Analog Cell phone update - 1998 W210

[jay_bob]

I recently purchased this lovely 1998 W210 E300D from Citationtech. My wife is driving the car and she really missed the hands free system she had in her other car.

This car was practically untouched in the electronics department. It came equipped with the Becker 1692, Bose amp and speakers (non fiber optic), and the Motorola analog handset style phone with the LCD display behind the door below the radio and the full handset in the arm rest.

I purchased a Parrot MKi9100 Bluetooth kit online from the people with the smiling arrow logo. The kit says professional installation recommended, but if you are savvy with audio and electronics it is really pretty easy. If you decide to do this mod, be sure to get the MKi9100, it is the only Parrot with a LCD in the form factor that works for this mod.

I found a way to use the electronics housing in the dash below the radio to place the Parrot display and keep a stock appearance. The buttons on the display do not work anymore, but if they are accidentally pushed they will still move properly.

The only visible items are the microphone, which is in the factory location, and the steering wheel remote control. The audio for the call comes out through the two dash speakers that were part of the factory phone system. The armrest sub compartment that held the phone now has the pigtail from the Parrot for iOS dock connector/USB/3.5 mm audio input.

I did not cut any wires in the vehicle harness, or modify any of the original components in an irreversible manner, so the system can be completely reassembled in its entirety if the vehicle ever makes it to the M-B Museum, or we ever decide to go back to analog.

The system has A2DP streaming; in a future enhancement I will add a cd changer to line in adapter to pick up the line level outputs from the Parrot box. The tiny speakers are great for voice, but not music, especially compared to the Bose. My wife has a 15 minute commute to work so she is satisfied with listening to the radio or CDs for now.

Here are some pictures, when I get a moment I will enhance the post and make a step by step.

[WINGAS]

Very cool! Thank you for sharing.

[jay_bob]

Here is the step by step procedure.

First let's get rid of your old phone handset.
Flip up the console lid and undo the two screws. [1]
Open the vertical door at the back of the console lower well and unplug the handset cable. [2]
Clip one zip tie holding the handset cable to the edge of the hole in the lid.
Remove the handset and cup.

Now let's get the junk out of the trunk. [3]
Undo the three bolts and remove the entire bracket with the electronics box.
Unplug the DB25 and antenna connectors. Zip tie them back to the wire pack so they don't rattle. Close up the trunk lining, we are done back here. We just shed about 4 pounds, hyper milers rejoice!

[jay_bob]

Now let's remove the center console

Remove the pad in the bottom of the compartment, remove 2 screws [1]

Lift up and remove and unplug the shifter wood. Remove the two black screws immediately below the ashtray, slide the ashtray assembly out, unplug the lighter socket and set aside. [2] Remove the 2 yellow chrome screws immediately rearward of the shifter (still in place in the photo).

Gently lift up the console off the air duct in the back then reach in and unclip the modular jack from the bottom of the storage box.

Remove the heater duct "wishbone" by separating the rear joint, sliding the wishbone forward slightly then lift it out.

You will need to dress the modular cable and antenna cable to an empty spot under the console. Open the cable bridge cover and bring the modular cable and antenna cable forward to the empty space between the shifter and bridge cover. Secure with a couple cable ties out of the way. Sorry I did not get a good shot of this. You will understand when you try to put everything back together.

Now get your radio removal keys and extract your radio and climate control. (Don't forget to verify you have your CODE). The trick for unplugging the climate control wires is to rotate the gray bail from vertical to horizontal as shown in the picture. [3]

Now reach into the ash tray hole and find the center release clip for the analog phone control head. Slide the assembly out of the dash. Unplug the modular pigtail, and zip tie the vehicle side of the modular cable somewhere out of the way.[4]

Remove the two screws in the top edge of the radio hole, and remove the center console wood, unplug the switches, and set aside. [5]

[jay_bob]

Now let's get the speakers and mike ready.

The procedure is the same on both sides.
Remove the access cover in the side of the dash, and remove the screw. [1]

Carefully lift up the speaker cover, notice the clip on the inboard side that must be released to swing the cover up. BE CAREFUL it is brittle, don't ask me how I know that [2] Model cement works wonders on that ABS plastic.

Remove the speaker from the dash (pry up gently, it is a friction mount) and unplug the connector. Zip tie the vehicle connector back to something in the hole to keep the connector from rattling.

Unsolder the connectors from the speaker and solder about 5 ft of speaker wire on each speaker. The left terminal is the + and the right is the - (my son saw the marks, no way I would have ever seen that...)

