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failing radio

I have a 89 560SEL with original Blaupunkt radio. it is slowly dying on me. I have shopped about 6 audio dealers and all of them quote me

700-900 bucks to install an entry level radio. The radio itself is about 150.00. they whine about having to deal with a tuner and amp hidden behind the rear seat and subwoofers in the door and yadda yadda. Is there a simple and cheaper solution to this dillema? Short of carrying a boombox in the passenger seat. my login uses an old email. correct email addy is snipped-for-privacy@charter.net
Reply to
Jack_in_53
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I have installed new head unit in 87 300SDL... nothing special about the installation. Forget those people who are trying to rip you off... Go to Best Buy and they should be able to install your eadio for the price they ask for all other customers.

From my recollection as I installed a complete head unit with XM tuner a couple months ago... There is typical constant + power wire, switches + wire and negative wire. There is also a amplifier + wire that needs to hook up to the constant power wire also (the amp will only switch on when they sense music).

Then there is the typical 8 wires for 4 speakers and the only thing you need to do is figure out which is positive and negative for the speaker wire... if you reversed it, you only hear bass and very little tweeter... and if you got it right, then you hear the higher frequencies. You do this for one speaker and you can figure out the rest... which corner... etc.

Reply to
Tiger

thanks Tiger, this will let me move forward with it.

Reply to
Jack_in_53

One more tip... most installer don't know how to get the radio out...

  1. Pull ashtray out... the internal ashtray out...
  2. You will see two screws once the internal ashtray is out... take them out
  3. Put parking brake on.
  4. Shift gear selector all the way back.
  5. Pull ashtray assembly out.
  6. Slighty pull the two metal tabs downward and push out the radio from the back.

Reverse to assembly.

Reply to
Tiger

What a great timesaver. I'll print this. Jack

Reply to
Jack_in_53

I can't understand the song and dance your audio dealers were making, either, unless they thought it was entertaining enough for you to want to pay for it..

I have had new radios installed in the presence of a hidden amp (sound going to four speakers). When previously the output was too low the new radio was connected to the amp.

More recently this was not necessary because the radio's amp was more powerful than before, so I asked the dealer to bypass the amp and disconnect it from the battery (my old set-up left the system working with the ignition off at my request).

Installation costs were not particularly high.

DAS

To send an e-mail directly replace "spam" with "schmetterling"

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

To send an e-mail directly replace "spam" with "schmetterling"

-------------------------------- thanks, Dori. This gives me the encouragement to go out and shop again.

Reply to
Jack_in_53

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