Pictures of CDC-3 CD Changer Wiring - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Dave80GTSi · 04-08-2017, 03:53 PM

I will be adding an old-tech 6-disc CDC-3 changer in the frunk soon and poked around the area today for a pre-op triage. And I can see no obvious path for the wiring from the changer to be run thru the cowl area to the back of the radio.

Can one of you good folks who own a car already so fitted please take a snap or two, showing the wiring?

Also - while checking out the area under the cowl I find this Hose To Nowhere. The first pic is of the end of the hose - note the elbow fitting - while the second snap shows where the other end of the hose disappears, which is the clear hose at the end of the pencil.

Only thing that I can think of is that it would be pre-emptively installed for possible use with the optional headlight washer package which my car does not have.

Both of my windshield squirters work fine, so it is nothing to do with that.

Any other ideas?

Thanks - DM

Boxtaboy · 04-08-2017, 04:00 PM

That hose is the battery acid vent tube. In the older original lead acid batteries, they connected like in the top pic below. In the newer AGM batteries, I had to remove the black connection which is too wide, and connected the see thru hose to a smaller black adapter to fit in the smaller hole in the AGM Battery (Lower pic). I find that even techs at dealers are too lazy to reconnect the vent tube when replacing batteries, so I end up doing it myself. i can see the vent tube hole in your battery in your pic above (in same location as mine in the pic below btw).

Dave80GTSi · 04-08-2017, 04:50 PM

All of the batteries in my recent experience have been sealed with no vent tubes, but I admit that I am new to the whole 986 world. Is this some weird deal unique to these models?

Boxtaboy · 04-08-2017, 05:00 PM

Some people choose not to connect the vent tube to their AGM batteries cause they think they are fully sealed. In reality, there's still vent holes in them, and even the paper instructions that came with my AGM replacement stated to connect the vent tube if your car has one. The red cover on the battery also had a plug to place on the opposite end. Pic of my installation below. Will you run into any issues if you don't connect it? Probably not, but I'd rather not have a venting problem in my trunk, and it wasn't hard for me to connect it...

rick3000 · 04-08-2017, 11:00 PM

There is a rubber grommet in the firewall on the driver's side behind the battery. If you stand in the front trunk and look toward the trunk, it is a few inches to the right. Removing the battery will make everything a lot easier. Make a small incision and push a long screw driver through, it will exit pretty high up inside the driver's footwell. The screw driver will help you find it from the inside, because the grommet is behind a layer of insulation, so you will need to tear a small opening. I would highly recommend putting some sealant around the wires when you are done to avoid leaks.

There is another rubber grommet between the battery tray area and the interior of the front trunk, same process, but to see this grommet you will need to remove the spare tire and significant amount of the front trunk carpet. I don't remember the exactly location of the frunk grommet (there are a few of them), but I think it is behind where a CD changer would be installed.

Best of luck!

Dave80GTSi · 04-09-2017, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick3000

There is a rubber grommet in the firewall on the driver's side behind the battery. If you stand in the front trunk and look toward the trunk, it is a few inches to the right. Removing the battery will make everything a lot easier. Make a small incision and push a long screw driver through, it will exit pretty high up inside the driver's footwell. The screw driver will help you find it from the inside, because the grommet is behind a layer of insulation, so you will need to tear a small opening. I would highly recommend putting some sealant around the wires when you are done to avoid leaks.

There is another rubber grommet between the battery tray area and the interior of the front trunk, same process, but to see this grommet you will need to remove the spare tire and significant amount of the front trunk carpet. I don't remember the exactly location of the frunk grommet (there are a few of them), but I think it is behind where a CD changer would be installed.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the info!

Yeah, already figured on pulling the battery (maybe I can install the mystery vent tube upon reinstallation ... ) and seeing what I can find when the time comes.

Still, pictures that anyone has of their wiring would be most welcome!

Thanks - DM

Dave80GTSi · 04-15-2017, 03:41 PM

Wrapped up the changer install this morning.

As anticipated, the trickiest bit was running the cable from the frunk to the console.

Many thanks to Rick3000, as your routing info was spot-on!

Looks all factory-like to me!

Chuck W. · 04-15-2017, 07:09 PM

Nice job. There are few of us that still use CDs much less the CDC player!

rick3000 · 04-15-2017, 07:16 PM

Glad it went well, and I was able to help!

Dave80GTSi · 04-16-2017, 09:16 AM

This type of retrofit upgrade work has strong appeal for me. The changer was an expensive option of the era, and I can easily imagine that many folks may have wanted this option at the time, but might have been put off due to the cost.

But today these changers are short money as technology has moved on - in fact, the cable that I had to buy cost me more than the changer! And note that the changer is an official Porsche branded model, so it is correct for the car.

I now can carry 7 CD's - 6 in the changer and another in the dash - so that gives me over 8 hours of tunage to listen to before I would need to make a change. And that's plenty for me.

DM