Hi Folks

Hi Folks -

AM radio reception is terrible in my 1998 E320. It is an aftermarket radio. I understand this is a common complaint with Mercedes. Is there anything that can be done?

Also, where is the antenna located.

-- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leavy
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There's an antenna amplifier that gets a corroded ground connection on its board to ground connection. This amp is either behind the back seat or in the left B post (someone else may know specifically). The trick is to bypass the brass revet - to - aluminum base contact with a wire.

The antenna itself is in the rear window glass.

Reply to
-->> T.G. Lambach

As reported by T.G. Lambach, the antenna in my 98 E320 is in the rear window, and the antenna "amplifier" is behind the panel between the window of the driver's side rear door and the rear window. That may be the "left B post" for all I know. The device may be called an amplifier, but I don't remember any power going to the device and hence it may be just an impedance matching circuit.

"-->> T.G. Lambach

Reply to
Dan Dubosky

Hi TG -

I'll see if I can find it and give that a try. Thanks for the info.

-- Bill

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:24:34 -0700, "-->> T.G. Lambach

Reply to
Bill Leavy

Hi Dan -

Thanks for the info.

What kind of reception do you get with your AM radio?

Did you have any corrosion?

-- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leavy

Hi Bill,

Not the greatest reception on AM. Maybe that's why my wife always seems to have on FM which is not bad. I took out the so called "amplifier" some time ago due to bad AM reception and crimped and scraped connections. As I recall, it was better for a while. Perhaps I should have run the wire which T.G. suggested.

Reply to
Dan Dubosky

Hi Dan -

How do you get out the panel between the rear window and the drivers side rear door?

-- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leavy

Majority of the time people simply forgot to hook up the power to amplifier when installing aftermarket stereo.

Reply to
Tiger

Hi Tiger -

Can you elaborate on this? How could I check to see if the amplifier is connected?

Also, how do you get to the amplifier to check for corrosion.

How to remove the back panel between the back door and the rear window?

-- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leavy

If you got aftermarket stereo... there is a blue wire... which is supposed to power "power Antenna" or factory amplifier... Since people thought... there is no power antenna... or don't want to power factory amp... they leave it disconnected.

No... I don't know how to take any panel off in W210....

Another scenario that I have ran into with the factory system in BMW... similar setup... is that sometime they have "floating ground" setup... and when I put in "common ground" headunit, the AM reception sucks big time... Later on... I put in a "floating ground" headunit... and everything was perfect... AM reception was beyond belief.

So the moral of the story is that sometime, it is the headunit that is not compaitble.

Reply to
Tiger

Sorry for the delay Bill, I've been away from the newsgroup for a few days.

I'm not a Mercedes repairman by any means, but I removed that panel by first removing the hand grip above the rear door. One does this by removing the elliptical shaped plugs that cover the Phillips head screws which hold the hand grip. After the hand grip is removed, the panel can be pulled away from the metal framework. It is held there by plastic elements in the panel that push into holes of the metal framework. These plastic elements are sometimes broken when removing the panel, but they are available at Mercedes parts centers and can easily be replaced.

Hope that this helps. Dan

Reply to
Dan Dubosky

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