I bought a CD-Player to replace my old factory radio for my 86 Porsche 944. I bought it from best buy, and I get free installation with my purchase. Should it be ok if I have the guys at best buy do it, or should I take the car to a specialty shop for this kind of car? They installed a stereo on my wife's Camry with no trouble and seemed competent, but I don't want to take unnecessary risks. Thanks
There are two things you may want to make sure of...
If you have the factory alarm they will have to ground the alarm lead or the car won't start.
They have power the antenna booster or the radio will pick up nothing.
Good luck...
"Devils944S2" wrote in news:2RDwb.15312$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.socal.rr.com:
I had Halfords here in the UK fit an MD player to my 944. I was more than a little worried - Halfords are Car and Bicycle part factors who do various types of fitting at their larger branches, and are therefore hardly Porsche specialists. As it happens, they did a perfectly good job
- no damage or bent trim parts and everything works just fine.
Replacing the header unit only (which is what they did) should be a perfectly straight forward job, and not as traumatic for the car as you might think. The hardest two parts are getting the old unit out (if the release mechanisms have seen better days), and fitting the now standard (ISO?) connector to the wiring harness on an older car to make it compatable with the modern header unit. Where the car already has the modern socket, wiring is a doddle - it simply plugs straight in.
I seem to recall that the surround for the header unit on older 944s already works with the mounting supplied on the side of the header units supplied these days, and so they shouldn't need to mess with it.
The front speakers are a doddle to fit - they are behind grills in the door trim which just come off to expose the speakers. The hardest part is to find speakers of the required spec which match the recess and have the screw holes in the right place whilst not stopping correct refit of the grill.
Rear speakers are fun fun fun - they are mounted behind soft trim, which is just drilled to let the sound out. The trim is held in place by... wait for it... the quaterlight window! I had the rear speakers replaced on my old 924 years back by a specialist Audio-alarm fitter - I was amazed that he did the job without leaving anything torn, warped or loose.
When it was time to replace the tired, poor quality, Radio-cassette header with my shiny, average-quality, Radio-MD, I opted to retain the existing speakers, even though they are only the standard speakers (20W each?) and the new header can pump out 240W in total (3 times the speakers capacity). This was for two reasons. First, I thought that the original speakers were still alive and well - the distortion at the high end of the header's output range being caused by the amplifier clipping (the volume was turned-up all the way); Second, I didn't fancy going the whole hog and risking further incursion into the condition of the interior trim or the value of the car (the speakers are still "original"!!).
As it turned out, I think my decision was correct. The header unit is now never pumped up beyond the abilities of the speakers to get music within my comfortable listining range - the speakers (bless them) are therefore not pushed to the point of distortion, and the header unit hasn't got a clue what clipping is yet, because it's never been there. All in all, I'm happy with the overall package now. If I wanted to drive slowly down the highstreet with my car going "Thump thump thump (oh yeah) thump thump..." it might be a different story - but since my mental age and IQ are both higher than 12, I guess that's not an issue.
A disclaimer - all info I've supplied here is to the best of my knowledge. I haven't deliberately lied about anything or written anything deliberately malicious. However, I accept no responsibility for accurateness nor damage caused to anyone, anything or any other thing I can think of anywhere in the entire universe ever - honest.
Thanks for the replies. Devils-Is that power antenna booster just a wire that plugs in? I will be sure to mention it so it's not forgotten. I'm not too worried, but I've only owned my Porsche for a year or so I still haven't gotten comfortable handing it over to some college kids/people I don't know. I'll probably snap a few pics of the interior with my digital camera just incase something does happen I will have proof that the car didn't come in that condition.
They will probably cut up your wiring harness, rather than use the proper 'reverse' connectors. And as others have noted, they will probably have no clue on the antenna preamp power lead.
I would recommend just doing the job yourself. Order the installation kit for an '86 944 from Crutchfield for a few bucks. The kit has the proper reverse connectors so that you do not need to hack up your OE wiring.
There are two connector types: The 6-pin power plug (which also includes the power antenna lead), and the speaker connectors. The speaker connectors are
2-pin DIN connectors. Simply splice the wiring from the harness of your new stereo into the pigtails of the reverse connectors. Then just plug-n-play.You may also be interested in reading my 944 Stereo FAQ:
-...- Walt Spector (w6ws at earthlink dot net)
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