Power Phone Antenna Wiring W210 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

GregMN · #1 03-02-2013, 11:59 AM

1996 W210 E300D

The car did not come with a factory phone. It does have the phone antenna. I have figured out how to make the antenna power up and down. I do not know where the wires that control the antenna motor end up in the cabin of the car.

My question is:
Where are the wires that control the antenna motor in the cabin of the car ?
Do they come out behind the radio head unit ?, passenger's side footwell or kick panel ? , center arm rest area ?

Skip down to post #4 & #5 for the answer.

Thanks,
Greg

Steve M · #2 03-06-2013, 12:17 PM

Greg - Are you sure that the power antenna is for the phone? My 97 E420 had the stereo antenna built into the rear window, but the phone antenna stretched across the inside of the rear bumper. I want to say that all of the wiring came together near the location for the 6 disk changer in the rear wheel well, but I could be remembering that wrong. The car had an integrated, factory phone.

GregMN · #3 03-06-2013, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve M

Are you sure that the power antenna is for the phone?

Yes. They started putting the phone antenna in the rear bumper sometime after 1996. Sounds like 1997 for you. My owners manual says that the antenna extends when the phone is turned on.

Since this is probably a one year only item and no one seems to know the answer to my question, I will have to go hunting for it. The coaxial cable is not there, but the wires to power the antenna motor are part of the wiring harness.

GregMN · #4 03-06-2013, 08:29 PM

Open bottom armrest storage compartment. There is a door at the back of the compartment, hinged at the bottom. Open the door and see the phone jack and a 3 wire power plug.

The 3 wire plug in the storage compartment:
Brown - ground
Black / yellow stripe / green dots - 12 volts when key is on (position 1 or 2)
Green - ?

In the trunk: Pull away the trunk liner on the driver's side to find the wiring for the phone and antenna. The phone wiring terminates in a 25 pin female connector. It looks the same as a parallel printer cable. It is wrapped in black spongy foam to prevent rattles.

There is a 3 wire plug going to the antenna.
Brown - ground
Red / blue stripe / purple dots - 12 volts at all times
blue - if powered it activates the antenna up, when power is removed the antenna goes down. I believe that this is just a trigger signal, not power to the motor.

I can make the antenna go up if I jumper between the Red and Blue wires. It goes back down when I remove the jumper.

All of the wires from the antenna and the storage compartment go into the 25 pin plug. I need to map the plug and see if I can use the wires in the storage compartment to activate the antenna instead of running new wires.

GregMN · #5 03-07-2013, 12:07 AM

In the trunk:
Looking at the 25 pin connector with the row of 13 pins on top counting left to right, jump between pin #6 and #12.

In the arm rest storage compartment:
Jump between the black / yellow stripe / green dots wire (powered on with the key) and the green wire (that is #12 in the trunk).

The antenna will now go up when the key is turned on and down when it is turn off.

You can install a switch in place of the jumper in the storage compartment or figure out how to have the power switched on to the green wire when whatever it is that you use the antenna for is turned on.

GregMN · #6 03-16-2013, 02:29 PM

I used an antenna switch from a W124 mounted at the back of the bottom storage compartment to control the antenna.
I mounted a Cobra 75WXST CB radio in the storage compartments. I know CB's are so 1980's, but they are good for getting live road information when traveling cross country in the winter.

jay_bob · #7 03-27-2013, 02:02 PM

I am curious about one thing, using that antenna with a CB...

The frequency band for CB is 27 MHz. Analog cell phone was in the 800s of MHz.

Have you checked the impedance match with a VSWR meter? I suspect the antenna tuning is all wrong for CB. Probably ok for listening, but I am worried that you might not be transmitting effectively or worst case harm your transmit stage in the radio.

Extra credit, if your radio has an external speaker output, wire it to the cell phone dash speakers. Those speakers are not part of the audio system (at least on my 1998 with the non fiber optic Bose/Becker 1692 system). I just did this on our car with a Parrot Bluetooth adapter. When I get a chance I will finish the write up and post it.