Hey guys,


I have a 2000 S500, and my biggest grip is the pain required to upgrade the stereo. The tape deck and the CD changer do not work in my car. I love the drive, the feel, the comfort, the power, even the MPG isn't too bad.


My younger brother had a Parrot Bluetooth system in a car of his, it was great, integrated to the factory radio, hands free calling and music streaming. Granted his car was not as complex as the S500. Is this something that could be added to the S500? Has anyone done this?


Thanks,


MG

 

So I contacted Parrot, they said their units are not compatible with the S500. I believe I have the phone system in the car, so I think I need to figure out what I have.

Is there any option abail able for bluetooth music streaming?

 

Motorola roadster
or jabra freeway

Both will sync via Bluetooth with your phone , and they have a built in FM transmitter to send the sound to your car stereo

 

Thanks, i will have to check those out. Any experience with the FM transmitter? Last time I had one it wasn't very good, but that was like 10 yrs ago, so maybe they have gotten better.

 

They work pretty good but everyone has different standards

They also make a fake cassette tape that has a Bluetooth receiver - put the tape in your tape deck and it pairs with your Bluetooth device

Just search Amazon for Bluetooth cassette adapter

They also sell the nulaxy Bluetooth adapter that gets fantastic reviews but sticks out of your cigarette lighter

 

You really don't have a lot of options on the S series when up grading the stereo. If you want a thumping, loud, sound system with blue tooth, video all the good stuff. What you need to do is put a good double din head unit in the dash. Use the existing factory wires. Identify the factory wires {right, left, front, back, sub woofer} from the head unit to the amp {in the trunk}. Wire in a after market amp. Out of the after market amp, use the factory wires to feed the speakers. You will want to upgrade the door speakers. You will need to replace the factory sub woofer. The factory sub woofer is a real ***** to remove. You can only use a 10 inch sub woofer in the rear deck, if you don't want to cut the sheet metal in the rear deck. A 10 inch sub woofer wont give you the heavy bass your gonna want. You really need to build an encloser in the trunk, under the sub woofer, if you want good bass. In my S 55 , I installed a Dension aux in unit so I could plug my smart phone into it and play music and make/take phone calls. You have to sacrifice/eliminate the multi disc player in the trunk, if you go with the Dension unit. When I by passed the CD changer, my CAN bus would "stay awake" and drain the battery. I had to wire in a relay that opened the CAN bus circuit for the command when the ignition was off. I wanted a sub, so I bought a self contained sub woofer. A sub woofer that has the speaker and an amp in a one piece unit. I identified the right/left channel wires that feed the factory sub, piggy backed those wires to my new sub. Ran a {fused} hot off the battery. Grounded the sub unit to the frame. I put the sub in the back seat floor well, directly behind the drivers seat. No big deal because I rarely have more than three people in the car. The back seat is big enough that a 4th passenger can sit in the middle seat and still be comfortable. I have plenty of bass, It sounds great, but It could be louder. If you want a bomb system in your W220, I would put a DVD/blue tooth/nav headunit in the dash. Use the factory wires to feed the head unit to a 5 channel after market amp's input. Connect the factory wires {from the factory amp} that feed the speakers to your after market amp. Put some 100 watt kicker speakers from Best Buy in the doors. Spend the extra $20 for the extended / no questions asked exchanged warranty on the speakers. For the sub woofer, you either have to butcher up the rear deck or put a boxed sub on the floor behind the divers seat. As far as the cost of all of this.. you got $200 in the {4} door speakers. Say,. $300 for the sub with the box. $300 for the amp. $500 for a decent head unit. Your looking at a minimum of $1300. I would not even bother hooking up the center channel and fill speakers. If you do want to use them, don't run them thru the amp. They don't do much and are very tiny. You wont miss them. You can find all the wire diagrams on line, that identify the wires that feed the head unit to the amp and the amp to speakers. It's not all that hard to do. You can finish the job over a weekend. Good luck, and let us know how and what you did.

 

hvacdude,

thanks for the reply. I'm not looking for a big thumping system. I actually think the system is pretty good as is. I do like to listen to a few different songs and bands on the way to the gym to get me amped for my workout. If the CD changer in the trunk worked I would just use that. Or if the tape in the dash worked I would just hook that up to my phone.

I'm looking at what it takes to do a total system replacement. It may be in the works, but not something that would happen immediately.

And for the time being I may just get an FM transmitter to get me by.

Thanks for the inputs, much appreciated.