W220 Japan to UK specification conversion / retrofit

[miro]

By popular demand, here is a record of my effort in restoring a Japanese w220 2002 model S500L to Australian, UK, SG ..... specification.

As required the modification requires upgrades in COMAND, Phone, CD, TV and Voice control wiring. The only thing that doesnt change at all is the BOSE wiring. This particular car is quite amazing as it has virtualy everything possible including a rear armrest phone and adjustable rear seats.

Japanese trunk

Here is a Japan specification trunk with the cover removed. You see the TV, Teleaid, Navigation drive and 10 stacker CD player with BOSE right down the bottom.

Here is the reason why the head units will not swap directly. The bottom half of the Japan unit is missing since it is in the trunk.

The UK / Euro unit is completely self contained. So you can see that now the first problem is half of the head unit wiring is in the trunk

This is the set of cables from the trunk for the old equipment.

To install the replacement cables my suggestion is that you make some room inside the car and open up the cabling trays to allow for the new wiring to be installed and the old wiring to be removed.

Trace the power lines back to the fuse box for anything that is no longer needed.

After removing all of the wires no longer needed and tracing individual wires that seem to go nowhere, install the new wires fresh from the factory.

Installed wiring (all same specification as same year RHD car).
* Optical cable
* Navigation
* Voice control
* CD changer
* Phone
* TV

Some wires are specific for the rear parcel shelf as they relate to connections for phone, gps and TV and need to cross over to the other side of the car for connections to be made

The rear trunk area now ready for the replacement equipment. Notice the coloured tape markers for location matching. This is how the cables are located so that they are not in the wrong position. The car has about 30 or so colour-coded junction markers.

Now in place with prewire for TV

The trunk is now in the new specification with the correct CD stacker and trunk lining. The interior is back in one piece. Due to some other unrelated work the centre console will be done later and some update photos included.

It takes 1.5 days with 2 guys working on the car. The labour was in fact the lowest component of the job. The wiring and control modules were somewhat more.

Resolving the speed signal component (two wires to front control unit).

Speed wires in place

The right hand side deals with connections for the GPS and GSM signals. Because the car had teleaid which is not needed now there is a spare phone connection for the glass mounted antennas which means that the bumper mounted system no longer needs to be activated but can easily be done if necessary.

Antenna junction point for GSM and GPS.

The old phone was in the rear armrest. The front armrest will be refitted with a phone system (UHI) and Bluetooth will be possible with the correct Nokia or Siemens phone.

The armrest is loaded with phone and TV cabling as per factory spec.

Phone system in place and operational with COMAND. Bluetooth and UHI in place even though the car is pre-UHI build.

FM radio working correctly.

GPS and all other functions operating normally. SRS coding removed for Teleaid.

 

[Howard]

Miro, i really really admire your patience , you obviously know 100% what you are doing ....

Me ? I'd last about 2 minutes with all that wiring and mess before i gave up ..

Keep up the good work !

 

[A-AvantGarde]

Well done, clearly a lot of effort has gone into that.

Out of interest would it really be worth doing in terms of cost?. Are Japanese imported Mercs that cheap or did the owner emmigrate and bring it with him?

 

[miro]

Well done, clearly a lot of effort has gone into that.

Out of interest would it really be worth doing in terms of cost?. Are Japanese imported Mercs that cheap or did the owner emmigrate and bring it with him?

Firstly the car is a true luxury build and the conversion is less than 10% of its street value. The car has appreciated in value more than was spent on it.

A Japanese build car is next to useless in Australia. Normally the radio, nav and tv do not work. Now with all of its correct factory options and modern phone it is perfectly acceptable to a broad range of buyers.

Could do with some new tail lamps ......

 

[television]

With out a huge garage and storage facilities these jobs are impossible to do as you need space all around the car. The know how to remove the panels is something else again, one slip or incorrect angle and the cost spirals if any plastic lugs break off, the same goes for the wood trim.

It took me 1½ hours to remove all of my boot trim, and about 35 mins to put it back.

Once again a very nice conversion with good pictures to back it up.

Thank you

 

[scgfull]

An excellent job - but not for the faint hearted (I include myself in that group!)

