Well,

To start, i couldn't stomach dropping $900 on Sirius so i went and picked up a Roady 2 for $ 45.00. FYI - the roady 2 can do either FM modulation or be hardwired w/ a 1/8 stereo cable. I have a 2005 E500 so since i had the aux input, that's what i used.

Step 1:
I put the antenna that came w/ the roady 2 on the rear parcel shelf, slightly off center towards the passenger side. There's clearly something magnetic there as the antenna stuck there good. FYI - the cable that comes with this antenna is VERY thin, thereby easy to run. I ran it along the rear window, then up to under the glove box via the cloth weather stripping on the passenger side doors (front & rear).

Step 2:
Pop the gear shift wood cover by pulling on the front lip of the wood by the ash tray. Pull the ashtray assemblies front lip up and remove that as well. At this point, you should also remove the panel under the glove box (two torx screws) and pull the carpet out from under the passenger side center dash console plastic. I ran the following cables from on top of the passenger floor mat to the ash tray area:
1) antenna
2) stereo 1/8" cable to goto glove box
3) power cord that plugs into receiver (with cigarette lighter on other end)
4) Radioshack hardwire cig lighter wires (red & black).
I purchased this because the power adapter that came with the roady 2 is not a 12V power source, but a 6V power source so figured since splicing was a paint, i'd just put another cig lighter adapter under the glove box.

Now snake in the power, antenna, and stereo cables to the dash area. Sorry - i only took pics after it was done i can take more if anyone's interested.

Drill appx 3/8" x 1/2" hole in the back of the ash tray assembly. This is fairly easy (although i didn't file the hole down smooth). run the cables into the ashtray and put everything back together. Note, your not running the black and red cables from the radio shack cigarette lighter into the ashtray, but splicing them to the stock cig lighter (red wire to red wire, black from radio shack to red of stock adapter).

Step 3:
with all the cables now under the glove box, on the floor, drill a hole on the bottom left of the glove box so you can snake the stereo cable into the glove box and plug into your aux connection.


Step 4:
plug the cigarette lighter adapter from radio shack into the power cord for the roady, and coil all excess cable and put it on top of the pasenger side cover under the glove box that you removed. There is a ton of room behind the glove box towards the left side to hide/store all excess cables.

Step 6:
I velcro'd the receiver into the ashtray area after plugging in all the cables. The receiver does sit low, but i can close the door on the ashtray and so zero wires.

Thats it...your done. Regarding reception - i lose it if i'm on a road with trees completely covering the sky overhead and if i'm under long stretches of bridges. Outside of that, reception is fine.

Hope this is of some use to anyone who's thinking of doing it.

Aceman

 

Nice. I have the commander but FM modulation stinks.

 

Wheres the picture that you mentioned???? I am working on the same project and would like to see how yours turned out.

Thanks

 

i bought sirius stiletto sl100 and plugged into input of command with cord into adapter in 03's glove box. if reception is bad you can store songs from sirius on sl100 and replay many hours of music from whatever you were listening to. command aux in allows control of volume thru steering wheel. same concept as your xm setup.

 

not to bring this thread up from the dead, but does anyone have pics from this diy?

 

nm.. i found a good thread w/ pics: https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ss-drawer.html

 

Dude, I would love to send you pics of my install but I sold that car about a decade and an A8L, S550, GL450 and BMW 7 series ago