CDR-24 Replacement issues

Good day, forum denizens! As I have yet to receive plates in the mail from my home DMV, I decided to make some changes to the interior of my new to me 987.1 ; one of which is to replace the CDR-24 with a Kenwood DDX374BT. No Bose originally according to my VIN. Alas, I have stumbled upon an issue.... The cables in the car don't have all the wires that the CDR-24 pinout page of the manual says they should. Crutchfield sent me a Metra 70-1784 wiring harness, which fits two of the cables ( Connector B - Speaker Output, which seems to match up right) and Connector A (Power and System Control Signals). However when examining my soldering work between the harness and the cables provided by Kenwood , I noticed that labels on them didn't match the CDR-24 pinouts from the manual. I moved the pins around to match what was in the car, but all I get is the security light which to me means that the radio has good ground/ battery 12v but isn't getting switched 12v in. Here's a picture of the guilty plug . It looks like it's the A connector, with the brown wire being ground and the green/orange wire being +12v from battery . The remaining two wires thin red/black (?) looks like it's a +12v switched OUTPUT and the white cable is +12v switched power for the antenna. Now, the CDR-24 worked so I know all the voltage bits are there. I feel like there should be +12V switched INPUT in pin A7. Illumination in pin A6 would be nice too. Any ideas on where these two important signal wires might actually be? Here's what I'm working with for a wiring diagram: Here's the C plug: I thought only BOSE systems had fiber heading to the head unit? Digging around a little more while verifying the bits as I wrote this led me to discovering an Alpine Head Unit Power Pack Model KTP-445U buried in the frunk. Not sure how I missed it before... I take it that's not stock and the original, original owner of the vehicle had some work done. Anyway, any ideas? I'm going to head back down to the garage and poke around with a multimeter and see what I can find, but I feel like I'm missing something obvious.

I'd check euromotorspeed's website, see what they show for the non- bose 9x7 chassis cars.

Looking at their kit for the base audio 987.1 they have a fuse plug and long red wire (fuse box +12v switched I'd imagine) and long orange wire (break light connection I'd imagine) which means none of the cars have either wire in the harness. Weird, I wonder why the CDR-24 pinouts and the car are different. Might as re-wire the harness I already have that way then. Time to go to napa/autozone and see if I can pick up a fuse insert then run the cables. Thanks!

IIRC, the stock harness does not have both switched and unswitched +12v. I think the CDR24 and CDR30 use CANBUS to signal ON/OFF.

There is a CDR24 pinout diagram here - http://www.planet-9.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=259 . It shows switched 12V going to pin A7, but then the footnote says it is not normally connected.

Did Crutchfield not send you detailed instructions for your car? I'm also installing for a 987.1 and have a PDF attached in an email titled "Shipping and installation details" with rather detailed instructions on which wires to switch around for this harness for my Porsche vehicle.

Huh, didn't notice that I had attachments with my shipping/tracking confirmation until now. Wouldn't have helped anyway, however. The Antenna power connector it tells me to use to turn on the radio either is momentary +12v at start up or non-functional in my car, as even with the ignition on none of the wires get switched 12V. It's possible that whomever installed the Alpine amp in the frunk re-utilized that cable somewhere in the dash and left the end connected to the plug . I figured things out in the end, got the illumination voltage by tapping into the 'night light' on one of my dash vent control wheels and the switched 12v by taking someone else's advice and adding a fuse tap circuit addition in the C6 fuse and running a cable up to the unit. Also wired the microphone in the A-pillar. Left the USB and Aux inputs coiled up and ziptied under the dash since I won't be using them after putting in the Porsche logo bootup screen. Once I fix the annoying issue of the lower right corner protruding about 1/8" (for whatever reason it won't click in, I checked and there's nothing stuck behind it) I'll button everything back up and be pleased with my work. Next up will probably be new speakers as the current ones are sounding a little underwhelming and I do a lot of sitting in L.A. traffic. Why can't people drive faster? I want to hear my engine purr.

