Exchanging Boxster Stereo head unit.

[itskenallen]

Originally Posted by Myoung73

For 2001 and 2002 I believe it is a straight swap, very easy and harnesses relatively easy to find to mate with the factory HU. And you can still use the factory amp if you want.

MOST systems are only in 2003 and 2004 986 cars. CDR-23 is in the HU in 2003, not sure on the 2004 (think it might be the same). If you have an amplifier in a MOST car (either the HiFi option, or Bose) - you will also have door "speakers" (actually subs), it is absolutely not a straight swap. If you don't have an amp at all, it is easier since the speaker wires are connected directly to the HU. The HU, amp and cd changer (if you have one) are all connected fiber-optically by the most bus. No aftermarket stuff is compatible. To replace the HU, you would either need to bypass the amp altogether (which requires running the speaker wires to the HU from the frunk where the amp is and thus the current speaker wires), or replace the amp with the HU which still requires running wires from the new HU to the new AMP, since the factory wiring does not have all of the necessary wires to connect a new HU to an AMP. It's also hard to find harness adapter kits that are plug and play to the factory HU and amp harnesses (it's been impossible for me so far). There is a company (cai-store.com) that can get you part of the way there, but there would still be some additional work.

That said, it's not THAT big a deal to replace the HU and amp, just requires some wiring and running wires between HU and frunk (where you would presumably place the new amp). Been done many times before, if you search you should be able to find quite a bit of info.

Thank you. This was the info that I was looking for. Yes it is the CDR 23 in my 2004 model also.

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[pachinnery]

Thanks everybody for the help in solving this problem. I purchased a JVC KD-R981BT in the end, it cost about £100 plus £15 for a connector.
The stereo came with a JVC to ISO A & B adapter and I purchased an ISO C to four RCA plug adapter. The process was very simple, I plugged the two adapters into the stereo and then into the existing car's wiring, the only extra connection was the red wire from pin 6 on the ISO C1 needed spicing into the switched feed to power the amplifier. This was the yellow wire in the stereos wiring.