My Buddies stereo is giving him a problem in his C280 1994.

He has power to the Head Unit, all fuses are fine but he does not have any sound out of the speakers. He said before it went completly silent he had crackling sound in back speakers and then he had massive feedback the next time he started the car and then it totally died.

It has a stock Head Unit with a Sony CD changer in the trunk.

To trouble shoot this I was looking for an amp, I think I may have found one in the trunk on the drivers side under the trim, but the fuse was fine.

Can anyone tell me if this car came with a stock Amp or is it just powered by the head unit? Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

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1994 Toyotal Landcruiser 220k (Sold)

1987 300TDT 278K My Addiction (Going Going Gon...)

2001 Volvo V70 (New Ride)

If the car has bose (identified by the bose logo on the rear deck speakers), then there is an amp that powers all the speakers on the drivers side of the trunk. If you remove the drivers side trunk lining panel, you will see it there, it is about 8 inches tall by 6 inches wide, a black box with aluminum cooling fins. The fuse simply indicates if there is a physical connection to the +12v side of power, nothing more. If something drastic happened inside the amp, then it would cause a dead short and blow a fuse, otherwise the fuse would not blow.

Now if there is no bose logo, then the car does not have an external amplifier, and the amplification is in the deck. Either way, esp for a 1997 model year car, if the amp is bad, or if the head unit's output stage is bad, my opinion would be to replace it with aftermarket equipment. The head units output stage could also have gone bad and the bose amp could be getting no input.

Now, here is where it gets tricky. Adapting an aftermarket head unit to a working bose amp / speaker system is no big deal.

If the bose amp is bad, you may want to consider getting it repaired or replaced because the bose speakers are pequiliar in the sense that they are 2 ohm, and do not work with most aftermarket headunits directly, (and you would have to do a lot of splicing in the trunk).

Take care,

George

__________________
George Androulakis

Former Mb's:

1990 500sl R129 - 76k Original Miles - New project - Follow the saga http://90r129.blogspot.com/
1990 190E 2.6 148k mi (sold)
1989 420 SEL 246k mi (sold)
1995 C220 175k mi (sold)
1992 190e 2.6 74k original miles (sold)
2000 c230 Kompressor 122k miles (RIP)
1996 C220 149k mi (sold)
2000 C230 Kompressor Sport 127k (sold)

Current Cars:

2009 Mercedes c300 4matic
2006 Mercedes s430
2005 Jaguar XJR
2003 Cadillac Escalade

Hi 300TDT 1987,
You could have a bad radio. That would not be uncommon for your car. Once the problems with it have been addressed they usually hold up well. If you have a Bose system amplifier you might have a water leak around the trunk seal where water then runs down into the amplifier which of course shorts it out. Let me know what you have so I can help you further. The radio should be a CM2194 or CM2294 or BE1492. Contact me directly for further help via my WEB site. Thank you for using Mercedes Shop Forum.


Cleeve Morrison
La Jolla Audio Repair
www.mercedesradiorepair.net