nik

Guys,

I have just purchased a Bose rear subwoofer system and want to install it into my 98 boxster, I have done a search but cant find anything specific to my enquiry

the specification in the car at the present time is as follows

Becker Traffic Pro headunit

Becker Siverstone CD changer

Front and door speakers only

2 channel amplifier

In addition to the Bose system i have purchased a 4 channel amplifier, my questions are as follows:

1. Assuming the 4 channel amplifier is a straight exchange for my old 2 channel amplifier does the input lead from the head unit just connect in or does it need modification

2, Is the output lead from the 4 channel amplifier to the speakers different from the output to the existing 2 channel amplifier, I'm hoping it is so I can then get a wire made up to link the amplifier to the Bose system,

I hope that makes sense to all.

Any help as usual is appreciated

Dear All,

After my problems with battery drain from the Becker Traffic Pro I had installed in my 986, I have been investiagting other options.

I have the opportunity to purchase a VW double din sized unit, I have asked the seller for a wiring diagram out of the manual but he ahs lost it so he can't help.

The picturs of the back of the unit are attached, my question is, I think the standard 986 connector fits in the bottom connector plug, the 2 round ones at the top of the unit are for the antenna and aerial I think but what is the other rectangular connector top left of picture.

Obviously I dont want to purchase unless Im certain it will work.

Thanks as usual.

OK so I've just fitted the tension cable as discussed. FYI I got this from the local Porsche breakers for £8.

The roof seems to go up and down better and fit snugger but thats probably just in my head!

I do have a question:

The inner roof liner [which is grey] seems to have what looks like a velcro strip or patch where it meets the tension cable. Should there be something attaching or holding this liner to the straps?

It's a Sat Nav atenna, just like one that i had in my car, in reply to TP's question about Tracker, it's not mandatory, some insurances want it others dont. My experience was that Norwich Union (biggest insurer in UK) wanted it along with a £650 excess, whilst Ford Insurance didn't and only put an excess of £250 on my car.

Dear All,

I purchased a Becker Silverstone CD Changer from Ebay, it had never been installedbefore or used, I have connected ti to my CDR21 and it powers up fine but I can't remove the CD Magazine, any tips please, I dont have the user booklet so don't know whether there is some sort of special sequence to do things in.

thanks

Nik

Hi Chris,

Thanks very much for your reply, Yes I actually tried that a few times. No luck. Even when MAF disconnected and DME reset through disconnecting the negative pole, the car still feels like it lacks 200 horses.

Actually now with an old cleaned MAF (and CEL) the cars is faster then it ever was. I was used to drive 911's but now my boxster is actually way faster than any 911 I ever drove (except the 930). Maybe my mixture is out of wack which is causing a better combustion? Any hazards? Fuel consumption and engine temp are fine..

Can any or you guys explain the difference between the old and new maf with the same partnumber? :renntech:

Regards,

Sebastian

Try a smoke test, its possible you have a vacum leak. smoke test is one of the best ways of locating leaks.

I;'m no expert but it could be the same problem i had with my car, mine wasn't quite as bad as yours but the symtoms were similar, try this thread http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=12091

Hope it helps

nik

hi nik,

just my $.02, but i'm not crazy about this look. as others have mentioned, the paint-job looks good, but the color might just be a little too much (for me, anyway). i think that silver with blue lettering would be a much better match. i just so happen to have that combo on my car! ;)

btw, how did you do yours (brush-on kit, spray-paint, etc.)? it looks like your caliper decals may be a little smaller than the standard decals, as well.

had a spare set of calipers Chris so used those, funnily enough Im doing a set in silver at the moment so might well swap when they are done.

I sprayed mine using plasticote enamel 4 coats then 2 coats of clear, the decals matched perfectly with the old Porsche lettering so I guess they are right.

I'm undecided on whether or not I like the matching calipers. But the paint job looks very nice.

I have to ask...

Is it a coincidence that the valve stems are at the bottom or did you jack it up and turn the wheels for the picture?

Also, are those regular lug bolts? They look like they are female bolts.

I always jack the car up to clean the wheels, I wax the inside at least twice a year and the jack helps me keep them clean inside and out, it's a habit of mine to turn the wheels after cleaning and finally the rear bolts are female as i needed spacers to make the wheels fit.

Regards

Nik

Cant dispute its a nice job but the colour doesnt do it for me

The light wasn't great today in the UK, but as promised some more pictures of the whole car.

They look great and certainly suit the cars wheels, the blue sky looks nice as well, come to the UK and put up with gray skies, all the public transport grinding to a halt aas soon as we get one flake of snow.

