The display went wierd on my CDR-220. Also, I have an aftermarket GPS on a Garmin mount in one cubby and an XM receiver on another Garmin mount in the second cubby. I priced replacing the CDR-220 or just the front panel and wow! I couldn't believe the prices, even for used on e-Bay.

I bought an Alpine INE-W960 and am installing it now. I had previously done a cupholderrectomy where I moved the AC to the top, the radio in the second slot, and two cubbies down below. I replaced the AC in its original location at the bottom, put a single cubby over it and am mounting the Alpine in the top two locations. It's going pretty well, but I'm not very good at planning, as evidenced by the need to do some work, order some parts, do some work, rinse and repeat.

I removed the u-bracket behind the fascia, drilled the rivets holding the spring steel retainers and replaced the u-bracket as it does a nice job of supporting the rear of the head unit. I used an oscillating multi-tool to cut out the separating bar between the top and second bay of the mount. The mounting cage now fits nicely in the hole.

After I received it I discovered that the Alpine will display the output of a backup camera. I plan to pick up the reverse signal from the backup lights and route that wire along with the camera video cable to the console. The Alpine apparently does not have speed adjustable volume, unless it gets it from the GPS as there is no wire for that. Other than those two items, the hookup appears to be straightforward.

I'll post a picture or two when I'm done.

Al

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Here's the process I went through to replace my CDR-220 with the Alpine INE-W960:
Previously I had performed the cupholderrectomy, moved the AC control to the top of the console stack, put the CDR-220 in position 2, and put the original and an added cubby in the two lower positions. I mounted an XM Roady II in the top cubby and a Garmin GPS in the bottom cubby. All this had to be removed.

1. I pulled the CDR-220 using the radio keys I got to add all the accessories I'm about to remove.
2. I pulled the XM Roady II and its associated antenna, power adapter and the mating AUX cable for the 220.
3. I pulled the Parrot BT hands free module and its adapter cable that connected to the phone wiring and the CDR-220, along with its remote microphone and wired remoted control I mounted on the batwing.
4. I pulled the Garmin GPS and its associated antenna.
5. I put the AC control panel in its original location at the bottom of the stack.
6. I replaced one of the cubbies I removed above the AC control panel.
7. I cut out the bar between the top and next mounting locations in the upper console with a saw blade in an oscillating multi-tool.
8. I pulled the steel u-bracket radio support, drilled out the rivets holding the spring steel retainers, removed the retainers, and replaced the u-bracket because it looked like it would provide good rear support for the Alpine.
9 I purchased an adapter set that provided mating connectors for the amplifier connector, main connector and antenna connector in the car harness and wired it to the harness that came with the Alpine.
10. I mounted the Alpine GPS antenna in the factory location under the sensor cover at the front center of the dash.
11. I mounted the GPS antenna mount that came with the Alpine on the left side of the sensor cover on the dash and stuck the magnetic SiriusXM antenna on it.
12. I connected the parking brake wire from the Alpine to the parking brake switch with a vampire tap by removing the side cover from the console and snaking the wire from the radio to the vicinity of the switch.
13. I put the mounting cage into the dash. I had to cut part of some mounting hole surrounds out of the console frame to get it to fit. Friction pretty much holds it in place. The typical tabs you bend to mount the cage don't have much of anything to grab. I have seen a video where the sides of the frame are drilled but I chose not to do that.
14. I stuffed the wiring harness and the SiriusXM tuner back to the right and left of the radio opening and pushed it all in.
15. I pulled the bumper to get access to the grommet to route the wires for the backup camera. Hint - to do this you have to pull the spoiler cosmetic cover and structure.
16. I partially removed the rear and driver's side inside panels in the rear trunk to pull the camera wires through, replaced the panels, and replaced the bumper and spoiler.

On the To-Do List:
1. Run the video wire and control wire from the backup camera to the head unit and connect the power wires from the camera to the driver's side backup light.
2. Make a filler strip to go between the top of the radio and the bottom of the AC vent over the console.

I really like the head unit. It has a lot of flexibility in audio equalization. It does everything I need and more - AM/FM, Sirius ready, CD/DVD, Navigation, Bluetooth hands free and music, App connection to phones (BT for Android, USB for iPhone), rear seat entertainment (should you have a rear seat, or hook up a composite monitor, or defeat the parking brake interlock), and backup camera.

Al

Since changing my radio out (long story re: audio problems to follow) my alarm system is chirping when I lock up. I finally broke down and read the car's manual. Apparently there is a contact that shorts to ground when the radio is removed. Does anyone know where it is? The service manual says it is part of the radio frame. I didn't see anything that caught my attention when I pulled the CDR-220.

Thanks,

Al

Found the alarm wire for the rsdio. Pulled it from the frame switch and all is well.

So, I got the new radio installed and was congratulating myself when I saw navigation maps and heard FM radio. Then I hooked up the Sirius XM tuner. The display acted normally, I could see the channels and tune around but I had no audio. I spent a half hour on the phone with Sirius (non-) technical support with no success. I was preparing to send the tuner back but had to head for BRBS so I threw the box in the car. After thinking about it for a while I realized that I had not heard any prompts from the navigation system while driving. I tried to hook up my phone via BT, and everything worked except, you guessed it, no audio. I did some more googling at Scott Ishler's suggestion and found the problem and the (very simple) solution described on another forum.

The manual that came with my head unit had an error in the wiring diagrams. One lead said "Power antenna/amplifier/equalizer", so I wired the HiFi option amplifier power to that. Well, later versions of the manual call that lead "Power Antenna". Apparently the power antenna is only energized when FM or AM radio is selected. Guess what? That is the only time I had audio output. I changed the HiFi option amp power to another lead marked "amplifier/equalizer" in a later version of the manual and everything now works.

Al



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2017 07:42PM by Al in Melbourne Beach. (view changes)

Here are a couple of pictures, one of the Nav screen and one of the SiriusXM screen. In both cases you can see the USB connector for iPhone integration and map updates in the top left of the cubby. Handsfree, Music, and Pandora, etc. work over Bluetooth. I'm not sure what the USB adds for iPhone, but I'll find out, I guess. Alpine does have an app that lets you save some settings. One thing I noticed is that FM presets go away when power is lost by disconnecting the battery.





I can't figure out how to get them right side up.

I obviously have some detailing and touchup work to do.

Al