HeadTurning400E

Hello, i am looking for guidance as how to remove the grilles for the speakers in both the dash and the front doors. Also, i have replaced my Grand Prix with an Alpine 9813 and my moldings on the doors have come loose, any suggestions would be appreciated.

amgmercedes

Try: http://ow.no/mb/w124/tech/

Im not sure if that link still works, it had instructions on how to remove the dash speakers and door panels.

I think you have to pry off the plastic covers beside the grille of the dash speakers to access the screw which holds it in place.

As for the door speakers, I think you would have to remove screws on the arm rest and near the power seat controls, then pry the clips which attach the door sidings with a removal tool or a large screw driver.

Did you rewire all your speakers when you installed your new head unit?

Am also planning to replace the Grand Prix in my 93 E420 with an after market head unit. But kinda hesitant since I think this will require running new wires to all the 6 speakers.

HeadTurning400E

Yes, i did rewire all 6 speakers, there was a problem that occured during the rewiring. I had all six speakers hooked up, but there were only 4 channels on the deck's internal amp. so i wired both front sets to the front speaker terminals only to blow the internal amp in a few days. At the moment, i am installing the replacement speakers, but only 4 due to my inability to find MB Quarts to fit in the Dash, but i think i may remove the dash speakers and place my tweeters in there. And to be completely honest, if you want to get a new head unit, i would reccomend getting it done for you because the store i bought it from gave me a great deal of problems when they saw what happened with the wiring that i was told would be fine. Even if it is just removing the stock deck and doing a preliminary wiring, i just don't want you to have to deal with the inconvience if something happens. The link isn't working at the moment, but thanks.

pkmaven

The most important concern is matching the impedance of the speakers and head unit. MB Quart coaxial aftermarket speakers will fit in the stock 124 body locations. The door speakers are a pathetic effort to have small subwoofers in the doors. They are not wired when the four main speakers are hooked up with dedicated wires which do not go through the dirt-collecting o.e. fader control. Deck power is the worst for sound quality. Most CD headunits claim absurd wattage and ability to power any speakers. Bunk! No head unit with IC chip outputs can drive four quality coaxials (even MB Quart) to quality sound. A four channel amp will do the job. For bass, find someone who knows something about building a bandpass box with a top-exiting square (won't whistle), partially external port that will pass through a square opening in the rear deck to deliver deep, tight , bass to the INSIDE of the car instead of the inside of the trunk. A single quality 12" subwoofer will allow you to wake up a neighborhood or have full frequency high fidelity. Any amp that, bridged offers 300wrms would be adequate. Keep all speaker loads at four ohms. P.

HeadTurning400E

Where is this square hole in the back decklid? One 12' isn't enough to suit my tastes though, why stop with the neighborhood, i already have two 15's and a 1500 watts RMS amp.

Of all the amps i have looked at, i cannot find one to give me the umph that i would like for the interior mids and highs.

Would you reccommend instead of putting the speakers in the doors, putting them in the dash, as i have no need for bass from the doors?

Thanks

amgmercedes

Im not looking for a loud or hi quality sound system, just want to replace my head unit since the entire right channel is not working.
Have already gone through the high end car audio system phase a couple of years ago.

I think the reason you blew the deck's internal amp is because the dash and door speakers are rated at 2 ohms each (not really sure but I read it somewhere). Wiring 2 pcs of 2 ohm speakers per channel to any head unit would quite surely ruin it.

Admittedly putting a speaker in the stock door location is not the best for imaging, but it would take alot of work to put a speaker in the kick panel. I think you can either just put a small coax in the dash and not connect the door speaker anymore, or get a 2 way separate system with the tweeter in the dash and the woofer in the door. A third and more complicated option would be a midrange in the dash, a tweeter in A-pillar, then a midbass in the door crossed over at a low frequency so it wont mess up the imaging. Depending on how you go about it, it could require a 4 channel amp plus an active crossover to go this route.

