R171 Head Unit Upgrade

[BruLan]

HELP !
We've recently acquired a 2004 SLK350as a weekend Car, Its being smartened up and so far so good...
H O W E V E R
The Stereo Head Unit c/w CD Player is very dated and the sound is appalling.
I've looked at the myriad of Double DIN Units available on line and would like some reassurance that they can be retro fitted,
Would need to Have Bluetooth DAB and SAT NAV either via Disc/ Card or Via Car Play. Its not really a Deal Breaker if the Steering Wheel buttons are sacrificed
Anyone had any experience and better still know of anyone who could fit one ?
Thanks in advance and apologies if this has been beaten to death previously

 

[markjay]

In general you can opt for a low-cost Android-based Chinese unit, though it's a bit of hit-and-miss with some members reporting no issues while others saying the units overheated and failed, or you can opt for a branded propriety unit from Alpine/Pioneer/Kenwood etc, which will be better quality but much more expensive.

If you want to go down the Chinese Android unit route, then search this forum for recommendations from members who bought reliable units, and also make sure it is purchased from a UK supplier with a UK return address in case of warranty repairs.

If you are willing to spend a little more on a branded unit, then I suggest that you talk to forum sponsors www.comand.co.uk.

Either way - keep in mind that in order to achieve decent sound quality you will most likely need to upgrade the speakers and fit sound insulation inside the doors.

PS - you can obviously get a secondhand COMAND unit for your car (if it does not currently have one), it will be 100% original but in terms of feature will be old tech.

 

[BruLan]

In general you can opt for a low-cost Android-based Chinese unit, though it's a bit of hit-and-miss with some members reporting no issues while others saying the units overheated and failed, or you can opt for a branded propriety unit from Alpine/Pioneer/Kenwood etc, which will be better quality but much more expensive.

If you want to go down the Chinese Android unit route, then search this forum for recommendations from members who bought reliable units, and also make sure it is purchased from a UK supplier with a UK return address in case of warranty repairs.

If you are willing to spend a little more on a branded unit, then I suggest that you talk to forum sponsors www.comand.co.uk.

Either way - keep in mind that in order to achieve decent sound quality you will most likely need to upgrade the speakers and fit sound insulation inside the doors.

PS - you can obviously get a secondhand COMAND unit for your car (if it does not currently have one), it will be 100% original but in terms of feature will be old tech.

Thanks for the reply,
Guess what I'm wanting is to find an Auto electrician Locally (Midlands) who will retro fit an Android unit. Just looked on the site you mentioned and can see me needing to spend 20% of the Cars value which for a weekend car is madness

 

[markjay]

....me needing to spend 20% of the Cars value which for a weekend car is madness

Ahmmm.... some of us spent on the car well above that figure.... it's mbclub.co.uk, after all

 

[BruLan]

Ahmmm.... some of us spent on the car well above that figure.... its mbclub.co.uk, after all

I'm sure they have,

 

[GLK]

Guess what I'm wanting is to find an Auto electrician Locally (Midlands) who will retro fit an Android unit.

If your sound system does not include Bose amplifier, and/or fibre optic based, then retrofitting an Android unit is pretty simple.
I have done it last August, and not a single problem so far (not a given, for these Chinese units), so very happy with the result

 

[R129mine]

I have an android unit in my Porsche Cayenne and it works really well, just do not put your google login credentials in these devices as they are not very secure (hardly ever get patched and who really need their email and or calendar on their car radio)

There are also regular OS updates and firmware updates available, if you check out this site there is lots of advice on it Android Head Units

I had some issues with the Wifi and Bluetooth and found updates for my PX5 unit and these resolved all others (and introduced some new minor bugs

 

[GLK]

Great advice, thanks boeken! Not an Android user, other that the head unit, so very useful info

FWIW, my HU works fine with my iPhone 6 and wife's 6+.

I don't normally use Google, so setup a separate email just for the head unit, so I can get to the App store, etc.

Come to think of it, there's one issue with OBD Bluetooth connection, although I suspect it is due to ELM237 dongle, rather than the head unit - it refuses to be unpaired. The dongle also drained my old battery, when left plugged in for a week, so I now only stick it in, when I want to fire up Torque Pro. I have a Garmin ecoRoute HD+ plugged in permanently into OBD extension, and this never caused any problems in three years in this car, and four years in previous one, but then it was £79 (IIRC), whereas the cheapo ELM237 was less than £5

 

[R129mine]

Bluetooth dongles are a funny one with Android head units, some vendors only allow Bluetooth dongles that start with a specific name (I had to buy a compatible unit from China for USD 15 for it to work) oh and the pairing code has to be 1234 or something dumb like that.

Did the dongle drain the battery or did the Headunit not turn off, some headunits have power off settings set to weeks while you really want it to turn off after 10 or 30 minutes to save your battery.

I learned that the hard way (luckily I had a portable powerpack with me when it happened)

ps be careful with firmware updates as there is the potential to brick the unit.

 

[GLK]

Bluetooth dongles are a funny one with Android head units, some vendors only allow Bluetooth dongles that start with a specific name (I had to buy a compatible unit from China for USD 15 for it to work) oh and the pairing code has to be 1234 or something dumb like that.

That explains it - I didn't want to spend on Erisin-specific dongle and bought a generic one. Time to upgrade I think

This is similar to TPMS situation - a different system app (internal BLE sensors) refused to work on the head unit, but is perfectly happy on my iPhone.

Did the dongle drain the battery or did the Headunit not turn off, some headunits have power off settings set to weeks while you really want it to turn off after 10 or 30 minutes to save your battery.

The head unit turns off when the key is removed (and ON when inserted), which I really like.
I suspect the combination of generic dongle + HU kept the thing going ...
I would need to somehow delete/unpair this when I get a 'branded' OBD dongle to replace it.

be careful with firmware updates as there is the potential to brick the unit.

Good point, thanks. I'm pretty happy with the interface, etc so no reason to update so far