# 2002 Mercedes C230 radio



## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

Im intalling a head unit in a 2002 Mercedes C230, and have had a ton of problems. The previous owner cut up the harness going into the radio, but I can still see the orignial wires. Ive figured out which is the constant 12v, but it has no power going to it. I know it has a factory amp, but I cant figure which wires are going to the amp, which wires are for the speaker, and which are for the antenna. Do anyof you guys have any suggestions, ideas, or advice?

Thanks!


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## boogeyman (Jul 1, 2008)

try The 12 volt.com they should have a wiring diagram.


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

unfortunately they dont have one.


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

Co-worker has one of these and needs a new radio (her CD changer went out)
Subscribing to see what you come up with.


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

Ill let you know what I come up with


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## boogeyman (Jul 1, 2008)

My wife has a 1998 C230 I doubt the wire colors are the same. The previous owner cut the harness and Ant. in hers as well I got it all sorted out though.


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

Did it have a factory amp?


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## boogeyman (Jul 1, 2008)

Hers did not have one.


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

91dime said:


> Im intalling a head unit in a 2002 Mercedes C230, and have had a ton of problems. The previous owner cut up the harness going into the radio, but I can still see the orignial wires. Ive figured out which is the constant 12v, but it has no power going to it. I know it has a factory amp, but I cant figure which wires are going to the amp, which wires are for the speaker, and which are for the antenna. Do anyof you guys have any suggestions, ideas, or advice?
> 
> Thanks!


Remember the factory head unit and amplifier are linked into the can system so there's going to be a lot of wires that are just for that circuit and they should not be back-probed.
CAN system is a chain of control modules all linked together to perform every electrical task in the vehicle (over 100 in some newer models).
I would go to your local Mercedes dealer and see if parts can give you a spec sheet and maybe even sell you a replacement factory pigtail connector.
This is how you want to solve this problem otherwise, you will have a bunch of failure codes as a result that will continuously reset and maybe some of the can system modules might get damaged if you test the wrong wire or let the bare wires touch together.

FWIW

Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

Ok well I found this,

1999-2000 Mercedes C Class with Bose Wiring Information

Its for a 99, and I know there different, but If I could find the amp turn on/antenna wire that would be one off the list lol. The factory radio had a plug with 2 orange wires going to it, Im not sure what there for?


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

PPI-ART COLLECTOR said:


> Remember the factory head unit and amplifier are linked into the can system so there's going to be a lot of wires that are just for that circuit and they should not be back-probed.
> CAN system is a chain of control modules all linked together to perform every electrical task in the vehicle (over 100 in some newer models).
> I would go to your local Mercedes dealer and see if parts can give you a spec sheet and maybe even sell you a replacement factory pigtail connector.
> This is how you want to solve this problem otherwise, you will have a bunch of failure codes as a result that will continuously reset and maybe some of the can system modules might get damaged if you test the wrong wire or let the bare wires touch together.
> ...


Thats what I was afraid of, I figured it would be some crazy computer thing involved with it. So lets say I have power to the aftermarket head unit, is there a way I can bypass the facotry amp and power the speakers with the stock head unit? I dont think there are rear speakers, just speakers in the doors, possibly a front and a rear in the door?


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

I looked at what crutchfield said under the notes;

To install this item, you'll have to modify your vehicle.
A wiring harness is not available. You will need to splice into the factory wires.
Bypass your factory amps by running new speaker wires from your new receiver to each speaker.
The factory navigation system will be lost if radio is replaced.

So I guess I will bypass the factory amp, and power the speakers with the head unit. I know this is going against the normal diyma of doing things, but the owner of the car just wants to have a cd player in his car, Ill try to talk him into buy an amp to install.

Does anyone know if it has 2 speakers in each door?


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

91dime said:


> Thats what I was afraid of, I figured it would be some crazy computer thing involved with it. So lets say I have power to the aftermarket head unit, is there a way I can bypass the facotry amp and power the speakers with the stock head unit? I dont think there are rear speakers, just speakers in the doors, possibly a front and a rear in the door?


The answer is yes with large *****asterisks.
In order to do what you are asking, you will have completely skip using any of the factory wires for the original head unit.
Run your - & + wires from a dedicated accessory like a power port or cigarette lighter or if equipped on one of the multiple fuse boxes your car has, from a accessory terminal, and then run new wires to the speakers because you can't trust what any of them might be linked into.
Good luck figuring out the speaker ohms rating and which pin in the factory speaker connector is + or -.

