Install of Kenwood DNX-6960 in W208 2003 CLK320 Cab
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From: NY
2003 CLK 320 Cabrio
Install of Kenwood DNX-6960 in W208 2003 CLK320 Cab
I just installed a Kenwood DNX-6960 double din head unit (nav/dvd/ipod integration/bluetooth/etc) in a W208 2003 CLK320 Cab. First I want to thank MarcusF for his great resource on installing an aftermarket head unit (http://www.marcusfitzhugh.com/CLK/DIY/headunit2.html), and to all of you who have contributed to the discussions on this forum. Your help was invaluable, and I just wanted to add a few additional points to the discussion.
The first is that the PAC OEM2 is discontinued and has been replaced with the SOEM4. They're similar in function, though the 4 gives you the option (via switches and exchangeable harness) to use RCA or wired inputs/outputs. I was puzzling over which connections to use, but in the end went with wired (speaker-level input) and wired output. I'm very happy with the results. Google RCA vs speaker level inputs, and there's some interesting discussion. My take from the discussion was that there are some benefits to using speaker level outs, up to the point where the head unit amp would start clipping. I don't feel that this will be a problem for me, so that's the way I went. I left the black wires on the input and output sides disconnected (not a common ground speaker system), and hooked up the +12V and ground connections, and left the remote connection disconnected. One warning, the SOEM4 is HUGE--much bigger than I expected and it just fits down the right side of the console just out of the way of the head unit. After testing, I trimmed the level control on the OEM4 down ever so slightly from the factory setting to lower the volume and risk of damaging the speakers.
Second, the W208 2003 CLK-320 Cabriolet does not have 12V ignition wire in the wiring harness. I understand from searching that it was removed from the headunit harness (B7 if I recall correctly) as the CanBus sends the signal the factory radio needs to identify when the ignition is on. There is a 12V ignition feed to the cigarette lighter that I (and apparently many others) used for the ignition connection to the head unit. To access the wire, remove the trim around the shifter by pulling up at the front of it, then remove the two screws holding the ashtray, and pull the ashtray out. I used a wire tap-in squeeze connector to tap into the line.
Third, with a double din, a PAC SWI-CAN2, PAC SWI-JACK and PAC SOEM4, it's a very tight fit, and leaving the ashtray out (per above) until last gives a bit of room underneath to use a finger or two to guide the boxes/wires into position while inserting the head unit.
Oh, and a final tip--you'll need to move the shifter out of park in order to do some of these steps--you can do this without starting the car by inserting a pen/screwdriver into the slot at the bottom of the shifter (there's a little plastic cover that flips out of the way), as described in the owner's manual.
End result is a happy CLK owner with a clean looking install with nav/bluetooth/dvd/ipod and factory steering wheel controls. By the way, for steering wheel controls, I set up volume +/- on the right, and track+/- on the left. I didn't play with it too much (as it was 2:00 a.m. when I finished), but I couldn't program the phone buttons on the steering wheel to do anything.
The first is that the PAC OEM2 is discontinued and has been replaced with the SOEM4. They're similar in function, though the 4 gives you the option (via switches and exchangeable harness) to use RCA or wired inputs/outputs. I was puzzling over which connections to use, but in the end went with wired (speaker-level input) and wired output. I'm very happy with the results. Google RCA vs speaker level inputs, and there's some interesting discussion. My take from the discussion was that there are some benefits to using speaker level outs, up to the point where the head unit amp would start clipping. I don't feel that this will be a problem for me, so that's the way I went. I left the black wires on the input and output sides disconnected (not a common ground speaker system), and hooked up the +12V and ground connections, and left the remote connection disconnected. One warning, the SOEM4 is HUGE--much bigger than I expected and it just fits down the right side of the console just out of the way of the head unit. After testing, I trimmed the level control on the OEM4 down ever so slightly from the factory setting to lower the volume and risk of damaging the speakers.
Second, the W208 2003 CLK-320 Cabriolet does not have 12V ignition wire in the wiring harness. I understand from searching that it was removed from the headunit harness (B7 if I recall correctly) as the CanBus sends the signal the factory radio needs to identify when the ignition is on. There is a 12V ignition feed to the cigarette lighter that I (and apparently many others) used for the ignition connection to the head unit. To access the wire, remove the trim around the shifter by pulling up at the front of it, then remove the two screws holding the ashtray, and pull the ashtray out. I used a wire tap-in squeeze connector to tap into the line.
Third, with a double din, a PAC SWI-CAN2, PAC SWI-JACK and PAC SOEM4, it's a very tight fit, and leaving the ashtray out (per above) until last gives a bit of room underneath to use a finger or two to guide the boxes/wires into position while inserting the head unit.
Oh, and a final tip--you'll need to move the shifter out of park in order to do some of these steps--you can do this without starting the car by inserting a pen/screwdriver into the slot at the bottom of the shifter (there's a little plastic cover that flips out of the way), as described in the owner's manual.
End result is a happy CLK owner with a clean looking install with nav/bluetooth/dvd/ipod and factory steering wheel controls. By the way, for steering wheel controls, I set up volume +/- on the right, and track+/- on the left. I didn't play with it too much (as it was 2:00 a.m. when I finished), but I couldn't program the phone buttons on the steering wheel to do anything.
