Aftermarket Headunit Install Questions

Looking to install a pioneer headunit in my 987.2 Cayman (bass everything in regards to audio) so I can upgrade to CarPlay and what not. My question is how does everyone mount the gps antennas and microphone units that come with the aftermarket unit? I damn sure don’t want anything mounted on the outside of the car, and I’d like everything else to be hidden as much as possible. Thanks in advance.

The GPS antenna can be mounted under the black plastic cowling near the wiper motors or behind the battery. Just find something metal for the magnet to cling. You run the cable through one of the rubber plugs in the firewall. I drilled a hole for the cable then sealed it with silicone. Mic I ran around the under the dash then up and around windshield plastic trim up to the Homelink switch opening in the headliner. The Homelink switch holds it in place hold. Not pretty but it was the best location I found to avoid wind-noise and in the vicinity of my head.

Thanks, did you try just leaving the gps unit behind the head unit to save from routing cables all over? Curious how much this will impact the overall gps signal. I was surprised that CarPlay doesn’t just get all this from your phone to begin with.

I'll 2nd the recommendation to put it under the cowl. The factory GPS antenna is mounted there if you had factory GPS (apparently my car did.. ) The cowl can be easily removed - there are two plastic covers at about 10" in from each end. If you pull those covers there are some nuts holding things down. MAKE NOTE OF HOW THE NUTS on the PORT (Drivers side - US) are assembled. They allow movement with temperature changes. If you assemble it wrong you'll have issues. Anyway - first remove the wiper arms. Pop the covers off, remove the nuts holding the arms on and rock them a bit - they should pop off pretty easily. Remove the plastic covers from the ends of the cowl - and remove the retaining nuts/washers and sleeve. Open Frunk. Remove cover over battery. There are either two nuts or two plastic rivets holding some legs in place to the body of the car. The legs come off the front/bottom of the cowl. Remove them. Lift cowl up. You want a spot to mount it where the wiper mechanism won't hit it, and where it has just plastic above it. The factory antenna (and the one I added) are mounted on the STARBOARD (right side, passenger in US) side. There is an aluminum frame there - the antenna has room to mount on that frame. If your antenna is magnetic - it came with a steel plate with self-adhesive on the back. Cut out a square of the metal plate big enough for the antenna, and stick it on the aluminum plate, then stick the antenna on the steel plate - the magnet will hold it there. There are two rubber grommets going through the firewall. I used the one on the drivers side to run the GPS cable through. A small hole will work fine and seal around the cable. It comes out up near the pedal assembly mounting, and you can then run it over to the back of the head-unit. Reassembly is the reverse.. Good luck! If you also have Sirius/XM - that antenna could also go under the cowl, next to the GPS antenna.

It was 10 yrs ago, but I don't remember having to remove much on my Cayman. Just enough of the plastic trim to get access to the firewall plugs/grommets. IIRC, there were several candidates, I chose one easiest to reach from inside the footwell. I didn't need to remove any of the wipers or cowling. Just reach under and place the magnetic antenna on something flat pointing upwards. Good tip about avoiding the wiper mechanism and motors. I once had a problem receiving satellite data (after years with no issues) and was about to replace the antenna when I noticed it somehow got knocked over by the wiper lever.

I just finished installing the DMH-W4660NEX in my 2006 Boxster . Install went pretty smoothly and I put the GPS antenna in the front trunk as described above. Let me know if you have any problems. I have two unresolved issues that maybe you will encounter and solve: For the life of me I can't get the firmware to update using CarAVAssit app. The instructions are super sketchy and seem to involve connecting by bluetooth then WiFi but nothing I do seems to work. Second when using navigation with CarPlay , the voice directions are very low and muffled even with volume to max. Same thing with phone calls.It almost sounds like audio signal is only be routed to the bass speakers but that wouldn't make sense.

Nice, that’s convenient you used the same headunit I’m planning on using. Where’d you end up mounting the mic and how were you able to hide the wires? If you havent already tried, try adjusting the volume on the headunit when a gps direction is playing, sometimes the headunits have a separate volume setting for gps /phone, etc

The following web links have some good advice and photos for mounting the GPS antenna and microphone. I did mine the same way. - 997, Boxster, & Cayman Radio Installation – Car Audio Innovations - Satellite Antenna Mount Instructions – Car Audio Innovations -Joe

Those two threads are great. Wish I'd seen them before I installed my system. I had to figure that out by myself..

In case anyone is doing this upgrade in the future, the American international 911B kit linked above did work to fit the pioneer headunit. Also, I did not hook up the VSS/speed sensor wire and I don’t believe there are any issues with this (none noticed so far). I don’t think the pioneer 4660 has any speed dependent volume settings, so I don’t think you’re missing out on anything by not hooking it up. I had some confusion regarding which white/brown wire to hook up to and on which side of the front trunk, so I decided not to risk it and leave that wire alone. I also did not ground the parking brake wire and the VSS wire, everything seems to be fine so far. My left (driver side in US) speaker seems to possibly cut out at certain points or not play certain frequencies (low, bass notes) but this seems like it’s more related to when the car is turning on/off or if I have the engine off listening to music. There is no static, the sound just drops out randomly. I’m guessing this is related to the power/antenna wire somehow, or maybe I didn’t hook up the speaker in the driver door correctly. It also seems like it has only done it for a short time after I’ve disconnected and reconnected the battery (Maybe it’s some type of radio calibration?). If anyone has any comments on this I’d appreciate it.

If the speaker is cutting out intermittently, chances are it's in the wiring between the unit and the speaker. I'd check your connections. It's not related to the power or antenna wiring, and there is no calibration that would randomly kill one speaker. Eilenberger's Law of Troubleshooting - Look where you last worked.