Planet 9

I have installed many different cd players into different vehicles. We recently purchased a 07 cayman, and I wanted to put an aftermarket navigation in the system (looking at the pioneer units).

How difficult is it to do this. I've looked over the articles on installing the factory navigation and it seems simple enough. The main variations from that install seems to be having to run the GPS antenna yourself rather than patching into the MOST bus (think that was the name of it).

Would you highly recommend doing the install yourself (if you are faily use to installing cd players), advise against it, etc?

Also - do you have recommendations on where to install the aftermarket gps antennas?

Thanks,
Ben

I would say that using the many guides and photos available in the articles section it's only slightly more involved than any of my previous car stereo installs.

You will have to remove some trim to get the original stereo out and then run wires through the car if you wish to hook up the illumination and speed signal. If I was doing my install again I would definitely not worry about hooking up the speed signal as the GPS is accurate enougth without it unless you spend most of your time in tunnels!! Also I would probably suggest you install it without running the illumination cable as most of the units have a light sensor which will switch it to night mode so that it won't glare - but individual units may vary.

The wiring in the car is a standard iso arrangement so adapters not needed on most units however you will need an adapter for the arial which you can get online - it's a fakra to din adapter (often badged up as for BMW/Mini's).

The biggest problem will be holding it in place and and finding a fascia. For this you can get a kit from a Japanese site, Euromotorspeed on ebay, or an installer may be able to craft one for you. I bought the euromotorspeed one and was very happy with quality. The colour is very very close to the original and it fits well.

As for where to install the gps antenna, the consensous seems to be under the plastic at the bottom of the windscreen where the wipers are. This is very easy to get to and you will only need a wire coat hanger to thread the wire in to the cabin. If you search for thread on my install the is a picture showing this.

I installed a Pioneer AVIC-F900 but I was not overly happy with it so I returned it, the bluetooth quality was poor (maybe a better mic would help) and the speed camera notification was a very annoying barking dog sound that goes off about a mile before the camera and keeps going if your 1 mile over the limit! However it is constantly being hacked at AVIC-411 so who knows in the future. The new Kenwood's look good but only the top of the range has a high res screen which is a bit disappointing for 2009 models

As such I'm still on the look out for how to play my ipod and may put a PC in with a touch screen - unless your removing a PCM unit and want to sell

Good luck with the install if you go for it.

If you're really into this, nperetz put in a Macmini into his Cayman. he did a stunning job! When I go back down to SoCal, I'm going to look him up to install one for me.

Message - My Articles

Thanks for the quick replies. One thing that concerns me that you mentioned is how you didn't like that aftermarket unit. That's the one I was looking into.

I can search nav forums for more info and other suggestions on that front.

I, too, ordered the kit from euromotorspeed. It hasn't come yet, but I'm hoping it matches the color like most rave about.

Thanks again,
Ben

From research I've done through searching and the articles - it appears that the BOSE option requires you to re-run the wires to the speakers/etc.

If I'm doing an aftermarket upgrade from the CDR24, will the speaker wires be wired to the unit directly, or does it have an external amp?

If it does, what has most people done in terms of wiring the speakers to the head unit?

Thanks again,
Ben

That Mac Mini install looks awesome - am building my parts list now!!!

bsnively - What setup do you have:

You can have either a CDR24 or PCM head unit - you said you have CDR24

Then for speakers/amp you can have:

-Basic which is wires straight to head unit - basically plug and play

-Sound plus package which has an AMP in system. This will still be relitively plug and play but you will need to insure that the blue amp remote wire is connected or you will not hear any bass.

-Bose setup - this is much more complicated and re-wiring will be needed.

Hope that helps,

Steve

Thanks!

I was searching and found that it had an external amp and used the head unit. this post <http://www.planetporsche.net/cayman-boxster-electronics/10691-avic-d3-installed.html> talks about a lot of it, but I will still unsure if the external amp used the speaker outputs as a signal going in, or if it used the internal amp and pre-outs that needed to be wired.

Thanks for the great information, makes planning a lot easier before the big jobs.

Edit: I have the CDR24 with the sound plus package.

~Ben

Echoboy, did you get to Nperetz. I am thinking of doing the install as well, but where can you get the bexel to fit the Xenarc touchscreen?