Aftermarket stereo installation

[RandallNeighbour]

Yeah! The wife said "better get a new stereo before our road trip!"

I'm looking at an Alpine unit and wondered if anyone had any advice to offer me for wiring it into my boxster's existing amp. Should I use something like this from crutchfield?

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-ZrMsskQrh3i/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?i=127OEM2

Or, should I just wire it straight out to the speakers and yank out the factory amp?

[bigislandboxster]

Hey Randall,
I'm in the process of redoing my whole system on my '98.....Pulled the amp, head unit, removed the existing connected wires running from the head unit to the amp(the worst part!), installed new speakers in the dash and doors without removing the stock grilles.....Tomorrow I mount the new amp and head unit and connect everything to the amp.....

Take it from me, if you want to make things easy on yourself, just get a new head unit and wiring harness for it, and wire the speakers up to it.....Unless you're going to upgrade with a new amp as well, its not worth the hassle.....The existing wiring configuration on the Nokia is pretty crappy, no info to tell you where input, output, or L and R speaker connections, its all by number on a plastic clip.....My CR220 head unit at least had input and output diagrams on the back....

Have fun pulling wires thru the existing grommets as well, the rubber grommets in the firewall had a tube extension on them, and they were packed tight with electrical tape inside of them as well.....7+ years of heat practically melted the tape and the rubber grommet together.....I had to slice the rubber grommet tube to get some of the wires pulled out that ran from the existing head unit...

Have fun! You'll get to know your car even better!

[RandallNeighbour]

I am assuming that my process will be the following. Anyone who's done this is free to chime in and tell me if I'm on the right track or need to change my plan...

1. Pull my existing radio and unplug it.
2. Use my plug diagram (found on the web for my Porsche head unit) to label each wire.
3. Cut the wires off the existing plugs and solder them to the new wiring harness that comes with my head unit or an aftermarket one (such as the Crutchfield one I put a link to above)
4. Plug in the wiring harness on the head unit and install the new head unit.

I guess my question is one of laziness at this point. Does anyone make a wiring harness that will allow me to simply plug in the Porsche speaker plugs into it and avoid the cutting and soldering, which may cause me to wire it up wrong if I am not careful?

PLEASE post a web link to a place I can find one of these if they exist.

[nautiquelfe]

Hey randall check w/ crutchfield. I am not sure if they have it for a porsche or not but all the other cars i bought stereos for they made a plug and play adapter for stereo-to-stock wiring harness. If they have it let us know i would love to put an aftermarket stereo in my car but hate dealing w/ the wiring issues.

[RandallNeighbour]

I checked with Crutchfield... it's hard wiring for the Boxster. No plugs available.

[bigislandboxster]

Randall,
My advice on the wiring harness is to email caraudioinnovations.com , or access their site and talk to Rod, he set me up with my wiring harness for my Boxster. They specialize in Porsche stereo setups, and they can hook you up with an adapter for your wiring harness which should plug right in.

Give it a try, real friendly people!

[RandallNeighbour]

I emailed them. Thanks so much!

[savoir-faire]

Randal, I'd be very interested to learn what you find out regarding the harness. How it works, price, etc.