Check this out!! Especially you SCOTT - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

samsly29 · #1 01-16-2003, 04:41 PM

Just got a new CD player installed in my car, it took these SO CALLED PROFESSIONALS from 9:30 am til 4:15 pm how to install the radio, I wanted to take my car and leave but my GF asked me politely to stay and wait.. they had to remove my Alarm switch cause it kept going off everytime they turned on the car after installing the radio.. now the lights on my dashboard do not work, the antenna doesn't go up, the NEW speakers I added in the rear to replace the factory speakers one of them BLEW out, since I bought it on SALE or AS/IS as they claim... I can't return it nor get a refund.. I'm about to get two Memphis 10's speakers to add in the trunk with my amplifier.. now ANYONE of YOU if you were in my shoes what would you do? I'm calm and cool about all this, all I know is the car is still running smooth and I'm glad about that.. I could have done the work myself but the past few weeks I haven't had any time to spare.. Should I replace the rear speakers w/ another brand? if so what TYPE? and how do I rewire the rear speakers for them to play right. I think they had the wires crossed somewhere, I think thats how the speakers were blown in the first place!! MY my my.. SCOTT, anyone, I'd appreciate the help!

Ashman · #2 01-16-2003, 11:07 PM

I'm sorry, but its not that hard to hook up a few wires. if I had that much time, I could have rewired every speaker, run RCA's, Amps, And all.

You have 3 main wires for radio power. Ground, Constant and ignition. you have 1 wire for the antenna trigger, and then you have the antenna itself. the rest are speakers, and rewiring them aint no big thing.

Sounds to me like that had no clue as to what they were doing.

The only time I ever blew up any stereo component was the first time I did an install, I didn't realize I hooked up the ground to the illumination wire, and fried the radio whent he headlights turned on. Never made that mistake again.

I've installed radios in various cars, never had a problem with any of them having issues like you describe.

Alon

The Godfather · #3 01-17-2003, 01:01 AM

Uh oh...you went to circuit city didn't you?

SCLJA · #4 01-17-2003, 01:59 AM

It sounds to me like you have had a bad experience! I am sorry to hear about all the problems they experienced working on your car. It sounds to me as if they had no experience working on mercedes. I believe the problems are all repairable but I don't think I would revisit the same facility to experiment any more with your car. I would recommend calling the nearest mercedes dealer and ask who they use for aftermarket audio work and talk to them about your situation. The first problem of the dash lights being inop there are a couple of possibilities. #1 the dimmer control is fried #2 the fuse is blown either in the fuse box or in the back of the cluster. #3 the illumination wire behind the radio is shorted to ground poss causing the fuse to blow etc...

The antenna problem is probably the antenna trigger wire is disconnected behind the radio. It is hard to find sometimes because it falls down into the dash and it is a single blue wire sheathed in black vinyl tubing. Did they run an antenna coaxial cable from the rear tuner to the radio?

The speaker blowing might just be that the speaker terminals are grounded to the sheet metal in the rear deck causing a direct short. This can be checked easily from underneath in the trunk.

I deal with this kind of thing weekly as we have plenty of shops in San Diego that sacrifice quality installation for high volume sales. Let this be a lesson to you that is very hard to find anything for cheap or nothing that is any good especially when it comes to car audio. Don't let them fool you telling you that you can't return them because they were on sale. With all of the problems you have had I would call and talk to the owner or manager and let them know how many problems you have had.

Scott@lajollaaudio

#5 01-17-2003, 07:35 PM

You want it:

1- Good
2- Fast
3- Cheap

Pick any two and call back.......

Think about it!

Gilly · #6 01-17-2003, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Uh oh...you went to circuit city didn't you?

....or "Short Circuit City" as i prefer to call it.....

Gilly

samsly29 · #7 01-18-2003, 08:18 PM

Its a local place strictly for radio installation, I just bought two new 10's in a box small enough not to take too much space in the trunk and my friend is giving me his amplifier.. a nice one.. I guess I have no choice but to do this myself... I'd hate to go there again and have these people touch my car.. or go anywhere else and have more issues!!!

Scott .. question for ya!! They had to remove the alarm box because it kept going on everytime they turned the key in the ignition, but the radio would play.. Do you think they used a wire they weren't suppose to touch?? I'm curious...

By the way, thanx to all those who replied!! Have a great blessed day!

SCLJA · #8 01-19-2003, 01:12 PM

Yes, they have hooked one of the alarm wires from the back of the radio to ground. The brown blue wire or either of the two wires in the flat five pin connector should not be hooked up to anything.

Scott@lajollaaudio

#9 01-19-2003, 11:46 PM

this is really wierd!!!!!!!

my first experience with car audio EVERY was on my 560sec, and NOTHING went wrong, except a couple of blown fuses cuz i didn't have a tester. but nothing else!!!

here's my theory. connect the least amout of wire you find to get everything running. not all wires have to be connected!!!

#10 01-21-2003, 12:18 AM

Samsly,
what kind of head unit did you get installed ?
more over when you said one of rear speakers "blew out", are you running them off a high powered amp ? sometimes wrong wiring causes distorted sounds as well. But if the speaker's physically damaged that to me is an installation issue.
300E is a pretty simple car to work with when it comes to installation. The installers had to have gone out of the way to mess up such a simple install !
let us know how it comes along. good luck !

samsly29 · #11 01-23-2003, 05:03 AM

No amps on the back.. Not yet anyway.. I will redo all of the wiring on Saturday, God willing, if its not too cold.. I'm getting everything ready so I can start early and hopefully finish EARLY too..