I am seriously thinking about replacing the head unit on my 1991 300E by another with a CD player. I am not interested in replacing the speakers, etc. Just another head unit with either an one or three CD changer in the head itself.

Have anyone done this before?

Thanks.

Thanks, Greg, for the information.

loubapache,

i am about to install a 3 cd in-dash unit from alpine. there is one other headunit with more CD's in-dash from nakamichi that i know of. for the single cd players IMHO only the blaupunkts with the black face looks ok in the MB dash. or get one of the $600 MB CD headunit replacements.

i think your year model has the dreaded split 1432 head unit. you pretty much have to rewire the car for speakers. there is an adapter harness you can buy from becker that allows you to use the existing wiring which i also purchased. i am not too pleased with it as all it does is hook up one set of speaker outputs, the antenna trigger and amp trigger - all for about $100 (cable only). you are better off having the wiring re-done by a competent shop. i am going to run my own speaker wires just in case i don't like how the old wiring works. you have to run an antenna extension from the new headunit to the trunk anyway.

good luck.

__________________
joE
1993 300e-2.8 - gone now <sigh>
"Do not adjust your mind, it's reality that's malfunctioning"
http://banners.wunderground.com/bann...L/Key_West.gif

If you have the center fader that splits 2 head unit signals between 4 speakers, there is an easy way to bypass the fader and access all 4 speakers without re-wiring. It is discussed at http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=18778&highlight=fader . Also, the old fader switch can be modified into a custom input jack for an AUX in if your new head unit has that feature, allowing a portable cassette, minidisk, or MP3 player to be played throught the head unit.

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

john,

where is that diagram from? is it in the cd? for the split 1432 - the wiring is different. there is a din jack/cable that connects the front head unit to the back "tuner" unit. the back unit then hooks up to the amp in the rear. i think that speaker out then goes back to that fader control. the amp drives the door speakers from what i understand.

the harness that i got exploits that din cable and "re-purposes" it for speaker connections and the like. at the front you tap into the din cable for two speaker wiring and where the cable comes out in the trunk, it is disconnected from the tuner and then tapped to access the two speaker wires. it is a really convoluted way to do something simple and i was very disappointed with what i got. that is why i will run speaker wire too so that i have options. i have a pretty good electronics background so i figured out what it the wiring kit is really doing. if you just hook it up per instructions, it will work, just don't know how well...

joe

__________________
joE
1993 300e-2.8 - gone now <sigh>
"Do not adjust your mind, it's reality that's malfunctioning"
http://banners.wunderground.com/bann...L/Key_West.gif

Joe:

The diagram is from the 'exploded diagrams' book that came with my E (but not with my C ). It sounds like your system is completely different - midway between my 87E and the 98 C! My C has the headunit in the dash, and the amp in the trunk, with 8 speakers. They have standardized so many other parts on MBs that I can't see why they don't do the radios with some standard format. It isn't as if the convoluted systems they install provide superior sound - just complexity!!!

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

i know what you mean by standardizing radio hookups. i went to circuit city to have a changer installed and the techs couldn't find the "cd changer hookup". they claimed they had a cable that would plug right into the back of the headunit. i knew that the cable they had was for a '94 because nobody makes a single cable adapter for a '93 so i refused. i priced adapter kits for the changer and it came out to about $280 for the cable kit alone. that is why i figure that i could simplify it some by getting the wiring harness and just changing the head unit.

i got some ideas from your diagram though. i hope to be able to disconnect the fader and then hook up the front speakers so that i have two real sets of speakers going with some oomph to them. actually, that would make sense because then the "rear channels" would drive the rear speaker plus what they call the "aktiv bass" in the doors.

cheers

__________________
joE
1993 300e-2.8 - gone now <sigh>
"Do not adjust your mind, it's reality that's malfunctioning"
http://banners.wunderground.com/bann...L/Key_West.gif

I got the following information from another MB list by James Yuhn:

Just about anything will work, the Becker is a very basic radio and
completely self contained. Just look for a single DIN chassis radio/CD player. Be sure it does not require an external amplifier. Installation is very easy; I think it required only 45 minutes to swap out the becker in my '87 E-class. The wiring pretty much swaps directly to the new head unit, with the excpetion of the alarm wire - I think this was left disconnected.


I selected a rather basic Blaupunkt unit. Just a radio and indash CD player - no remote controls, no CD changer control, nuthin' fancy. Fits the car's interior reasonably well. I'm afraid I don't know the model name, and it was 7 or 8 years ago anyway. Just avoid the units with garishly colorful displays that seem to be all too common these days. Other than that, these are pretty much commodity items - you won't be able to tell the difference
one from another.

Hey, that's me! I'm being quoted!

Seriously, it's a simple swap on an '87 E-class. The old becker is the whole sound system - no seperate amp, crossover, or anything like that. Just left and right speaker outputs to the fader in the console.

At some point in the 124s life this changed to a seperate headunit and amp. I don't know how complex replacing the headunit is for a car with the two part radio, but it's going to be more work. Nor do I know in exactly which year the change took place. I'm certain it was there by '92, but don't know if it came in earlier.

- Jim

http://www.pie.net/oemappl.htm#mb

this tells you that it was 91-93 where you need 3 cables just to add a changer. that's due to the split setup.

i am ready to start my project. the alpine came in, straightforward install but i want to figure out how to get at the front speakers and disconnect it from the fader. my wiring harness will hookup the rear channels to the rear and side doors plus the fronts unless i disconnect them. i want to use the front speakers for the front channels from the alpine. that way, i'll get a discrete pair of channels up front.

also i don't know if it's bad not to hook up one set of speaker channels. i'm thinking of loading it up with some big ceramic resistors just to be safe...

__________________
joE
1993 300e-2.8 - gone now <sigh>
"Do not adjust your mind, it's reality that's malfunctioning"
http://banners.wunderground.com/bann...L/Key_West.gif