DubVBenz

I know a bunch of people have done this and it's worked out well, but I was hoping someone had a guide with steps and/or pictures. I've seen guides for 220s and 203s, but I'm mainly interested in knowing how to take apart my dash without breaking/snapping wood or plastic.

Additionally, if anyone has any tips learned through trial and error they'd like to share, that'd be great. I'm looking for ideas on where to place the GW 500, and if it's worth it to route the cables to the glovebox or where the cupholders are located in the center console.

Also, does the GW500 require a power tap somewhere, or is that taken care of by the plug and play connections. The documentation is so bad on their site, that I'm hoping someone can shed some light here.

Thanks!

anewbie

The gear shifter cover is pretty easy to pop open. Putting it back is a little different story. I don't have any pictures to show, but I remember seeing some pictures on this forum. Once you pop open the gear shifter cover, and take out the ashtray, you have the access you need to hook up the GW 500 into the MOST fiber optic ring. Petty straight forward.

there are two screws just below the glovebox compartment. Taking out those two screws will enable you to remove the panel below. It's not too hard to pass the fiber optic cables, power wires, and the ipod cable to this area from the gear shifter area. I mounted the GW 500 on the panel and screwed it back.

In my car, there is a hole between the center console and the area under the gear shifter cover (you'll see it once you remove the cup holder). I passed the ipod cable, and the usb cable through the hole from center console through the gear shifter area, through under the dash, into the passenger side where I installed GW 500.

Yes, you do need to tap the power. You can do it with the cigarette lighter, make sure you plug in the fuse such that the cigarette lighter has constant 12V. Or, you can do what I did, which is to run the wires all the way to the left side fuse box, and pick an empty fuse slot for the constant 12V.

DubVBenz

Thanks for the tips. Were you able to pass the wires from the gearshift area to under the glovebox without removing anything else ? I think I'll probably keep the connections in the glovebox, simply because space is so limited with the cupholders in the center console. Since you can control all ipod functions through the COMAND or steering wheel buttons, no need to see the ipod or have close access to it.

Have you tried using an external hard drive connected via USB? I thought about buying a 2.5 portable one that's powered by the usb port and just using that instead of an ipod..

anewbie

Other than the ashtray, I didn't have to remove anything. What worked well for me was, after removing the panel under the glovebox, you know there is a passage from there to the gearshifter area, but you cannot see it clearly. I passed a clothe hanger (straightened) from under the glovebox up towards the gearshifter, then, use the clothe hanger as a guide to carry the wires back down. I didn't want to drill any holes, so, didn't even consider glovebox as an option. In the center console, if you remove the cupholder, you'll see there is good 2 inches of depth underneath. What I did was pulling all of the wires under the cupholder. The bottom of the two cupholders is a piece of rubber, cutting a small hole in the rubber allows you to pass the connectors (ipod, usb) into the cupholder. Put the cupholder back in, you'll only see two connectors up through the bottom of cupholder. Petty clean looking. the holder itself hides all the messy extra wires underneath.

I know that many people have used harddrive. I myself only tried with 8GB USB flash drive, worked flawlessly.

DubVBenz

Mind if I ask where you bought it?

anewbie

PM sent.

kkanuck

If you still are subscribed and can comment by chance, when you removed the fiber optic cable under the ash tray from its connector to the CDC player, you simply plugged that into the Dension port, and the lead that came from the Dension plugged back into this port under the ashtray, and that was it, making the GW500 in front on the CDC player in the fiber optic network? The second Fiber Optic lead that came in the kit is therefore not used, and there was no fiber optic wire reconfiguration within the terminals themselves like some installs in other models, or brands?

I have an 06 W211.



Many Thanks