jimbo1mcm

Trying to get a phone system with bluetooth in my wife's 05 E320 CDI. Currently, you can not order a phone system. They are backordered by MB, since they are changing vendors, however, if a dealer has them in stock, you can still get one by getting a dealer to swap with your dealer. This can be tricky, especially if a dealer only has one. Your local dealer can pull up a list of dealers with the amount they have. Jaime at OEM parts did this for me. He is very helpful, however he doesn't have any in stock now. I will probably go for the entire kit, including the linear compensator, which is something like a booster for the antenna. At this time I am not sure if you can install the kit without the compensator.

My other car is also an 05 CDI, with the full install OEM phone system. This morning, we removed the Motorola V710 cradle, and installed a B677875878 Bluetooth adapter. This is the latest model, with improved software to accomodate newer phones, including the later model Blackberry's. Be careful if you go looking on Ebay for the adapter. There are a lot of adapters ending in .......39 or 49, that do not have the new software and people are trying to get rid of them.

After we slid the V710 cradle off, and installed the ...78 Adapter, set the V710 phone to look for Bluetooth connections, the car recognized the phone and downloaded the phonebook automatically. It took a little while, since it was the first download. The problem was that the phone showed NO SERVICE. The technician at the MB I was at, has done hundreds of these installations and was confident that it needed just version coding, to get it working. I didn't have time to wait around but I am confident that it will work.

Alan Smithee

I assume that the old Bluetooth adapter can't be updated?

Any word on whether the new adapter improves sound quality? I get nothing but complaints from people on the other end of my MB hands-free conversations.

jimbo1mcm

Not sure if the old ones can be upgraded. Could be complicated. Not sure if it is a firmware update, ie software, or if there is actually new hardware. I think the new adapters handle different bluetooth handshaking profiles, thus can handle a wider range of cellphones.

Regarding sound quality, MB is usually pretty psycho about getting this stuff to work correctly before accepting it. I would suggest finding a MB tech WHO KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING WITH THESE PRODUCTS, and do a scientific solution, ie trying other adapters etc. When I had my original phone system put in, it didn't work correctly, but I found a tech who knew how to fix it and it has been working flawlessly. Good luck.

jschade

I just took the MB v710 cradle out and installed the BT puck. My v710 linked right up and the phonebook transfered as advertised, but the icons for home, main and mobile number all showed up the same on the COMAND screen. Anyone else notice if yours displayed the different icons depending on how a number is stored in the phone? The way mine displays, I can't tell which number is (for example) Dave's home number, Dave's mobile number, or Dave's main number, because all three show up with the icon for Dave's main number.

Any suggestions? I just put the v710 cradle back in use it. I would like to use the BT because I want to get a new phone, but not if the icons don't transfer.

Tank7

I just had an interesting conversation with a lead tech at a dealer that told me the following:

Regardless of how good the install is, the OEM phone system will always sound like you are in a tunnel to the person you are talking to.

If I was interested in good quality voice transmission, get a headset.