I just bought an '88 300E with a stock radio alarm, and I pulled out the Becker Grande Prix myself and had a stereo store put in a JVC CD player. Now when I lock the car with the key, the alarm goes off. It worked fine before I pulled out the Becker.

What have I done? What is the right way to tell the alarm that everything is cool? Or worse case, how do I disable the alarm?

Thanks for any help. -Mark

I had the same problem on my 89 300e. Your car alarm is "looking" for the radio but can't find it. On mine there is a metal tab in the radio cradle that touched the rear of the original unit and made a ground. This told the alarm that the unit was there. Now it has an open circuit. I simply attached a short wire from the tab to the main ground and now everything works.

Thanks, Cap'n. Is it the black wire withe the spade-type plug on the end?

It's been nearly three years since I did this, but as best I remember it wasn't a wire at all. I think it was just a bare metal tab, sort of like a spring that made contact when the head unit was slid into it's slot. I took photos of it so I'll pull them out and review them. I'll let you know tomorrow.

O.K. The tab is on the left front of the radio slot. If the metal part of the radio chassis touches it, you should be O.K.. I'm gonna try to include a picture but I'm new at this, so if it doesn't come through I can email it or fax it.