Thread: CLK 350 - a few wiring questions

I've a CLK 350 (late 2005) UK RHD, no satnav, no phone however I wish to install some 3rd party electronic items into the car. I've asked the local dealer if he'd do this and basically he's not interested in carrying out the work, so it's sleaves up time.

I have 4 main questions...

1) Front bulkhead/firewall. I understand I can get through the firewall via the engine bay fuse box, however can you point out where the "hole" is?

2) Hard wiring generally. The local dealer says that I can only hook into the cigarette lighter power to make any hardwire connections. Is this the case? If not where else can I connect to? I can see from the COMAND retrofit how to get the ashtray out if necessary. BTW, the radio set up there looks the same as mine.

3) Is there an aux port in the radio module that I can connect a third party source into so that it'll mute any music when necessary?

4) I have the 7 speed tiptronic (sportspack 1) and ideally I'd like to introduce a small button under the gear selector on the steering column (side not important). Is this a goer and if so, how do you dissasemble the shroud on the column? Are there issues with the airbag etc?

Apologies for the loose collection of questions and thanks for your time.

Hi & Welcome !

1) There is a big hole in the bottom of the engine bay fusebox where all the wiring comes through, perfectly easy to get wires through there.

2) You can get it from the fusebox from an unused position. You need to order a A0005455105 which is a fusebox contact with a wire coming out of it. I think thats the 7.5Amp one.

- you can get it from the cigarette lighter also, but just check it is powered all the time

3) There is only an AUX port if you have COMAND. Normally it is presented in the glovebox as a 3.5mm jack, but they didn't put the jack in for a few years. If you have the normal Audio-10, you can get a device called a Dension GW500 D2B which will give you USB/iPod/Aux input - it pretends to be a CD changer, but they are not cheap.

Comand Online Ltd :: iPod Kits :: Dension GW500 D2B - iPod kit for older D2B based cars

An upgrade to COMAND is probably a better way to spend the money if all you want is AUX input !

4) The shroud comes apart once you removed the steering wheel - assuming you have a moveable steering wheel you need to be careful the wires for whatever you are doing are not going to chaff.

It may be easier to put it in by the gearknob - that area disassembles more easily.

- Whats the button for ?

Richard

Thanks Richard and sorry to be so wooly. I've got out of the habit of fiddling with cars, but I've decided to keep this one and as I said the dealer won't touch, even for money!!!

1) There is a big hole in the bottom of the engine bay fusebox where all the wiring comes through, perfectly easy to get wires through there.
Nice!

2) You can get it from the fusebox from an unused position. You need to order a A0005455105 which is a fusebox contact with a wire coming out of it. I think thats the 7.5Amp one.

Nicer!

3) There is only an AUX port if you have COMAND snip....
I didn't spec Comand so it's just the CD/radio. I want the unit to connect to the stereo (the unit has cables for mute and external speakers) so that when it activates it mutes the stereo and plays its own "song" the same as a phone would do. Would save me having to put in a separate speaker.

4) The shroud comes apart once snip...
I got 'round this problem before by having a radio controlled on/off power switch which just stuck to the column. I might stay with that method

- Whats the button for ? Kill switch ;-)
Basically the functionality is this...switch car on, unit comes on and is ready. If unit goes off, it mutes the radio and bleats an alert. I then manually kill the unit.

You've actually solved most of my concept problems, so the oustanding "nice to have" is item 3

Thanks again
Neil

You can solve point (3) with a 'speaker mute relay' which is designed for plumbing in phone systems into cars. It basically re-routes the speaker wires to another audio source.

The back of the Audio unit has standard ISO wiring so they are easily available from most car hifi shops and not expensive !

Richard

Cheers again Richard. I can see how to dismantle everything from the COMAND retrofit guide, so that shouldn't be a problem. I'm going to sit down and plan all this now before I start taking lumps out of my car!

Planning is always good.

Once you remove the upper control panel, look in the hole it goes in, there are 2 plastic catches about 1" in from each end, just check they are straight, if they got bent it makes putting back the upper control panel much harder

I tend to use the MB pulling hook tool (see tools section of Comand Online Ltd) to pull the UCP out if its stiff, push in about 6cm and rotate inward so it holds onto the back of the ucp control unit

Cheers

Richard