Well.. after quite a bit of time spent on the "learning curve" I finally finished the retrofitting of the factory Nav into My 03' E55! All factory, OEM parts! After I figured everything out, it really wasn't that difficult! Anyone who's interested in doing the same cam PM me if you like. At least now I have first hand experience with the dealer's and the factory's BS about how it's not possible! Yeah right!
One thing though... I must say that I am a bit dissapointed that you can't go straight to the "enter the street" mode and bypass the "enter city" mode like I can on the wife's 03' ML500 (DVD NAV). Albeit it's the Benz "MCS" system, but I tell you that it's a dream. You can enter any street in the entire data base and it will give you all of the matching streets available in all the cities on the disk. I don't think this one can do that. Am I wrong? Aside from that, no complaints!!

 

I think the NAV is really slick, however, the big dissappointment for me is that it doesn't have exact addresses, only ranges. Every other GPS I have used takes you door to door. Anyhow, I haven't gotten lost yet so I guess that's what counts.

 

what was the total cost for the conversion? did you get the parts from steve?

 

Did you do it yourself? How long did it take you??

HKoh

 

Looks like about 4 weeks, I think.

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/89298-removing-radio-head-unit.html

-s-

 

The actual time in hours spent doing it was about 4-5 hours spread over a month. (Scorchie is quite observant). The only reason it took about a month is because I had to wait until I could accumulate various parts. It took about a week just to get the head unit from MB Doctor. I found him to be quite competent and straight forward contrary to the way he has been depicted in this forum previously... but that's my opinion. Don't forget that I was doing EVERYTHING for the first time. I had to do it at night after work and after putting to bed my 2 kids. Now that I know what I am doing I could probably knock out the whole thing in 2 hours assuming the car in question has all the wiring where it should be. I say this because I have been warned that some 03' cars are missing the 3 part wire harness for the DVD rom drive. These cars I understand are quite rare. Most (over 95%) of the E -Class cars back in 03' WERE PRE-WIRED for NAV even though the NAV was not ready yet. My guess is that Harmon-Becker simply didn't have the NAV-head-unit ready for release when the cars were ready to roll off the assembly line so Harmon-Decker supplied DC with the cassette deck equipped head unit as an alternative. It only takes 5-10 minutes to check to see if the car has the wire harness in question. By the way... If the car in question is an 04 or newer, the upgrade takes a third of the time. You just need to install the DVD drive and re-configure 2 fiber optic cables in the driver's side rear door sill. VERSION CODING is optional. The unit will turn on immediately after installation regardless. Version coding will simply ensure that it runs glitch-free afterwards. COST?... I waited a while until I found a good deal for the various components ($1350 for the new head unit, $350 for the DVD drive, $35 for the DVD, and $50 for the antenae splitter that enables the DVD drive and the tele-aid to both be connected! DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU ANY B.S.THAT IT'S MORE COMPLEX THAN IT IS. IF THE CAR IS PRE-WIRED, IT'S A SLAM DUNK! NOW I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO! Hope that answers your questions....

 

Well, it does leave one question. Not to cast negative light on anyone, but if MB Doctor was so competent... how come you needed help removing your head unit; and after installing everything, how come you needed help (from your friend at the dealership or elsewhere) on how to connect the fibre optic wires? I am just curious about that, that's all.

-s-

 

Well, the nav head units were ready even BEFORE the cars were built for the US, because the head unit was orderable and available in Europe.

AND, the wiring for the head unit that came in 2003 US cars (Audio 50) is the same as what comes for COMAND now. The option code description refers to "Prewiring for COMAND/Audio 50 APS", which all US cars have.

-s-

 

Errr... maybe he meant competent as in a legal retailer registered with the tax board & equalization, and based in the US (not fly-by-night)?

That's how I read it.

 

Then you must have not read the earlier threads he was referring, as that is not what the reference in the same sentence was about.

Wow, not based in the US = "fly by night?" Now I understand more the type of thinking that gives "Americans" a negative depiction in many people's eyes around the world.

-s-

 

in defence of 'fly-by-night operators:

that same 'fly-by-night' and 'not based in US' operator was gracious enough to very promptly - as within a day - refund me an overpayment of FedEx customs/brokerage fees that had been charged to me in error for the shipment of my modifications to Canada (FedEx collected the fee from both shipper and receiver).

