The challenge is that these are intermittent problems, and so hard to diagnose.   I started by checking the basics – the fuel filter, tank and so on.  I also changed the plugs.  This had no impact.    My mechanic thought it was ignition related, so we’ve changed most of the wear components of the ignition system – points, cap, rotor, condenser, coil, suppressors and so on.   When the car is running well, its running better than ever.   But when it runs poorly, it stalls and stutters.

Based on that, I’ve got the car booked in again for another look early October.   I haven’t been driving the car much this year, as its just not very pleasant to drive when its running this way.   This is a shame, as I normally really enjoy driving the W111.

I took the car out again last week to see how things were going, and it ran quite poorly.   It stalled a couple of times and felt like it wasn’t getting enough fuel.     I’ll have to see how the visit to the mechanic in October impacts the car.   The more I drive it, the more I think its fuel injection related.

I had hoped to take it on a drive to Victoria I am doing in November.   Even if it seems fully fixed in October, due to the intermittent nature of the problem, I will probably not take it on that trip.   I’ll likely take the 560SEC instead.

While I was there, I also removed the Becker Tribute radio.   I had been having problems with this also.   The radio would just lock up and stop responding to inputs.   I took it out last year and even sent it away to Classic Auto Sound to be checked.   They kindly looked at it, and on their bench could find no fault.    I don’t know if its the car or the radio, but it stopped working for me earlier this year.

I took the radio out to do my own testing and put in one of my Beckers in its place.    Its a mid series Becker Europa II.   Its a radio that I need to have serviced anyway, so if my car is eating radios its better to try this one.    While the serial number tag has been lost, this radio would have most likely been manufactured between 1974 and 1976.    It has the newer style of speaker connectors, the larger stereo light and other features that place it in this date range of radios.    I don’t think this is the radio I will put in the car long term, but it looks great in there.    Even if the car is still running poorly, I plan to display it at the all German show later this year.

The Becker Europa II has a crack in the dial scale, but reproduction dial scales are available.    The advantage of the Europa II is that it is a one piece unit, so very easy to fit.    This era of Becker’s are DIN sized, but use their own mounting system of metal rods to hold it in place.   Those rods are often missing with second hand backers, but not hard to find.     The radio is installed in the dash without the knobs or the dial scale.    Outside the two knob shafts are the slots for the rods which are easily inserted and tightened up.     While I was there I also threw in a USB charging port.   The modern charger is very ugly in the beautiful W111 dash.

The post W111 poor running issues and becker update appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I’ve been happy with the radio in the car, and would recommend it to anyone who had their dashboard modified like this.    Recently, I’ve been seeing some strange behavior on the radio and it was getting less and less usable.   Classic Auto Sound, the company who sold it to me have been very helpful trying to trace what is going on.

The problems first started when on a long drive, the radio would stop responding to the buttons or knobs.   It would just keep doing what it was already doing.   In that case, it was playing off the USB key.    It would also sometimes not turn off properly when I turned off the ignition switch and removed the key.    At first this happened only on long drives, but in the last couple of months I couldn’t even power the radio on at all.   It would always be just stuck in the clock mode.   It would be like that even with the key off.

Classic Auto Sound suggested it might be the left knob shaft failing.   The suggested removing the radio, and connecting the plug from the right knob into the left side of the radio.    I did that, and all of a sudden I could turn the radio on and off again.    Based on that Classic Auto Sound sent me a knew shaft at no cost to me.   That’s great service considering the radio is a couple of years old now.

It’s pretty easy to swap out one of the shafts – I had it done in about 15 minutes.   I took the car on a short drive, and everything was well.       A couple of days later, I took the car on the MBCNSW July Night Drive.    The meeting point is about an hour and ten minutes away from where I live.   About 45-50 minutes into the drive, I noticed the radio stopped responding to inputs from the knobs.   I was using the bluetooth function, so I could still change tracks from my phone.   Normally you can use the radio knobs to do this.   I was also unable to change the volume.