That still doesn't solve the problems created by opens in the CAN system circuit resulting from the missing factory head unit.
You also want to completely unplug the factory amp so it doesn't start sending garbage info down the CAN system line which means another component will be removed from the can system.
If you get past all that and everything else still works (wipers, power door locks, windows, etc...) then you lucked out because many components share the same pathways.
It also means that you probably didn't zap any other modules.
When you're all done, go have the car scanned for codes to make sure everything else is still communicating.

Lots of fun that I get to deal with everyday.

Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

91dime said:


> I looked at what crutchfield said under the notes;
> 
> To install this item, you'll have to modify your vehicle.
> A wiring harness is not available. You will need to splice into the factory wires.
> ...


I would talk him into returning everything back to stock and work out all the damage caused from the butchered wires.

Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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## kustomkaraudio (Jun 20, 2009)

The 2 orange wires you referred to are most likely fiber optic cables ( probably D2B , don't think MOST was in that car yet ). You will NOT be able to integrate the factory amp. There should be no adverse effects from not having the factory head unit in the dash. The CAN wires should be brown and brown/red twisted together. You only need these if you want to add steering wheel control to the new radio . Hope this helps


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

That helps greatly! The plans now are either I run new wires to power the head unit and bypass the stock amp and power the stock speakers with the head unit (not sure how hard that is because I don't know if the stock speakers were coaxial or 2 way and I they have a cross over) , or the preferred route of replacing the speakers with some aftermarket coaxial speakers. Would you know of the best/ easiest place to get a constant 12v for the radio?


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## kustomkaraudio (Jun 20, 2009)

All the wires you need are at the factory amp. The tweeters in the front doors are run off the mid. The wires are real easy the figure out, For instance the wires will all be twisted and you will see pairs like green with a green/brown, green is + and green/brown is - . If you are having trouble finding a constant power in the dash, you can use the constant at the amp. If you have no constant power at the dash location, it is probably a blown fuse somewhere. The cigarette lighter below the radio is good source for switched power for the radio. The worst part of the job will be pulling wire front to back in the car , otherwise not to terribly difficult .


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

Sorry for the dumb questions but, where is the factory amp at? Will I be ok to pull the power from the amp, or will it need a constant 12 for the car to still run? Lol


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## billbillw (Aug 25, 2009)

I think many of your questions might be answered better at one of the Mercedes Forums. Benzworld or MBworld. They both have areas specific to your generation/model of car and usually there is some electronics talk there. I found detailed wiring for my bose amp and headunit there (I have a 2001 E55 AMG).


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## deesz (Feb 1, 2010)

I use to own one. if you have the bose system you have a factory amp which uses fiber optic and you wont have any wires behind the head unit other that power ground remote turn on. if you dont have a bose system the you should have all of the wires behind there. sounds like you have a blown fuse check the sides of the dash both left and right pull off the cover to find the fuses. amp is in the trunk and usually on the left side. for some reason I remember the c class being on the rear deck. I will warn you if your bypassing the amp because you have to change out the speakers right away bose speakers are a low impedance speaker and will fry out your stereo fairly fast.


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

I've been on both of those threads and got alot of info from them. 

The owner is ok with buying new speakers, so I will just power them from the deck. I had a tough time finding the fuses. I saw the panel on the drivers side, but there is another fuse panel on the passenger side? I'll just tap into the cig lighter wire for the ignition wire like kustomkaraudio said. From what I've read online, it's supposed to have speakers in the back side panel, but I didnt see them? It looked like the doors had a speaker in the front and back of them.


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

Well I got it all hooked up and finished earlier today. I used the original radios 12v and ground and got a ignition wire from another circuit. 

Surprisingly for being a Mercedes it went pretty smoothly.


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## Darth SQ (Sep 17, 2010)

91dime said:


> Well I got it all hooked up and finished earlier today. I used the original radios 12v and ground and got a ignition wire from another circuit.
> 
> Surprisingly for being a Mercedes it went pretty smoothly.


Good.
Now go get it scanned. 

Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR


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## 91dime (Dec 17, 2008)

Lol it started up and ran fine, and he drove it all day yesterday with the radio unplugged with no problems. I hope it's ok lol.


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