Speakers 1998-2002 ML Mercedes Bose System Specifications
There is a total of 7 speakers:
- 2 in the front driver’s door (woofer+coaxial tweeter bottom)
- woofer and tweeter are wired in parallel
- 2 in the front passenger’s door (woofer+coaxial tweeter bottom)
- woofer and tweeter are wired in parallel
- 1 in the rear driver’s side door (woofer bottom)
- 1 in the rear passenger’s side door (woofer bottom)
- 1 in the subwoofer under the driver’s seat
- contains a 5.25″ 2-ohm dual-coil woofer
Subwoofer 1998-2002
Part number is A 163 820 09 02. In the gallery below you can see the 5.25″ speaker used inside this Acoustimass Bass Module. It is a 2-ohm dual voice coil driver. On the 2002-2005 model, the coils are wired in parallel, outside the subwoofer box. This way it gets to an impedance of only 1-ohm.
Speakers 2002-2005 ML Mercedes Bose System Specifications
There is a total of 9 speakers:
- 2 in the front driver’s door (woofer bottom and tweeter in the triangle/sail panel)
- woofer and tweeter are wired in parallel
- tweeter was placed coaxial to the bottom woofer in previous version of the system (1998-2002)
- 2 in the front passenger’s door (woofer bottom and tweeter in the triangle/sail panel)
- woofer and tweeter are wired in parallel
- tweeter was placed coaxial to the bottom woofer in previous version of the system (1998-2002)
- 1 in the rear driver’s side door (woofer bottom)
- 1 in the rear passenger’s side door (woofer bottom)
- 2 in the cargo area ceiling, above the liftgate (top left and right)
- left and right are wired parallel, mono
- these are not present in the previous version of the system (1998-2002)
- 1 in the subwoofer under the driver’s seat
- contains a 5.25″ 2-ohm dual-coil woofer, coils wired in parallel
Subwoofer 2002-2005
The part number is A1638201002?.
Bose labelled this as “SUBWOOFER”, which they rarely do. They also call it Acoustimass Bass Module. In the gallery below you can see the 5.25″ woofer used inside. It is a 2-ohm dual voice coil driver. The coils are wired in parallel, outside the subwoofer box (in the connector?). This way it gets to an impedance of only 1-ohm.
1998-2002 ML W163 MERCEDES BOSE AMPLIFIER (Analog)
Part numbers for the Analog Bose Amplifier in the ML 1998-2002 (some 2003 ML320 also) are A1638200189 and A1638201889. Both have two connectors, one of 8 pins (2 rows x 4 pins) and one of 24 pins (2 rows x 12 pins), but one has a gray plastic housing and the other has a blue one.
Version 1 – A 163 820 01 89 – 1998 – gray connector
Version 2 – A 163 820 18 89 – 1999 – blue connector
2002-2005 ML W163 MERCEDES BOSE AMPLIFIER (Fiber Optic)
Part number for the Mercedes Bose Fiber Optic Amplifier in the ML 2002-2005 is A1638202789. In the gallery below, you can see a photo of the insides of this amplifier.
Pinout of the Mercedes Bose A1638202789 amplifier – speaker outputs
- Subwoofer +19 -11 (+ yellor or white, – green)
- observe the missing connection for +20 -12, if we were to respect same pattern
- Front left +21 -13 (+ green, – blue)
- Front right +22 -14 (+ blue, – green)
- Rear left +23 -15 (+pink, – orange)
- Rear top tailgate speakers +24 -16 (+ yellow or white, – gray or yellow)
- Rear right +25 -17 (+ pink, – orange)
About the missing connection for pins +20 -12, I suspect they were reserved for a second output to drive each coil of the woofer separately, instead of wiring the coils of the woofer in parallel on a single channel.
W163 Mercedes Bose Underseat Subwoofer
Part number is A1638200902 (A 163 820 09 02).
Upgrades and modifications of this Mercedes Bose Sound System
You can find more informations and DIY mods on Mercedes-Benz forums: