ProjectBoxster3 | projectboxster

Upgrading my Boxster's audio was my big project for the cold months beginning 2018. It's unlikely that I would have undertaken this project had my car come with a proper OEM Becker head unit instead of the very aftermarket looking Pioneer unit that clearly didn't look as if it belonged. Of course, I could have found and installed an OEM unit but that seemed like it would be a step backward. Instead, I chose to install a double-din touch screen Android head unit with a display that can be customized to appear OEM-ish.

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This is the Pioneer head unit that came with the car. It worked OK but looked too fast and furious for me. Note that the storage bin above it didn't fit properly. Whoever installed this clearly didn't know what they were doing!

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While removing the Pioneer it became apparent that another aftermarket head unit had been installed after the OEM Becker and before the Pioneer. The opening in the dash for the head unit had been modified suggesting that the previous unit was a double-din.

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With the Pioneer removed from the dash I discovered wires for the previous aftermarket head unit's microphone, digital antenna, and i-phone connections had just been cut off and left in place.

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Beneath the Pioneer's mounting cage I found the connector that should have been plugged into the intermittent windshield wiper control. Yet another example of a poor installation.

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This is the central vent frame removed from the car sitting on the bench. The Metra brand double din installation kit attached directly to this frame.

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The double din mount test fit inside the frame. Looks and fits like it belongs. High praise for any after market part!

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There were lots of options but I finally chose this Xtrons brand head unit. It runs Android 7.1 so the interface is easy to customize plus it doesn't have any logos on it's face to make it obvious that it isn't OEM.

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The Xtrons on the bench in my basement connected to a lawn mower battery. This way I was able to stay warm while installing apps and replacing this very aftermarket looking launcher and home screen that came pre-installed.

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The Metra double din mount had a small lip on the inside of the opening that needed to be removed for the Xtrons to fit properly. Careful work with saw, rasp and file allowed me to make the necessary modifications.

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Everything together and ready to go back in the car. Note the simple "Boxster S" background I make in Photoshop.

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The audio upgrade project also involved installing speakers in the storage bins behind the seat's headrests. This is the storage unit removed from the car and sitting upside down on the bench.

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I could have bought OEM speaker grills but I decided to make my own instead. That involved fabricating frames (shown), covering them with grill cloth, and installing them behind the existing bin openings.

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Sure, these aren't OEM but they look and work just as well plus I had the fun of making them!

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This shows the storage bin with OEM speakers installed. (thanks Dave!) Running the wires from the speakers to the back of the head unit may have been the hardest part.

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The storage unit with speakers installed. I'm well pleased with the way it looks and sounds!

Installing the new head unit in the car presented new challenges. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the Xtron's power connector plugged right into the Boxster's with minimal fuss and without the use of an adaptor. The original plan was to remove the aftermarket Alpine amp that came with the car and plug the car's speaker connectors directly to the Xtron's amp but, try as I might, I couldn't find the speaker connector!

Well, there's your problem! Apparently one of the previous aftermarket installers cut out the OEM speaker connectors and spliced in the speaker outputs from the Alpine amp. Knowing that, I decided to keep the Alpine amp. .	The Alpine amp in the frunk. It was simple to connect it to the new head unit with the RCA cables that were already in place. This amp drives the front speakers on top of the dash and the "subwoofers" in the doors while the Xtron's internal amp drives the new rear shelf speakers.	The GPS antenna needed to be in place before I could install the Xtrons. I spent lots of time trying to decide how it could be installed without looking out of place.
Much to my surprise the small puck GPS antenna fit neatly under the alarm sensor cover without modification,	Installed in the car. This is -SO- much better than the poorly installed Pioneer it replaced!	When testing the Xtrons after installing it I discovered that the drivers side door speaker (shown here removed from the car) didn't work so I tore the door apart and replaced it.
the Xtrons has three USB inputs, one of which I installed in place of the worthless (to me) coin holder in the bin between the seats.	This is exactly what I was trying for. Clean and simple, looking like it could be stock but with technology that's fifteen years newer.

