Awful? No way man. Its like a million times better than the OEM comand system. Never tried a Garmin, so I cant compare the two. I have never had a problem with the GPS.

 

Fantastic thread guys!!! keep it going. The only thing I would mention up at your first thread is the year and the origional stereo package of your vehicles. It would really help the pre 05 vs post 05 owners...

 

C32Used:::: To bypass the Bose Amp the info is on Page 1 post #24


i have a 2001 C320 With BOSE PACKAGE

 

the Bose bypass takes time to figure out the wiring but thanks to Nick we got it done.. and yes the GPS is better than the OEM and has Way more features... i love mines..

oh shoot this means a mini meet at nick house photo shoot and that drag race we gotta have...

 

Hahah. Id be down for that.

 

Haha, well if I'm gunna be driving all the way to CT (probably like 2 and a half hours) I'd probably want to chill there for a bit longer than the hour it will take to install. Nick, shoot me your zip code in a PM so I can get an idea of what kind of a drive I'm in for.

In other news: I actually purchased the D3 today, so now I'm extra pumped about getting it in there. Everyone I ask about where to get it installed says "Best Buy"... like I would trust them with my car.

 

can you get another D3 with your discounted price? if so pm me?

 

Any Ideas on where I can get this item. CA-R-PI.133

It's a Pioneer harness for the AVIC Z2 that allows you to use the steering controls, VSS wire etc.

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

ebay
seller should be from Poland

 

Email this ebay seller: http://stores.ebay.com/Worldwide-Sou...Q3amesstQQtZkm

He was able to order one for me and put it in his eBay store with a buy it now price for me to purchase. It's not cheap though...with the exchange rate at the time, I paid close to $200.00 for it.

 

Thanks man, i just bought one... came to $207.00 with shipping. From what I understand, it will talk almost 3 weeks to get here
The wait begins...

 

 

ebay

 

I was looking on pioneer catalogue, and CARPI131 its for facelift models!!

Reading on the forum looks like the pre-facelift and facelift have something in comon for using the same interface!?

 

Hi,

I am in the process of figuring out how to install an AVIC Z2 into a 2005 C230 with the Harman Kardon sound system.
So first I am trying to get a list of items needed to get a rough cost estimate. Once I have the parts figured out I will post how to tackle the installation (So please be patient with me as this is a sloooow process)
The list of items needed (And please correct me if you happen to find I made a mistake)

[[Click on item for more details, most of it is of Amazon.]]

1. Pioneer AVIC Z2 Head unit
$1078

2. Pioneer steering interface CA-R-PI.133
~$100~ (Ordered from England)

3. Scosche Mz2347b Double Din Installation Kit
$12.99

4. Metra TurboWires 70-9401 Wiring Harness
$17.99

------Optional Components------

5. Pioneer ND-BT1 - Cellular phone Bluetooth adapter
$89.32

6. Pioneer GEX-P920XM XM Digital Satellite Tuner
$79.99

--OR--

7. Pioneer SIR-PNR2 SIRIUS satellite radio
$99.99


To my understanding the Harman Kardon system is part Fiber (at least from the head unit to the amp) which I have to check on, well take it apart and see what’s in there. If that is the case you (I) will need to add at least an amp to that list.

If some of you are trying to do the same, here are some helpful references I found
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=206932
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...highlight=avic
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...38#post2581338

Stay tuned, I’ll update the post as I find out more and hopefully have a complete DIY for the Z2 installed into a W203 with HK sound system at the end.

Any hints or help is appreciated

test

 

Awesome!! Take plenty of pics. I would however email your vendor one more time to double check the steering wheel interface. Other vendors had confirmed that that model (Pioneer steering interface CA-R-PI.133) and all others will NOT work with the 05's+ ..... I hope I'm wrong!!

I do believe only PAC at this time is working on one....

 

I've done this install on my what used to be 06 HK system.

