W123 Mercedes Aftermarket Radio Upgrade. Installing a VDO Continental TR7412UB-OR.
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- At some point my car had some weird voodoo radio install stuff gone on, It had a blaupunkt radio that looked similar to the original radio that should have been in the car, And they had bypassed the fader switch, and had a small external amp of some kind already installed, all of which was not super reliable or functional at all actually...
I decided to upgrade to this much newer VDO/Continental head unit that still retains the styling and look of a classic Euro radio, but has Aux in, Bluetooth, USB, as well as vastly better audio processing options.
Here is a link to this radio, and the tools I used should you decide to upgrade the audio in your W123 or similar car:
➡VDO Continental TR7412UB-OR: amzn.to/3bXCwun
➡Soldering iron: amzn.to/3QqcmPY
➡Solder: amzn.to/3c309lp
➡Shrink wrap: amzn.to/3C7TZLv
➡Wire snips: amzn.to/3JWGeRH
➡Wire stripper: amzn.to/3w85Ipi
(Links shown on my channel are likely affiliate links, which means I get a small commission if you chose to purchase items from these links, it doesn't cost you anything, and helps me continue making content like this!) - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Here is a link to this radio, and the tools I used should you decide to upgrade the audio in your W123 or similar car:
VDO Continental TR7412UB-OR: amzn.to/3bXCwun
Soldering iron: amzn.to/3QqcmPY
Solder: amzn.to/3c309lp
Shrink wrap: amzn.to/3C7TZLv
Wire snips: amzn.to/3JWGeRH
Wire stripper: amzn.to/3w85Ipi
(Links shown on my channel are likely affiliate links, which means I get a small commission if you chose to purchase items from these links, it doesn't cost you anything, and helps me continue making content like this!)
Took your advice. Installed a Continental radio in my 81 300SD about a week ago. I had to bypass the factory fader and run a couple of new wires for speaker grounds. I absolutely love it! The previous owner had installed one of those cheap radios with the CD player. It was an old installation and the bright blue light in the display was terrible. What a difference!
I’ve removed the ashtray and put a turbo boost gauge in its place. I’ve got room for a 12V outlet that I can plug USB charging receptacles into and an outside air temp gauge. Mine is an 81 and didn’t have the factory installed thermometer. Parts to do all this are ordered and I’m using a piece of varnished mahogany to mount them in.
Thank you for posting these great videos
I'm absolutely loving this radio, it looks good, it works great, has all the fancy modern functions, but fits in so well with the 80s euro styling everywhere else in the car.
Glad you are enjoying yours!
I'm working on something pretty neat to repurpose the ashtray myself, I'll be making a video on that soon!
Nice tip on using a 9v battery, for checking speakers.
Sure makes deciphering a ratsnest of all the same color wires a little easier!
Thx brother, good trip with battery
It sure takes the guesswork out of the wiring that is all the same color!
Hey! Thanks for documenting this process. Whoever installed the previous after market stereo in my 300TD botched the fader disconnection and I can't make sense of these wires. It seems that the spliced grounds coming from the fader are now being used as the positive terminals for the speakers, which means that there are now only 2 positive wires for 4 speakers. Did you have to run new speaker wire to the front speakers to make it work? Any info you have would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
The fader was bypassed already for whatever weird external amp thing there was in my car, I do know the fader switches are notorious for going bad, but I also know how many horrible installs/repairs I've seen too. I'll check, somewhere I think I have some info from bypassing the fader on my other car.
I like the way that head unit looks in the 123... I need to replace the cheesy one someone slapped into my 240D. Does yours pick up HD radio? Can you wire in a subwoofer?
Sadly this head unit does not do dvb, which I believe is what hd radio is called in manufacturer tech speak, and does not have a dedicated sub out, you can of course run a sub by wiring into the rear speakers or something but I will have to research as I have heard there is a sub out but it requires getting an extra wire harness to add that function, I'll pull mine back out sometime to check!
Thanks for the video. Does the bluetooth allow you to make calls on your phone too? Thanks
Yes it does, there is a microphone built into the head unit, I haven't tested how well it picks up voice over road noise and such, but the functionality is there!
It does not do voice control on its own, you would have to rely on your phones OK Google or Siri functions to dial calls and such, but honestly anymore, phones are vastly better at recognizing our voices than a radio will ever be.
Hey Mate, How's your continental going? Are you happy with it? Blau Punkt do similar range with dab radio but probably double the price.