While we were waiting for the final cars to arrive, I disconnected the battery and reconnected it.    The radio was fine again.   However, on the actual drive, it was a much shorter time before it stopped working again.   The drive was about an hour and 20 minutes and during that time, I had radio through my phone, but I could not just the knobs.    I didn’t bother disconnecting the battery while we got a snack at McDonalds at the end of the drive, I just paused the music with my phone.   The radio stayed on pause the whole time I was in McDonalds (about 20 mins).  It then played the entire way back, again through my phone with the buttons doing nothing.   Once I got back, it took disconnecting the battery to turn it off.

I emailed Classic Auto Sound again and asked if they had any more ideas.   It was suggested that I check if I have the yellow (constant power) and red (switched power) lines correct.   I checked those, and they were.  Voltage was 0nly present on the red wire with the key on, and was always present for the yellow wire, with the battery connected.

Once confirmed, It was suggested that I check the behavior of the switched power, as the radio isn’t supposed to work without it.   In order to be able to do that on a long drive, I’ve rigged up a voltage indicator to the switched power source.    It was less than $10 at Jaycar.    I’ll now be able to watch what happens on a drive when the radio is working fine, and if there is any difference when it is not.

The little voltage meter comes out from behind the dash, so I can see it on top of the transmission tunnel.   Next step is another longer drive in the car to see what is happening.

The post Troubleshooting the Classic Auto Sound Becker tribute radio appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The Mercedes-Benz club have started running mid-week pop-up drives.  I’m not normally able to attend mid-week events but I have a bit of time at the moment.   This weeks drive was down to Berry via the Royal national park then back via Macquarie Pass.

In order to keep up with the other cars on the twisting roads and steep inclines required a lot of use of the higher rev ranges of the M129.    The car certainly seems to be running better after this extended test drive.    We had four cars on the drive, a R107 380SL 5.0, a BMW 545i and a C250.

While the car is running much better now, I did have a couple of other issues to contend with.

The first was strange behavior from the radio.   It stopped responding to inputs of the buttons, and event more strangely continued to play even after I had shut the car off and removed the key.   This is quite odd as the radio has two power inputs.   A constant 12v and a switched 12v.   It is not supposed to work without the switched 12v.

Disconnecting the battery obviously caused the radio to power down.   Even after a 20 minute coffee break which I thought might reset things, it was still operating strangely.    It powered back up but was still not responding to button inputs.  I could not turn it on, and it remained in standby even after I turned off the car.    As you can see from the photo, the key is out but the radio remained on.

I also had a problem where my A/C was not blowing especially cold and would sometimes stop cooling at all.   If I turned it off for a while and turned it back on again, I would get some cold, but it wasn’t that cold.    I don’t think it is low freon because it would be cold for a little while and the compressor clutch remained engaged even when it wasn’t cold.

At one point I was thinking maybe it was an ignition switch problem?   However, I was soon able to eliminate that.   I removed the radio from the car and tested the two 12v inputs with a multi-meter.   The switched voltage was behaving exactly as it should.  Even more oddly, once I plugged the radio back in in, it behaved normally.   I’m not really why it would reset when removed when it didn’t from a disconnected battery.

With the ignition switch ruled out, and the radio working again, it was back to the drawing board for the A/C.   I will need to have the car checked, a set of gauges should be able to check if the freon level is sufficient.  It may also show up something like a bad expansion valve.

Still, the MBCNSW Pop up drive proved to be a good day out and a great extended test drive for the 250SE.

The post 250SE extended test drive appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The LMKUU stickers really make a huge difference.   I wonder if they will also offer the FM/AM buttons like the later radios for people with 70’s cars?

The radio sounded really good on the trip down and back from Canberra, and the Bluetooth hands free worked reasonably well.  Above about 100km/h there is too much wind noise to hear properly – The soft top does not insulate the sound as well as a steel roof would.

This addition has improved an already great product.   Click the following links for part 1 and part 2 of the radio installation.

The post Classic Auto Sound Becker tribute radio update appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Retrosound sell replacement shafts so this seemed like a good start.    This was pretty easy to replace – it actually took longer to to get the face out of the car than to replace the shaft!

