cliffybabe

How are you guys doing with the swap out of the W209 to the W203 coupe.

Any updates or news as this was a current topic b4 the forums went down.

Regards

Neil

oggle

I wanna know as well. Steve?

Harris

The CLK55 cluster costs almost USD1000. I do not have the guts to buy it and TRY to put it on my 32 without knowing that it will work for sure since the cluster is not refundable. So, I am still holding my breath and wait for one of you guys to try it first.

Sincity

Harris,

Sell me those 20" Brabus Mono IVs for my ML for $1k and you will have your cluster....

MBenzNL

NOT!!! before I am home again...where I have the car AND cluster plus stardiagnose to fool around with!

The coupe, btw, has a complete different cluster design as far as the housing goes...

greetingz,

tom incredibie

hurry steve hurry! i wonder if the new c55 cluster will look similar to the clk55's cluster hrmms..

rsyed

now that steve is back home, he is probably going to give it a shot... Thought i open this thread to remind Steve that there are a number of anxious people waiting for the outcome

greetings from vienna

rumman

MBenzNL

hahaha - that was (still is) on today's programm...you are too early!

greetingz,

Kar don

mmmm cant wait to hear the results!

MBenzNL

Seemed to be working fine except for the fuel gauge that kept running up and down...I am not sure whether that was a problem in the instrument cluster itself or is something that can be reprogrammed with stardiagnose (similar to 208 ICs in 210s or 210 ICs in 208 or 202s).

The W209 IC is slightly bigger then the W203 IC though and doesn't fit in the dash without any modifications...

greetingz,

Kar don

could you make it fit? What do you think you would have to do?

Guest0001

I guess thats not good.

Harris

Thats not very good news. I guess we all have to wait and see whether the C55 has the 209 look-a-like cluster!

MBenzNL

Shave the dash...which doesn't sound to well...
The backplate with the locks is bigger on the 209 cluster...if it would have been the front that was bigger - it would have been swapeable...
I need to find a non functioning 203 cluster to see whether I can use that housing in combination with the 209 electronics and faceplates...

greetingz,

NickySTHLM

i just got a used CLK cluster from ebay and of course the first thing to do was to test that everything works fine.... i took out the original cluster, connected the cable to the new one and started the car... everything seemed to work at first.... then i noticed the "problems" - so far only 3:

1. the fuel tank indicator was not stable - it was moving up and down from full to empty and back... i'm guessing that's some self calibration procedure and that i gotta fill the tank full the when i connect the cluster for the first time...?

2. the total mileage display (the little one under the main display - the one that also shows the current gear and gearbox programme) first shows 7640 km and then clears and just shows 6 dashes - so when parked the display shows "P ------ S" - i'm guessing that the new dash has to be programmed at the dealer to my car?

3. the phone page is gone - i have factory mounted phone kit in the car and when i change pages on the steering whell the page "telephoone" is not there... i'm guessing again that the dash has to be reprogrammed at the dealer to "know" which equipment my car has?

now when it comes to fittment... the outer size of both clusters seems to be abou the same... the back though is bigger on the 209... but i theink there is a pretty simple solution to the problem. behind the cluster there is like a glove for the cluster - a plastic piece that is as big as the cluster and where the cluster fits... i'm pretty sure that if you buy that glove as a spare from 209 and mount it into the 203 it will work just great...

carlssonist

Can we swap the old instrument cluster with the new 05 ?

amdeutsch

Nope. The new protocol is MOST whereas the old is DB2.

carlssonist

too bad...what about the 3 spoke steering wheel ?

miroj

Why not just install the MOST gateway ? I dont know much about the signal connection but I was interested to hear it can be driven by D2B or MOST.

SUNILP

The instrument panel is not connected via fiber optics so d2b and most have nothing to do with it. The problem is we don't know if the CANBUS signals have been changed in any way. We'll have to wait till Steve gets one soon.

miroj

Poor Steve ..... does he have to do all the work ?

All you need is a pinout of the back connector. I for one cant see the merit in changing the data link, having said that - the new APS COMAND warrants addtional functions.

Bottom line is W203 designation still includes AMG55 in the EPC .... so I am assured it is not a radical new car. If the door controllers are in the same list as the old ones then its not going to be any different in the cluster.

I dont see MOST as a huge problem myself. Its a better system and I am sure other people will jump in and make new devices for most since motorola has a habit of making it good for developers.

MBenzNL

...neither do I see that (the need to change data links) nevertheless MB changed a lot on the W220 when they upgraded it a bit and went from comand 2.5 to comand 16/9 (both D2B based and both CD rom) meaning that the 16/9 in an older W220 won't be compatible with the MF steering wheel...who knows what MB did to the W203???

I have a IC on order though...will have to see what happens when installing it in an older 203...

greetingz,

breastroker

Steve,
I want the 2005 Coupe instrument panel

CitronC230K_03

for a sedan if you could it wouldnt be too bad because it should fit the dash, but in a coupe i'd have to buy a new dash and that could get pricey.

breastroker

The 2005 Coupe has the same new "4 gage instrument panel with vertical multifunction display", with chrome rings, as the sedan.

Not sure if the Coupe has the different outer indentations like the 2002-04 Coupes. The photos aren't clear enough.