Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Printable Version

+- 968Forums.com (https://968forums.com/forum)
+-- Forum: RAISING MY 968 - The Modifying, Care & Feeding (https://968forums.com/forum/raising-my-968-the-modifying-care-feeding)
+--- Forum: SHOPAHOLICS (https://968forums.com/forum/shopaholics)
+---- Forum: Stereos, NAVs, & Gadgets (https://968forums.com/forum/stereos-navs-gadgets)
+---- Thread: Paul W Stereo Upgrade (/paul-w-stereo-upgrade.html)

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Inkedupfatboy - 10-21-2013

Thanks, but no. I don't have the patience for this stuff. I just want it done. Kudos to all who can enjoy this kind of work. I am too old, too mean, too ornery and too fat to be squeezing in and out of this dumb car trying to fit a stereo. I don't follow directions very well, with little chance of my even reading them.



I can barely get in and out of it to drive the damnable thing. After stopping at three businesses, all I want to do is drive home and park it.



If i pay someone to do something and they screw it up I have someone to yell at, if I do it and screw it up, well, I really don't want to have my heart attack in the car.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Rap - 10-21-2013

If your a stay at home mom, how is it that you don't follow directions well?

I mean about stereos of course staying on line!

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Inkedupfatboy - 10-22-2013

lol - I said I was the house husband - I never said I didn't rule the roost too...



I have put stereos in other cars, but I just have no interest in doing this one where nothing fits and the wiring is all arse backwards - You can't just plug and play it...who ever heard of putting amps under the front seats..ugh.



I will start snooping around for a good stereo shop that knows what they are doing and in the meantime I have another car to start paying someone to work on soon.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - tamathumper - 10-22-2013

My original stereo was either non-working or it just sucked, so I cut the connector(s) off the back of it, and just soldered their wires directly to the wires on the new connector that came with the new stereo. I was able to solder everything together at my workbench in relative comfort, and then it was just a couple of "clicks" inside the console and I had a new stereo. Little bending and no arse-backwardness.



I took my wife's Honda to the most popular installer in the area, and it was an absolute cob job - so bad that for her EOS I just did the whole install myself (same double-DIN stereo). And might I add, it was a LOT harder to install hers because of the !@$# CAN bus, which interferes with *everything*.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Inkedupfatboy - 10-22-2013

Yea the problem with that is the stereo does not work properly - only the two rear speakers work and I have the ten speaker HiFi option, so either an amp is bad or I have 8 speakers that are bad. Not an easy thing to just solder the new one to old connectors. If I am going to do it, it all needs upgraded.



I don't understand why certain things are made to be difficult - if things like speaker size were standardized, most of these issues wouldn't even be issues...I don't want to jump the car with base, but I would someday have a nice stereo to hook my ipod up to.



As I said before,lots of other projects ahead of this one.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Paul W - 10-22-2013

This is how I integrated Bluetooth (streaming music and phone talking) and iPod into the car. I purchased this unit on ebay from a guy in China, it was something like $130 shipped for both components and I have to say it is very, very nice.



















You can see there are no external power connections, you just it into the back of the Porsche radio (wouldn't matter which one you had as long as it supports an external CD player) and it powers it up and gets the signals to everything, it's the green and blue connectors.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Paul W - 10-22-2013

The wiring is a snap, just plug it into the radio. FYI, they have these for many OEM systems out there, just search ebay for the name and the name of your car if you want to retrofit something like this to your OEM system.



I mounted it behind the glove box (which is out in these pictures).











I stuffed the aux input and iPod cable (it charges the iPod also) into the center console and they just hang down by the passenger side seat.



Dirty carpet at the end of the project!







I cleaned the carpet before I put the seats back in.....actually cleaned the whole interior. Looks good, but not fantastic.







I see I have not put the wire run in this post, nor the speaker upgrade....will do that also.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - robbgerard - 10-22-2013

Thanks Paul! Couple more questions:



Assuming you use it, where do you have the ipod connector wire actually enter the cabin? Do you put the ipod in the clock-side cubby?



The ideal would be to omit the cable and just stream music from my ipod via bluetooth which seems possible (I think that's what A2DP allows for), have you tried this? I do wonder about possible loss of audio quality going that route, however.



Does anyone know if this kind of system would work with my stock CR-1? I have the CD changer in the glove box but am looking to get rid of that anyway. As per the pic below, I do notice that the CD changer cable input is for a round plug rather than for the square blue/green plugs above. Ack.