The only problem is that Retrosound have modified the shafts in the newer radios.   The rear knob is oriented 90 degrees offset from before.  I had to modify the rear knobs to fit – I may need to make new one to fix this problem as its quite apparent.  The rear knob the left side should be vertical, not horizontal.

After the re-install I took a test drive and it looks like the problem is fixed.    I have been really happy with the retrosound model 2 in the DS.   I’m a bit fan of these radios – so much so that I just installed one in my 250SE.

After fixing the radio I changed the oil, filter and gearbox oil.   Its been a while since the car was off the road for 18 months.    The gearbox oil is a bit of a pain on this car, the easiest way is to pump it in via the inspection hole rather than remove the radiator ducting.

The post Retrosound Model 2 Repair appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Installation Step 4:  Convert the Becker Tribute radio to DIN

At some point in its life, somebody cut the dashboard of my 250SE for DIN.   To fit the new radio, I also needed to order a DIN kit.   The radio was supposed to be already set up with the DIN kit from Classic Auto Sound, but I guess they forgot.   Not a big deal, as all the parts were included for the conversion.

The way DIN radios work is that a sleeve is placed in a standard size opening.   There are tabs in the sleeve that are bent into place to hold the sleve in.   There are also tabs to engage with the radio.   In order to engage the tabs, the radio needs to have the right hardware.

The photo above shows the DIN fittings on the right, and the original fittings on the left.   The DIN radio also needs to fit through the standard opening, so the tabs that can be seen below sticking up from the frame of the radio also needed to be cut off with a dremel tool.  The DIN sleeve can be seen in the background behind.

Installation Step 5:  Mounting the Bluetooth Microphone and USB port

One nice feature of this radio is the Bluetooth feature.   Not only can you stream music via Bluetooth, but you can also use the radio as a phone hands free kit.   There is a microphone supplied for the hands free.

Originally, the W111 Coupe/Cabriolet models had a single speaker mounted in the top of the dash.   This speaker is covered by a rather attractive wooden grille.  My car has been set up to use four speakers, so there is no speaker under that grille.   This was a perfect place to mount the little microphone.   In order to do so, I made a simple bracket.

At some point it looks like somebody has tried to fit a bigger set of speakers and has hacked the metal around the factory speaker space.   Even at the bottom of the depreciation curve, W111 Cabriolets were always worth money but this didn’t stop people hacking the cars.   Still, my car is less hacked than many.

The wooden grille just slots into place, so the USB port can be easily accessed.  I have a mini 8Gb USB stick with my entire music collection in the car.

Installation Step 6:  Final installation

The final installation is rather simple.   I installed the DIN cage and pushed the radio into place.   I also took the time to fix the front interior light on the drivers side.  This is a standard Bosch part shared with some VWs.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to remove the radio again to fix a bad connection as I fired it up and straight away heard the unmistakable riff of Cream’s ‘White Room’.   Sounded really good – better than the old radio for sure.     I also called my brother in Perth and the USB microphone seems to work quite well as I have mounted it.

Final Thoughts

Overall I am really happy with the Becker Tribute radio.   It’s made a huge difference to the looks of my 250SE and it sounds great.   I’ve also got USB music and Bluetooth streaming for long trips.   If you look carefully through the original speaker grille, you can see my bracket, so I may install some mesh to hide it.

Retrosound make great units, but there are areas for improvement:

• There is not much room in the dash of many classic cars, so instead of having the amp leads, additional inputs etc hanging out of the back of the radio, these should be on a detachable harness.
• Since most classics have battery disconnect switches, the non volatile memory should not only be available in the top of the range radios with DAB+ etc.   I would estimate far more classic car owners use battery switches than install an amp, yet even the basic models have provision for an amp.
• The radio should not default to multi-colour, it should default to white.
• It would be great if the buttons were customizable so they could have LMKUU markings on them like the original radios.

Despite those improvement areas, I am really happy with this upgrade.  I would purchase another Retrosound product from Classic Auto Sound.

Update: 7/10/19, Classic Auto Sound have updated the radios with LMKUU stickers.   Really improves the look of the radio. 