Here are a few screen shots to show some of the software. I'll be quick to admit the current configuration isn't perfect but the great thing about the Xtrons running Android is that it can be customized to my taste. It does appear that I'm stuck with the included radio tuner and CD player apps but everything else can be considered a work in progress!

As you may well expect, the head unit had a Xtrons logo as it's pre-installed Android load screen. Fortunately they made it easy to change to this animated Porsche crest.	The included radio tuner is ok. One may have hoped that it would show more info than just the station's frequency but it works just fine.	It would seem reasonable to expect that the CD player would display things like artist & song names and cover art but the included app only shows track number.
Although it's not perfect, Black Player feels like a big upgrade from the included app.	I didn't like the included MP3 player app so I went to the play store to research my other options ultimately choosing to use "Black Player" in it's place.	Torque in another app from the play store. It connects via Bluetooth to a transmitter plugged into the OBD II port allowing the app to check for fault codes as well as monitor the car's data.
This alone makes it worth installing the new head unit. It tells me how fast I'm really going without needing to rely on the instrument panels notoriously inaccurate speedometer!	Google Maps didn't work very well for me in it's off line mode so I'm giving Maps ME a try.

A part of the "B" on the rear trunk's Boxster badge was broken when I bought the car, most likely by someone washing or waxing it a little too vigorously. Not a big deal really but it still bothered me every time I saw it. Researching my car's history revealed that it was originally delivered with the "498 Delete Model Designation" option so I thought I'd try removing it completely to see if I'd like it.

The broken "B" would draw my eye like a magnet every time I glanced in it's direction.	I used dental floss to cut through the adhesive between the badge and the car. This trick worked very well slicing the adhesive without damage to the car or the logo.	With the badge removed the next step was removing the remaining adhesive residue. Note all the dirt and wax that had built up under the badge's edges.
Even before all the residue had been cleaned away I came to the conclusion that it just looked wrong without the logo!	Repairing the old logo seemed like more fun than just buying a replacement so I reinforced the broken area with a bit if wire melted into the plastic, filled the crack with epoxy putty, and then smoothed and painted it.	The hard part was cutting the double sided emblem adhesive tape to fit the shallow recess on the logo's back side. I used a rubbing of the logo's back side as a cutting guide.
I chose to paint the "Boxster" logo flat black and kept the "S" it's original titanium color for a bit of contrast.

Another minor flaw that annoyed me was the trim around the top and sides of the windshield. Instead of being a strip of shiny silver my car's trim was more of a dull grey/tan with some small black cracks in the finish as well. Replacing the trim seemed like a quick and easy, instant gratification kind of project. What could go wrong??

This is the "before" picture. Most of the trim piece was just dull but this section was cracked.	This is the new windshield trim newly arrived. I thought I'd spend a pleasant half-hour installing it.	I had checked to be sure the old trim on the sides of the windshield could be easily removed before ordering the new part so it was no surprise that it came right off.
When I got to the top of the window the gentle tug that I expected to remove the old trim instead broke it off.	The broken off bit next to the new trim.	Yep, the other side broke off too. Hours of effort using any mon-marring prying tool I could find (such as the strip of wood in the photo) made no progress.

About this time I stopped taking photos and started worrying. The point of no return had long since passed and I was beginning to think that the only way to remove the old trim was to remove the windshield, a step that I did NOT want to take. After walking away for a while and giving it some thought I tried heating the trim with a hair dryer. That softened the good German adhesive just enough that I was able to pull out the old trim with a hemostat, millimeter by laborious millimeter. Installation is the reverse of removal, of course, so the hair dryer was needed to install the new trim. Even with the adhesive warm it was very difficult press the trim onto the edge of the windshield with enough force to get it to seat properly. The new trim was finally pressed into place using shallow wooden wedges. All's well what ends well I guess and the new trim does look much better than the old. That being said, instead of the feeling of accomplishment that I normally get after completing a project this time it's more of a feeling of relief that I didn't cause permanent damage. If I had it to do again I'd just paint the old trim and be done with it...