I'm thrilled with it. Looks incredible, bluetooth works good, I got a tiny USB stick that is nearly invisible too, and it plays great. Going to have to upgrade the speakers next!
Hey buddy I'm installing this unit on my 83 300D. luckily the fader switch wasn't bypassed and I was able to get the speakers hooked up normally, but I'm having a power issue.
It appears to be blowing fuse 4 (radio, cigarette lighter among other things) and before that it wouldn't power off when the car shuts off. Could I have the constant power and ignition power switched?
I believe this is unrelated, but it also appears my neutral safety switch went at the exact same time, and to even start the car I need to override the NSS. Do you have any documentation or pictures of how you wired up your power? I think I may be shorting somewhere
You may indeed have the red and yellow switched, Yellow should be constant power, red should be switched, I'd check them with a multimeter, With that being said, I'm not sure if that alone would cause your fuse problem.
I would check grounds and make sure you don't have a chafed wire somewhere, I had issues on my other W123 where a previous owner installed a radio and the wires to the radio and the cigarette lighter had gotten stretched so tight that it would pop that fuse if you wiggled the ashtray.
I have also heard issues with bad grounds back in there, I know a lot of the grounds go up near the instrument cluster, and I have had weird issues with that, but not specifically related to the radio, ground wires are brown BTW
The NSS may get power or ground from somewhere in the center console, fader, ashtray area also, I'm not sure just from memory, but you may hunt down both problems at the same time.
Local to me anyway, it was a regular thing for the Mercedes dealership to upgrade the Becker radio units to the best one that could be put in (and for the most part they were swap-able, up till 89 I think) for customers who wanted a tech upgrade so to speak. It's still common to find a 1970/80's vintage S class or E class diesel with the later Becker radios in them, sadly the road salt has destroyed everything else.. lol.
Ahhh, perhaps that explains the newer Becker unit I had.
Salt was miserable to deal with, I moved from NY to TN about 10 years ago and it's a different world, the roads don't get salted and everything lasts so much better.
Now and then I dream of coming up north and finding a rotted out turbo 606 or 603 powered car to use as a drivetrain donor for a very special car that I want to save
Hello! Do you know if it is possible to change the welcome message that shows up on the display when the radio turns on? Thank you.
I'm not aware of any way to change the message, but I also haven't looked into it too much
Absolutely true, there are a couple of brands that make retro car radio's. And they look awesome.
But personally? I keep it original. Old-school. No Bluetooth satnav etc, just a cassette tape and go 😜.
And the downside? Original period correct Becker radio's are expensive 😭
I had that weird Blaupunkt setup that was in there for years, leaving it alone because I thought it was the original radio, and personally I'd have no issue with a cassette tape with some good tunes, or just the radio, but that thing never worked right. Never would pick up any stations or make noise other than static.
And then I realized it wasn't the original radio. I was messing with something and realized the fader knob was bypassed, and started digging around and found a weird external amp, and some wires that looked like they had been modified, and if it wasn't original, it's not adding anything to the "experience" or the looks, then why not put something that works and still blends in half decent.
I still wonder if the radio that was in the car when I got it was wired wrong, if the external amp thing was blown out or what.
This one I've got now looks close to right, and plays music, which is an improvement. I've gotten everything else to a point where my wife likes the w123 better than every modern car she has driven, its comfortable, the AC is wicked cold, reliable to a fault, and the last big sticking point was no radio, and something modern gives me a little more wiggle room to keep the car nice enough to be "approved" as our daily. 😂
I still have paint and interior improvements I want to do too.
hm I went to replace the dash light bulbs and now my aftermarket radio wont turn on, could I have disconnected something from behind the cluster? the speakers work but no power is turning the radio on.
Highly likely, there are a lot of grounds behind the instrument cluster, as well as a lot of wires and things that could have shorted out and popped a fuse, Depending on how your radio was installed it could be drawing power from a number of circuits.
Now I am curious that you say the speakers work, do you mean that as you can get music to come from the speakers but the display on the head unit does not power up? if so, it could be related to the illumination wire found on a lot of aftermarket radios, it dims the display when the headlights (and thus dash lights) are turned on.
I would check the fuses and from there, grounds and stuff behind the instrument cluster, its possible someone has a rogue connector that is causing you trouble, or pulled apart while you had the cluster out.
Nice :)
Sadly it's hard to find now. But how do you find stock 123 speakers, are they good?
Are you meaning upgrade speakers that fit in the stock spots without modification? I've been planning on making a video about further upgrading the audio system in my car, and speakers are my next plan.
