So my last car finally died (volvo t5) anyway while i was looking around i knew a guy that was selling a 02 430 benz , really good condition , with low miles. this guy gave me a good deal on the car , so i bought it. however after a week or so , im still having trouble getting any sound from the radio. upon my investigation i notice the factory amp is missing. i dont know what happened to it? its just not there. my question is = how do i bypass the factory amp so i can have some type of stereo sound? hope this makes sense , im in a big hurry , i will be back in 30min or so to answer any questions that i may have left out? i have all the speakers and the head unit , just no amp and no sound , maybe i could just cut a wire or ground something? brb thanks for any help.

 

I believe the sound amplifier is up under the dashboard driver side.just because you have no sound does not mean the amplifier is not there.

 

I assumed it was in the trunk due to seeing a mess of wires in the trunk area , not connected to anything? also saw a vid on youtube showing the stock amp in the trunk area on this model. however i could be wrong , maybe i was looking at the wrong model or year? i dunno? let me go check under the dash. i just figured the amp was gone , thus the reason i had no sound. what else could be the problem? i dont even have static. any ideas would be helpful.

 

Im sorry, I thought you were talking about a ML. Are you talking about an S430? Yes the radio amp is in the trunk

 

yes , my fault i forgot to include the s. its a s 430. i see a lot of other threads related to stereo = no sound , however i have yet to read of a solutiion? or maybe i missed that thread
? i hate driving around without a radio , but the ride of the benz makes up for it , its just so smooth.

 

Well up-date with more problems. i had a buddy who had a amp laying around , he gave it to me - i hooked it up and i had some sound sorta, you really couldnt turn it up past 5 before you could not understand any word. way too much feedback from the amp. so i think well there is no way my factory speakers could handle 1000 watt sub (too much bass for factory speakers , so i trade to another buddy for a 400 watt amp. it does aound a lot better , you just cant crank it, (it again will sound like ****) so know i know somebody who has a 150 watt amp they wanna trade for the 400 watt. i think i will go that way and see if i can solve this issue. anyone know how many watts the factory speakers can handle and how many are there? i have a 2002 s430 thanks again for all the help and ideas.