W203 R/Casette Upgrade To Radio/CD

[Chrishazle]

A month ago we bought our first ever MB, a June 2001 W203 C270CDI Elegance Auto estate. This forum has already correctly identified the MAF problem that was limiting us to 2900RPM (thanks to those who posted re that problem for someone else!), has shown me the VIN decoder at the MB Club Russia website (http://old.mbclub.ru/mb/vin) and has flagged that I need to be careful about which MB CD player I buy.

The radio/casette (code 753, radio MB Audio 10 cc with traffic news decoder and RDS (c 31.10.1996)) is, quite frankly, rubbish. Radio reception is so poor - but from reading other threads I gather I'm not alone in this opinion! I'd like to change it for a radio / CD player, and do not want to go as far as a CD multichanger or Comand system - I have a Navman F20 Europe fitted to a Brodit Proclip alongside the tray below the radio.

I've seen other threads talking about R2d, MOST, Audio 10 CD and Audio 20 CD, and found a selection of part numbers on another web site (www.mercupgrades.com), as well as a number of units for sale second hand on eBay (where else!). Becker BE6021, MB part numbers A203 827 38 42, A203 870 36 89, A302 870 05 89, A203 870 50 89 and A203 870 45 89 - but which one or ones will fit my car? I'm sure there's someone in the forum who can help. Also some of the units I've seen are "doubles" rather than singles - I'm not bothered about loosing the rubbish tray below my Audio 10 if it's easy to fit the double unit and sound quality is better.

Just had a closer look at www.mercupgrades.com - and I think the A203 870 part numbers are post facelift cars with MOST instead of D2D, thus unsuitable, and I should be looking for A203 820 ** 86 where ** is 12, 17 or 22, or maybe an Audio 30 with part numbers A203 820 67 26 or A203 820 ** 85 where ** is 11,34 or 46.

I have found superb instructions for changing the radio at http://forums.mbworld.org/forums/sho...threadid=13302 - anyone contemplating a similar job should download all 3 pages of this, the photos are great and it really is step by step instructions. I'd also suggest adding this link to the "How To" forum if I knew how to do it!

I'm also wondering where the radio aerial is - I can't see anything obvious! I wonder if it is supposed to be in the windscreen, which was changed just before I bought the car. I'm wondering if a "no aerial" windscreen was fitted in error. I've had the opposite problem with my other car (a Porsche 968) which has a roof aerial but now also has an unused windscreen aerial!

OK, I think that's enough, thanks in advance for anyone that can help.

[Smatt]

You will need the audio 10 cd for your pre-facelift car. Audio 20 is for post facelift.
I think the aerial is more likely to be in the rear windscreen amongst the heater elements.