Thread: Mercedes Sprinter Audio 20 iPod intergration

I've been to two Mercedes dealerships now, one commercial and one retail and neither could answer me or have bothered to get back with the details about what I need to connect an iphone to the stereo to play music, I'm not worried about phone integration.

Here's where I'm up to:

Its a 1 month old Sprinter with the multifunction steering wheel and Audio 20 head unit. There is now way of selecting an AUX input on either the head unit or cluster display. The AUDIO 20 manual says there is a connector for an AUX input to the right of the instrument cluster. I've had most of the dash out and I honestly can't find it anywhere (neither could a Merc fitter). So I found this kit online:

Comand Online Ltd :: Mercedes iPod solutions :: Mercedes iPod kit (NTG2.5) for MY09 A B CLC CLS W211-E ML GL R SLK class & MY10 Sprinter Vito Viano

It matched my setup, with bluetooth in the head unit so I accquired one. I connected it in line with the qual lock all well and good. The iphone says it is connected to an audio accessory and I cant use the ipod functions as expected. The iphone also starts charging. The steering wheel functions all work as before, but I cant get anything to play the music. There doesnt seem to be any way of selecting the iphone and no way of getting to the ipod menu or tracklists on the cluster display. If anyone can help then it would be enourmously appreciated! Here's photos of the various bits:

The NTG Audio-20 with Bluetooth has two possible ipod kits. The first is the one you purchased and the second is the fibre-optic variant which is called a media interface.

They both do the same thing in every instance however there is an important difference in the way the head unit must be coded in order for the sound to work.

The AUX version you have requires the AUX port to be activated and coded inside the radio. The Media interface version requires the optical ring to be memorised with the new device.

From what you have described, it would appear that you have not been successsful in coding the audio port for AUX present.

Alternately, can you please look to see if you are using the AUX port as the input. If the radio software does not give that option then you must do some additional software changes via a diagnostic.

The head unit has no AUX input option. There is no way of selecting it on the head unit or from the steering wheel. It sounds like you're right in that the head unit needs to be coded to be able to select an AUX input. Is there anyone else except MB that can do this or do I have to go to the dealership to try and get it enabled?

The kit also says I should be able to access the ipod from the steering wheel and cluster display, will this require seperate coding as just selecting an aux input will still mean I need to use the head unit or cluster display to select a track as when the ipod is connected it says 'accessory connected' and I am unable to use the ipod to select tracks, that must then be done through the head unit or cluster.

Thanks

Originally Posted by hector

The head unit has no AUX input option. There is no way of selecting it on the head unit or from the steering wheel. It sounds like you're right in that the head unit needs to be coded to be able to select an AUX input. Is there anyone else except MB that can do this or do I have to go to the dealership to try and get it enabled?

The kit also says I should be able to access the ipod from the steering wheel and cluster display, will this require seperate coding as just selecting an aux input will still mean I need to use the head unit or cluster display to select a track as when the ipod is connected it says 'accessory connected' and I am unable to use the ipod to select tracks, that must then be done through the head unit or cluster.

Thanks

I looked at your photo again and I realised that it was the newer version head unit with Bluetooth. These require specific software coding.

There are two ways to handle this.

a) SCN coding of the cluster and radio after adding the option code.

b) Manually coding with factory software diagnostic and altering the headunit by "developer mode" in the diagnostic.

Then you perform a reboot with the diagnostic and all of it works.