VS30 Sprinter Van center speaker fix
Everyone who has a Mercedes Sprinter knows how incredibly loud the center speaker is compared to the factory tweeters and woofers, and most people disconnect it completely; but the OEM center speaker in the 2019+ Mercedes Sprinter contributes to the security system (for use as an emergency speaker) and should therefore never be disconnected.
TL;DR: MB delivered vans with a center speaker that is waaaaay too loud and over powers all the audio in the front of the cab in Sprinters from 2019 to 2022. This has been such an issue even the nhtsa has a write up on it. They have a ‘Damage Code’ of 87100 F1
This has been documented as a MB topic number L182.85-N-071147
L182.85-N-071147 is essentially the fix for the “extremely dominant” center audio channel.
Here’s the layout:
There are 2 CONNECTORS going to the speaker - One Black Wire and one White
Each connector has 2 wires - Connector 1 has a Gray wire and another wire (either violet/white or green/white).
The problem here is that the wires are going to the wrong connectors apparently. It is a dual coil speaker with 2 different impedances, therefore 2 different volumes for the MBUX audio vs. the Hermes. Swapping the wires in the connectors will send the MBUX audio (music) to the higher impedance coil so it will not be so excessively loud.
What is Hermes?
Live Traffic
Emergency
LTE Connectivity
MB Voice Control
Fuel Prices
What is MBUX?
Entertainment
Navigations
Carplay
Android Auto
FM/AM/SiriusXM
The fix is to un-pin (pull out the pin from the connector) of one of the wires.
So to start…
you’ll need to remove all four Pins must be removed from both the black and white connectors. Once unpinned they must be reconfigured as directed in L182.85-N-071147.
This will connect the MBUX (audio) to the 8 ohm coil of the dual voice coil speaker and the HERMES module to the 2 ohm coil of the speaker. The volume of the center audio will be greatly attenuated.
Do NOT swap only the green/white and violet/white wires. The grey wires paired with them must also be swapped, even though they are color coded the same.
Here’s the fix!
If you Sprinter is incorrectly configured is will have this:
White Plug:
Pin 1: Gray
Pin 2: Green/White (Twisted Pair)
Black Plug:
Pin 1: Gray
Pin 2: Violet/White (Twisted Pair)
Where you want your Sprinter to correctly be configured as:
White Plug:
Pin 1: Gray
Pin 2: Violet/White (Twisted Pair)
White Plug:
Pin 1: Gray
Pin 2: Green/White (Twisted Pair)
Note: Don't just swap the violet/white and the green/white wires. Also swap the grey wires that are paired with them. Essentially, decouple the pairs of wires and swap the terminals they connect to into the speaker.
We do want to acknowledge that there is a product being sold that’s a plug and play audio throttle. This simple plug in allows you to use the factory speaker system without swapping the lines reducing the volume of the center speaker by throttling it.
“The Jehnert Center Speaker Crossover for 2019+ Mercedes Sprinter Vans from Nomadic Supply Company throttles the factory center speaker so that it is harmoniously integrated into the factory speaker system.”
