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Step By Step Installation of AVIC D2 in Mercedees Benz ML320


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I posted this over at my MB forum but figured it might be good to park here as well. Thanks everyone here for the help.


I completed the installation of a Pioneer D2 with the XM radio/traffic module in my 2001 ML320. The unit works flawlessly and I must say even without by-passing the OEM Bose amplifier the sound quality was dramatically improved. Below is a step by step guide that I hope will help with any member’s future installation. Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my questions prior to my install.

The ML has plenty of room behind the dash and below the head unit so it’s a great place to tuck away the XM module. Make sure you purchase the correct module as there are two made by XM. The correct unit is GEX-P10XMT if you want traffic. I actually purchased the Sirius module first but found out before I installed that the interface with the D2 was unacceptable. So if anyone wants to purchase it cheap send me an email.

I used the Metra Volkswagon 70-1784 harness as suggested here by ToneMonday and Wolfgang’s pinouts [url=http://www.whnet.com/4x4/MY2000_MCS_pins.html]http://www.whnet.com/4x4/MY2000_MCS_pins.html[/url] (link updated 3-26-09) they worked perfect. You simply need to swap the Battery and ACC leads. However the harness is a few leads short, but Metra ships the harness with an extra lead that you can snap into any extra slot you want. I used it in slot A01 for my VSS. I then pulled the ground lead out of the harness at placed that in A03 the correct slot to get my reverse signal. I was able to not use the ground off the harness because I used the supplied ground off the D2 and spliced all the needed grounds to this lead and ran it to the interior fuse box and connected it right on the ground stud in the box. This is the lower stud with a 10 mm nut, fed by a 12 gage brown wire. A good ground reference is imperative and will eliminate the flickering some have experienced with the D2’s video. Just remove the lower passenger dash trim (two screws and clip) and route your ground to the interior box. Finally, I pulled the phone mute out of the harness (I didn’t need it no phone) and moved it to A05 for the Amp power trigger. That was it to make up a fully functional modular harness. You can do all this work at your bench and I strongly suggest you solder and heat shrink all your connections. Finally if you elect you can disable the factory safeties on the Navigation unit, so you won’t have to apply the parking break every time you want to set a destination. This is easily accomplished buy grounding the parking break lead off the head unit and grounding an unused pin on the head unit. The yellow wire (Battery) on the head units plug has an unused space next to it. See picture below.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/Builder/Mercedes/avic-d2_harness_bypass.jpg[/img]

This pin on the head unit needs to be grounded. In order to do this you need to pull out one of the unused leads from this connector and stick it in this spot then ground it. I yanked out the automatic antenna lead (not needed) and placed it in this spot. Then I simply used a plastic splice tap and hit the main harness ground. I simply grounded the parking brake lead in the same fashion and the D2’s navigation functions are now always functional.

The next step is Vehicle fitment and this takes by far the most time and patience. First take some 3M blue tape and stick it all around the MCS opening so you won’t hack up the plastic or the Burl wood trim. Remove the MCS with removal tools. I had some for my Audi and they worked fine. Just slide them in tapered side toward the center, apply some outward pressure until you hear the clips release then work out the MCS. Disconnect all the cables and tuck away the D2B fiber connector and the CD changer harness as they won’t be used. The MCS uses an OEM plastic sleeve that is affixed to dash trim piece so to remove this appears to be a lot of work so I left it in place. First you have to cut off the two plastic guide ears that protrude at the rear. I used a Dremel tool with a right angle cutting wheel but I'm sure a small back cut hand saw would work as well. Now it gets interesting. The sleeve also has four raised plastic clip points toward the front. They tend to squeeze the pioneer double din cage just enough to make it a bitch to slide the head unit in the cage. The brackets and screws on the head unit hit the cage edges. So I took my trusty Dremel tool with a sand paper wheel and ground these down. Now the cage should slide right in but the side angles that receive the four head unit small screws hit the forward raised part of the dash trim. You have to put the din cage in a vise and file these down a bit, then the din cage will fit and seat perfectly in the opening. The ears on the din cage can’t be bent into the opening due to the solid plastic sleeve so you need to drill it at the top and bottom and screw it in place. You can’t screw it in the sides as the screw heads will hit the head unit. But the top and bottom of the cage have embossed spacers so even pan head screws will work. Finally the side brackets on the head unit again hit the trim the same as the cage. So you need to remove them from the head unit and file those down as well. At this point the head unit should fit perfectly in the opening. I’ll discuss the trim cover at the end.

