I had the exact same problem, I had to connect the antenna cable from the AVIC (blue wire) to the mercedes plug to power the antenna amplifier otherwise it doesn't work.

For some reason the CA-R-PI.133 doesn't come with this wire!

 

That is the one wire I did not hook up. I connected the red lead from the antenna adapter to the acc. wire and not the blue wire from the AVIC and get a little FM reception if I am near L.A. but no AM reception. I will have to open the dash up this weekend and connect the blue wire. Other than that, I love my upgraded HU.

 

question regarding the wire harness is the VW70-1784 & Metra 70-9401 are they the SAME WIRE HARNES?? just different part number can they both work on a 2001 C320 and also which Antenna adapter is to be used for and atfermarket radio?
Please help thank you!

 

question regarding the wire harness is the VW70-1784 & Metra 70-9401 are they the SAME WIRE HARNES?? just different part number can they both work on a 2001 C320 and also which Antenna adapter is to be used for and atfermarket radio?
Please help thank you!

 

The 9401 is a landrover harness but it has the ignition and battery power wires in the correct place vs. the metra harness actually labeled for our car.

 

this is the one for the coupes:

Metra 40-VW53 VW Aftermarket Radio To VW Amp Roof Antenna
-" Converts VW/Audi/European power antenna with factory coax cable powered amplification to aftermarket radio."

and i am guessing this the one for the sedans:

Metra 40-VW10 VW/European Jack To Motorola Plug
-" Converts VW/Audi/European factory antenna with flat plug to aftermarket radio. A capacitor is included to match impedance."

 

thank you!

 

Did anyone hook up the car speed signal input and the reverse gear signal input? Just curious if the navi will still function if these two leads aren't connected. Also, the parking brake should be grounded with the ground from the other two harnesses, right? I'm still waiting for all the parts to arrive so I'm just looking off online manuals right now. I may consider doing another write up though. Anyways, anyone out there who have any tips about the install would be excellent. TIA

 

After more research, I found out it doesn't matter whether I connect these two leads or not but the navi will obviously be more accurate if I do. Fair enough.

Some of the VW guys mentioned that by using the steering wheel adaptor, no splicing of any factory wires will be neccesary. Is that the case with the W203? The adaptor I will be using is the CA-R-PI.131. Aside from enabling my steering wheel controls, does this make my connection to the car's speed and reverse gear signal input less tedious than if I were to hunt these wires down to splice them?

 

Alright, so it's 4:00 in the morning and I have just finished another load of research.

The point in grounding the parking brake wire along with the 2 grounds from the AVIC and METRA harness is to bypass the system in order to keep all the functions of the navi in operation even when the vehicle is in motion. It is also important to ground the new wire in the AVIC harness to bypass the system.

A lot of the results that came up from my searches were related mainly to the CLK's, ML's, E's, and a few C's. It seems like tapping into the car's speed (VSS?) and reverse gear signal input on a Mercedes is not as simple compared to other makes. There were a lot of mixed results in terms of some models having the speed signal wire already located behind the radio from the factory, fiber optics, BOSE and HK packages, etc. In the end, one key thing that stuck out to me was the fact that one installer mentioned tapping into the speed signal wire would throw off a bunch of codes, such as ABS, ESP, etc. To play it safe, I have decided to order the Pioneer Steering Wheel Controller from Portugal. At first, I crossed it off my list of "things-to-buy" because I hardly use the steering wheel to control the stereo. However, this controller should be able to supply the AVIC with the car speed and reverse gear signal input in order to give the navi a more accurate reading without the need to splice into any factory wiring.

Right now I'm not 100% positive whether my information is perfectly correct or not, hence the word choice: should. Famous last words. The Steering Wheel Controller adds another $140 to my list which bumps the total cost for this project to $1000. The price will most likely go up a hundred bucks or two since I will have to pay broker fees at customs. In the end, I feel the project is still worthy since an AVIC-D3 retails for $1200 here before tax and installation (although I am planning to do the install myself) as well as the cost for all the harnesses and adaptors.

Hopefully all the parts will arrive within 2 weeks time so I can get this project on the road. I am expecting the Steering Wheel Controller to come last since it is being shipped from the furthest but I'm confident it will be worth all the time and money.

I'm crossing my fingers that the controller will be the last item I have to buy for this project because as of now I'm pretty much broke.

As for writing a DIY or not, I'm not 100% sure if I will be able to make it any better than the DIY's we already have now. My goal for a new DIY is to have it so that it will guide the next DIY'er(s) through every single step from start to finish.
Either way, I'll try my very best to bring all the information I have gathered and present it in one nice package; hopefully even better than all the DIY's we already have.

It seems like this thread has turned into a personal blog of my project since I am asking and answering all of my own questions. Not a problem. This may take a while though since I don't have tracking information on all my parts and I will have to write Mid-Terms very soon. We'll see how it goes, I'm in no rush because I want to measure twice and cut once. Also, my vehicle will be parked after next week so I will have the whole winter season to complete this project until April where I will be taking her back out. (lets hope this won't last till April)

This can be considered one of my very first major projects for my vehicle. Please feel free to criticize or correct me if I am wrong in any way. Any tips will also be appreciated.

Happy Thanks Giving MBWorld!!

 

wow man....there is a ton of stuff on the D3's out there already including some DIY's.

