EClass89

Car type:

1989 300E Sedan.

Question:

Is their a way to run my sub amps power line from the battery in through the cabin without drilling and creating a grommet? I looked in all the usual spots I'd expect to see an entry way in, and came up short. Suggestions and photos of how others have tackled this issue would be greatly appreciated.

GEDaggett

Lift up all the carpet panels an you should be able to fine a pathway to the back seats and go from there.

EClass89

To clarify, I'm speaking about running the power line from the battery under my hood, into the cabin. I had all the carpet up last night so I could run the RCA's and remote wire from the deck to the trunk. I had no problems finding my way, so that's not an issue. The issue is, I couldn't find an entry ways from the engine compartment into the cabin! Am I blind or is their simply not one? I need to be able to tie the power line into my battery and bring it into the cabin through the drivers side and run that the same way I did the RCA's once it's inside the cabin.

2PHAST

Behind your batteryis a plastic panel, remove it and you should find several large rubber grommits that should have empty plugs in them that can be removed and used to route your wire. I have utilized these locations to run 8awg and 4awg power wire.

I don't have a picture of this in a W124, but here is a picture of a W201, which is similar.

ps2cho

^
Yup there is a grommet back there -- same place on the w124. Should be plenty of space to fit whatever size wires you have.

STLe320

And when you get to the trunk, if you remove the rear seat you'll see a little hole you can run the wire through into your trunk. It's on the passenger side as well.

EClass89

2Phast:

Thanks a bunch bro. That's exactly what I was hoping to find last night. I'm too busy to get on it this evening, but I'll definitely be running the cable tomorrow and finishing the job.

To everyone else who contributed information, thanks as well.

StLe320:

Yep. That's exactly how I got into the trunk.

It'll be interesting to see how everything sounds once it's all wired up. I didn't even THINK about how the gas tank is going to affect the sub (as I was a Lexus owner previously, so I didn't really think that through) but we shall see what kind of performance I'll get. I'm running a JL Audio 12" in a ported box.

STLe320

I'm going to be running 1 12" Audiobahn aw1208t in a ported box. I tuned it to 34hz and will be porting it up through the rear deck into the cabin. We'll see how it goes.

EClass89

Keep me posted on how that turns out, I'll do the same.

What size speakers do you have mounted in the rear? Will 5 1/4" speakers sit relatively flush in the rear without modification? What's the general consensus on rear size speakers that don't require modifying the mounts/enclosures?

Also, you know any spots I can NOS genuine W124 cup holders? My 300E didn't come with one/any. I believe the call the interior color of my car, "pollimeno"? It's like a real light tan. I need to find out what Mercedes called my paint color as well (if you look under my profile, you'll see what color my vehicle is).

2PHAST

5.25" is the proper size of rear speaker, but there is cutting required to get them to fit, as the hole is not exactly round, so be prepaired to spend some time on the installation.

You would be very suprised how much sound will find its way into the cabin of the car, even without cutting any holes. I run a Basslink T in my 500e and it has deep accurate bass.

RHW

It'll be interesting to see how everything sounds once it's all wired up. I didn't even THINK about how the gas tank is going to affect the sub (as I was a Lexus owner previously, so I didn't really think that through) but we shall see what kind of performance I'll get. I'm running a JL Audio 12" in a ported box

---------

I run a few W124s w subs just dropped into the trunk - with enough amp power, I think you'll be fine w that set up.

EClass89

So I finished the rest of the installation last night (with respects to the sub/sub amplifier).

This included running the power wire, wiring up the amp and sub, and grounding the amplifier. To my surprise, installation was rather smooth/easy on this vehicle. I'm really, really, happy with how it all turned out. I think anyone worrying that the gas tank is going to interfere with the subs response needn't. I'm running an MTX amplifier (can't recall the series off the top right now) bridged mono @ 2 ohm, pushing a JL Audio W3 12" woofer in a front ported box, and it bumps. After some deck adjustments, and fine tuning on the MTX, everything sounds proper. At the moment, I'm pushing 4" Sony Explodes (euro model w/ the green tweeter) in the front, and 5 1/4" Explodes in the back (I'm planning to jump up to a Focal component system soon though..) off the deck and stock Mercedes wiring. On the short term (before moving up to the Focals), I'm planning to discard the stock wiring, run my own, and go from powering the speaks off the deck, to powering them off a 4 ch Alpine that I recently purchased. That said, overall, I'm very pleased. A single 12 does the job quite well, and gave me more or less what I was looking for.

Oh, and here is a link many may find helpful in the future. It's a step-by-step photo-instruction on installing a system in a W124:

http://mercedesshop.com/Wikka/W124AudioAmp

2PHAST

On pre 1994 models, the design of the sound system utilizes a two channel Becker head unit, the two channels are routed to a manual fader located in the center console. If your installing a aftermarket headunit that already has a four channel internal amp (or a external 4 channel amp) you definately want to by-pass the factory fader and the factory wiring all together. You can of course, trace the factory speaker wires from the deck location, to the fader, then tap into the two sets of speaker cable here (after the fader), this would allow you to utilize all the factory wiring, but by-pass the fader. This method also allows you to continue to feed a high level signal into the door woofer amplifier (1991 and later models). If you elect to rewire completely, you must locate the high level signal wires in the back of the dash and feed a signal to them for your door woofer amplifier to continue to function.

Also keep in mind that this fader is not designed to handle high wattage, so it can easily burn up on you if fed too much power.

The Wiki does not show this and it actually should as a preferred method of installation.

JSe420

Im going to do my audio install tomorrow. Im going to run 2 12" kicker comps, with a mono alpine amp, and a pioneer HU i just bought. I know, i know, everyone thinks there system is the greatest and sounds the best, but i was very surprised when i had this setup in my previous cars and definitely impressed with the results. Anyway i just had one question as to how i can get the best sound from the rear spreakers. Im running my own wires, so i was just wondering if the rears would sound better powered by the HU or the mono alpine amp. If they sound the same it would save me the effort of running the wires back there and i could use the HU to power the front 4 speakers. Any suggestions??

ps2cho

I have found, at least in my opinion, once you relieve the factory speakers of the bass, they sound a lot better and I didn't find any need to power them separately.

If you are still on the stock paper cones though, I would replace them with some cheap $30 pioneer's from pepboys/walmart. They sound significantly better.

Here is my sub install thread to give you an idea on amp location if yours will fit.
https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...y-87-260e.html