I've recently acquired a 99 CLK cabriolet and love the car. The radio reception, however, is pretty substandard on the FM band. System sounds find on CD, AM, even the phone. By comparison, the FM reception in my little Miata pulls in station from much farther away, and without the static that seems to plague the MB FM radio.

Is there someway to improve this reception? Can the stubby little fixed antenna be replaced with something better?

Thanks in advance -

I have not seen this yet, but I'll ask around...

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Benzmac:
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
LEAD TECHNICIAN FOR 14 BAY FACILITY
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 8 YRS
PARTNER IN MERCEDESSHOP.COM

MB seems to not have it together with car audio systems. The one in my E320 is being replaced soon. The head unit is nicely laid out but the FM reception is awful. I couldn't find one without the Bose "upgrade" and it really has horrible sound. No highs and flabby one-note bass. One additional nitpick is that the LCD screen on the head unit is polarized 90 degrees to my sunglasses so the screen always looks blank :-)

Anyone have suggestions for replacement gear or even know what size speakers will fit?

For all those Mercedes owners that purchased a 99 or up car, they do NOT have any options to change the head unit at this time. Becuase Mercedes is currently using fiber optics no manufacturer has an adapter. Supposedly they supposed to come out in a few months. The only thing you can do is change speakers. Which of course doesn't affect FM reception.

I have been checking with several good aftermarket shops and you can change the head unit on the 99 Mercedes. In fact if you got the Bose sytem, here's the best approach. Pull the head unit and push the connector to the rest of the Bose system out of the way. Disconnect power to the Bose amp. Replace the front door speakers with a mid and put a tweeter in the existing tweeter enclosure in the door pillar. Put a good 6.5 mid in the rear deck for fill. Ignore the now nonfunctional rear door speakers. Put in a decent head unit to power the new front and rear speakers. Now you have a sound system that should have come in the car. Nothing exotic - just good clean sound.