Rose Chap
MB Enthusiast
This isn't intended to be a How To as such, since such guides already exist and were done by those with far higher skills than myself, but this write up may still be useful to those undertaking the scary venture that is fitting COMAND in a facelifted W208.
To start with you'll need to buy...
COMAND unit (Alfie sold me mine)
GPS Antenna
Teleatlas disc
C2 connector. Part number: 034 545 75 28
C2 connector housing. Part number: 000 545 42 30
C1 connector. Part number: A034 545 75 28
Numerous pins for C1 and C2 connectors (I needed 10). Part number: 008 545 55 26
Auxilliary input cable. Part number: A210 440 50 05
You'll also need...
Radio removal keys
A good range of tools (pliers, hacksaw, scalpel)
Soldering iron
Spade connectors
Crimping tool
Numerous lengths of cable
To start with, I made up the C1 and C2 connectors by wiring up all the pins I needed, and affixing spade connectors to the lengths of cable. From Alfie’s How To I have shamelessly nicked this link -> http://users.pandora.be/miata/documents/comand/COMAND_Pin_Layout.doc
I also had to chop the connector block off the auxiliary input cable, and I soldered spade connectors to these cables for easy connection later.
At this stage the following thoughts were going through my mind. “Soldering really isn’t as easy as I remember”, “Blimey these pins are small”, and “I can’t believe that aux cable cost 25 quid”.
Then the install started proper.
Here is the view before I took the Audio 10 out.
Using the radio removal keys, I took out the Audio 10, and the tray underneath, and to save marking the dash I taped up the surrounding area with duct tape. The cables you can see are the A, B, C (which I had to butcher later) and the aerial cable. The fibre optic cable for the CD changer is there too but you can’t really make it out.
The next bit was the first scary bit – taking a hacksaw to the plastic divide between the radio and the cubby hole. I just took it slow and steady.
And out it came!
A brief period of euphoria followed, so I decided to press on and took the glove box out, leaving me with a hole in the dash looking like this.
Now, with a COMAND shaped hole in the dash I figured it was time to look and see what I had to do with the C connector, and frankly it wasn’t pretty.
I had to chop the five cables going into the C connector, making a note which one went into which pin, as I needed all of them for eventual wiring into the C2 connector (for CAN Hi, CAN Lo and D2B wakeup) and the C1 connector (CD changer power + and -). On these cables I soldered spade connectors to be able to connect them to the C1 and C2 cables I made up previously.
This is a picture of the work in progress.
Most unfortunately I did NOT have a speed pulse cable in my C connector. This meant digging around in the passenger footwell area to find the right cable. This involved pulling off the sill covering, undoing a few screws, using a bit of brute force and general cursing.
What I was looking for was a biggish blue connector, on its own, with a green and black cable running into it. I eventually tracked it down deep in the sill wiring – the amount of which has to be seen to be believed, and it looks like this.
This is where it started getting really scary. I had to slice some of the insulation off this green and black cable, and then solder a length of new cable onto it, which I then had to route behind the dash to the COMAND unit. I soldered this to make sure the join was good then liberally insulated it with electrical tape.
This speed pulse cable needs to connect to both pin 1 of the A connector, and pin 6 of the C2 connector. The C2 connector wasn’t a problem since I had been very neat and organised with my spade connectors, however, the A connector was an issue.
What I ended up doing (aside from breaking out in a cold sweat), was to hack the C connector (which I removed earlier) to pieces to relinquish one of its pins and a short length of cable. I then had to insert this pin into the existing A connector and hook it up to the speed pulse.
This was just plain hard work. Getting the pin out of the C connector was difficult, and making it fit in the A connector was almost impossible. Perseverance was the key; either that or the pin actually heard my threats of physical violence and decided to capitulate.
So, by this stage I had all the cables, but they weren’t all in the right places. The GPS antenna I secured on top of a cross member behind the dash. You can see it here.
I also fitted the aux cable and routed both that and the GPS antenna cable to where the back of the COMAND unit will be.
Excitement, curiosity and fear were my close acquaintances at this point, so it was with a degree of anticipation I connected the COMAND to all the cables.
Amazingly it powered up, the radio worked, it picked up satellites, the Aux input worked, and….the CD changer didn’t.
I pulled it out, rechecked all the connections and with more threats of violence towards COMAND and the CD changer I tentatively pressed the CD button to be rewarded by the delightful sounds of CD3 of my CD changer! Grinning madly I quickly pushed it all back in and went for a quick drive.
What I found is that you have to drive round for a bit before COMAND works out where it is, but once I’d done that, it was rock solid, updating the road name scarce seconds after I’d made a turn. Brilliant! That meant the speed pulse was working.
Once I got back home following this successful little jaunt around the countryside, I tidied up and screwed everything back into place. The finished result can be seen here.
All in all, this was not an easy job, but the sense of satisfaction having finished it was pretty good to say the least.
Thanks are owed most highly to Alfie. He’s a thoroughly nice chap, and without his help, encouragement and knowledge I never would have finished this install, at least not with a functional motor car and/or my sanity.