They look quite nice...how about a photo catching a bit more of the car so we can see the whole picture. Also, some detail on how you painted, decal application and so forth. What's important is that you are pleased with the job; there will always be skeptics.

I like the new wheels, as well. I have Carrera Classics on my Boxster. I feel they are a great improvement over the twist wheels.

YEP i'LL POST SOME MORE PICS TOMORROW WHEN THE CAR IS CLEAN, THE WEATHER IN THE UK IS HORRIBLE TODAY, I TOO LOVE THE CLASSICS - WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE TOO WELL IN THE PICS IS THAT MINE ARE THE BLACK CHROME SMOKED TYPE WHICH REALLY SUIT THE ZENITH BLUE PAINTWORK.

I THINK THE CALIPERS LOOK PRETTY GOOD, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ALL TOO EASY TO GO FOR BLACK, RED OR YELLOW. I AM WORKING ON ANOTHER SET AT THE MOMENT IN SILVER.

REGARDS

NIK

Guys,

Just to finish off on what colour my calipers should be painted, well I listened to all your comments (many thanks) I'll let you check out the pictures to decide if I made the right choice.

Regards as always

Nik

Just to close this thread, received the used CDR22 system today, plugged it in, and guess what, no more battery drain!

I still don't understand why my Traffic Pro produced such a drain to start with, a faulty unit - maybe but a brand new Blaupunkt rome Sat Nav that I plugged in produced exactly the same drain - it's weird but hey who cares it's finally fixed

Nik

Nightghost,

Sorry to hear about your problems, check out this thread from a short while ago, none of it is good news I'm afraid but it may help you in discussions with you dealer.

Regards

Nik

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11250

Just to add to Toolpants comment regarding the problem of keeping the same mileage on a new or replacement cluster.

I have just changed my stock black cluster to a silver dial version and had 2 problems.

1. The mileage on the new cluster was significantly different

2. My car has the onboard computer option and a clock, the new cluster didn't show the clock or the computer.

It wasn't a big deal, I split both clusters and the dials then just lift out from the circuit board, swapped new dials onto old circuit board and everything now works, computer and clock.

hope this helps

Nik

Most of the time - before you notice your MAF is failing, the car has been running too rich for such a period that it will inevitably kill the O2 sensors as a knock on effect.

Thats acctually a myth... Running too rich or lean will not hurt O2 sensors, contrary to popular belief. I know a lot of people will try and argue me about this, but please call bosch and have them tell you if you need to. Running lean can hurt its time overall beause of extra heat, but generally most O2 sensors are far enough downstream they don't have a problem like this...

O2 sensors read Oxygen only, they don't read fuel or fuel particles, thats why they are called O2 sensors. So as the amount of oxygen changes in the system the sensors read that level and report it back to the ECU. They will survive an enviroment of 0-1600 deg with a long life time. A rich car runs cooler, so it's not hard on the O2 sensor, they don't read fuel, only the particles of air so running rich means there is more unburnt air in the exhaust (along with unburnt fuel) so the O2 sensor will read that info back. Running lean means your Air/Fuel ratio is say 14.7:1 or higher (16:1 lets say) which is the ratio entering the cylinder. If you go rich its the other way around say 10:1. Either way there is sitll combustion happening and the amount of air entering or not entering the exhaust will change and the O2 sensors will read it as per normal. The engine pretty well can't get that far out of the parameters and still run partially normally long enough to really do damage to the sensor.

Normally aspirated cars dont run hot enough (not like turbo) to really do any damage to O2 sensors. My talon has a huge turbo on it and originally had an O2 sensor right behind the turbo in the downpipe. I moved it down the pipe about 10" so it was farther away. I would notice it get lazy when I was running race gas and lots of boost into the 400whp area because the exhaust temps were nearing 1600 deg and the sensor was sooo close to the head. Even that tho didn't kill the sensor, and it ran really rich compared to a N/A car and had way more heat from the exhaust. See where I'm going with this? A 200hp car N/A with the sensor at least 10" away from the head can pretty well do whatever it wants and it's not gonna hurt the sensors..

OK, so here is where I'll stop an wait for some internet expert to jump in and tell me they have seen it 1000 times and I don't know what I'm talking about... <_<

Interesting point made by Jim, what was surprising was that on the first test drive when the car was running rubbish, sluggish, cutting out early etc the diagnostics reported no faults.

Running badly certainly did affect the MAF (i think) but a quick clean sorted it out, my car runs so much better and has the Boxster howl again.

