getting hot!
 

In my '84 500SEL I had the original Becker AM/FM cassette stereo. It crapped out so I went to the local Car Audio shop (Mickey Shorr's - if you're in Michigan) and bought a Kenwood single Cd system with removeable faceplate. I had them install it. Awhile back I had it on and when I happened to put my hand down on the center console I touched the fader and withdrew my hand immediately. The fader knob was extremely hot! It operates correctly as it was intended and I couldn't smell anything such as electrical components burning or anything like that. Being paranoid, I turned the stereo off. I've used the stereo since then and off and on I notice the same thing. It doesn't seem to be a function of how loud I have the system or whether or not I am putting more sound to the rear.

Any suggestions or comments?

Fader Hot
 

Hi fz500sel,
It sounds like the aftermarket unit you had installed was not wired past the fader. Normally, if you replace the factory system with an aftermarket one, wiring past the fader is needed due to the high power output of today's stereo's. The original radio's put out about 12 watts max. Todays radio's put out about 25+ watts. The fader is not rated to handle such power. So what happens is at a low volume your fader will work fine. But if you turn it beyond the 12 watts level then the fader will be working harder and thus get hot. You could reach a point of burning it out from high power use. I suggest you have the fader bypassed and use the internal one on the Kenwood to control the speaker fading.


Cleeve Morrison
La Jolla Audio Repair

www.lajollaaudiorepair.com

Thanks, Cleeve.

Is it easy for me to do? How do I go about it?

How to
 

Use the search feature for this post title: w126 stereo fader

It's for a W126, but if you have the center console fader like we do, the procedure should be almost identical.

It will require a bit of stereo wiring know-how. If you're a novice, get a friend who knows the stuff to help you.

Also, disconect the battery while you are dong the bypass operation so as not to blow fuses or harm your HU. Cheers!

just run new wires from the headunit to the speakers. If you know how to hook up a home stereo you can hook up a car stereo. With a car headunit you dont have the push insert method like the home stereo but it is the same concept. Find out what wires are what and just run new ones.

Same Here
 

I am currently having the overheat problem myself, and it was suggested by some experts that the ground might not be sufficient. I fixed my ground, but it didnt fix the problem. Another suggested that it could be a short in one of the speaker units, but I traced all of the wires down and all are conducting as they should.

My last try will be to wire past the fader. Just a word of caution, the back most part of the kenwood (the heatsink) gets wicked hot because of this problem. It felt like it could even start a fire.

Looking at the gauge of the fader wires (more like bell wire, much thinner than average-grade speaker wire), that is an indication that nothing more that pre-out signals should ever be flowing through the fader circuit.

Your head unit should be new enough to have it's own fader anyway, so trace the speaker wires from the fader and splice into them instead.

Typically MB uses gray/yellow and black/yellow wires for their speakers...

When using the headunit amp, the heatsink will get hot anyway, regardless of how you wire up your system. My Blau did the same, and I wasn't too keen about using it because of that...so I went for pre-out to external amps as a result.