I installed an empeg and Pioneer AVIC-N3 in my E300 sometime in the middle of 2007. Oddly, a bunch of the install process was photographed except for the final results. I guess my friend Ian and I were just finally glad to be done and forgot. Today, I took some pics because we're probably going to be taking the install apart soon. The E300 is in need of repair to the point that the fuel efficiency does not make up for the maintenance costs. I like the car plenty, but I have an opportunity to get a Forester 2.5XT from my mom right now. Look for another Scooby install soon, but here's the Benz for now:


Diesel + heavy 18" replica wheels probably don't make for the fastest launch time. I love the look though...


Say hello to the craziest harness I had to make yet. It has connections to the Benz harness, empeg ISO connector, and Pioneer AVIC-N3. That green box takes the high-level speaker outputs from the Pioneer and converts them to something the factory Bose amp can handle. I think it expects something like 5 volts. Fitting two head units and this mess behind the dash was not a treat.


Using the special removal tool I got from ebay, I took out the climate control and factory head unit. That pocket with the door flipped up is where I'm planning to stick the empeg.


We're running all kinds of wire for the AVIC-N3. The Pioneer consists of 3 main components. The head unit sits in the dash, but there is another box that holds its brains, and then another oddly large box for the XM Satellite Radio tuner. A nice feature of the Benz is that the rear seat cushion comes off to reveal a small area perfect for storing little electronic boxes.



Mercedes interior bits all over the lawn.


This is just a pic of the center console and some of the dash removed.


Here's what the finished product looks like today. The empeg is routed into the Pioneer's AUX input. The little door on the empeg's compartment has to stay up if the empeg is in the sled. The empeg sticks out just a bit too much to allow the door to close without hitting buttons.


Here's the AVIC-N3 with the screen open showing the navigation screen. It's not a bad unit, but it's gaudy and the nav routing is not the smartest.


Here's the empeg removed and the door shut.
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-Rob Riccardelli
80GB 16MB MK2 090000736