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Recommended modifications and extra's for your B-class

110K views 114 replies 27 participants last post by  Bangers;B200 
#1 ·
After breaking into someone else's topic, I would like to start a new thread where we can give general tips and tricks for our B-class.
For example, if you believe you have found a nice modification, accessory, or whatever, please mention it here (photo's appreciated)!

I don't have a clue whether I can make this thread "sticky", but would greatly appreciate a moderator's help here.

My first suggestion is to install a lifehammer + compact fire extinguisher (Sparco Fireater) below the driver's seat. This was discussed previously over here. A pic of the mod. is below. I have made a small tutorial over here (with part numbers); I know my tutorial is in Dutch, but I have added so much photo's that you cannot miss it.

Arjen.
 

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#81 ·
Rev counter speedo swap?

This might seem silly but it has always annoyed me with the location of the speedo in my B. Fortunately I found the digital speedo and use that all the time, but would really like the speedo to be where the rev counter is, so much easier to read on a RHD car especially as you use less that a third of the gauge when our speed limit is 100km.
I guess it is an all in one unit but hopefully there my be a solution.
 
#82 ·
This might seem silly but it has always annoyed me with the location of the speedo in my B. Fortunately I found the digital speedo and use that all the time, but would really like the speedo to be where the rev counter is, so much easier to read on a RHD car especially as you use less that a third of the gauge when our speed limit is 100km.
I guess it is an all in one unit but hopefully there my be a solution.
It would require a new PCB, as it is not modular, and all four dials are permanently mounted ... so I'd say not possible, in real world.

There's an alternative solution :wink



Here it is without a motion blur:

 
#84 ·
It's a standalone unit, so no fitting as such - I'm still testing it, but it looks like a keeper.
Once I've decided, I might consider a cut-out in the dash, and perhaps a matte darken glass on top (flush with the cowl) - it's pretty bright as it is now.

Hidden hard-wired feed, of course.
 
#86 ·
I have a little "distribution centre" under the steering wheel, inside the lower dash - so I just connected the HUD power supply (it uses 12V) to that. It's correctly wired, with 2.5mm cables and 25A primary fuse, with 5A and 7.5A secondary fuses for each (except LEDs) of the connected consumers: GPS Tracker; Front Dashcam; Garmin SatNav; Footwell Lights (two blue LEDs); Power Socket Tray Light (single blue LED); and now - HUD too.

The HUD came with a cigar socket plug, but I never use those - no wires hanging about in my car :wink
 
#89 ·
OK, decided to join the party and upgraded the audio unit with an Erisin. It's an octa-core with 4GB ram. I couldn't justify the asking price for the HFP bluetooth adaptor and the cheapest NTG2.5 was £325.





Perfect location for the GPS receiver....



Broke clips despite unlocking the internal vent tabs. Gaffer tape is doing the job, I will wrap it with heat reasistant tape later



I'm impressed with the fitament, it's perfect.

 
#90 ·
Looks good!

Re: the GPS antenna - where exactly did you fit it? Not under the metal speaker's mesh on top I hope?
It works perfectly from under the plastic part of the dash - I put mine just to the left of the air vents, right under the surface - but any metal, particularly mesh-like structure will kill or at least severely degrade the signal. Apologies if that's obvious and the antenna is nowhere near the mesh cover :|
 
#94 ·
Right, so your Audio 20 must be NTG2, unless you've upgraded it to facelift Audio 20 (colour screen)?

If yours looks like this:



And the rear is like this:



(pics are of my old unit, when I put it on eBay in 2017).


Then this is the pinout - the [dark] yellow Fakra connector is not microphone - it's an aerial socket.

 
#97 ·
A to B2, and I would ignore the 24 to 14, your dual plug 23 should take care of this.

Also, ignore 2,3,4,5 and 6.

Run 7 and 19 to the glove box, use RCA extension cables. Don't forget to mark them clearly - 7 is REVERSING CAMERA and 19 is AUX (OTHER) CAMERA (use this one for a mirror cam - I fitted one in my left mirror - I'm rather precious about my wheels ha-ha).

Run 9 and 10 to the glove box, if you're planning to fit rear monitors, or a roof screen. Again - RCA extension cables, mark these as VIDEO OUT 1 & 2.

Ignore 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

Run 16 and 17 both to the glove box, or one to the glove box and another - to power socket tray (or the armrest sliding storage box, but it's a bit more complicated). These are identical, so no need for labels, just USB.

I didn't use 18, as my car had telephone pre-wire with three microphones in the OCP, these work via Quadlock, so no need for extra mic. You can deal with No.18 accordingly.

No.20 is up to you - I just swap the microSD cards in my dashcam directly, without recording the footage to my head unit, so didn't use number 20.

Ignore 21, 22 (it'd disabled anyway) and 27.

Ignore the C-->B3 extension cable.

Obviously, fix the GPS and WiFi antennae to 25 and 26.

Don't forget to tape the unused ports/connectors together with Tesa tape and wrap them up with a 10-20mm felt - you don't want them knocking about behind the dash.

That's about it :grin
 
#98 ·
There's a possibility A needs to go to B1, rather than B2 - impossible to tell without checking the wiring on the back of the QuadLock, so try one or another, or see if there's more info on B1/B2 labels, or in the install guide (if any).

You can also email or online chat with Erisin - they were really good, when I had a few questions, gave me factory reset code and full access to the engineering sub-menu. Was very happy with their customer service.
 
#104 ·
After some annoying noises from my 2011 B180 CVT gearbox I decided to add an external/add'l ATF cooler (inline). Here in Brazil, for unknown reason, Mercedes Benz did not include an external radiator, like they usually did for other hot climate countries (e.g. Australia).
Since it's almost impossible to find the original one from MB here I bought an aftermarket model. It's usually available for about USD 50. I paid about USD 150 to have it installed.

The noise disappeared. I can't tell you how happy I'm now :)

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#105 ·
Looks like a nice piece of equipment. Watch for any leaks and maybe add a few more details about the noise before this modification. It looks like the full weight of the added cooler is resting on that one cooling line around the fins of metal in the rad behind..so watch for any wear developing with bumps and vibrations. You might think of asking for a bit of rubber padding to that holding plate.(maybe it's already there..but too dark to tell here..)

Members here do stress the importance of using only the MB spec oil in their CVT's and changing them before or strictly keeping to the recommended schedule.

How much MB CVT oil did you have to add and how did you check for the exact proper level after the mod ?
 
#107 ·
Newer model controls will be a challenge to "marry" to the rest of the CANbus ... it's like fitting a climate control, where the factory a/c only was specified - theoretically possible, but require so much rewiring and refitting, it's just not practical.

I've had a custom remodelled steering wheel fitted to my old A200, and really liked it:







There are various places that do customised steering wheels, one in the UK is Royal Steering Wheels (they did mine), there's also a chap in Germany who sells his on eBay, etc. It works either on a swap basis - you send your wheel and get a same type remodelled one in return, or just send yours and wait for it to be refitted.
 
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