HeadTurning400E

Today the rest of my components arrived. I took your suggestion amg and i am going to leave the door speakers out of the setup for sake of imaging. I have a pair of MB Quart 4' that im going to put in the dash, along with a set of 5 1/4 for the rear. The Alpine Type R 15's are going to go in a sealed 4 cube box in the trunk. I still am looking for a 4 channel amp with nice characteristics, but the deck is sufficient for the moment. The Three way idea seems like a solid one, but at the moment, i can't find one with components small enough to fit in the spaces. Thanks for the help!

amgmercedes

Maybe you can get a 3 pc separate system for your front, tweeter goes on the A pillar, mid range goes in the dash, the woofer in the door. The only problem with this is that you wont be able to adjust the crossover point for the woofer and it might be crossed over at a higher frequency and might interfere with imaging. But you could add another passive crossover to the woofer.

AMGDave

you might be interested in checking out my 124 stereo installs. The blue car isn't complete yet - I'm still working on it. The Jehnert setup is way cool but not cheap!



http://www.meimann.com/images/mercedes/W124_stereo/

HeadTurning400E

That is some nice work. After some custom fabrication i was about to install all my components and subs. Unfortunately the subs are powerful enough to move the entire back area up and down enough to rattle ones brain. The taillights also are rattling quite badly. I think that i am going to have to take the tailights off and velcro the to prevent shaking. The back decklid is the major issue, because i think i am going to have to port through it in order to stop my trunk from being bent out of shape, I know there are hole in the area somewhere back there, but am unsure how to go about the porting.


Thanks

pkmaven

Try checking out earthquakesound.com P.

tkd_M119

AMGDave - just checked out your install pics. NICE! Did the dynamat under the rear seat make much of a difference? I'm thinking of doing the same but am wondering if it will be worth the effort.

AMGDave

tkd_M119,

It's hard to tell what exactly made a difference, because I did so much at the same time! The car is quieter though. I haven't put Dynamat in the rear doors or trunk lid yet - that's next. I also posted photos of Angel's 300E, he's put about SIX bulk packs (36 sq ft each!) of Dynamat Extreme in his car - did the roof, doors, gas tank, and everything in sight pretty much - some areas with two or three layers! I think he put three layers on the rear package shelf - wow. At ~$125 (and twenty pounds) per box, it ain't cheap, and adds some weight, but he said the car is incredibly quiet now. And the W124 is already a quiet car to begin with. Photos of his car are here:

http://www.meimann.com/images/merced...o/Angels_300E/

My car is still in progress - need to permanently mount the amps, capacitor, get the front tweeters sorted out, design & build the sub box, and more Dynamat of course (I picked up some of the Extreme bulk packs that Angel used). I have one amp mounted temporarily so I can listen to the system until it gets more complete. I hope to have it finished (mostly!) by the end of 2004. More photos to come, of course...

tkd_M119

AMGDave,

Thanks for the info. I looked at Angels 300e pics first. Looking at your pics it looks as if you've only put a bit of dynamat over the rear seat area.

BTW - how much time does one need to take out the front seats and carpet? I know the rear seat is quite easy as I've lifted out my rear seat on several occasions (to recover lost items) and I've been told the rear seat back comes out nearly as easily as the seat. But what about the front seats? Any tips you'd care to share?

I'm hoping that buy this summer I'll have access to a garage to work in but being that my 400e is my daily driver, I'm wondering if it's an easy weekend project.

Are you planing on doing the trunk walls/lid as well? It's my understanding that the rear doors already have some sort of noise abatement material adheard to them (judging by simply knocking on the rear door panels from the exterior).

AMGDave

The front seats are a mild PITA to remove. You need to move them all the way up, remove the rear bolts, then move them back to get the front bolts, then unplug the wires, and try to wiggle them out without damaging anything. Plan on a few hours total to R&R, the first time - after that you'll be faster. You'll be shocked at the amount of crud under the seats - I did a major cleaning while it was apart. Definitely doable in a weekend.


I'll be putting Dynamat on the trunk lid & walls too, and the rear doors. All doors have a small amount of damping stuff on the exterior skin, which is what you notice when you rap on the doors with your knuckles. Extra Dynamat never hurts though!