Hi all,
Thank you to all the posts that have helped me succeed in a bloody difficult replacement of the original sterio.I now have a Dual XDM6400BT sterio, with bluetooth support, (I now use my cell phone in the car - getting an external mic is critical), CD, Aux and USB connections. Brilliant! Cost $130.

I want to share what worked for me. I first want to say that getting rid of the fader switch on the middle consol was, I think, the best thing I have ever done on this car. The amount of coffee, water, and other strange things that seeped into that switch totally corroded the contacts. Getting rid of it probably increased the qualilty of sound more than anything else! I also highly recommend that you get a wiring diagram (not wiring chart) for your car. (I used a 1992 300E wiring diagram). I found a copy on this site from one of the posts. Sorry I can't remember where or who posted it, but thank youposter!

After much ripping out of trim and carpets I found that all but one speaker wire goes directly to the middle consol below the fader. The trick with my car was that in 3 or so cases, the speaker wire never came out of the wire casing (part of the car harness). The wires, I noticed looped back on themselves and disapear back into the wiring harness. By peeling away the wiring harnesses below the fader switch, I found all the speaker cables except for the Front Right Door (FRD). So I connected my new sterio speaker wires directly to these cables (with 3' extensions). From what I could figure out the FRD went directly back to the amp in the trunk. By using one of the now unused speaker wires that went from the amp to the fader switch, I was able to connect that up with the FRD wire,and sobring the FRD speaker back to the middle console ( I loopedthe FRD cablevia the trunk). Now I had all my speakers at the fader switch. I had the blue power antenna wire right at the new sterio. All I had to do was run the antenna cable from the sterio, along the passenger side and hooked it up the the antenna cable that originally went into the amp. Had to take out back seat and did a lot of poking around fishing for a path.

After a bunch of soldering and heat shrink tubing (love that stuff) and I was done. It took about 8 hours total. Ouch!! but clean fantastic job. If I did it again, knowing what I know now, it would probably take 5 to 6 hours. Hope this is helpful, Mark

 

I have the 560 with the fader and got the front speakers wired up to a new stero just fine, but the rear speaker wires dont seem to connect directly to the speakers. I assumne theymust run through the fader which I can eliminate. I have a black with yellow stripe and a black with red stripe wirewhich are rear speakers. Do I just unplug the fader switch or do I have to rewire from rear speakers up to the radio itself? Any help would be appreciated.

 

No, removing the fader, though very recommended will not fix your problems. Look around this site for a wiring diagram for your car. It is here, I just don't remember where I found it. The back speaker wires are hidden beneath the sheathing very near the fader, however the 2 door speakers go directly to the amp at the back, so you need to bring them forward again by using 2 pairs no longer need by the fader. The real trick is to get hold of that wiring diagram. This a one heck of an annoying job, nothing simple about it. Good luck!