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  #1  
Old 03-27-2020, 06:51 AM
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1983 240D audio problems

Hello everyone, I recently installed a new stereo into my old mercedes and the results were ok at best. The stereo I installed is a BOSS 460RGB, bear with me here its my first time doing audio system work lol. But I wrapped the wires together correctly and covered them in electrical tape so they don't touch eachother(I know I should've soldered them but I'm not good with that and wanted to make sure it worked first.) This stereo also requires a constant 12v positive from the battery, however I'm not a fan of this so I just wired it to the 12v+ from the key switch to that so its hot in ACC or RUN not when the car is off. I wired the key switch wire together with the constant power wire and the signal wire to tell the radio to turn on. The speaker wires are all correct and were the easiest with the little sheet they give you. But when I turn the radio up on high volume, like above 23 on the knob it starts to get very staticky. But when I turn the volume knob down it smoothes out. I tried replacing the front speakers with ones out of the parts cars, which to my surprise had nice pioneer speakers in it. That didn't help and I'm stumped if its an RMS problem or just a crappy radio, or my crappy wiring job. And its a 4 channel radio and if I'm not mistaken doesn't the 240d have a 4 channel system stock? or is it dependent on the year. Also the driver side speaker cuts in and out, so if i hit a bump in the road it comes on(I know thats a wiring job problem.) Any thoughts would be helpful and I got lots of time to research this also I'm prepared to get chewed out buy the audio gurus. Just want my stereo working because I'm a young teen lol

Link to radio specs on crutchfield:
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-RsXZvt02W7B/p_104460BRGB/Boss-460BRGB-does-not-play-CDs.html

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  #2  
Old 03-27-2020, 11:36 AM
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Fasten your wires together better. If you're not good at soldering, get compression caps. They'll work just as good and it's what I use in my car (I'm a professional electronics engineer by trade, so I'm very good at soldering). The twisted/taped connections will get worse with time and drive you crazy and the tape glue will melt and seep into the wiring to where no matter how you twist, it just won't make a great connection without cutting and re-stripping.

If you used the factory wiring, the original setup is stereo only despite having 4 speakers. The original radio only had L and R output. Everything passes through the fader dial which is a known weak point.

If you want to do the job right, run a dedicated speaker cable to each speaker from your new head unit and bypass the fader. You'll get full RMS power to each of the 4 corners that way.

The head unit does require constant 12V power. They all do, including the original. Crutchfield should have given you an adapter to go from the original radio plug which gives you the switched 12V, ground, illumination, and constant 12V feeds. If you hard cycle the radio every time, it will lose your audio presets, clock, and radio station memory.

Keep in mind that the speaker sizes aren't very big and won't do well with strong bass. If you have the bass turned up on your head unit, you'll get "farting" at higher volume levels from overdriving the speakers. Don't expect chest-thumping bass from the original speakers or anything aftermarket that will fit in their place, the cone size just isn't big enough.

If you want more, consider installing a subwoofer and amp (some people use the first aid hatch), aftermarket speakers, and a 4-channel amp. Otherwise, you can still get an ok sounding radio with the original setup if you run wires to each speaker from the new head unit.
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Old 03-28-2020, 02:33 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Diseasel300 View Post
Fasten your wires together better. If you're not good at soldering, get compression caps. They'll work just as good and it's what I use in my car (I'm a professional electronics engineer by trade, so I'm very good at soldering). The twisted/taped connections will get worse with time and drive you crazy and the tape glue will melt and seep into the wiring to where no matter how you twist, it just won't make a great connection without cutting and re-stripping.

If you used the factory wiring, the original setup is stereo only despite having 4 speakers. The original radio only had L and R output. Everything passes through the fader dial which is a known weak point.

If you want to do the job right, run a dedicated speaker cable to each speaker from your new head unit and bypass the fader. You'll get full RMS power to each of the 4 corners that way.

The head unit does require constant 12V power. They all do, including the original. Crutchfield should have given you an adapter to go from the original radio plug which gives you the switched 12V, ground, illumination, and constant 12V feeds. If you hard cycle the radio every time, it will lose your audio presets, clock, and radio station memory.

