Mercedade's '97 Vitesse Lux

[scoobyh123]

Is the thin fillet now a cup holder? I think I have seen that done somewhere on here.

Like that you mean Mark?

[mercedade]

Excellent work Adrian! I've seen many touch screns in cars including those that left the factory with them and most looked out of place to say the least, if not just plain wrong.

The job you've done there doesn't just look right, it looks like the car was built around the touch screen!

Seriously well done!

Thanks Dave, that's quite the endorsement

I honestly think the moving of the lighter socket to the side of the centre console is my favourite bit, but that's just because it was a bit of a gamble that seems to have paid off.

[mercedade]

I agree, looks totally OEM. Is it a commercially available unit and does it do other stuff, ie reversing camera, sat nav etc? And is the thin fillet now a cup holder? I think I have seen that done somewhere on here. Or even a mobile holder.

Looks excellent. Do we get a tutorial?

Thanks Mark - and yes, it does sat nav, and it would do reversing camera if I bought one, but I decided not to with this one. I had a unit very much like this when I had my ZT and the reversing camera was a game-changer for that car, but it seemed less important when I've got such good visibility out of of the fastback.

Now for the honesty - the unit itself is pretty average. It's a bog-standard random Chinese eBay special

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7in-2DIN-And ... 3937945395

Although with patience, it's possible to find them a little cheaper - I paid £37 for mine.


My crucial specs were:

Android
Double DIN, no bigger
Wifi enabled (I use my mobile as a hotspot)
Aux out (so I can run a small subwoofer in the boot)

I basically wanted something that could run a genuine Spotify app, and Google Maps.

I was prepared to treat this very much as a proof of concept - now I know it works (and looks decent!), I'm going to keep a look out for something a little better in the long run. Ideally I would want more RAM (at least 2GB) and upgrade-able firmware (eg Joying and Xtrons are reasonably well-supported Chinese brands).

In the meantime though, this works remarkably well for £40 (well, £47 if you count the double DIN cage I had to buy separately, but that will be multi-use). It's updated itself, I've logged into my Google account and successfully got Spotify working - and I'm very impressed with the sound quality (which is just as well, because it doesn't have an inbuilt graphic equaliser or balance/fade control - something else I'd want ideally!), no awful compression underwater noises.

I'll do a little write up of the 'how' later

[mercedade]

I agree, looks totally OEM. Is it a commercially available unit and does it do other stuff, ie reversing camera, sat nav etc? And is the thin fillet now a cup holder? I think I have seen that done somewhere on here. Or even a mobile holder.

Looks excellent. Do we get a tutorial?

And no, it's not a cupholder - the write up will make it obvious why!

[scoobyh123]

I think i would have lost the cig lighter and replaced it with USB sockets fed from the old wiring for the cig lighter Adrian if i was faced with the same problem. As you can see i've stuck to a single DIN so was able to do things differently and still fit the cupholders. I also have a twin outlet USB supply that i've tucked into the end of the dashboard in the gap between the air ducting and end of the dash.
One output feeds the dashcam (mirror version with reversing/rear view camera) and the other side will feed a socket built into a switch blank to charge my phone.

[mercedade]

I didn't want to lose the cig lighter because there are still a surprisingly high number of times I use it - air pumps and worklights for starters

The stereo itself has two USB socket outputs - I opted to keep them flying, so you can see they currently fall either side of the centre console, and my dash cam is hardwired taking a piggyback feed from the rear wiper fuse, which keeps the USB sockets free for phone chargers etc.

[Fastback]

Yes, a twelve volt supply is useful to have easy access to. I tend to fit one to the rear as well where it was blanked on the Mk2 but then use the 'ashtray' as a storage point for a bullet style USB convertor with a couple of leads. Similary I have removed the top of the front ashtray bin, lined it with felt and use that as storage too.
And am I the only one who doesn't allow food and drink in the car? Seriously, no need for cup holders but it's still ingenious to fit them though.

[mercedade]

Just a couple of videos of it in operation (music choices optional eh?)

[Fastback]

OK, now I'm seriously impressed with the Rover logo thing.

[scoobyh123]

Very nice! Actually quite impressed with the Android fuction and also the Rover logo on start-up.

Sound quality doesn't seem too bad either, allowing for the fact it's being picked up by your pohone mic for the video.

It's gone up to about £58 on the listing now, perhaps as a result of CV-19 seeing as it comes from China?

[Manalishi]

That’s pretty cool! Very nice!

But we need to discuss your choice of music!

[820Vitesse]

Top job, that looks factory fitted, musics good too.

[Nuts4my827]

So I removed the plastic trim around the quarter light (the photo above shows the trim already removed) - there were a few casualties along the way, so I will be keeping a look out for a replacement, but I don't fancy my chances.

Anyway, on further inspection, it doesn't seem like the quarterlight is my likely suspect here:



As you can see, the water was clearly getting in way above the quarterlight and was emerging between another seam (albeit now taking a new/different route).

It wasnt the quarterlight on my Vitesse fastback.

Water was running off the roof, and onto the tailgate aperture. Under heavy rain, (hosepipe) with all the interior removed, i could see the source of the problem. Water was building up against the rubber seal, and squirelling its way round the seal, and making its way inside as it made its way down. Was actually coming out about half way down the aperture and dribblng down the panels to look like it was coming from the quarter light. At first, i thought water was getting in via the hose for the rear window washer.

[mercedade]

It wasnt the quarterlight on my Vitesse fastback.

Water was running off the roof, and onto the tailgate aperture. Under heavy rain, (hosepipe) with all the interior removed, i could see the source of the problem. Water was building up against the rubber seal, and squirelling its way round the seal, and making its way inside as it made its way down. Was actually coming out about half way down the aperture and dribblng down the panels to look like it was coming from the quarter light. At first, i thought water was getting in via the hose for the rear window washer.

That's interesting, because I had the same as you on my green Vitesse fastback - it was debris built about around the hinges that allowed water to gather and then spill over the top of the seal, which then ran down to about halfway down before dripping in roughly where the parcelshelf hinged.

[mercedade]

Here you are Adrian :

Just getting to this (finally!) and I have quick question - bearing in mind that only problem with my existing circuit is that the trigger/control isn't working, and I want to replace only that bit, is there any reason why I shouldn't just retain 75% of the existing circuit?

On the original relay I have the two high-ampage wires feeding the fan, and then two smaller control wires. With the circuit tester, I've established which sides are permanent live 12v and switched 12v.


IE - Using the original relay, I could cut the small blue wire (which I assume is to the current ECU sensor) and run the feed to that pin on the relay to one terminal on the new rad switch (with the other rad-switch terminal going to ground).

Am I overlooking something very simple? Always a possibility...