Nokia 8110 cradle in the armrest

[24678208djt]

Hi,
I took the advice and purchased a retro Nokia 8110 phone which suited the car kit fitted to my 1999 230 CLK. Although this doesnt synch with the Dash Display?
My query then is:
Is there anyway of finding out if the kit in my car is a factory fit.
If not how can i get a kit to snychronise with the car?
Is this a DIY job as all the wiring appears to be there for the aerial microphone etc?
Many thanks.

 

[jberks]

First thing first - what is the kit?
The best bet is to post a photo of the cradle and we should be able to tell. Also a photo of the ariel. One tell tale could be the mike. Factory fit kits have the ariel in the mirror so you wouldn't be able to see it. The ariel is a fin attached to the rear window normally.
When you press the phone I believe a non kitted car shows "function not available" and one with a kit displays "no phone".

 

[24678208djt]

Nokia 8110 Cradle

thanks for that, I believe the set up is a stand alone system now you mention it. the display does in fact state function not available. i suppose this means then a simple Nokia upgrade kit perhaps or buying Mercedes modules to upgrade it to UHI?
Thanks.

 

[jberks]

The UHI is not that great and certainly not worth the several limbs they charge for it as an after market solution. Get yourself a Parrott 3100 Evo and their new and funky MB interface kit (lets you use the wheel controls just like UHI). It comes with it's own display too.
All the joy of UHI, far greater flexibility and a fraction of the cost.

 

[24678208djt]

Parrot 3100

Thanks for the information, have spoken to the Parrot Technical helpline whom state that my 1999 CLK is too old for their Mercedes interface which works on the C Bus? system. Therefore it doesnt look like there is any way of getting aroung the issue without spending money in the Mercedes dealership? Or just buying a second hand Nokia carkit for the 6310 (ebay) and fitting that?
Cheers.

 

[jberks]

I'd still go for the parrott kit (and this is coming from someone with a Nokia one!).
At the end of the day, the basic wiring will be the same (speaker, stereo mute etc) so installation should be quite simple. In any case, when I swapped one nokia kit for another I still had to do a bit of rewiring.

In after market kits, you have to decide whether you "need" a cradle. The manufacturers are moving away from this so it's getting harder all the time. You really would be swimming against the tide.
I had a Nokia CK7W with an MBC15S cradle (hell I can remember the model nos - how sad am I!) in the jeep. This allowed us to use a Nokia 6230i either through bluetooth or in the cradle and worked fine. We have the same setup in the E220 and it works well there too.
However, on changing the phone we came unstuck. Whilst the cradle 'pop port' interface was supposedly future proofed, try finding a nokia phone that is compatible these days. Nokia make 2 and they're both dull. Fine for me but no good for the Mrs. I came away with the strong impression that cradles are pretty much on the way out.

So, in the end, we bought a samsung phone and removed the cradle. It works fine with the bluetooth side but whereas the Nokia kit worked fine with 2 bluetooth Nokias, switching to whichever was in the car, it isn't so helpful with the Samsung and requires a reset and re-pair before it will switch to my old 6230i and then won't switch back without the same painful procedure. The Parrott is supposedly better. Plus it has a digital caller id display which the Nokia doesn't.

Forget the MB kit, prices I believe start at £500 and hurtle upwards!