I see, I managed to use the Crutchfield documentation along with the pinout in my new receiver ( Sony XAV 100) manual to get everything connected and crimped. I'll install it this weekend and will update if everything goes well. BTW what are the CAN bus cables for? Showing the track/station info on the auxiliary display in the middle of the gauges? (Given the pinout I connected, I'm pretty sure this functionality will be lost).

I think the canbus function is twofold, one to connect the radio to the car's computer, which pulls info from the radio and displays it in the guage cluster (I'll just set mine to MPG/Miles left in trip/whatever once I start driving it). The other function lets you pull and display engine information and things on the radio face using the buttons. There's documentation on the CRD-24 hidden commands in a Boxster thread somewhere. I managed to get the face plate off, broke two of the damned restraining tabs off the sides and re-seated my unit. Fits flush now and doesn't wiggle, so I put everything back together. If you're installing a radio this weekend I highly recommend putting a towel over your center console and dash to keep from scuffing anything, and rolling down the windows and draping a towel over the doors so when you slide in upside down to adjust cables and things you don't accidentally kick the door. ...maybe I'm just a bull in a china shop and nobody else experiences these things but hey.

Nope, it's not there... You were right and the Crutchfield instructions were rubbish. On my way to autozone to get a fuse tap.

Can you elaborate on which wire you used for illumination? I was looking at this diagram View attachment AC Unit Wiring Diagram.pdf and thought the BLK/BLU wire on connector D9 (labeled "Term 15") was the right cable for this, however my multi-meter measurements beg to differ. Also, after more careful examination it seems "Hot w/Term 15 relay energized" means when the car turns on. Since Fuse C5 & C6 also have the same annotation. This other diagram View attachment Illumination Diagram.pdf , however shows an illum cable going to the door lock switch and the dash console switch assembly. Maybe I'll tap from there.

When you turn on the headlights various bits in the car start to glow. Inside the hole where the radio slides in you'll see two, two-wire plugs mounted to the back, one on either side. Those lead to the air vents and their light. Disconnect one and a vent won't light up. Test this first. I cut a wire (the one that's not brown, since brown tends to be ground in the Cayman ) and soldered in a wire to it with a small connector so I could unplug it and pull the unit if needed. Worked perfectly.

Don't know how to edit on mobile, but I'd add that the plugs are mounted vertically. I resoldered the original wire together with a short extension after tapping it so the light would continue to work.

I avoid cutting/splicing/soldering these types of connections. Especially in a closed space where it is awkward to work. I use something like this instead: t-tap These are removable with little or no trace - just some small marks on the insulation which can be re-sealed with tape or silicone if it needs to be weatherproof..

The space was ample for me, but part of my job requires soldering in cramped and/or odd locations so it didn't really phase me. I don't like t-taps on anything that vibrates, like a car. The shitty ones tend to shake lose over time.

Alright, thanks for the clarification. I originally thought you meant you'd gotten it from the HVAC control unit under the Head Unit. I was thinking of cutting, peeling and crimping the original 2 ends + the new cable. Thoughts on that?

That's essentially what I did. Take one end of a new wire, cut, trim, splice and solder the three cable ends together, heat shrink to make things safe. It'll be a tight fit, which is why I put in a short extension but should be fine.

Umm, after reading this thread, I think I may forget about trying to remove the OEM radio and install a new head unit. Doesn't anyone make wiring harness adapters?

There are different adapters, most famously the EuroMotorsport kit (which has everything you need) and more "generic" ones like the one I got from Crutchfield . The problem is the installation is not as straightforward as just plugging it in, as some wires are missing or digitally controlled in the stock head unit. Most notably the 12V switched and Illumination wires. The harnesses have a wire for that, but they connect to nothing on the car's side (empty pins). It's actually not very difficult to do once you see what needs to be done.

I just finished my installation with removing the factory Bose setup and went with an aftermarket JL Audio amp. With all the research I did ahead, it was a lot easier than I had anticipated. Did I run into snags? Sure, considering I haven't installed an aftermarket radio since my 1973 Mustang (insanely easy obviously) back in college. It's definitely worth doing... just research and go slow. Mine fired up without issues on the first time. I even learned how to fish wires using a clotheshanger (a must to have dedicated tweeter wires).