Snake the wires across the dash to the center console. Major PIA.

Snap the factory mike off its mount. Put your hand behind the headliner to unplug the connector and slide the mike side of the cable out.

Then catch the wing nut that is on the back side of the headliner, and remove the factory mike mounting bracket. Install the Parrot mike bracket using the same screw and hole. Fish the wire for the mike around the windshield trim, down the a-pillar, and behind the dash to end up at the radio area. I would use the passenger side, much easier.

Once you get all the wires fished in go ahead and put the upper wood panel back in (the one around the radio/climate controls) and go ahead and put the climate control back in.

[jay_bob]

Now it's time for modifying the display head.

Work the display box out of the frame, it comes out from the rear and is rather fussy.

Remove the two torx screws and separate the display head box.
Remove the two hex standoffs and the circuit board.
Unplug the cable from the board, and use a pair of channel locks to compress the grommet and remove the cable.
Drill a new 5/8" hole in the back of the box (you will see my previous 1/2" attempt, that one is too small) for the display cable.
Separate the LCD from the pc board and use the pc board as a template to trace a piece of plexiglas, aluminum, whatever you got that is stiff enough to substitute for the original PC board. [1] Put the LCD back on the PC board and place it in an anti-static bag for posterity.

Assemble the Parrot LCD onto the display cable connector. You will notice that it fits perfectly behind the display box's LCD window. Now mark for a square hole, to clear the back of the Parrot display bracket, in your board substitute, and cut it out. Assemble the Parrot LCD and the substitute board back in the display head using the two stand offs. [see first post, picture 3]

[jay_bob]

Now it's time to connect everything up.

The Parrot comes with ISO connectors but we are not going to use most of the Parrot wire pack. The Bose amp does not play nice with the amp built in the Parrot box.

The first thing we have to do is saw the vehicle radio connector in half. The power half and the speaker half need to be separated. Use a hacksaw blade and go slow. Be sure not to snag any wires.

Now on the Parrot harness, find the 3 bullet connectors and the Mute lead. Take the little rubber off the mute lead and plug it into the bullet connector on Mute 3. Then take the fuse holders apart on the red and orange leads, and swap them (so each fuse holder has a red and orange lead). This is necessary as the unswitched and switched 12 V dc are backwards of what the Parrot expects.

The Parrot speaker arrangement is a relay driven pass through and a small 2 channel amp inside the Parrot box. In a normal installation, when you are on the phone, the rear speakers are cut off and the front speakers removed from the radio amp, and the phone audio sent to the fronts only, driven by the internal amp. All we are interested are the two output channels from the internal Parrot amp to drive the two front dash speakers.

Take the Parrot harness and cut off the "to radio" speaker harness completely, we do not need any of those wires at all. Now on the "to speaker" speaker harness, cut the harness off completely but leave enough slack on the 4 white and grey wires for hooking up to the two speaker wires you just ran in from the dash speakers. Join these wires to the speaker wires, white is left, gray is right, stripe wire is the - side.

Plug the power "to radio" harness into the radio. Plug the speaker half of the vehicle harness back into the speaker socket on the radio. Then plug the power half of the vehicle harness into the vehicle side of the Parrot power harness. Reinstall your radio.

Use some double stick tape to mount the Parrot control box on the back side of the phone display head unit. [1]

Plug in the main harness, the display harness, and the mike cable. Run the MP3 player cable to the back of the console if you want it in the phone area like I did. Bundle everything up and slide the phone head unit back in the dash. Be sure the bundle is tucked behind the cell phone head unit or the ash tray won't go back in. [2]

Turn the key to first position, and the unit should power up, it takes a couple seconds. Pair your phone per the instructions and make a test call.

While the phone is active, the music should fade out (if you have a CD or tape playing, it will pause it), the radio LCD will show PHONE and the call audio will come through the two little speakers in the dash.

Reassembly of the console is pretty straightforward, only trick is that the rear panel of the console (that faces the rear seat passengers) is removable, this really helps getting the air duct lined back up.

Attach the remote to the steering wheel with the rubber belt provided. We have been experimenting with the best position, so far inside the opening at 8 oclock on the wheel seems to be good.

[jay_bob]

Update

I finally found a Becker 1492 or 1692 CD changer emulation adapter that works and is reasonably priced.

BlitzSafe MB/AUX DMX V1.B does the job nicely.

It has a pair of RCA inputs and the connector that fits into the C port on the back of the radio.

The Parrot has line level outputs, I just had to solder a pair of RCA plugs on the wires. The BltzSafe box is compact and fits well behind the phone head unit.