Well I actually went through with it........

I added another Star to the fleet today.

A 1989 420SEL - 243k miles

Overall the car is in great shape, and drives 100% The car was a one owner car that had a stack of service records that could fill a 3 ring binder......

I noticed a few things however and was wondering if anyone had any idea how to go about rectifying them.

#1 - The car has an aftermarket Kenwood CD deck in it, but only the drivers side speakers play. The fader switch in the center console crackles and pops over the speakers when you try to adjust it, and it only plays any sound when you mess with it.

The fader switch on the head unit, does not seem to work either, it does work, but switching to the rear just lets the drivers side play. Switching to the front emits no sound.

I'm thinking who ever wired this in didnt really know what they were doing.... anyone have any idea on how to properly do this.
Anyone have a wiring diagram for the audio system in this car?

#2 - The dome lights do not come on when you open either of the front doors. If you open a rear door, the rear dome lights and lights at the bottom of the rear doors work. The lights do work when you put the switch all the way up, but then only the front ones turn on.

I'm thinking either the switch is bad, or a door pin contact switch is bad i.e. not completing the ground, making the car think that it's just always closed.

Any ideas? Anyone have a wiring diagram?

#3- When the car is shifted into drive, it takes a second for the gear to engage.... Other than that trans is 100% - shifts perfectly - no noise etc.....I'm assuming something may be the slightest bit out of adjustment. The car is on it's second transmission. If this isnt a huge warning sign for something going wrong, then I am perfectly content to just live with it....

That is all I have found so far....

Thanks for any help in advance,

My new e-mail is george@parts4sale.com

George Androulakis
1996 C220 109k mi
1989 420 SEL 243k mi

Hello...

I can try to help you on #2 and #3.

For #2...

Where you have the front light dome, is the switch all the way down? There are several options to choose from.. such as having both the main and front passenger light on, just the passenger light on, totally off, and just the main light on. The last option is the one where if you open the front doors, the light would turn on. Make sure you have the last selector chosen and not the 2nd from the top(off).

#3

I heard its normal for 126 trannies to take a second to engage. Mine does that too.. and I have gotten used to it. It takes a second to change gear from reverse to drive on my car.


Lets see what the real pro's on this forum have to say. I am curious to see if I was of any help

The passenger side works.... Sporadically.

I pulled the door pin switch, and jumped the two wires. Lights came on....

Basically the door pin trigger switches have seen better days. Nothing a few dollars at the dealer cant remedy.

About the radio - After some searching, it seems that the fader should have been totally eliminated from the circuit, and the speakers wired directly.

I called the previous owner, and he said that he had the radio installed at circuit city..... that explains that one...

Now it seems that the center console wood piece - which is pretty beat up was at some point glued down because I guess it got loose. Now I have to figure out how to remove it without destroying it, and rewire the head unit.


Next on the list - a rear power window that has some issues. - Hopefully just slipped off the regulator, or some other minor fault.
The motor does work, so worse case a regulator.

Time will tell, the car has some bugs in it but over all I'm very happy with it so far.

George

The kids at Circuit City and other such places are the butchers of wiring harnesses.

Had the same problem on my 300D, and had to completely rip out everything they did and/or a previous owner did. Instead of using the car's fader switch, I ran new wires under the carpet and dash to all four speakers. So, I use the fader in the radio. This also allows the amplifier power to go directly to the speakers.

The moral of the story is, don't use the car's fader with aftermarket radios.

Ken300D

If the window motor works on a rear window, but the glass doesn't move, most likely the little plastic slider in the bottom of the window where the regulator attaches is broken off.

You must remove the regulator from the car to fix this, doesn't take long, so if you are not comfortable with it, takes about half an hour at a mechanic.

The mess made of cars at ANY stereo "store" is incredible. the rear vent system on my brother's 75 300D was butchered into, in spite of the fact that there were two very obvious knock-outs for speakers in the rear package shelf.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!