The .133 Adapter is what you need, it also included all of the other connections as well so no other wiring harness was needed.

The Wiring is Fiber all the way from the H/U back to the AMP in the rear passanger side of the Trunk area, behind the carpet. Also where the Sirius Tuner is if so equiped. I pulled the factory HK AMP and speakers and replaced them at the same time with aftermarket ones.

 

ELBMAN. That's great news!! Can you give us more details about the functionality of the steering wheel harness.

 

 

Thank you all for your feedback, much appreciate it.

After talking to a few people yesterday I figured out that replacing the stock amp with a 4 channel amp will do the trick if you want to stay on the cheaper route (2 amps can run you another 1000 – 1200).
Assuming there are 7 Speakers in the car (I haven’t done any exploratory disassembly yet) you can put 2 speakers each in line which gives you 4ohm each pair (assuming they are 2ohm speakers), now you have 3 pairs 4 ohm each and the sub adding up to 4 channels.
To be more specific, put the 2 speakers for each front door in one pair, the two rear doors in one pair and the sub being one =4 channels.
The diagram below might explain it better.

 

I was installing my Z2 and when I connect the cables I don't have power!!

I connect the unit to a 12v transformator and using the same harness to test it and it works fine!

What is wrong?

PS: I'm using a pioneer harness

 

Here is a useful link on how to 'unlock' the Z2 unit.

http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8783

 

link #3 doesn't work. here's one that might help.

 

If you have a 2005 or later car with the premium audio system, this is what you have:

A head unit in the dash that fills two DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung) radio spaces. The head unit is connected to a power amp in the rear on a communication link called MOST (Media Oriented System Transport) that uses fiber optic cables to send data to the amp. The amp has a surround processor, a digital to analog converter, a wake up wire, a microphone input for ambient noise compensation, and copper wire connection to 9 (count 'em) loud speakers. The MOST fiber optic ring can also pick up data from a Sirius receiver, a multi disc changer, a telephone, and tele-aid.

There are two wee tweeters in the triangle grills on the front doors. There is a full range speaker in each of the four doors. There is a subwoofer under the rear package shelf. There is a midrange speaker on the subwoofer enclosure, and another midrange speaker in an enclosure by itself under the package shelf.

There are seven discrete amplifiers driving the 9 loud speakers. The wee tweaters and front door speakers are wired in parallel.

There is another communications bus connected to the head unit. This is the Controller Area Network or CAN-bus. This allows the car to communicate with various devices, but of interest here are the steering wheel buttons and the IC (instrument cluster) MFD (multi function display.) The CAN-bus computer reads the buttons on the wheel, and sends the required action to the head unit. The head unit talks back and informs the CAN-bus what it would like to display on the IC MFD.

The speakers have a nominal impedence of 4 ohms.

The drawing in post number 6 is creative, but it will falls down in a couple of places. The front door speakers are wired in series. It will work better if wired in parallel so current needed to operate the larger speaker voice coil does not pass through the wee tweeter. The rear door speakers are also wired in series, and connected to a single amp. Now I am confused. This will spoil the stereo separation, and make the balance control useless. I am curious do you connect the rear doors to the left side or the right side audio output? I have the same question for the subwoofer, is it left or right?

Usually a four channel amp is used to power four speakers from a stereo source. There is a balance control to move the volume from left to right, and a fader control to move the volume from front to back.

A subwoofer requires a separate amp. The input to that amp is the right and left stereo channels electrically summed so that low frequencies from both channels are reproduced. The summing circuit does not interfere with the stereo separation of the main speakers.

The HK Logic 7 system has an additional two channels (hence the 7) that are similar to the rear surround speakers for home theater. In Mercedes cars this is used as an electronic "reverb" to simulate the effect of the venue on live music.

Now that you know what the current system does, you can consider modifications.

My first question is what does the Pioneer do over the HK system that you can't duplicate with a $99 TomTom Go on the dash?

 

Solved