Now you need to get the feed line from the two antennas fished through the dash opening. I elected to mount both the navigation and the XM antennas on the dash. The navigation antenna can actually be mounted under the dash as long as there are no metal parts above it and it has line of side to the sky through the windshield. Most of the people over at [url=http://www.avic411.com]http://www.avic411.com[/url] are using this method with great success. I couldn’t find a good spot under the ML dash but will most likely look for a spot at a later time. Also the XM antenna doesn’t work as well under the dash so I knew that at the very least I would have to mount that on the dash so I just figured at this time I would sit both up there. Anyway, to mount them on the dash you need to remove the black under dash cover on the diver side. It’s easy just a few screws and a few large plastic screw clips and it pops right out. Don’t forget to disconnect the parking brake harness. Then I simply ran both feed lines from MCS dash opening under the dash up the dash by the A-pillar. The small side dash piece pops out easily to help in your routing. Then I just tucked both wires into the slot where the dash meets the A-pillar. Then the wires get pushed down where the dash meets the windshield and both antennas sit on top of the dash at the center. The Navigation antenna has a 2” square ground plane sheet that has a sticky back. That’s it with perfect XM and Navigation reception. All the Navigation satellites are seen and XM has a very strong signal.

Now to install the XM module. This is pretty much plug and play. Just plug in the bus and data cable as should in the instructions. I spliced the ground to the main harness ground we made up earlier and spliced the constant 12 volt to the constant 12 volt in the harness as well. Don’t connect the ACC or switched 12 volt on the XM module it’s not needed when using a pioneer head unit. For mounting I simply pushed the module through the MCS opening and tucked it securely down behind the console.

Now you can plug the harness together and connect all the cables. You need an adaptor for the AM/FM antenna. I never disconnected the battery negative lead. This was probably not a good move but I completely checked all my connections with a multi meter prior to hooking everything up and the fact I wasn’t hardwiring anything and just plugging in the modular connector I wasn’t worried. Once everything is connected I suggest powering everything up for a check out before sliding in and screwing in the head unit. If everything is operating correctly and you have your entire speaker out puts correct go a head and slide it in and screw it in place.

The final step is to install the ABS plastic trim piece. This piece needs some sanding to fit. It too hits the console trim. I used my palm sander with some 100 grit paper and sanded a bit off both sides until it cleared the trim. The problem I had was I needed to remove so much material to make it fit correctly you can now see the edges of the mounting screws a bit. It looks pretty darn good but not perfect so I think I’ll bring by the local automobile audio shop and have them fabricate up a custom face plate.

I love this navigation unit. It blows away my OEM navigation system in my Audi so I think I’ll stick a Z1 in there when I have some disposable cash. The XM radio with traffic is the way to go when using this head unit. The interface is great.

Anyway I would like to again thank everyone here and over at avic411 for the help and tips and hopefully this write-up will help others. I’m sorry for no pictures the wife got my Nikon in the divorce and the pictures I took with the video camera suck. The picture for the by-pass hack is courtesy of avic.411. If you have any questions please feel free to post them or email me.
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What trim kit did you use?

I have a 2002 CLK55 i need to get the X910bt as soon as i can figure out out what trim kit i need and which steering wheel modules i need. Do i need both PAC SWI-PS and SWI-CAN i beleive we have the same steering wheel buttons.

 

I think my my dash enclosure shares the same as the C class of the same year, correct me if im wrong.

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