i removed the cassette tape holder and put a storage tray in it's place.

[anyweb]

i bought the tray off ebay, it was a genuine merc w202 part, and i have to say fitting it wasnt as easy as i thought,

first i had to remove the radio, then remove the two screws holding the faceplate of the panel (under the faceplate and on top of the cassette holder)

once they were out, there were two screws at the top of the radio recess, they had to come out as well

next up, I had to remove the gear box face plate (the thing with the windows switches/mirror adjuster on it), to do so use a flat head screwdriver on the right hand side, and gently lift it up, theres four tabs two on each side, and they will click out, take care not to damage the plastic plate or the surrounds.

then i had to remove the small coin tray, once it was out, i removed the two screws holding the ashtray in place. Then I discovered that those two tabs which had the screws in, were glued in place, so that took some more maneuvering, but finally i could move the ashtray+cassette holder back and forth until eventually i man-handled them out of the way.

Once out, I could see that the cassette holder was just slid into place on top of the ashtray, and slides very easily off of it, no screws or anything, so I could have probably removed it without taking the ashtry off (I did try this, but it didnt budge...., hence the ashtray approach).

Ok, at this stage I removed the cassette holder (who needs one these days huh ?) and put the storage tray in its place, I reassembled everything carefully and it looks so much better now, and is functional !

I said it wasn't easy and it wasnt, i broke one of the two sliders that are actually on the ashtray assembly, and that caused me to waste nearly an hour trying to disassemble/reassemble the ashtray itself, I managed to replace one of the sliders with the other one, and taped the other one in place, that worked fine.

In the process, i noticed a dead 12 volt, 1.2 watt lightbulb in the ashtray, i'll replace that while i'm at it (have to buy the bulb first)

this is just a fyi, I did it, and i've very glad I did, the cassette holder was annoying from day one (unused space).

here's what the cassette holder looked like back in 2005,

and now it looks like this



cheers
anyweb

 

[jberks]

Hi Anyweb, funny how times change - back in 1998, I paid to have the tray removed and the cassette holder put in! (or I would have paid, but as the car broke down the day I collected it, they did it as a goodwill gesture).

 

[anyweb]

heh, and you still have that car in the family now don't you ? is the cassette holder still in place ?

 

[jberks]

Sadly the car has now moved on to a new home.
It was spending most of its time sitting in the drive and Mercs tend to deteriorate when left that way - they need to be used.
Last I heard the new owner was delighted with it. Still has the cassette holder though!

 

[MikeCoupe]

I want your knob!!

 

[television]

I want your knob!!

Pardon

 

[anyweb]

I want your knob!!

ah, that was another project,

on the W202 manuals, the gear stick covering (gaitor i think it's called) got worn very badly due to it being made of some inferior semit synthetic cloth material, on mine is was really unsightly and ripping, in addition my gear knob developed a split so every time i pulled back to go into reverse the split would widen, in the end i ordered a wooden gear knob from Ebay plus a replacement gaitor in leather,

getting the leather gaitor on was difficult as it was much thicker than the original material, but i succeeded and it looks much better now,

i'm in two minds about the replacement knob however, it can feel 'loose' at times particularly on a hot day, but i know what to do to tighten it up, just place some masking tape on the gear stick shaft itself and that should do the trick

i'll post some clearer photos of before and after soon

cheers
anyweb

 

[anyweb]

the whole removal and replacement sequence

is documented here

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=31984

fyi