would be short or hard to work on in its location. The fibre cable is not a tuned length which I suspect you think it is

 

[edges]

had another thought If they had to take out the cable during your install they could have made the fibre end dirty. YOU will not be able to tell using your eyes, Use a jet of air to blow across the fibre end. DO NOT wipe it on anything, they are easily scratched and you will probably do more harm than good

 

[mercman1969]

I have access to a fibre cutter....friend of mine is in the aircraft industry

I have some lotoxane wipes and isopropanol cleaner.......

Regards

Pete

 

[television]

MB do a join repair kit for this

 

[mercman1969]

MB do a join repair kit for this

Cool.....any idea of a part number and what is supplied

The splices are not damaged, just the cable is crushed

 

[richard]

MB do a join repair kit for this

Hiya, would you like to expand on this ?

They do a joiner for joining 2 already terminated fibres, but I dont think they do anything for re-termintaing the fibre. The advice normally is replace broken fibres. The ML fibre comes as a pair in a black crush resistant casing.

If your ML has phone and is facelift (post MY02) then you need the fibre that pops out underneat the drivers seat which is where phone controller lives. I replaced that fibre once when i added voice control to my ML - pain in the proverbial to replace.

Now, slighlty back on topic

If you diassemble the fibre connector in the head unit, you can remove the terminator from the cable (carefully raise the metal clip) - cut the old fibre at exact right angle with a very sharp knife and put the connector back on, Buy a fibre joiner and a short section of pre-terminated fibre (I think the only way you can buy it from MB) and extend it back to original cable. If you look on mercupgrades.com there is a D2B document with the part numbers

Richard

 

[DansSlk]

They do a joiner for joining 2 already terminated fibres, but I dont think they do anything for re-termintaing the fibre. The advice normally is replace broken fibres. The ML fibre comes as a pair in a black crush resistant casing.

Same as what i thought, never seen a damaged fibre repair method.

R&R

 

[television]

I wish I had not said anything and I have been an hour looking for it. Must have been on my old program.

I am going to sit in the corner and hide away for a while

From the unit sending the source does it light up if held straight as one could put a clamp plate on to keep it straight

 

[edges]

to join fibre ends you either have to put a connector on each end and use a coupler or you need access to a fusion slicer, not cheap. You can not use a sharp knife and hope for the best. You need a special mircoscope to look at the end to ensure it was cleaved correctly and check that when you polish the end it is clean.
You are better checking the cable is actually damaged by holding 1 end to a light source and viewing the other end. Suggest a torch at one end and do the check at night when its dark.
A fibre is extremely thin, crushing the cable should not be a issue as normally the fibre is protected in kavilar. So unless its been sheared or MB use really crap cables, cheapest option is to clean as you suggest