Re: Re: Re: Need help: 1998 (Nov) E Class steering wheel & instrument pannel upgrade to 20
Thanks for clearing out the airbag thing!
I do expect that there is some sort of
contact things (like rings with sliding contacts
or spiral cables) between system and buttons on
steering wheel, but my question is how they are
tied to the instrument cluster? I'm missing this
part of schematics, but on the fragment i have
(instrument cluster) there is no reference to
the buttons. So i suppose that they connect to
some other module. On the s class/new c class they
interface to jacket tube module. How is it on W210?
Regarding clock thing. As far as i understand, it
is set by a message containing current time from
a CAN bus. Question is, what device places time
information there, apart from mentioned COMAND unit?
How it is done on original setup?
As i was driving W203 with COMAND (and of course
new style instrument cluster plus multifunction wheel)
i do not recall if there is a direct method to set
the clock, like setup menu etc. I just dont remember
because time was always set correctly from GPS via
COMAND.
Steering wheel and instrument cluster is a minimum
that You will need. Possibly one control module
(jacket tube CM?) that will convert switch signals
into CAN bus messages, since AFAIR, instrument cluster
does not have direct connection for these buttons.
Other thing that i'm not sure about is airbag -
i'm almost sure that complete wiring that goes
inside steering column and incorporates wiring
for buttons, airbag and horn signal will need
to be replaced. I wonder if newer airbags are
two stage or they are ignited in same manner as
the "old" airbags ?
You need steering wheel, airbag, instrument cluster, contact ring (spiral/spital), a bit of wire, the connector on the wiring harness, and possibly the wheel position sensor (if you have ESP).
There is some wiring to be done, but if you have the wiring schematic, there's no problem.
The buttons on the airbag do not connect directly to CANBUS. The connection through the new contact ring will need to be rewired.
The newer W210 airbags are NOT two-stage, they use the exact same connector as pre-update W210.
Without changing all of this, you cannot set the time on the cluster, so changing the instrument cluster by itself is not very useful unless you retrofit COMAND (which can update the time in the cluster). Still, the display in the center of the cluster will not be changeable without updating the airbag.
-s-