Slightly off topic (sorry Loren, won't do it again) I drove back the 80 miles or so from the garage at a steady 60, and managed to get 44.6 mpg, I'm now obsessed with trying to get it over 45, I need to get a life I think.!

I agree completely Chris, I'm guessing that they are a reasonable size operation, I want the unit and am happy to pay the asking price, BUT, it's just not worth the risk.

you could offer to pay the PayPal fees (1 or 2%, i can't remember). maybe they don't want to lose any money on the deal to fees. just thinking out loud...

would they take a credit card in person, but not by phone?

All sorted Chris, found one hardly used with manual and code all for £60 BARGAIN

Fingers crossed that it will sort out my battery discharge problem.

Nik

Dear All,

Just before I go and junk my Becker Traffic Pro cos of the battery discharge problem I have been having, I thought I would have one more shot at solving the problem.

As the drain on my battery is huge when I have the Traffic Pro connected to the cars wiring harness but it is normal when I connect a standard Porsche CDR I wondered if it has anything to do with the alarm. I remember reading through a thread that mentioned the alarm wire had to be cut and taped up when fitting an aftermarket item. Given that the Becker (and the Blaupunkt I tried) both exhibited similar drains I am wondering whether it has something to do with the headunit alarm, can anyone tell me what colour the wire from the harness is or send me a complete wiring description from the manual for a CDR22 or just tell me what pin the wire connects to.

The fact that I had to splice the C8 wire into the switch live on the Becker tells me that there are some differences between the units wiring.

As always any help is gratefully appreciated

Nik

I agree completely Chris, I'm guessing that they are a reasonable size operation, I want the unit and am happy to pay the asking price, BUT, it's just not worth the risk.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-Bec...sspagenameZWDVW

I did call them and they don't take Paypal and won't take a credit card over the telephone, I don't feel comfortable sending a money order or cheque as I have no protection

thanks again

Nik

Dear all,

When my car was at the garage last week I got them to check the problems I'd been having with the excess draw on the battery when the car is switched off, thus flattening the battery within a couple of days.

They hooked up a meter and checked the draw with the ignition off (no key inserted), stereo unplugged fromwiring harness, hood light diabled and interior lights disabled, the result was 38 miliamps which is acceptable, we then hooked up my becker traffic pro and it went up to 1.5 amps, we then disconnected the traffic pro and hooked up a CDR22 from another Boxster the result 39 miliamps, it would seem I have a faulty head unit.

Anyway to the point, as quite a lot of forum memebers have changed their stock system is there anyone out there who has a CDR22 or CDR220 that they are willing to sell, if so I can paypal funds over to them immediately, I know Im in the UK but delivery is only about $40.

My email address is mendelfamily@ntlworld.com

Thanks in advance

Nik

Dear All,

I'm going to spend the next few days painting my calipers, I've picked up the thread on how to do it so I am fine with that.

However, the bit I need some help with is what colour do I go for.

My car is Zenith Blue which quite a dusky colour, I have just purchased some smoked black chrome wheels (only 5 quite thin spokes - so the calipers will be in view all the time)

My thoughts so far are as follows

1. Red, looks great but not sure if it will match my car colour and wheels

2. Yellow, definitely not I have a problem with this as I am not trying to disguise my cars braking system and am likely to get comments, similar to the guys who badge BMW 318's with M badges

3. Original Black, would look good but I want a change

4. Blue, think this would work well, but would have to be close to the car colour not a tourqoise or pale blue.

Any ideas or pics would be appreciated,

Thanks as always

Nik

Dear all,

Just a quick note regarding all of those who have suffered MAF problems.

I too had rough running, no power, stuttering revs etc etc. Anyway too cut a long story short, I cleaned the MAF as described in the excellent Renntech tech tips, it certainly made the car run better but still not perfect. took the car to an independant in the UK (Porscheshop) explained the problem to them and told them that I had cleaned the MAF. The mechanic said immediately that too many people change the MAF without first exploring other avenues or possible causes. He had a drive in my car, put it on the ramp and spotted that the breather connector pipe had a huge split in it, part number is 996.107.237.52, cost = £9.86 plus half an hours labour. Car now runs the way it should and I saved the cost of a new MAF.

So I guess if you have changed your MAF and are still experiencing rough running problems then it might be worth just checking the breather pipe for splits before digging deep for O2 sensors.

If this helps even 1 Renntech member then it was worth reporting.

On a different topic (sorry Loren) I purchased some black chrome Cayman 5 spoke wheels, they look absolutey brilliant, I'll post pics tomorrow if anyone is interested.