The setup is pretty simple
With mine, the only wire I was hunting and pecking for was the cigarette lighter for the 12v switched as that is not in the harness (c32)

Ur cost seems high though....I got mine for $650 (us) brand new. I think in total I spent 1200 (us) for the d3, bluetooth, xm w traffic, ipod cable and pac audio steering controls. Check out the avic forum at avid411.com for info there and for install use this link

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...hlight=avic-d3

 

the DIY is a good thread but i was reading the Avic forum that u dont need the Mute wire and u can just use it for the bypass instead of attaching another wire.
Infected does your car have the BOSE system?

 

Yep. Just take the mute wire and relocate it to the slot above it and then ground. The whole "grounding" procedure seems simple enough but some installers have had problems with a bad ground creating a whole bunch of problems like alternator whine, etc.

I'll be taking my dash apart this afternoon so I'll have a better idea of what I'll be working with because as of now I'm just looking off sites here and there for information. I'm very curious as to whether I have fiber optics or not.

I do not have the BOSE package which just made my life that much easier. I have heard of comments about the COMMAND giving out better sound than the AVIC though.

In the picture you attached, which HU install is that for? The reason I ask is because the switching of the red and yellow wires. I checked the labels on the Metra harness with those from the AVIC harness and it seems like the red and yellow DO NOT need to be switched in my case, but I am not 100% sure.

 

I'm having difficulty getting the "hooks" with the teeth on the upper part of the air vent. Everytime I pry down on them the teeth come down a little but there is nothing to hold them that way so they just pop back up. Any tips?

 

the wire harness in the pic is for the Avic D3 please take some pictures i was thinking about taking my dash apart too but i dont want to mess up anything i just got a quote from a audio shop to install my avic d3 they want $700.00 which i think is way to much

 

Good afternoon, after playing around with this for 2 hours, I managed to take everything apart and put it all back together again... which is a good sign. The most challanging part in removing the trim would be getting the air vents out of the way first. There are two clips with teeth on the top of each corner which was a complete PITA to unhook. To be honest, I think I wasted at least 45 minutes trying to figure out what the deal was because I didn't want to break anything.

After removing the trim and pulling out the stock HU, I did a little comparing of wires with the Metra harness. It seems like some of the prongs don't line up between the factory harness and the Metra harness. At this stage it is very difficult for me to know exacly where everything goes because I don't have all my parts in front of me so hopefully I will be able to figure everything out later on.

Behind the factory HU were 4 orange (fiber optic?) wires. The wires were paired up into two plugs where one went into the HU while the other just hung out at the back. I'm not sure what the purpose of the other unused plug is for but I'm assuming it is most likely for the COMMAND.

After taking some shots and plugging everything back in, I fired her up for a test run and to my shock the HU did not work... uh oh. All the functions were dead other than the on/off button and the screen would display "PROD." I pulled everything apart again and made sure the orange wires were not bent or damaged and then put everything back together again and it worked like a charm. Thank God. I even pulled out for a quick drive to see if I would get any errors while switching functions around but everything seemed to be working just like ususal so I'm a happy camper.

It's almost 4:00 and I'm starving to death so I'll upload my pictures as soon as I grap a bite.

 

Here is one of the pair of orange wires I found. This was the one that was just hanging around at the back unplugged with a green protective cap overtop.



Here is what the plug looks with with the green cap removed. It looks just the same as the other plug attached to the HU.


Here is a comparison of the two orange(fiber optic?) wires.


These are the three plugs that plug into the HU. The Metra harness I have only plugs into the lower two plugs so I am not sure what to do with the remaining plug yet.


This is a shot of the Metra harness and the two factory plugs that go into it. I'm assuming that the far left port os for the far right plug since both have 8 prongs. The inside plug and port seem to have their prongs set all over the place and not everything will be connected if I just plug it directly in. I'm not sure if this is just the way it is so I'll update again when the Steering Wheel Controller and the AVIC arrives.


I purchased a Metra adaptor for the antenna which is pictured here. I'm not sure what the other plug is for since it seems like there is nowhere for it to be plugged into at the back of the AVIC. Again, I will have to wait and see before I figure out where the remaining plug goes.


A final shot of the three factory plugs, as stated earlier the two smaller plugs are accounted for by the Metra harness even though it seems like the prongs don't line up perfectly so I am not sure if that is normal or not and the remaining plug I am not sure where it belongs yet.

 

here is a picture of the back of the Avic D3


not sure where that Extra plug goes i guess if for the steering wheel control

 

Well I ordered an adaptor for the black male plug for the radio antenna so that one is good but I am not sure if I should just tuck away the other silver female plug. It is possible you're correct that the larger plug of the three I'm holding in my hand is for the Steering Wheel Controller. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

yea i got the antenna adaptor part number METRA 40-VW10.. am just waiting on a few other parts before i start.
like:
Steering wheel adaptor
Cd Changer
Door Speakers

i wonder how come no one never posted up how to Bypass the Bose Amp. this is my only set back am also going to replace the factory Door speakers and get a CD changer for the glove box i think the Pioneer CDX-P680 Fits

i guess this thread will have more details on how to upgrade since we are post so many pictures

picture of the D3 with the MB-K100C kit dash kit




also the bypass can be found here
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4670
and here
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7998

 

do you have to flip the yellow and red wires?

 

Excellent!! The black male plug is the for the antenna, right? Any idea where the silver female plug goes?

 

goes into the factory Antenna but if you have the Coupe i think it might be different!

 

I mean the silver plug in the picture below:

 

Infected, if you don't mind my asking, where and for how much did you get your steering wheel adapter? The CA-R-PI.131?