   

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Paul W - 10-22-2013

I just have the iPod sit on the center console or hang down by the passenger seat. I see your Porsche connector, for some reason I thought it would be the same, but it's not. I looked up the device on the guy's store on ebay, and he doesn't have it. They have one for a CDR-210 and 220 though. Maybe you could get one of those cheap and use this to retrofit.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/iPod-iPhone-Car-adapter-interface-integration-Player-Becker-CDR-210-CDR220-/251298616375?pt=Car_Audio_Video&vxp=mtr&hash=item3a82909437



I would email the guy and send him your info, he might have a solution that is not listed.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - robbgerard - 10-22-2013

Thanks again Paul, I sent him an email so we shall see.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - hot968 - 10-22-2013

tamathunmper, he was suppose to know Porsche 944's radios and said the 968 wouldn't be that different. I don't know what to make of it as the car has never given me an electrical problems at all. Now my mechanic says he could probably figure out how to install a radio after he checks out electric system?? I don't know what to do because I am not having an electrical problem that I know of

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Paul W - 10-22-2013

[quote name='hot968' timestamp='1382485645' post='151136']

tamathunmper, he was suppose to know Porsche 944's radios and said the 968 wouldn't be that different. I don't know what to make of it as the car has never given me an electrical problems at all. Now my mechanic says he could probably figure out how to install a radio after he checks out electric system?? I don't know what to do because I am not having an electrical problem that I know of

[/quote]



Mr. Hot: I am sorry to hear about your issues. So you had no issues, then you drop the car off, the guy starts the installation, or does he finish the installation? And then he calls you and says your car has electrical problems? Could you be more specific?



If it started while it was in the installer's custody, it should be pretty easy to figure out as it was something that was done during the course of installation or preparation for installation.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Inkedupfatboy - 10-22-2013

I agree with Tama - If all was fine before you dropped the car off - then nothing works after he got the car, well, Warning! Danger Will Robinson.

You have to get more specifics from him! If he did nothing to damage anything, then he should be able to reassemble as he found it with no issues...if he can do that - Run, don't walk away!

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - tamathumper - 10-23-2013

But that is a topic for another thread...

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - hot968 - 10-23-2013

sorry guys don't mean to take the topic off subject. The guy had the car for about 20 minutes before he called us back. He said he did that to show us the electrical problem before he started to work on the stereo, it is just so frustrating <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/whine.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Paul W - 10-30-2013

I think this is the last set of items that I need to post, running the wiring.



To recap, the following was routed:

• 4 AWG wire from the battery to the back to power the amp (now I'm thinking 8 AWG would of been fine, but 4 is better)
  
  
• 9 Conductor cable (trade name "Speedwire") to route the 4 pairs of speaker wires from the head unit, and one extra wire for switched 12 VDC to switch the amp on/off
  
  
• (6) 14 AWG wires from the output of the amp to the speakers, (3) left, (3) right. These had to be routed through the doors for the four door speakers.
  
  

I made up the 9 conductor and 2 door speaker wires, put tape on certain sections, the ones that will be exposed most. I ran them in the rocker on the passenger side, so on the other side of the rocker steel from the AWG 4 power wire. The purpose of this was to shield it from potential interference and alternator whine, which I succeeded, no noise in the system.



I had to use an electrical snake to run these wires, as it is hard to run it through the rocker panel, I was happy with everything when I was done.



Speedwire (blue wire) and two sets of speaker wires for the door:







Using an electrical snake to get the cable run (which was taped with hockey tape) through the rocker:











Here is the door jamb, I did not tape it all the way.







And here is it running behind the fuel filler neck, I was troubleshooting my fuel smell at the same time, that's why it is torn apart:

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Paul W - 10-30-2013

I removed the door panel and demo'd the old door speaker wiring. I kept the ends of the wires that were going to fit my new speakers, if they fit. I used the tweeter wiring in the door, just retrofitted new ends and spliced into the wires behind the bottom of the door panels.



I then taped up the two speaker wires going into the door and ran them through the OEM rubber grommet.







You can see them going into the door here:







A little dynamat, should of used more, used more on the driver's side:







Here is where I cut the OEM tweeter wires, and then crimped plug-in spade clips. Note how male/female pieces were used, this way, if you ever take off the door panel, when you put the speaker back on, it's going to go back on in the same polarity as it was before. I liked this trick.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Paul W - 10-30-2013

Here's a couple more of the door tweeter:











Door speakers:











To get the radio to switch from "day" to "night" that toggles on the headlights, I connected an insulation displacement connector to the digital temperature read out voltage circuit to do this. It's the grey and green wire on the harness, taped it up with hockey tape after this photo.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - Paul W - 10-30-2013

I did the "rear speaker enclosure" mod as denoted on 968forums.com.



It is excellent, easy, and simple. Take your time!



[size="3"]RUN ALL OF YOU WIRING FIRST![/size]



Put dynamat (or as I call it dynamite!!!) against the sheet metal, install the metal tube, then use foam and fill it....in the end, I put too much in and am taking it out now. Be careful not to overfill, the stuff has a lot of force behind it.

---

Paul W Stereo Upgrade - flash - 10-30-2013

i would mask that hole off and shoot the great stuff black. it will drive you nuts if you don't when you look into the vent and see white.



really get in there over the wheel well and fill that gap up and seal off the chamber. same for down low in the front.



then fill with hollofill. a good size handful will do it.



remember to get the orientation of the louvres right when you put the vent back in.

---