The old trim finally removed. I wasn't able to clean away the line etched on the windshield where the edge of the trim had been.	It turned out that the etched line helped ne to determine if the new trim was fully seated.	With the new trim fully seated around the top and sides of the windshield it's time to remove the plastic spacer strip.
Unlike the shiny "titanium" trim the original rubber gasket was in good shape so it was cleaned and reinstalled by inserting it into the channel that the spacer had kept open.	The new trim in place looking shiny and new. What an ordeal it was to make it look this way!

The windows in the Boxster's doors are intended tp open about a half inch when the door's latch is pulled to allow the door to open without interference from the convertible top's frame. The driver's side window stopped doing this and the window was starting catch on the top's frame when opening the door. Research suggested this was caused by a worn out window regulator so replacing it became my next project.

Ready to start. I'd taken the door apart when replacing the speaker so I knew what to expect. Note the tape on the window to help align the new regulator.	The door panel is held in place by a bunch of various fasteners, all off now except those holding the door pull. Once that was removed the panel popped right off.	Removing the door panel reveals the yellow air bag and the door's inner liner. Care and patience are needed to unstick the liner so that it's bottom can be folded up and out of the way.
More blue tape to mark the window's placement in the regulator's mounting clamps.	With the window out of the car I was able to start removing the old regulator.	I used a sharpie to mark the placement of the regulator where it attaches to the door bottom. When the door was apart before I tried the "zip tie fix" in a attempt to tighten the regulator's cable but that didn't work well for me.
Remove window, check. Window motor disconnected and removed, check. With everything out of the way getting the old regulator out (and the new one back in for that matter) was a snap.	Comparing the old to the new. It appears that the old cable had stretched more than I expected. No wonder it didn't work!	Attaching the motor to the new regulator when reassembling the door. Adjusting the window was a bit of a trick but it's all back together and working fine now.

Another little thing that had been bothering me since I bought the Boxster was it's climate control display. The control worked properly but there was an irregular yellow line across the display's bottom that was visible even when the car was turned off. A little research found that replacement LCD's were available from 914Rubber.com so I ordered one with the expectation that I would install it when the car was off the road for the winter but decided to replace it sooner when a section of the temperature display stopped working.

This is the "before" picture. Note the yellow bit on the bottom and the missing section of the "7" on the numeric display.	It was fairly easy to remove the climate control module from the car.	Once the module was out of the car and on the bench I dissembled it so that I could access the damaged screen.
The glass LCD sits in a metal frame immediately behind the module's face. To my surprise the bottom edge of the display was sitting in a puddle of a liquid that appeared to be Armor All or some such!	The dissembled components. The excellent directions that came with the new LCD made this a very straight forward project.	The new LCD along with it's zebra connectors just waiting to be installed.
Installing the new LED was no more difficult that it was to remove the old one. This was a fun project and it looks much better now.	The working part of the LCD is sandwiched between two layers of glass. There was evidence that the Armor All had wicked up between the glass layers so perhaps that's what caused the display to go bad.

Back

Well, there's your problem! Apparently one of the previous aftermarket installers cut out the OEM speaker connectors and spliced in the speaker outputs from the Alpine amp. Knowing that, I decided to keep the Alpine amp. .

The Alpine amp in the frunk. It was simple to connect it to the new head unit with the RCA cables that were already in place. This amp drives the front speakers on top of the dash and the "subwoofers" in the doors while the Xtron's internal amp drives the new rear shelf speakers.

The GPS antenna needed to be in place before I could install the Xtrons. I spent lots of time trying to decide how it could be installed without looking out of place.

Much to my surprise the small puck GPS antenna fit neatly under the alarm sensor cover without modification,

Installed in the car. This is -SO- much better than the poorly installed Pioneer it replaced!

When testing the Xtrons after installing it I discovered that the drivers side door speaker (shown here removed from the car) didn't work so I tore the door apart and replaced it.

the Xtrons has three USB inputs, one of which I installed in place of the worthless (to me) coin holder in the bin between the seats.

This is exactly what I was trying for. Clean and simple, looking like it could be stock but with technology that's fifteen years newer.

As you may well expect, the head unit had a Xtrons logo as it's pre-installed Android load screen. Fortunately they made it easy to change to this animated Porsche crest.

