I'm attempting to swap out my OEM Navigation unit with a pioneer f900bt and have run into a few problems.

So here is where I am....

- removed the original Navigation unit
- picked up a Metra 1787 harness and connected that to the new unit
- connected the new unit to the factory harness

Figured I would be good to go....but the speakers would not work. Figured the problem was related to the wiring to the amp (Harmon MP680) so I checked these wires to the 996 wiring diagram that I found online. These seemed to be correct...

Now the only wires that were in the OEM nav that were not connected to the new unit are the Black and Blue connectors that connect to the bottom of the OEM unit (I believe they are the CAN connectors). So to test I plugged these into the OEM unit (but did not connect the other connectors that I have connected to the metra harness). I still have the new unit connected to the metra harness at this point. So I have both units hooked up. Oddly enough, when I did this the speakers work and I was getting sound from the NEW unit to the speakers.

So it seems that something in the lower connectors (black and blue, CAN...i think...) is allowing the amp to power the speakers. If I then disconnect the OEM unit the sound goes out and I'm back where I started...

Has anyone run into this before or have any ideas what I should do?

also...the car is a 2001 996tt

thanks for any help!!

 

I thought 2001 was copper...

Had a shop do my 2002...stock speakers worked fine. Used an AVIC D3's native amp...no issues.

2002 was copper wire..so I am 99.999999% sure you are too. If 2001.

 

I had the same problem - the only thing I could think of was that it may have something to do with the security (anti-theft)features of the nav and head unit. I ended up replacing the amp as well.

 

What amp did you go with? another 6-channel? and did you mount it in the same location?

I'd really prefer not to hack up the factory wiring harnesses...I'm thinking if I replaced the amp I would only really need to run RCAs from the head unit to the amp and then splice into the factory wiring at the original amp for power and the speaker outputs. Is this what you did?

 

I used a JL Audio 6 channel amp, but it is a fair bit larger than the original, so I mounted it on a board in the bottom of the trunk. No need to splice into the wiring harness. For power, you connect directly to the battery. The RCA outs on the Head unit, together with the "amp on" wire will feed directly out through a grommet just underneath the steering wheel. To use the factory speakers and speaker wires, I used the connector off the amp. It has female connections for the speakers, and I simply soldered pins onto the end of six short lengths of speaker wire to run from the amp to the connector. These pins fit into the female ends of the connector. Nice and neat.