Help and advice for aftermarket headhunt upgrade in CLS W219

[LucaNordl]

Hello other MB Club members,

I am new here and this is one of my first proper posts, so please pardon my naivety... and go easy on me.

I have a 2006 CLS 320CDi factory AMG spec, which I absolutely. I'm a total petrol head and have head a lot of lovely, and interesting cars over the years, but this car is one of the loveliest things, ever. And I love that it paved the way for a completely new genre which other marques are only now getting into. I intend to keep the car.

However, I do use it for longer journeys to see my daughters and I want to change the headunit to something more contemporary to enable me to use my iPhone features and functions, plus I desperately want DAB as I'm a 6Music devotee!!

Now... Ive had a good look into the forums and trawled around and I can see that this is not an easy 'plug and play' job. My car does have a MOST fibre optic ring which I'm aware will complicate things. But I'm a great believer that nothing (well, almost nothing... with the exception of unaided human flight, life eternal, and never paying any tax, ever...) is impossible.

I have a Pioneer double din headunit which is less than 3 months old, which I removed from one of my other cars when I sold it, and I want to install this in my CLS.

I am aware that I can get a fitting kit in terms of cage and trim etc.

I am very competent and happy removing the existing Comand unit and can work on the car.

What I really need advice on is what I need to enable me to fit the headunit in the car correctly.

As I understand it, there are 2 potential options:
1. Bypass the MOST system with a bloody great big wire from the head unit to the AMP / control unit in the boot. But I get the impression that I then need to wire the front speakers in separately?! Or;
2. Source a MOST decoder adapter, which enables something closer to 'plug and play' in the fitting process in the dash.

Can anyone help me with decent, detailed advice of the options and stages.

At this point all I seem to be able to do is cobble together a sort of 'Frankenstein' set of advice, which worries me.

As I said, I'm new, so please be considerate. I'm looking for practical advice, not someone lecturing me about leaving the Comand unit in. I appreciate that everyone is entitled to an opinion and that some may see removal of the factory unit and replacing it with an aftermarket as sacrilegious, however, I don't.

Please don't advise me to look at Comand Online and give me a list of retrofit pieces that could make the Comand unit do what I want it to do... I've already looked and I suspect I would be running into £000's to achieve something close to what I want. No disrespect to Comand Online BTW... I'm aware that you guys are active in this forum and I huge admire the work you do and that you have built a business enabling owners to maintain the integrity of their cars and the factory systems.

I just want some solid, cohesive and detailed advice about what I can / can't do. What is available and where I can get it cost effectively.

If all else fails, I guess I'll have to resort to one of those god awful adapters that you have to tune the radio to... but there must be something half way between the sublime (that's you guys at Comand Online) and the ridiculous (which Ive seen in some of the half-****d videos on YouTube).

Can anyone help please?

Thanks

 

[LucaNordl]

Can ANYONE help? Please?!

 

[OneForTheRoad]

not want you want to hear or read, but my understanding is what you are trying to do is a whole world of hurt and expense to end up with what you already have , if its music you want , burn some mp3's .

 

[LucaNordl]

Hi OneForTheRoad,

Thanks for the response... I wondered if I'd posted in the wrong area?!

You're right, not really what I wanted to hear ;-), but not unexpected - especially as no-one else has come forward with any advice!

Unfortunately, I do want more than just MP3s: I want to be able to bluetooth my phone to my headunit... I want to be able to benefit from screen mirroring my iPhone so that I can use the map and sat nav apps / functions (Waze) (which I won't get out of a head unit) and I don't have to have my phone on the dash or in the centre console: it can be put away in the dashboard.

I'm pretty sure that this is possible, but as you say, I have no doubt (thanks to manufacturers' insistence on overcomplicating things with 'fibre optic rings'), it's not easy and, no doubt, trying to do it results in a load of follow on problems.

It's a shame. I love this car. I believe it's a future classic given that it was responsible for creating a new category. It's just frustrating that it can't be brought up to date from a tech and ICE perspective without seemingly having to re-engineer the electronics.

 

[dest]

It’s pretty basic stuff, just treat it totally separate from the existing kit.
Install it the oldskool way, how it was done on old cars with no stereo!
Fit the head unit, wire in perm and switched live, earth, dab aerial, existing aerial for FM etc then run new cables to the speakers.
It would be a good opportunity to upgrade them with some decent factory fit replacements too

 

[Larkone]

Definitely do the speakers - MB spared absolutely no expense at all when they spec'd them.