@@trythistv i actually wanted to find out are default ones decent enough)
If you prefer natural clear sound and straight frequency response without a lot of base at least
They are OK, after 40+ years they can sound a little tinny, sometimes the suspension / gasket that holds the cone to the frame will tear and then they sound awful.
Plus there is vastly better quality in terms of audio quality and build materials out there for speakers nowadays, You'll never get a lot of bass out of the speakers in a W123 even with the nicest speakers, they are very small, 5.25" in the rear, 4" in the front, so even with super nice speakers it will naturally tend to be more treble and midrange sound, but if the stock speakers aren't blown out, or you get upgraded speakers, you'll enjoy some nice tunes with how well built the rest of the car is. the sound deadening is superb in any Mercedes of this era.
@@trythistv thank you! So looking forward for upgrade series now when you’ll make it)
Are you in Houston by chance? I just bought a pretty mint W123.
I am not, I'm in TN, thankfully out of the rust belt, but not quite as far south as TX though.
Hi, i was just wondering if this head unit is able to be connected to a seperate amplifier for a set of speakers and a subwoofer?
There are only speaker level outputs, no line level outputs, so yes and no, a lot of car amps do have speaker level inputs, but it isn't as ideal as being able to use the line level inputs
@@trythistv why is using speaker level output not as ideal and line output if my amplifier can handle both line level or speaker level input?
@@naweedu typically a line level output is pre-amp, so any noise or distortion created by the amp in the head unit is avoided and the higher quality external amp would make a cleaner signal. Using the speaker level outputs will include any distortion or noise that the amp in the head unit creates in the signal. Likely there will be little to no difference unless you are looking for real audiophile level clarity and have the components to back that up.
Did you have to remove the original black plastic frame
I removed the radio that was in there, I'm not sure if it was even original, but it didn't work, and there was nothing special I had to remove that I can recall.
Does the radio turn on automatically when the car is turned on? Or do you have to manually turn the radio on every time?
I haven't really checked, I believe you would have to push the button each time, but I will confirm later on
Ok, just tested it. The radio does indeed automatically power back on tuned to the same station, input, volume and such. I had it on, turned the ignition off, waited a bit, then switched the ignition back on and it powered right back up, not instantaneous because of the little welcome splash message thing but powered up quite quickly and went right back to how it was.
I guess essentially it retains it's previous state. If it was off when you turned the car off, it will be off when you switch the car back on. If it was on when you switched the car off, then the radio will be on when you switch the car back on.
Been dying searching for assistance on how I can replace a blown speaker in my w123, any thoughts?
I have brand new speakers I need to install as I believe I have one or two that are very unhealthy, I guess 40 year old speakers aren't the best in terms of technology, and probably were never intended to last that long. I need to make that video soon, it's not hard though, typically new speakers use a different connector so there will need to be a tiny bit of wire adjustment to get the newer connectors on, but you can buy speakers that are a direct replacement just with vastly superior quality and technology now.
@@trythistv thanks for your reply! any recommendations on speakers? was thinking of throwing in those pioneer speakers you can buy anywhere, but if there’s direct replacements that sounds great too!
The ones I got but have not yet installed, so I'm not 100% sure that they will fit, but according to everything I can find should fit just fine are these:
Front: Rockford Fosgate R14X2 amzn.to/3r4dv8d
Rear Rockford Fosgate R152X2 amzn.to/46obUdh
I'll do a video hopefully soon on fitting them, I suspect they will fit right under the stock speaker grilles but have far superior sound, I'll try to get some good before/after but what a microphone will pick up is tricky at best, I'll give my subjective opinions as well.
Does the screen dim when the lights are on?
It does not appear to, and I'm fairly sure I hooked up the illumination wire, but it is not bright like most aftermarket radios, so it doesn't light up the interior of the car or feel too bright at night, but is still readable and looks good during the day too.
Those continental radios are fairly nice. My w116 came with a dual CD player. I got another dual for it and bypassed the fader. Seems like on mine the previous owner put in pioneer speakers. It does not look half bad either. Especially since it was something like 20bux.
That was my big debate when I decided to pull the non functional unit and replace it, this continental looks so nice, but is 5 times the cost of any other good head unit. In the end I figured I'd try it and see how I like it, and it does look so at home I'm happy with it for the money, Hopefully one day soon I'll get some paint on the car and spruce up the interior so it'll all look nice!
@@trythistv i think we are in the same boat. I certainly enjoy driving my w116. However after competing a marathon of repairs I know I have a marathon more. Such is life with older vehicles.