The post Classic Auto Sound Becker tribute radio part 2 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

My plan was to customize a Retrosound radio with a real Becker face plate.   I even went to the point of purchasing the face plate about 18 months ago.   At the time,  I hadn’t worked out how I would adapt the radio to the face plate.   The buttons were too small for the model 2 and the screen did not quite line up.    Unlike some of their other face plates, which are excellent, the standard Retrosound Becker face plate looks very little like the original Becker.

Last week I discovered that a local Retrosound dealer, Classic Auto Sound, had done exactly what I had in mind, but much better!  Not only had they adapted the face plate, but they had put in a (non moving) pointer for the radio station.    Since I last looked at this, Retrosound has launched the Redondo model.   This model is meant for Mopars, but it is more adaptable to the Becker face plate.  This is because the buttons and screen can be separated the buttons are larger.   Classic Auto Sound have adapted the Redondo and the Becker face plate to form their Tribute radio.

The price to purchase the radio from Classic Auto sound with their modifications was reasonable factoring in the cost of the Retrosound radio, the face plate, the assembly etc.   I therefore decided to purchase this radio for the 250SE, and perhaps use the faceplate I have already purchased in the 450SLC at some other point.   It would have also had a Becker radio, although a Mexico cassette deck.

Classic Auto Sound Becker Tribute options

In purchasing the radio, there are a few options.   The first is the name plate above the radio station selector.   The options are:

• Becker Europa
• Becker Europa II Stereo
• Becker Europa TR
• Becker Grand Prix
• Becker Grand Prix Stereo
• Becker Europa Kurier

The Heckflosse Homepage has an options list for 1966 Fintail models.   The options available (in Europe) for 1966 were Becker Europa, Becker Grand Prix and Becker Mexico.   I also have an extensive photo library I have built up of W111 Coupe/Cabriolets for sale in Australia.   Based on this, I went with the Grand Prix as I figured it was the higher end model that the Europa, and more likely to be specified on an expensive car like the 250SE.   Some of the other options available are more applicable to later cars (e.g. W108, W114 etc).

Different knobs are also available.   I chose the ones closest to the original radio.

The next option was to choose the Retrosound hardware option.   The choices are Motor 2, Motor 7 and Motor 6.    Motor 2 already gives you USB, Bluetooth telephony and audio streaming.  Upgrading to Motor 7 is $110, and Motor 6 is $220 more.    I went with Motor 2.     Motor 7 gives you DAB+ and more input connections.   DAB+ is not really that interesting to me as it hasn’t really taken off and streaming over the internet is probably going to be more relevant.    Confusingly, Motor 6 gives you all the benefits of Motor 7, plus non-volatile memory and iPod connectivity.    I was extremely tempted by Motor 6 as the non-volatile memory would be a great feature.  Since I disconnect the battery I loose settings on my other cars.  As the radio is already a bit over $800 with shipping and the DIN kit, I couldn’t justify the extra $220.

This will be my third Retrosound product.  I have the Model 1 in my E-Type and the Model 2 in my Citroen DS.    I am a big fan of their products.

Installation Step 1:  Removal of the Clarion unit

The Clarion unit was quite easy to remove.   The bezel just snaps off, as does the face plate.   As the Clarion is a DIN radio, the correct way is to remove it with the Clarion DIN tools.   I didn’t have those, but the longer blade on my Swiss army knife worked perfectly.   Perhaps there is an advantage it is so blunt now!

Once the Clarion was removed, the DIN frame is also removed.   This is also quite easy, as its just a matter of bending back the tabs with a small flat head screwdriver.   Then the wiring harness can be simply unplugged.

Installation Step 2: The Retrosound wiring harness

The wiring connections for the Retrosound radio are identical to what the Clarion was using.   My car is already set up for four speakers, accessory and power.   The Retrosound has a fuse built into the harness.   Therefore, I didn’t need the in line fuse from the Clarion installation.   In order to ensure I didn’t mix up any wires, as the actual speaker wires were the same colour on each side, I cut one wire at a time, and connected it to the correct wire on the retrosound harness.    Starting with the speakers, then the power/ground connections.   I prefer to use crimp connections than solder.