Within hours of my having notified Steve he had provisioned my PayPal account to refund me with the full amount of $100.00. Wish we had more 'fly by night' people like that. Thanks Steve.

Dimitri

 

Double wow, did I hit someone below the belt?

Honestly, I read his post at face value.

For the lack of a better word, I was referring to "auction" type retailers... smuggling stuff from other countries and selling through a medium like the internet (i.e, eBay).

Most (not all) of these retailers, in my own opinion are:

1) Inventory-in-the-car garage operation.
2) Never report sales and income taxes / does not hold a legitimate business license.
3) Quite a few are NOT based in the US (i.e, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc).
4) Sell fake/refurbished goods.

That is why when there is an issue, it takes a long tedious time to fix it.

Just stating facts... nothing against it. That's just me.

 

Can I chime in here for a second???
Listen, I never ranted & raved about MBDOCTOR. I just stated that I was successful in obtaining a US head unit from him. (Brand new for $1350). I never said he promised to help me install it and that I was dissapointed with him even though that's what scorchie would have you guys believe. If anything, at least MBDOCTOR e-mailed me file pics of various parts of the car to assist me in my installation. Even PAUL **** from San Jose was of great help and he had nothing to gain whatsoever. I can tell you guys that I must have caught scorchie either very busy or on the rag when I e-mailed him with some questions. Yes he answered every e-mail I sent him, but he was not the least bit inclined to help me. That's fine, I'm not angry. But don't start talkin sh*t about MBDOCTOR when you have no proof to back it up!
Also.. regarding my earlier posts about it taking as long as it did and my own opinion as to why Nav was not available on 03' e-class cars... I already stated that I had to do little bits & pieces of the retor-fit as time allowed. Every time I opened various panels of the car and didn't find what I was looking for, I had to close it all up again and that took time.
Scorchie goes on to say that for 03' Nav was an option in Europe and therefore the Nav-enabled head unit would have had to be available back then... well then Einstein, lets hear your explanation why 03' cars were for the most part (over 90%) pre-wired for Nav yet the option wasn't offered by DC? MY CAR EVEN HAD THE ALUMINUM SQUARE SHAPED BRACKET IN THE TRUNK THAT HOLDS THE DVD ROM DRIVE. Any like I said, my car is an 03'!
Like I said boys and girls, It's a slam dunk now that I have done it once. As for MBDOCTOR & MBNZNL, I am sure they are both viable sources for parts to do this. But you don't need anyone's help (unless you just don't feel like doing it yourself) to pull it off... Just a few torque wrenches and some patience!

 

E55Soon:

Great Job....and thanks for info.

I also have an 03 E55 and have been thinking about changing out the head unit for Sirius radio and I really didn't care about the Nav. system. My main concern was that Sirius radio be intergrated thru the CU.

Now with your "Do it yourself" method, I think I can have both Nav. and Sirius
at a "Reasonable" price.

When you have a chance can you post some pixs. Also, I think you stated that you installed a US version head unit any future plans for installing Sirius??

 

Pictures are not in my future...if you guys e-mail Paul **** on his web site (check google for "Paul's ML site) ... you'll find it real easy. He'll forward you the link to the official M Benz technicians' web site with pictures of the Fiber Optic loop diag., etc. Yes I do plan on adding Sirius Sat Radio by the end of next year. I can't wait to hear Howard Stern on the radio unedited!

 

after a year of phone calls we try helping and explaining as much as we could installing the command is only plug in and navigation you needed to do some work we sent you all the installation instruction that will help you.
you have kept on calling us on the installation of the navigation part even do we did not sell navigation to you we try to help you we kept on explaining to you some family problems and we could not help you at the moment we are sorry if we wore not so sensitive with you at that particular moment we ask you to call us within a week or so we will help some more we are sorry to disappoint you we could not do much at the moment but we will try some more at future if we will do some business

 

For a 05 W211, I am assuming it's prewired. Would I just need the DVD drive, DVD, and antenna splitter?

Is this DVD drive the actual navitaion system, or does the COMAND head unit do the actual processing?

If the DVD drive is just a dummy drive with COMAND head unit doing all the navigation processing, why is it that everywhere I checked the DVD drive is $1K?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Stephen