Saaboteur

Contemplating a couple of jobs on the car.

I hate having radar detector cords all over the place. On my S2000, I have it nicely hardwired into the car, running along the windshield frame. I haven't dug into the C43 much, but I was hoping to find an ignition only power source near the dome lights. Possible? As opposed to opening up the dash and running wiring down to the cigarette lighter. I printed off the wiring diagram from the WIS (thanks again Marcus), and it looks like the whole switch is powered from fuse 24. Is there a Mercedes 'convention' of labeling switched power with certain colours? On my Saab it was green/white.

Second, I think I have that oil cooler leak, and possibly also power steering. The documentation I have from the previous owner's visits to the dealer showed that he complained of noise from the engine bay, tech said it was the power steering pump. Job wasn't done, car works, so I haven't done anything about it yet. I looked at the WIS documents, it talks about removing the fan and fan shroud first.

Question is...removing the fan, the WIS mentions special tools. I read on club202 about the process here: http://club202.com/forums/showthread...ht=fan+removal but I'm not sure if the V8 will be a different story or what.

The holder part I can fathom, and can probably make do with just a wrench holding one of the bolts in place or whatever. But the other tool, the 'open end wrench bit'...just use a crescent wrench? I thought I saw a post somewhere about a guy using a fan removal tool kit spec'd for Ford trucks, but I can't seem to locate the link anymore.

Any ideas appreciated.

bagelsjustbagel

i also want to know where to wire it too.

m a x i m u s

i tapped mine into the cig lighter.

CatButt

I ran my cig lighter to a constant power to charge my cell when the car is off. Then I wired my detector to a switched source (the old cig wire) so that the detector turns off with the car. I ran the wire up through the gap where the back edge of the dash is. My detector sits a few inches above the dash on a window suction clip.

bagelsjustbagel

What if i were to splice the power source to the cigarette lighter and use power from there?

(what color cord is the power and ground anyways?) it is not red. one is brown and the other black if i remember correctly...

Saaboteur

Okay, so I went and hardwired the V1 yesterday. The WIS again proved invaluable for the directions on how to remove interior components.

Not wanting to muck around too much, I tapped into the cigar lighter. Took off the panel around the shifter, removed the ashtray, loosened the plastic panel beneath the steering column, removed the a-pillar trim and ran the wiring all along the way. Pretty easy, especially with the WIS.

For the wiring, I removed the connector from the lighter and tapped into the harness off the car. Brown for ground, green/white for power. Done!

Would've been nice to use my Blendmount too, but it wouldn't fit because of the design of the mirror arm. I use it on my S2000, and I like it because in cooler weather, the suction cups frequently fail and the V1 drops down. Pain.

Here's a link to Blendmount:

http://www.blendmount.com/

Right now I've got it clipped to the sunvisor, but I would like to change it up a bit and get something more solidly mounted and closer to the windshield so I can see the display better.

bagelsjustbagel

awesome thanks good writeup.

and i can mount mine right near the a-pillar thanks to my concealed display(mounted in what used to be my ashtray)

nd4spd13

Hooray for thread revivals.

Has anyone here looked into concealed mounting places for their V1? All the blogs and shop websites try and do it in the center headrest in the back, but that obviously won't work, and I can't think of any other fathomable discreet mounting locations apart from a silly little box on the parcel shelf.
I'm just getting tired of having it low in the center of the windshield where everyone can see it, and it's not achieving the longest range it's capable of, but the V1's suction mount doesn't quite work with the angle of our windshield/roof to be able to be mounted up high, see out the back, and have the slightest chance of catching a laser shot.

DRBC43AMG

You are lucky to have those kind of "instruments". They don't work here and are very VERBOTEN and if you get caught with one, its going to be confiscated and destroyed and a very hefty fine levied Also, the men in blue now have detectors which measure and detect detectors.

Found this in the UK forum for a fan tool:

You can make up a pulley locking tool by drilling and cutting a piece of 1/8"metal plate. Use a piece of cardboard first as a template to check for fit then cut out the metal with a jig saw after drilling suitable holes for the allen screw heads. A quick and nasty way is using a large mole wrench clamped on the pulley to lock it if you havn't got the locking hole in the pulley ( some cars don't) If you have most folk use an old allen key of suitable size as a locking tool. Other folks have used part of the old poly V belt as a home made "Strap Wrench" to lock the pulley but I doubt this will exert enough resistance to rotation myself.
Attached Images

503C43 ////AMG

I have a detector detector detector, seriously. It will go off when something is trying to detect my detector

Saaboteur

If you can live with not being able to use the sunvisor on a whim, you could do what I did. I mounted mine up high on the factory V1 sunvisor clip. I've been meaning to do something a bit more permanent that allows full use of the sunvisor, but haven't gotten around to it. The current position is pretty high up and not readily visible from behind. Tint on the windows helps with that too...

I really like my Blendmount on my S2000. The Blendmounts are made to work with the aftermarket mirror assembly they sell as well. I had to adapt it to my S2000. But if you buy that aftermarket mirror too, it should work nicely with the Blendmount.