Regards

Nik

Dear All,

Seasons greetings to all, I've spent the last couple of days tidying up those annoying little things, such as replaced the sun visor hinges, replaced a snapped off wind deflector bracket, steam cleaned and shampood carpets etc etc.

Any way to the point the very last job I had to do was that I had a small tear in the leather part of my Tequipment handbrake, being fussy I decided that a bit of superglue and then a rub over with shoe polish would cure it. The fatal mistake was I took the superglue pot into the car and rested it on the console, I'm sure you all know what is coming next - YES I did knock it over and spilled superglue all over the console.

I have managed to source a second-hand item, and have worked out how to remove the old one, However the 2 items I need to swap from the old to the new are the storage lid and the lock, does anyone have any tips or a link to a procedure for doing this.

Many thanks

Nik

Yes screws under the rubber mate. under the ash tray, under the shift boot and also one more screw... pull up on the coin holder and once removed, you will see a screw under that.

Thanks guys, I found them all and fitted the new one today, only took 30 minutes, pics below, no more glue for me.

Dear All,

Seasons greetings to all, I've spent the last couple of days tidying up those annoying little things, such as replaced the sun visor hinges, replaced a snapped off wind deflector bracket, steam cleaned and shampood carpets etc etc.

Any way to the point the very last job I had to do was that I had a small tear in the leather part of my Tequipment handbrake, being fussy I decided that a bit of superglue and then a rub over with shoe polish would cure it. The fatal mistake was I took the superglue pot into the car and rested it on the console, I'm sure you all know what is coming next - YES I did knock it over and spilled superglue all over the console.

I have managed to source a second-hand item, and have worked out how to remove the old one, However the 2 items I need to swap from the old to the new are the storage lid and the lock, does anyone have any tips or a link to a procedure for doing this.

Many thanks

Nik

Sorry all, please ignore my wiring qquestion for the head unit, I found a similar thread that eventually told me what to do, HOWEVER, just rewired as per the instructions and as soon as I plug the head unit in (not switched on) the draw on the abttery goes crazy, I'm now thinking that the previous owner who had an aftermarket Sony system installed may have done something different when wiring it to the amp, so my follow up is can someone send me a pic of how their amp is wired up, ideally so it shows the munber and colour of wires and were they fit into the amp.

thanks

nik

is your amp a factory amp? which one is it, the 4-channel or 6-channel? what stereo option do you have, M490 or M680?

that wire that you mentioned in the yellow plug (C1 plug i think) is probably the remote amp turn on wire. when you turn on the stereo, it sends a signal to the amp to turn on. maybe the previous owner's Sony system didn't have a remote amp turn-on feature, so the amp is on all the time. he of course would have the same battery drain you're experiencing. just thinking out loud here... is there any way to get in touch with the previous owner?

the Traffic Pro manual will have a diagram that shows the pinouts of the connectors. it may not tell the colors of the wires, but it will tell you which wire is in which connector/pin number. the C1 plug (if it's at all like the CDR-220's wiring) is where all the pre-amp speaker wires, the SHARED ground wire for the speakers, and the remote amp turn on wire are.

as far as i know, you should not need to splice any wire into another wire. it could be the shared ground wire, which would explain why you have no sound when it's not connected, or it could be the remote amp turn-on wire, which would also give you no sound.

Chris,

thanks for your reply, having reviewed it I dont think I explained my problem that well, so here goes with a second try

I have a Becker Traffic Pro Hi-speed head unit that runs through the factory amp, I'm not sure which amp it is but I don't think that matters at the moment.

OK here goes, The unit works fine and I have full functionality and sound.

Negative lead on battery disconnected and a multimeter connected, ignition switch in position 1 to stop the alarm going off and headunit disconnected from the wiring harness = a draw of 1.72 on the 10amp scale which i believe equals 1720 miliamps.

Same set up as above paragraph but with the wiring harness connected to the head unit and the draw goes up to 2.4 which I think means that when the head unit is connected (still switched off) it is drawing about 600 miliamps which is the reason my battery keeps draining.

Same set up as above but with a loaned brand new Blaupunkt unit connected instaed of the Becker unit and the draw again goes up by 600 miliamps.

I think what I need is for someone who has a Becker Traffic Pro fitted to copy what I have done and let me know the draw from their car, alternatively if someone has a stock Porsche CDR system fitted if they could do the same and let me know what is being drawn.

I think that as soon as i connect the head unit, it powers up the memory function of the unit which results in the 600 miliamp draw

Another option is that I rewire the live, switched live and negative into the spare lead used for the phone, not sure if this will make any difference.

Any help or advice is gratefully received.

Thanks

Nik