Jim Banville

My XM Roady2 won't fit in the ashtray of my 2 week old C230 because of the new built-in lighter! Based on what I remember from dealing w/ the ashtray in my old C240, I think my '05 ashtray is compatible with all other W203's. Send me your entire MINT pre-05 ashtray housing, I'll switch your cover onto my housing and send it back to you the same day! You'll have a second lighter/power point for your cellphone, GPS device, radar detector, etc. once you splice into the wiring going to your current lighter (or just wire the new one straight to the fuse box) and I'll have an open ashtray housing that my Roady2 will fit into! E-mail me at jcbanville1@cs.com of you want to do this! Here are some pics of my ashtray housing with the "aluminum-look" cover trim removed...

Blake P

nevermind

Jim Banville

Oh yeah, the little white ring around the lighter lights up when your car's lights are on.

Removing your ashtray is VERY easy.
1- open the ashtray door
2- grip the front edge of the lower console trim and pull up hard
3- close the ashtray door
4- use a small screwdriver to pry the little tabs on either end of the front of the ahstray towards the rear of the car
5- the front of the ashtray will now pull up & then just pull the whole thing out
Installation is easier! Just slide it in until you hear the tabs click into place and then push the lower console trim down. Your done!

If you're concerned about my honesty/integrity, check out my feedback at eBay under user name cjbanville

Blake P

But will simply removing a pre-05 ashtray and replacing it with an 05 ashtray make the lighter functional or is additional wiring work necessary?

amdeutsch

I think he answered that one in his first post.

Jim Banville

The lighter in my '05 ashtray requires 3 "wires" just as the lighter mounted next to the cupholder in any pre-'05 W203 does. 1 ground, 1 12v tied to ignition and 1 12v tied to signal that lights are on. Your current lighter should already be connected via these 3 wires. You can simply tap into those pre-existing wires on your current lighter and run them to this one, or you can run a separate power line from the fusebox if you feel it's necessary. I would probably run a new 12v power and ground if I was going to use one of the lighters as an actual cigarette lighter, as it probably draws alot of current, but if you're using both for low current jobs simulataneously, such as one charging a cellphone and the other powering a radar detector, you probably wouldn't need to run new power/ground wires.

Blake P

Jim: It's probably not worth it for me, but maybe somone else who is more comfortable with electrical/wiring stuff.

amdeutsch: You are the :v

2k5C230

WOW I need to do this as well. I hate that you cant fit the satellite radio in there. I did not know an 04 ashtray could fit...off to ebay i go.

Jim Banville

I didn't find any on eBay.
At least I got my auxillary cable and Roady2 hooked up today anyway. I just have the Roady2 lying in the hole my ashtray assembly used to occupy. The grayish color of the Roady2 actually matches my "metallic-look" console trim very nicely! I set the tiny antenna on the metal grille on the front dash, right next to the windshield and tucked the cable down along the windshield and between the the bottom of the A pillar and dash. Thankfully I didn't have to remove the A pillar trim since no one could give me instructions on removing it.

inFiniTE LooP

got any pics. of your install

Jim Banville

Not really too much to see, but here goes...

inFiniTE LooP

ahh that's cool thanks , looking good, i like the way you mounted your antenna, looks really clean, how's the reception there??? and are you sure the roady2 will fit in the 04 ashtray? looks kinda biggish

Jim Banville

The Roady2 is very tiny. It will fit no problem. In the pic, you can almost see that I'm getting 2 out of 3 bars on the reception scale. This pic was taken inside my closed garage!!!!!

Jim Banville

By the way, I wired up the auxillary cable in the passenger kick panel area myself. Rather than mount the jack in the hole in the glovebox as you (and others) have done, which requires another hole be drilled in the glovebox to route the cable out to your XM receiver, I just connected the cable going to my XM receiver to the auxiallary jack and put a piece of tape across the connection to keep it from coming loose and then hid the entire thing behind the plastic triangular piece of plastic on the side of the dash/glovebox. I doubt I'll ever need to access that auxiallry jack again. So my glovebox remains clean and intact with no additional holes, but I can very easily access the auxillary jack if I ever need to by pulling off that plastic triangular piece on the side of the dash/glovebox.

inFiniTE LooP

so the AUX isn't in your glovebox anymore? it's pulled out and inside the plastic? did i understand that correctly? i was going to do the same but i often hook up my mp3 player to AUX so that wasn't an option for me

Jim Banville

Correct. I did not punch the hole in the glovebox for the auxillary jack. The interior of the glovebox is nice and clean with no holes or wires running through it! I connected a 6 ft. cable w/ mini-headphone plugs on either end to the auxillary jack. I put the connection behind the triangular piece of plastic on the right side of the glovebox/dash. The other end of the cable goes to my ashtray where it connects to my XM Roady. If I want to connect any other device, all I have to do is pull the plug out of the Roady and plug it into the other device.

Jim Banville

I went by the dealer today. The pre-'05 ashtray housing is $53. Before I buy a new one, I'll make a final offer for your perfectly fuctioning pre-'05 ashtray housing for my perfectly functioning '05 ashtray housing w/ built-in lighter PLUS $20!!!!
As I mentioned earlier, the wood or metal-look trim cover comes off of the housing, which either you can take off before shipment, or I will swap your door trim cover onto my housing before I ship it to you.

thanks
Jim

inFiniTE LooP

ahh, i see, nice setup

Jim Banville

I'm ordering the pre-'05 ashtray housing from my dealer. Hopefully, I can recoupe some of the cost by selling my '05 ashtray housing on eBay. Surely SOMEBODY with a 2001-2004 W203 would like an additional OEM 12v power point!

ctC230K

Aux cable? did that come with the car or did you buy it? where does it plug into? back of the radio? i need one for my ipod.

Jim Banville

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...=diy+aux+input