Also highly useful was Flyer’s How To, and the general assembled knowledge on this forum. Thank you one and all!
Comments welcome.
Andy
To start with you'll need to buy...
COMAND unit (Alfie sold me mine)
GPS Antenna
Teleatlas disc
C2 connector. Part number: 034 545 75 28
C2 connector housing. Part number: 000 545 42 30
C1 connector. Part number: A034 545 75 28
Numerous pins for C1 and C2 connectors (I needed 10). Part number: 008 545 55 26
Auxilliary input cable. Part number: A210 440 50 05
You'll also need...
Radio removal keys
A good range of tools (pliers, hacksaw, scalpel)
Soldering iron
Spade connectors
Crimping tool
Numerous lengths of cable
To start with, I made up the C1 and C2 connectors by wiring up all the pins I needed, and affixing spade connectors to the lengths of cable. From Alfie’s How To I have shamelessly nicked this link -> http://users.pandora.be/miata/documents/comand/COMAND_Pin_Layout.doc
I also had to chop the connector block off the auxiliary input cable, and I soldered spade connectors to these cables for easy connection later.
At this stage the following thoughts were going through my mind. “Soldering really isn’t as easy as I remember”, “Blimey these pins are small”, and “I can’t believe that aux cable cost 25 quid”.
Then the install started proper.
Here is the view before I took the Audio 10 out.
Using the radio removal keys, I took out the Audio 10, and the tray underneath, and to save marking the dash I taped up the surrounding area with duct tape. The cables you can see are the A, B, C (which I had to butcher later) and the aerial cable. The fibre optic cable for the CD changer is there too but you can’t really make it out.
The next bit was the first scary bit – taking a hacksaw to the plastic divide between the radio and the cubby hole. I just took it slow and steady.
And out it came!
A brief period of euphoria followed, so I decided to press on and took the glove box out, leaving me with a hole in the dash looking like this.
Now, with a COMAND shaped hole in the dash I figured it was time to look and see what I had to do with the C connector, and frankly it wasn’t pretty.
I had to chop the five cables going into the C connector, making a note which one went into which pin, as I needed all of them for eventual wiring into the C2 connector (for CAN Hi, CAN Lo and D2B wakeup) and the C1 connector (CD changer power + and -). On these cables I soldered spade connectors to be able to connect them to the C1 and C2 cables I made up previously.
This is a picture of the work in progress.
Most unfortunately I did NOT have a speed pulse cable in my C connector. This meant digging around in the passenger footwell area to find the right cable. This involved pulling off the sill covering, undoing a few screws, using a bit of brute force and general cursing.
What I was looking for was a biggish blue connector, on its own, with a green and black cable running into it. I eventually tracked it down deep in the sill wiring – the amount of which has to be seen to be believed, and it looks like this.
This is where it started getting really scary. I had to slice some of the insulation off this green and black cable, and then solder a length of new cable onto it, which I then had to route behind the dash to the COMAND unit. I soldered this to make sure the join was good then liberally insulated it with electrical tape.
This speed pulse cable needs to connect to both pin 1 of the A connector, and pin 6 of the C2 connector. The C2 connector wasn’t a problem since I had been very neat and organised with my spade connectors, however, the A connector was an issue.
What I ended up doing (aside from breaking out in a cold sweat), was to hack the C connector (which I removed earlier) to pieces to relinquish one of its pins and a short length of cable. I then had to insert this pin into the existing A connector and hook it up to the speed pulse.
This was just plain hard work. Getting the pin out of the C connector was difficult, and making it fit in the A connector was almost impossible. Perseverance was the key; either that or the pin actually heard my threats of physical violence and decided to capitulate.
So, by this stage I had all the cables, but they weren’t all in the right places. The GPS antenna I secured on top of a cross member behind the dash. You can see it here.
I also fitted the aux cable and routed both that and the GPS antenna cable to where the back of the COMAND unit will be.
Excitement, curiosity and fear were my close acquaintances at this point, so it was with a degree of anticipation I connected the COMAND to all the cables.
Amazingly it powered up, the radio worked, it picked up satellites, the Aux input worked, and….the CD changer didn’t.
I pulled it out, rechecked all the connections and with more threats of violence towards COMAND and the CD changer I tentatively pressed the CD button to be rewarded by the delightful sounds of CD3 of my CD changer! Grinning madly I quickly pushed it all back in and went for a quick drive.
What I found is that you have to drive round for a bit before COMAND works out where it is, but once I’d done that, it was rock solid, updating the road name scarce seconds after I’d made a turn. Brilliant! That meant the speed pulse was working.
Once I got back home following this successful little jaunt around the countryside, I tidied up and screwed everything back into place. The finished result can be seen here.
All in all, this was not an easy job, but the sense of satisfaction having finished it was pretty good to say the least.
Thanks are owed most highly to Alfie. He’s a thoroughly nice chap, and without his help, encouragement and knowledge I never would have finished this install, at least not with a functional motor car and/or my sanity.
Also highly useful was Flyer’s How To, and the general assembled knowledge on this forum. Thank you one and all!
Comments welcome.
Andy
