Stereo issues - L channel intermittent

[dionphaneuf]

I have a 92 500E with the original stereo and have had persistent issues with the left channel. In radio and CD, it’s not active 99% of the time, but the r side is fine. with tapes, both sides are fine. Any ideas what’s up? One of the trunk amps? I’d like to get BT added, so am likely sending the head unit to Becker at some point, but itd Be nice to take care of this myself if possible.

fwiw, I previously had intermittent electrical issues (stereo inop, interior dome light/seatbelt light and sunroof inop, central locks not working) and after much troubleshooting swapping the battery and making sure it’s always fully charged did it. Not sure if his is related.

 

[Jlaa]

If the L channel drops out with the CD & tuner but does not drop out with tapes, then I would start at the becker main unit in the trunk. Maybe take it apart and see if there's anything obviously amiss:

 

[dionphaneuf]

Finally had some time to look at this. I misspoke when I said the L channel drops out on CD - it only drops out only w radio, CD and tape work great. I took out the covers on the L side of the trunk and tried playing around w the amps, swapping L and R to no avail. I then took apart the tuner and everything looked fine to my eye, nothing obvious. I took out the only card/module I could, sprayed DeOxit where I could and....no luck. I was also left w this extraneous brown wire with a single spade connector. Any ideas where this would go and ways to fix it? Might just send it back to Becker Auto Sound, but adding BT and refrubing the tuner is $370....ouch. Hopefully it's just in the head unit and not the tuner, so maybe I'd get the BT and the fix to this for <$200

 

[dionphaneuf]

Also considering doing this myself but may be a bit above my skill level. Anyone added BT to a 1432?

Becker 1432 Bluetooth Mod - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Heres a fun little mod I finally got working, adding bluetooth (and 2 other aux inputs) to the 1432 trunk unit. The trunk unit uses a TDA7300 audio

www.peachparts.com

 

[Jlaa]

Finally had some time to look at this. I misspoke when I said the L channel drops out on CD - it only drops out only w radio, CD and tape work great. I took out the covers on the L side of the trunk and tried playing around w the amps, swapping L and R to no avail. I then took apart the tuner and everything looked fine to my eye, nothing obvious. I took out the only card/module I could, sprayed DeOxit where I could and....no luck. I was also left w this extraneous brown wire with a single spade connector. Any ideas where this would go and ways to fix it? Might just send it back to Becker Auto Sound, but adding BT and refrubing the tuner is $370....ouch. Hopefully it's just in the head unit and not the tuner, so maybe I'd get the BT and the fix to this for <$200

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Hi, See the attached diagram and photo. The brown wire is ground for the shielded cable that carries signal to the amplifiers, and is supposed to co-locate with the connector as shown.

Also considering doing this myself but may be a bit above my skill level. Anyone added BT to a 1432?

Becker 1432 Bluetooth Mod - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Heres a fun little mod I finally got working, adding bluetooth (and 2 other aux inputs) to the 1432 trunk unit. The trunk unit uses a TDA7300 audio

www.peachparts.com

Your choices are, in increasing order of difficulty:

1) Pay money to Becker to add Bluetooth, and then you will lose cassette deck functionality.
2) Find an MX3192 and various cables (or make your own) and a Yatour CD Changer Emulator + Your choice of bluetooth adapter (like JL Audio MBTRX or Yatour) Some of these things are very difficult to find in operating condition. See below. (This is the route I chose because I wanted to preserve cassette deck functionality)

How to add a good Alpine 6 CD changer to your Becker 1432 without rewiring ANYTHING | In-Car Entertainment (ICE)

All, This one took me a long, long time to research, so I figured I'd try to help folks out by writing out my story. What I started with ----------- I have a 1992 500e. That means it came with a "multi piece" system called the Becker 1432. It is easy to google for pictures of that deck...

www.500eboard.co

3) Hack it yourself, like the stuff you found on peach parts. Here's more info in a pdf should you decide to hack it yourself.

 

[dionphaneuf]

I got my tuner back from Becker. It works fairly well. I'm having some issues with the tuner I need to sort out, but it appears they were able to add BT w/o sacrificing tape, so long as I don't connect to the unit w my phone.

 

[Jlaa]

I got my tuner back from Becker. It works fairly well. I'm having some issues with the tuner I need to sort out, but it appears they were able to add BT w/o sacrificing tape, so long as I don't connect to the unit w my phone.

Awesome! I must be misunderstanding something though ---- what do you mean you cannot connect to the Becker via phone-bluetooth.... huh?

 

[Beldar77]

Awesome! I must be misunderstanding something though ---- what do you mean you cannot connect to the Becker via phone-bluetooth.... huh?

Becker Sound performed this BT mod to my 1492. The cassette will still operate as long as the phone is not in pairing mode with the head unit.

 

[dionphaneuf]

What @Beldar77 said