How to connect a cell phone in my 99 E430

[vishanthram]

Hey, I am a newbie in the world of Mercedes Benz. I bought a used 1999 E430 from my friend. When i looked around i saw the "tel" button on the radio. So i wanted to know how to connect a phone with my car. I do not know if the car had every used a phone or but, when i was driving the other day my car picked up another MB's (who was in front of me) phone call. I could talk to some person who suppose to talk to the MB car in front of me, that was very funny. But yea i want to connect my phone and i have a AT&T 4G Impulse phone. I want to use the blue-tooth technology and not the analog technology. Thank in advance.

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[Bucs23]

Type in viseeo bluetooth. $225 -250 usd

[01BlackE320]

There are many posts on this board about this if you do a search. forget about using the phone feature in your vehicle, that is way dated. There are some add ons but I,d suggest replacing the stereo unit with a nice receiver with bluetooth. I just put in a nice Kenwood that was about $170. it will give you other features like streaming bluetooth audio, in dash cd, usb interface to ipod or other devices plus a huge sound quality improvement. If you sell the car you can throw the old radio back in

[vishanthram]

Yes Bucs23, I did look at that but the problem is that I do not have a cradel and it totally cost about $500 to $800 (including the viseeo bluetooth+overseas shipping charge+the nokia 6210 cradel)in order for me to just talk on the phone while driving and so I dont think I will go with that option. But as 01BlackE320 said I might try that option because it is a hellava lot cheaper, but my question to 01BlackE320 is that every mechanic shop I went to told me that it is waste to install some other stereo because it decreases the sound quality. I don't if that's true or not! And they also said that rewiring is hard because the original is all optic wires and so I wanted to know the exact Kenwood you put in and how did you put it in? Thanks you guys very much.

[01BlackE320]

I installed the Kenwood Excelon KDC-X696. It's $169 at Crutchfield and they include all the adapters that you need to install it. Their web site will tell you exactly what will work in your car.

I have a 2001 E320 sedan with the Boze option. I can only talk about that setup because I do not know what your car has installed. This stereo has 4v preamp output which feeds the existing Boze amp and speakers. The audio is much improved from what it was, particularly with the radio which sounded pretty lousy before. What I lose is the steering wheel controls and the CD changer in the trunk, neither of which I cared about. I had it professionally installed, which included running the microphone up near the headliner for the bluetooth phone. It's a relatively easy install that is not to time consuming or expensive.

If your car does not have a separate amp, it would be wired using the amp that is built into the stereo which is still pretty good. Again, Crutchfield.com will tell you what you need and you can call them with additional questions

[vishanthram]

I have 1999 E430 with the premium Bose speakers and I was also looking at crutchfield.com and I was looking at the cheap $100 ones but if you say that the ken wood ones are great then I would buy that. Did you buy that professional installation kit with it for $99? Thanks again.

[vishanthram]

I too don't care about losing the cd player because all my songs are in my iPod touch and so I will connect my iPod and then I can forget about burning cd's for my car. Man thank you so much. You have no idea of the pain I go through by listening to the same songs over and over and over again. I now tell the order of all the songs, it is that bad

[01BlackE320]

Originally Posted by vishanthram

I too don't care about losing the cd player because all my songs are in my iPod touch and so I will connect my iPod and then I can forget about burning cd's for my car. Man thank you so much. You have no idea of the pain I go through by listening to the same songs over and over and over again. I now tell the order of all the songs, it is that bad

I was about to buy it at Crutchfield but went to a local Car Stereo Shop and bought it there. It was 179. Came out to 300 all in, fully installed. An hour later I was loving it. My daughter lives a few hundred mies away and took the car home so I wont see it for a while. I wanted to get it in quickly so she could enjoy it for her trip home. Plus they did a nice job wiring the microphone for the phone. She has an Iphone and loves the streaming BLuetooth audio. I cant tell you how much better it sounds.

It"s a popular model. You can probably get it anywhere. The cheaper models usually have 2v preamp output which will not work as well. plus you want Bluetooth, good luck

[Schweinhund]

Do you mean you want to use the factory hands-free bluetooth system in the car? If yes, this can be done. If you want to use the factory PHONE, this can no longer be done AFAIK.

[Bucs23]

Any pics to see what the NEW set up look like?

Thanks

[IMIEIW]

I found out recently that my Garmin has a SD card that will hold about 1000 songs or more and will transmit on any FM freq. It solved all my problems. GPS, integrated phone and plenty of tunes. Just set it up that my preset 0 is the Garmin. You do lose some volume but 99% of the time the music is clear and your incoming calls come right over your speakers. Just a thought. Worked for me for a fraction of the cost