 

[LucaNordl]

@dest - thanks for your response! I think this makes the best sense so far!! Rather than trying to work out how to integrate with the existing set-up (which his already running outmoded / old version tech), just go old school. So simple and obvious, yet I hadn't thought about it like this!! If I go this route it should make things very simple and analogue!

Just need to work out where best to pick up the perm and switched live, and earth connections. New wiring to the speakers (and speaker upgrades) will be simple.

Question: do I retain the current pre-historic headunit and relocate it to the boot (hidden away), or can I just 'delete' it and put a MOST fibre optic bypass loop in?

Looks like we're off on this topic now, so PLEASE... any other help or advice would be HUGELY appreciated!

Thanks

Stu

 

[dest]

I might not up on MB electrics, only just got mine!
What else is on the a MOST loop? If it’s nothing you should be able to just bypass the headunit by reconnecting the fibre optics to complete the loop.
Switched earth is easy, usually cignarette lighter or light in the glove book.
Perm live usually at least one of the fuses in the box either at the side of the dash or under it.
Worst case is obviously run one from the battery.
Earth is easy, just look for any bare metal with a bolt under the dash

 

[GordonTarling]

Give the boys at CommandOnline a call and they'll be able to tell you your options. They'll either be able to do the whole job for you or just sell you the right parts. When it comes to MB's, they're the ones to speak to.

 

[moog999]

It's always tricky in these hence why folks like comand are able to charge a premium. I fitted a new DAB head unit in my 15y/o renault clio yesterday (£35 off facebook marketplace!!) and it's works a treat, better than the poxy system I have in my S212 (audio 50).

At least min has an aux in cable so I can hook my phone up to it.

Saying that, I don't think it's too hard to pick up a DAB unit on ebay and retrofit into the car's system. I looked into it before but then lost interest.

Have a look here.

Fitted DAB to my S212 last week......

Sorry to be of not much use at all.

 

[moog999]

Just looking at this again, and after fittin the DAB unit in my old clio I really want to make this a bit easier to do in my S212, without spending a ton of cash.

I'm going to pick one of these up I think.

Highway 200 - Easy-fit audio adapter for in-car DAB+ digital radio | Pure

It'll connect via aux in my car and with some effort routing cables and tapping off a switched live it shoudl be able to be installed neatly enough.

Seems like a neat enough solution to me, still a little compromised but not massively expensive.

 

[garycat]

Just looking at this again, and after fittin the DAB unit in my old clio I really want to make this a bit easier to do in my S212, without spending a ton of cash.

I'm going to pick one of these up I think.

Highway 200 - Easy-fit audio adapter for in-car DAB+ digital radio | Pure

It'll connect via aux in my car and with some effort routing cables and tapping off a switched live it shoudl be able to be installed neatly enough.

Seems like a neat enough solution to me, still a little compromised but not massively expensive.

If you have a free USB connector, you could also consider the Dension DAB+U

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00UZ4UD7G/?tag=amazon0e9db-21

 

[moog999]

If you have a free USB connector, you could also consider the Dension DAB+U

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00UZ4UD7G/?tag=amazon0e9db-21

Cheers but I seem to remeber asking dension tech support bods if this would be compatible with the merc system and alas they said it wasn't. Unfortunately. It does look like it should work though!

 

[garycat]

Cheers but I seem to remeber asking dension tech support bods if this would be compatible with the merc system and alas they said it wasn't. Unfortunately. It does look like it should work though!

That's odd. Maybe its because the Merc has 2 types of USB. One is a lead that connects to the MMI socket and that will only support certain types of Android phone. The other is a "normal" USB socket designed to have a memory stick containing MP3 files.

 

[moog999]

I've got an MMI cable for mine with a USB port but I have only ever tried plugging my android phone into it.....which did bugger all.

I assume it would talk to an ipod/iphone. I also assume it would read MP3 files off a usb stick, I should give it a try I suppose, I just don't use (or have any) mp3 files anymore. I assume that if it will read an mp3 track off a usb stick then one of these boxes should work in theory?

 

[moog999]

Just checked it with the mmi / usb cable and it works fine with mp3s on a usb stick....so, one of those things you posted should in fact work!

I'll keep my eye out on ebay.

 

[moog999]

After a bit of reading those dension units sounds a bit shit really. They take ages to switch channels apparently.

I also want something that does BT streamkng. The pure highway gizmo looks a better bet I think.

 

[fabes]

You're in Surrey, Comand On Line are in Surrey. It's an easy decision

Pop in and chat it through with them - there's little they don't know or cannot advise on ref MB audio