latief

I have weak radio reception on my newly acquired 2000 S320.

after searching on the forum, it appears the problem comes either from window tint or the amp unit above the headliner . my car was tinted by the previous owner
I listen mostly to FM stations, and there are hundreds of them here, but i only get 4 stations or so which fade in and out according to location...

anyhow, another problem i am noticing is that the remote only opens the doors at close range which could be from my reading either a weak battery or the same amp unit causing the weak reception in the radio

finally, and this could possibly be unrelated, but i cannot open/ close all the windows and sunroof at the same time using the remote, but the system works if i use the mechanical key.....


so my questions are:

1-is the last problem related to the first two ?

2-i have seen references to antenna plugs in the trunk somewhere that corrode, where are these located assuming they exist? i just want to eliminate the easy stuff before ripping off the tint / removing the headliner....both are things i am not looking forward to...

thanks for the help in advance....

latief

So i removed the rear tint today... still no luck....very limited FM reception that fades in and out and very few channels.....

tried to play with the amplifier by pressing at the top of the rear headliner, but no luck.....

i also hear the car's engine in some of the radio channels....there is a a loose connection somewhere....

any thoughts?

gorbys

I'm having a hard time figuring out how exactly the w220 radio works.

Because on my other car I have an aftermarket radio unit, when you press <-- or --> it searches for channels and if it finds a station it will stop. And that's pretty much how every other radio unit works.

On the benz however it doesn't seem to work like that. When I'm in my home town I press next or prev and it skips to a channel, and it finds the 5 channels that my other car does. When driving to my neighboring town 12km's away it doesn't find anything. Even though my other car finds all five stations there, frequencies change between the two towns. I try to press scan and nothing happens.

Also about your remote key, mine also only opens the doors on a short range, I have not yet tried to change batteries but it's the first thing to try.

DRTYLNDY

This happened to my 2000 S500 a few years ago as well. What happened to mine was actually a free fix. I got in the back seat and under the headliner in the back where the antenna is. I pealed back the headliner very carefully and noticed that my coax radio plug had come out. I plugged it back in and that was it all fixed! It was so easy really to do that I did it on the side of the road. I finally cracked and couldn't take it anymore and that is why I did it on the side of the road. Good luck
Johan

latief

Great...i will look into this...
What should i look for exactly.center of the headliner?left?right?

Much appreciated!

DRTYLNDY

Directly under the rear antenna under the headliner. Just pull it back and you should see the main cable. My had come out so I just pushed it back in.

latief

so i pulled down the headliner, cannot see any wring going into the AMP???

which side should the wiring be on? any one capable of posting Mercedes instructions/ pictures for changing the Amp ....

this is driving me nuts....

S600Keith

Driving your nuts?? Wayyy to much info.

latief

....edited

latief

so I took another look at this. the wiring appears to be plugged in so this leads me to think there is a problem with the amp....

so, will an indy with a Mercedes diagnostic system be able to pin-point the problem? i can remove the headliner relatively easily and i can get a used amp from a junk yard i know, but i hate to go through all the trouble to find that the problem is somewhere else...

until now, this is the troubleshooting i have done....

-replaced head-units ( i picked up two different ones)
-removed rear window tint
-checked the wiring and antenna behind the command center, verified that if i remove the antenna plug i loose signal completely
-checked the two plugs on the right hand side (above the battery in the trunk, behind the carpet)
-pulled down the headliner a bit and pushed on those contact pins in-case they have poor contact
-visually verified that amp is plugged in..although very hard to see without a complete removal of the headliner....

so the next step is to remove the headliner and replace the amp unless i am missing something else, but i guess i need a confirmation that the amp is the culprit before doing this.....

thanks for the help !

Zach8131

Am/Fm connector to W220 antenna booster. Should be shiny metal but is covered in debris from second hand smoke. Remove plug, clean with alcohol or acetone + cloth, re-connect.

Zach8131

Hey everyone, I wanted to revive this older thread. The same one was posted identically on BenzWorld, but I don't have an account there. So I wanted to show everyone on here. @Latief apparently fixed his problem by installing a different antenna under his headliner and bypassed the stock one. He said it worked well. I just wanted to share my story before people invest money that might not be needed.

I was getting **** poor reception in my 2003 S600. I could only get one radio station that faded in and out. I dug around and found out that if I pull fuse 60 under the rear (4th from the left if you're looking at it upside down with the relays on top as the diagrams show) then I lose signal completely and the system goes quiet with faint static. That told me that everything else was connected properly.

The problem with my antenna was that the previous owner was a heavy smoker, there was a layer of brown nicotine covering the am/fm plugs as you might be able to tell from the picture. I disconnected the system and cleaned the contact points on the plug and the booster with a microfiber cloth that had a little alcohol on it. Plugged it back in firmly and everything works 100%. I thought my unit was dying/dead. Came back to life!

With how old our cars are, I'm sure tint has been added/removed a few times and the contact points from booster to the windshield can get bent. This could happen with shrinkage of items such as the headliner too, or even someone knocking their head in just the right spot. You should check the 4 (or 5) black plastic tabs running across the back of the booster that physically touch the rear windshield. Each tab has about 4 metal teeth that should be coming in direct contact with the windshield. It wouldn't hurt to go around and press each of the metal teeth down (technically press them "up") to ensure firm contact with the built in antenna wires on the rear windshield.

I hope this might be able to help someone in the future! Especially with the roughly 3,000 views this post has gotten at the time of my reply.

Ps, these am/fm connections and the power connections are under the headliner where the C-pillar cover and headliner meet on the passenger side of your vehicle.

Adam Walker

The headliner is held in place with what appears to be a rivit. I cant seem to pry this edge of the headliner away from the top of the C pillar.

hi everyone,
Has anyone got any tips for removing the headliner to gain access to the antenna of the W220? I'm really stuck and want to try and troubleshoot the poor AM (Shortwave) reception I get with my 2004 s430.

wallyp

Definitely appears to be a pop rivet...

By using a great deal of care, it should be possible to drill out the rivet without breaking the rear windscreen or damaging the headliner, and to replace the pop rivet when finished.

Nwaka J I

Thanks for this. I checked my coax radio plug had come out to but I didn’t see where it out from. The only please any pics or video to follow

Nwaka J I

Thanks man but I checked mine too and it’s not plugged to nothing