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Joined: Apr 2008
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From: West Los Angeles, CA
CLK55 / E350 Coupe
Nice write up on clarification on your install, the procedure is a bit scattered on the forum but its all here 
The best practical interior update to your car is definatly by far is to that crappy stock headunit.
Probably the biggest confusion is the one you mentioned is the 12v ignition wire from the cig lighter.
Once they get of this stupid Windows CE platform they put in these headunits out the door and get real.
Like maybe ever popular android OS from this tablet craze going on. Either with its own cell service for internet or simply wi-fi to pickup off a mi-fi phone. Its so ready to be a simple car PC.
All the android apps in your car synced with your phone now were taking a upgrade!! Pandora, Googlemaps, WWW, Skype, ****, virtual game consoles (SNES, PS1 etc)...endless open source app possiblities...
I would think this would be in development already...i hope so!
The best practical interior update to your car is definatly by far is to that crappy stock headunit.
Probably the biggest confusion is the one you mentioned is the 12v ignition wire from the cig lighter.
Once they get of this stupid Windows CE platform they put in these headunits out the door and get real.
Like maybe ever popular android OS from this tablet craze going on. Either with its own cell service for internet or simply wi-fi to pickup off a mi-fi phone. Its so ready to be a simple car PC.
All the android apps in your car synced with your phone now were taking a upgrade!! Pandora, Googlemaps, WWW, Skype, ****, virtual game consoles (SNES, PS1 etc)...endless open source app possiblities...
I would think this would be in development already...i hope so!
Last edited by GiZzO; Mar 9, 2011 at 02:22 AM.
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Joined: Oct 2005
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From: Troy, MI
CLK 430 Cabriolet
KentH
A couple of questions for you did cover your install very well. #1) When you say the trim around the shifter, is this the black rectangular trim ring or the entire wood that covers the switches? When you pull up from the front how do you get under it to begin to lift it up? and #2) how did you wire the PAC SWI-CAN2? You should have the CAN+ and the CAN- striped wires which MarcusF covers (if you could share what you used to attach these to the canbus block it would be helpful), but where did you wire the yellow (hot) wire and the black (ground) wire to? Thanks looking to do this install once the weather breaks in Michigan.
A couple of questions for you did cover your install very well. #1) When you say the trim around the shifter, is this the black rectangular trim ring or the entire wood that covers the switches? When you pull up from the front how do you get under it to begin to lift it up? and #2) how did you wire the PAC SWI-CAN2? You should have the CAN+ and the CAN- striped wires which MarcusF covers (if you could share what you used to attach these to the canbus block it would be helpful), but where did you wire the yellow (hot) wire and the black (ground) wire to? Thanks looking to do this install once the weather breaks in Michigan.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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From: NY
2003 CLK 320 Cabrio
KentH
A couple of questions for you did cover your install very well. #1) When you say the trim around the shifter, is this the black rectangular trim ring or the entire wood that covers the switches? When you pull up from the front how do you get under it to begin to lift it up?
A couple of questions for you did cover your install very well. #1) When you say the trim around the shifter, is this the black rectangular trim ring or the entire wood that covers the switches? When you pull up from the front how do you get under it to begin to lift it up?
and #2) how did you wire the PAC SWI-CAN2? You should have the CAN+ and the CAN- striped wires which MarcusF covers (if you could share what you used to attach these to the canbus block it would be helpful), but where did you wire the yellow (hot) wire and the black (ground) wire to? Thanks looking to do this install once the weather breaks in Michigan.
I connected the yellow 12V+ wire from the Canbus, and from the headunit, and from the SOEM4* all together to 12V+ on the wiring harness. Similarly, ground from the Canbus (but not the Canbus common speaker grounds, which were left unconnected), the SOEM4 and headunit were all connected to wiring harness ground.
* Re. 12V+ to SOEM4: I'm really not sure whether the SOEM4 needs power--it appears that the SOEM2 doesn't, and I'm not sure if it's there on the SOEM4 as purely a "convenience" feature, in that it can provide a remote amp turn on signal, apparently activated when the SOEM4 detects a speaker signal on one of its inputs. In any event you don't need this remote amp signal if its by the headunit and you have a remote amp signal there already. As for whether it needs power, I suspect not, as inside it appears to my relatively-uneducated-on-this-topic eyes to be a fancy ground loop isolator with level control (and some misc resistors/diodes that perhaps do something with signal phasing). That said, in the interest of time, I just hooked up power to it anyway.
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Joined: May 2010
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CLK 55
Kent, great writeup. Do you remember how you got the steering wheel controls to work? I was unable to get that done. The "professionals" I went to last year told me that Mercedes did not release the update for my 2005 CLK55. Any help would be great. Thanks.
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Newbie
Joined: Feb 2011
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From: NY
2003 CLK 320 Cabrio
SD CLK55, In mine I used the PAC SWI-CAN2 (which interfaces with the car's CANBUS system), and PAC SWI-JACK (which connects the SWI-CAN2 with the head unit) to get the steering wheel controls operating. I just followed the PAC programming instructions to get it set up. However, I don't know if the CAN2 works with a 2005 CLK. You could call PAC Audio and see if they sell a compatible interface, or check with other manufacturers.
