IWantedaJag

Hi folks,

I'm halfway through fitting a new head unit and power amps plus a steering wheel interface and Sirius unit. I'm bypassing the old fiber-optic system entirely.

The car in question is a 2008 CLK63, but I expect the wiring questions / colors apply equally to all post-facelift CLKs, possibly to all 2008 era cars.

The head unit is a Clarion NX807.

The steering wheel interface is a Metra AXXESS SWC-1 universal. It has four (out of lots) wires I need to hook up, power +12 volt switched, ground and a CANBUS high and a CANBUS low.

With the Clarion I need to identify the following wires' color codes please:

1. Speedometer pulse cable - apparently the Clarion GPS is more accurate if it has speedometer pulse information
2. Headlights on / dash illumination - so the head unit lights up when the headlights are on
3. Parking brake ground - has to be the ground side so it becomes "hot" when the parking brake is applied, so the unit can play videos when the car is stopped, prevent video playback when the car is moving - I guess I could tap into a different wire that goes "hot" when the transmission is in park, MAYBE just tap into a +12 volt switched feed and rely on my own good sense not to play videos when I'm driving. Any thoughts on this, apart from the obvious safety issue?
4. Switched +12 volt - so the head unit only comes on when the ignition is on.

On the Metra I need to identify a switched +12 volt and also confirmation of the following instructions:

1. Connect the Pink wire of the ASWC-1 to the wire in Pin 11 of the vehicle’s radio harness shown. [In the photo in the instructions pin 11 is gray and blue].
2. Connect the Blue/Pink wire of the ASWC-1 to the wire in Pin 9 of the vehicle’s radio harness shown. [In the photo in the instructions pin 9 is the red].

The problem here is I don't seem to have that sort of connector when my old head unit used to be.

Many many thanks in advance.


This picture is from the Metra Axxess SWC-1 instructions.

The power amps, for info, are SoundStream "Stealth" ST4.1000D. One is being used for the main four channels and is housed in the glove box where the CD changer used to be. It is driving the four (well six if you count the tweeters) speakers in the doors, the rears directly, the fronts (split woofers and tweeters) via cheap crossovers. I ran brand new speaker wires from the power amp to the in-door speakers, left the old wires as intact as possible for posterity. The second power amp will use one of channel pair A channel in the 4-channel amp to drive the center, both pairs B in bridged mode to drive the sub. Each channel pair has its own gain control, which is why I'm doing it this way. Because it's easier to tap into the existing wiring for the center and more importantly the sub in the trunk, the second power am is going in the trunk. The Clarion has dual subwoofer outputs and so I'm going to use one of them, hopefully full range to feed the center, the other to feed the solo sub. The cables for the power amps are already run, no issues.