I had service B yesterday on my GL. While I was there I went to the parts center to see about the amplifier. They had one in stock, and it was still 10 cents. We had a good laugh between the parts guys and my service advisor over the price. My service advisor said he'd talk to the technician about installing and if it wasn't a big deal he'd have him do it.

Apparantly it wasn't a big deal, since they installed it for free as a good will gesture.

The quality is much better. With my nano I used to have to futz with the volumes on the ipod and the command system when switching between them to avoid ear bashing (too loud) or too soft of volume. Seems like a much closer match now.

 

I should also add that when I got the vehicle my navigation memory was cleared as has been reported elsewhere. I assume that happened because of the install of the ipod amplifier.

 

After the hitch fix and amp install, my NAV memory was still intact. Maybe some techs unplug the Comand and some don’t.

My SA incorrectly wrote up the work order which resulted in a 2-hour charge for the iPod amp install...a total of $300 based on $130/hour, mics charges, and tax. He never had a chance to review the invoice since he left early on Friday for the weekend and I paid on Saturday. Today, he rewrote the work order to be a warranty repair and credited my MBCA gift card. Whew!

 

My SA seems to have no clue what the iPod Amplifier is. I gave her the part number and bulletin for having it installed and she said there was no record of it in the computer systems. She said she found one fix that was similar but it only applied to the C-Class and not the GL, does anyone have any advice on what to do?

Thanks!

 

Mine was abble to find it no problem, and this is in Europe, not MBusa

 

We must have the same idiot, because mine couldn't find any details either.

I'd suggest to circumvent your SA and talk directly to your parts manager. He/She will be able to find it for you.

 

Jjjakc,

Maybe the attached pictures will help.

 

Thanks for the suggestion stumblefoot! I'm gonna try and talk to the parts dept myself. At least now I know what it looks like so at the very least I can explain it to them.

 

I think we should have an "iPod amp" installfest at the next meet.

 

I'll bring my tools!

 

You guys suggested the exact approach I took. I dropped the GL off for work and then walked over to the parts department and asked if they had the part number in stock. I had a copy of this forum with the part number and TSB.

They had one in stock, proceeded to ring me up for $0.10 for it along with a jug of MB window washer fluid. As I was ringing up, my SA happened to walk into parts. I asked if he could install this, we laughed about the price. The parts manager said the install takes 1.5 hours on another class of vehicle I don't remember. I said this forum makes it sound like 5 screws and a few minutes. The SA said he'd ask the technician to look at it. I told him if it's going to cost me I'd do it myself. He installed at no cost. I'm not sure how long it took, but I expect it was 5 minutes.

 

Took all of 15 minutes to do my install...and that was by removing the command center. Thanks to MBWorld for posting how to do it.

I ended up removing the Ipod amplifier anyways. Somehow it distorted the music, like there was too much "amplification" going on. Could M-B have already install one during the build? Mine is a Jun 2008 build date.

 

I'm not sure about too much amplification, but the distortion is covered in these two threads...caused by high volume setting and adding the new ipod amp. Resetting to low volume fixes the problem.

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...light=amp+ipod
This thread also has the instructions for restting the volume.

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...ipod+amplifier