Radio Problem
 

I have an 03 Boxster with the Bose speakers and the Porsche head unit that has FM, AM and CD Player. Yesterday while taking advantage of a warm sunny day here in California I went for a drive. When I turned on my stereo it lit up, showed the station it was tuned to, but no sound. It worked fine on Saturday. It does not seem to be the mute function causing this malfunction. Does anyone have an idea as to what might be the problem?

I know that the intake and exaust noise is music enough for most of us, but at least I would like to listen to sports talk radio and a few other things.

"I know that the intake and exaust noise is music enough for most of us, but at least I would like to listen to sports talk radio and a few other things."


You took the words right out of my mouth...

Pull the faceplate and clean the contacts, then replace. The faceplate controls the HU and Amp and if the contacts are dirty or misaligned, the volume won't work.

I have had similar problems with the CDR-23 installed in my ’03. Usually on a hot day it goes to “protect” mode and I can’t do anything. Once or twice it has done the mute thing as you described. Once I get home, let it cool down and reset the alarm, it works fine. It also works if I remove the radio (the CDR-23 doesn’t have a face plate) unplug everything and plug it back up.

It seems to only be a warm weather issue for me. In the winter, it works fine. I make sure that whenever I park in the sun to put the sun screen in the windshield. This has helped reduce the number of times it flakes out.

I did talk to the dealer about it because my car is still under the CPO warranty. They wouldn’t diagnose it because I have a Sirius unit in the car and the computer had some kind of “unauthorized device” error code. I find it hard to believe that the FM signal that the Sirius unit broadcasts is at fault.

Just happened to me this weekend. Not like it was hot up here in Maine though. I'm in the process of buying an 04' Boxster S with the Bose audio. Worked fine one minute. Next time I turned on the car (a few minutes later) NOTHING. Well, at least no sound. Radio appears to work fine. Checked all fuses and no issues there. Have not unplugged it yet. Will try that next. Anyone have any input as to what makes this happen?

In my experience, pushing the CD button sometimes resets the CDR-23 to a working state. When that doesn't work, turn off the car and restart. Occasionally even that is not enough; disconnecting the battery and letting the car sit for a few minutes has yet to fail. That is definitely the method of last resort. Worst time was a year ago when the radio stopped working for an entire week. I was convinced the radio finally died but then one morning it magically sprung to life.

I've had the lack of volume issue on my 2004 Boxster twice now. My dealer replaced the amplifier as that was the easiest option but said it could also be a wiring issue. It's happened again with the new amp so I'm taking it back tomorrow to see what's happening this time. On a separate issue, has anyone had a problem with the spoiler indicator light coming on when you're driving? What does that usually mean?

Even flakier radio problem.... vol.10, 11, 10, 11, 10
 

I have volume but when I try to turn it up instead of going from 10 to 11 to 12 etc., It goes 10 to 11 and then back to 10 then 11 and then back to 10.

Geez even Delco could get the volume knob to work - at least until it fell off.

Not the amp, because I don't have one (yet).
Not the mute because I can toggle back and forth b/w the mute fxn.

Could be heat - seems to happen when the top is down and the sun is up.

Yes, tried it again out of the sun and the volume worked correctly. Very strange.

Bose Amp Failure...
 

Still researching this and looks like its pretty common. Common enough that this guy is selling his boxster bose amp repair service on ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/986-PORSCHE-BOXSTER-BOSE-AMPLIFIER-REPAIR-SERVICE_W0QQitemZ180174689463QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCa r_Audio_Video?hash=item29f33f94b7&_trksid=p4506.m2 0.l1116

http://www.pedrosgarage.com/Site%203/Fix%20Sticky%20Radio%20Buttons.html