We can now all see why it does cost so much for even a more minor retrofit within a UK spec'd car.

Thanks again :bannana:

Steve

 

[CMR]

Absolutely fascinating! A rare insight for some of us just what is behind everything. Really enjoyed looking at those pictures! Well done for sharing that.

Chris

 

[miro]

An excellent job - but not for the faint hearted (I include myself in that group!)

We can now all see why it does cost so much for even a more minor retrofit within a UK spec'd car.

Thanks again :bannana:

Steve

Some retrofits, if done correctly, are a major proportion of this extreme makeover. A "phone retrofit" + "radio -> navigation" setup would be the same as the job for japanese conversion.

While I was there I threw in all of the cables for voice control and TV. BOSE is standard in Japan I seem to recall.

There are many details in this set of photos which answer many of the smaller retrofits and how they are done. At least you can see the antenna junction is in the trunk even though the handset is in the armrest (and the seat does need to come out).

When I quote conversions from D2B optical to MOST optical invariably the owners think it is only for the radio wiring in the dashboard.

The overall install was as follows
- Navigation
- Phone
- TV
- Voice control
- CD stacker
- (BOSE included)
- Phone to UHI conversion (MBENZNL UHI upgrade)
- New fibre optic ring

 

[C43AMG]

Brilliant job.

 

[Mulder83]

Is there a possibility to get the pictures up and running again?


Regards

 

[miro]

By popular demand, here is a record of my effort in restoring a Japanese w220 2002 model S500L to Australian, UK, SG ..... specification.

As required the modification requires upgrades in COMAND, Phone, CD, TV and Voice control wiring. The only thing that doesnt change at all is the BOSE wiring. This particular car is quite amazing as it has virtualy everything possible including a rear armrest phone and adjustable rear seats.

Japanese trunk

Here is a Japan specification trunk with the cover removed. You see the TV, Teleaid, Navigation drive and 10 stacker CD player with BOSE right down the bottom.

Here is the reason why the head units will not swap directly. The bottom half of the Japan unit is missing since it is in the trunk.

The UK / Euro unit is completely self contained. So you can see that now the first problem is half of the head unit wiring is in the trunk

This is the set of cables from the trunk for the old equipment.

To install the replacement cables my suggestion is that you make some room inside the car and open up the cabling trays to allow for the new wiring to be installed and the old wiring to be removed.

Trace the power lines back to the fuse box for anything that is no longer needed.

After removing all of the wires no longer needed and tracing individual wires that seem to go nowhere, install the new wires fresh from the factory.

Installed wiring (all same specification as same year RHD car).
* Optical cable
* Navigation
* Voice control
* CD changer
* Phone
* TV

Some wires are specific for the rear parcel shelf as they relate to connections for phone, gps and TV and need to cross over to the other side of the car for connections to be made

The rear trunk area now ready for the replacement equipment. Notice the coloured tape markers for location matching. This is how the cables are located so that they are not in the wrong position. The car has about 30 or so colour-coded junction markers.

Now in place with prewire for TV

The trunk is now in the new specification with the correct CD stacker and trunk lining. The interior is back in one piece. Due to some other unrelated work the centre console will be done later and some update photos included.

It takes 1.5 days with 2 guys working on the car. The labour was in fact the lowest component of the job. The wiring and control modules were somewhat more.

Resolving the speed signal component (two wires to front control unit).

Speed wires in place

The right hand side deals with connections for the GPS and GSM signals. Because the car had teleaid which is not needed now there is a spare phone connection for the glass mounted antennas which means that the bumper mounted system no longer needs to be activated but can easily be done if necessary.

Antenna junction point for GSM and GPS.

The old phone was in the rear armrest. The front armrest will be refitted with a phone system (UHI) and Bluetooth will be possible with the correct Nokia or Siemens phone.

The armrest is loaded with phone and TV cabling as per factory spec.

Phone system in place and operational with COMAND. Bluetooth and UHI in place even though the car is pre-UHI build.

FM radio working correctly.

GPS and all other functions operating normally. SRS coding removed for Teleaid.[/QUOTE]

 

[s350benz]

Miro tim in Sydney you still here mate just got my first w220 looking at retro fits need guidance?