Keep in mind that the speaker sizes aren't very big and won't do well with strong bass. If you have the bass turned up on your head unit, you'll get "farting" at higher volume levels from overdriving the speakers. Don't expect chest-thumping bass from the original speakers or anything aftermarket that will fit in their place, the cone size just isn't big enough.

If you want more, consider installing a subwoofer and amp (some people use the first aid hatch), aftermarket speakers, and a 4-channel amp. Otherwise, you can still get an ok sounding radio with the original setup if you run wires to each speaker from the new head unit.
Crutchfield sadly discontinued making the wiring adapters for the 240D I already looked. Yeah ill get some speaker wire and run that to each individual speaker. But also haven't people run the new speaker wire to the wires coming out of the fader so they don't have to pull everything apart to run new speakers wires throughout the four corners of the car? effectively using the output wires of the fader to bypass it.
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Old 03-28-2020, 09:25 AM
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The radio harness adapter is still available at Crutchfield. It's very common, pretty much All MB (and other German brand) radios from the 70s (and maybe earlier) through the 90s (and maybe later) used the same power socket.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120701860/Metra-70-1860-Receiver-Wiring-Harness.html
(BTW, it comes for free with new head units, you can probably find it way cheaper on ePrey)

The W123 may be different, but on the W126es I've done, it was way easier to pull wire to the speakers than to hack apart the factory wiring. A piece of bailing wire makes a nice "fish-tape" to pull wires to the front speakers, the rears can be run under the carpet by the doorsills. The fader only fades the positive side of the speaker connections, the negatives are made up through a splice. The way it's all connected means that if you tie into the existing speaker "connections", the negatives are bridged for each side without hacking up and redoing a bunch of wiring. Annoying.

The biggest benefit of pulling your own wiring is that you can pull some 16AWG speaker wire to the speakers which will give you the full power of your modern head unit and full individual control of each speaker for any sort of audio enhancements it provides. The tiny wires already present are fine for the 10-12W that the original radio produced, but modern radios produce roughly twice that RMS and it is noticeable especially in the rear speakers.
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  #5  
Old 03-28-2020, 12:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Diseasel300 View Post
The radio harness adapter is still available at Crutchfield. It's very common, pretty much All MB (and other German brand) radios from the 70s (and maybe earlier) through the 90s (and maybe later) used the same power socket.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120701860/Metra-70-1860-Receiver-Wiring-Harness.html
(BTW, it comes for free with new head units, you can probably find it way cheaper on ePrey)

The W123 may be different, but on the W126es I've done, it was way easier to pull wire to the speakers than to hack apart the factory wiring. A piece of bailing wire makes a nice "fish-tape" to pull wires to the front speakers, the rears can be run under the carpet by the doorsills. The fader only fades the positive side of the speaker connections, the negatives are made up through a splice. The way it's all connected means that if you tie into the existing speaker "connections", the negatives are bridged for each side without hacking up and redoing a bunch of wiring. Annoying.

The biggest benefit of pulling your own wiring is that you can pull some 16AWG speaker wire to the speakers which will give you the full power of your modern head unit and full individual control of each speaker for any sort of audio enhancements it provides. The tiny wires already present are fine for the 10-12W that the original radio produced, but modern radios produce roughly twice that RMS and it is noticeable especially in the rear speakers.
Ok thank you. But i dont think I'll have a use for the wiring harness adapter now because the ends are already cut off to connect with the new stereo wires (damn i wish i found this sooner lol) but can you send me a link to some 16AWG speaker wire?
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  #6  
Old 03-29-2020, 09:47 AM
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16AWG speaker wire is available at any place th sells wire or home improvement stuff. Wal-Mart has it in the electronics section, Lowes and Home Depot have it in the communications/telephone section. If you have a car audio shop, they'll have it too. Don't waste your money on bigger (lower number) wire, 16 is more than adequate for anything that will ever occupy the original holes.

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