I also used some cable ties to tidy up the wires.   The retrosound also has a couple of amplifier wires that I will not be using.

Installation Step 3:  Test the wiring

I needed to make sure the radio is wired up properly before I started worrying about the DIN frame, the Bluetooth speaker, USB etc.  The Antenna cable didn’t reach that long, but the wiring harness is long enough to test the radio on the transmission tunnel.   The test was successful and the radio powers up and I can hear static from the speakers in radio mode.   Tomorrow I will bring a USB stick of music to test properly.

I will complete the installation tomorrow.   This will include adapting the radio for DIN, installing the DIN frame, mounting up the speaker and USB port, and finally installing the radio.   I will be driving the 250SE to Canberra in a couple of weeks, giving a great opportunity to test this radio out on a long drive.

Click here for part 2.

The post Classic Auto Sound Becker tribute radio part 1 appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I am happy to say that this is now almost complete and back in the car.    There are a few more adjustments to do, but overall it is a much better solution to the one I had before.

With the rear knobs cut down to size, the next task was to mount the shafts for the knobs to the front of the radio.   I had already separated the front of the radio from the main chassis when I originally installed the radio, and I planned to keep this separation for this update.     I used a number of the supplied washers and nuts to get a good fit.    An imperial spanner (from memory 1/2″) allowed finer adjustment.   I also used some stick on pads meant for the bottom of chair legs to cushion the faceplate against the uneven washers.

From there, the front of the radio could be slid into the cubby for the dashboard that I had modified to size.

As can be seen in the picture, the knobs hold the face plate nicely against the radio, and the cut rear knobs allow them to still be used, with the front ones sticking out from the cubby.

The front of the radio is then plugged back into the main chassis with the ribbon cable and two telephone style cables for the knobs.

So far this new solution is working really well.   The faceplate I got from a kind member of the Aussiefrogs forum looks great, and the new knobs work much better than my previous solution.    I still need to shave off a bit more of the back of the cubby to get a good fit, and perhaps add a bit to the side to provide more friction, as the radio is not as snug as I would like in the dash.    I also occasionally get the volume changing on it’s own, so I need to see if that is plugged in correctly.   I also noticed a bit of the insulation on the wire for the volume knob is worn off, so I will also wrap it with electrical tape.     In the picture you can also see through between the radio and the face plate, so I need to fill that gap with something.

Finally, the original ashtray cover needs to go over my USB ports.

The post Retrosound radio in the DS almost complete for the second time appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

My next attempt was to file down the knobs so only the small handle would be left.   This is a design that has been used in many other radios in the past, but Retrosound don’t seem to have a knob design like this.   See the example below from a Becker.

To achieve this I used a small hacksaw and a file, to remove the excess plastic from the regular knob.   The photo below shows a modified knob on the right and an unmodified one on the left.   The size issue is apparent as the LH knob extends significantly past the end of the face late.

The post Retrosound model 2 knob adjustment appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Subsequently to that, a few other members of the aussiefrogs forum were also installing Retrosounds in their cars.   In particular, one member produced some great looking face plates.  I was lucky enough to get one, so since I was not 100% happy with my original install it was a good opportunity to try something different.   I also ordered a some different knobs from the retrosound range.   There is still a fitment problem, as if you look carefully in the aussiefrogs thread, the knobs are mounted out the outside of the cubby and stick out a long way.   This is not what I wanted for my radio, so I will have to come up with a creative solution.   In the meantime, I have a few cubby from ebay France and have been trial fitting the new face plate.

There is still quite a bit to do here.

1. Finalize the fitment of the shafts, faceplate, screen and front knobs
2. Find a solution to the rear knob not fitting problem (my current idea is to cut one of the plastic ones I have down to size)
3. Cut the cubby in half and fit the assembled unit to the cubby
4. Reconnect the unit to the chassis and fit to the car.
5. Test and make any necessary adjustments

The post Retrosound Model 2 in a Citroen DS – Revisited appeared first on Classic Jalopy.