The included radio tuner is ok. One may have hoped that it would show more info than just the station's frequency but it works just fine.

It would seem reasonable to expect that the CD player would display things like artist & song names and cover art but the included app only shows track number.

Although it's not perfect, Black Player feels like a big upgrade from the included app.

I didn't like the included MP3 player app so I went to the play store to research my other options ultimately choosing to use "Black Player" in it's place.

Torque in another app from the play store. It connects via Bluetooth to a transmitter plugged into the OBD II port allowing the app to check for fault codes as well as monitor the car's data.

This alone makes it worth installing the new head unit. It tells me how fast I'm really going without needing to rely on the instrument panels notoriously inaccurate speedometer!

Google Maps didn't work very well for me in it's off line mode so I'm giving Maps ME a try.

The broken "B" would draw my eye like a magnet every time I glanced in it's direction.

I used dental floss to cut through the adhesive between the badge and the car. This trick worked very well slicing the adhesive without damage to the car or the logo.

With the badge removed the next step was removing the remaining adhesive residue. Note all the dirt and wax that had built up under the badge's edges.

Even before all the residue had been cleaned away I came to the conclusion that it just looked wrong without the logo!

Repairing the old logo seemed like more fun than just buying a replacement so I reinforced the broken area with a bit if wire melted into the plastic, filled the crack with epoxy putty, and then smoothed and painted it.

The hard part was cutting the double sided emblem adhesive tape to fit the shallow recess on the logo's back side. I used a rubbing of the logo's back side as a cutting guide.

I chose to paint the "Boxster" logo flat black and kept the "S" it's original titanium color for a bit of contrast.

This is the "before" picture. Most of the trim piece was just dull but this section was cracked.

This is the new windshield trim newly arrived. I thought I'd spend a pleasant half-hour installing it.

I had checked to be sure the old trim on the sides of the windshield could be easily removed before ordering the new part so it was no surprise that it came right off.

When I got to the top of the window the gentle tug that I expected to remove the old trim instead broke it off.

The broken off bit next to the new trim.

Yep, the other side broke off too. Hours of effort using any mon-marring prying tool I could find (such as the strip of wood in the photo) made no progress.

The old trim finally removed. I wasn't able to clean away the line etched on the windshield where the edge of the trim had been.

It turned out that the etched line helped ne to determine if the new trim was fully seated.

With the new trim fully seated around the top and sides of the windshield it's time to remove the plastic spacer strip.

Unlike the shiny "titanium" trim the original rubber gasket was in good shape so it was cleaned and reinstalled by inserting it into the channel that the spacer had kept open.

The new trim in place looking shiny and new. What an ordeal it was to make it look this way!

Ready to start. I'd taken the door apart when replacing the speaker so I knew what to expect. Note the tape on the window to help align the new regulator.

The door panel is held in place by a bunch of various fasteners, all off now except those holding the door pull. Once that was removed the panel popped right off.

Removing the door panel reveals the yellow air bag and the door's inner liner. Care and patience are needed to unstick the liner so that it's bottom can be folded up and out of the way.

More blue tape to mark the window's placement in the regulator's mounting clamps.

With the window out of the car I was able to start removing the old regulator.

I used a sharpie to mark the placement of the regulator where it attaches to the door bottom. When the door was apart before I tried the "zip tie fix" in a attempt to tighten the regulator's cable but that didn't work well for me.

Remove window, check. Window motor disconnected and removed, check. With everything out of the way getting the old regulator out (and the new one back in for that matter) was a snap.

Comparing the old to the new. It appears that the old cable had stretched more than I expected. No wonder it didn't work!

Attaching the motor to the new regulator when reassembling the door. Adjusting the window was a bit of a trick but it's all back together and working fine now.

This is the "before" picture. Note the yellow bit on the bottom and the missing section of the "7" on the numeric display.

It was fairly easy to remove the climate control module from the car.

Once the module was out of the car and on the bench I dissembled it so that I could access the damaged screen.

The glass LCD sits in a metal frame immediately behind the module's face. To my surprise the bottom edge of the display was sitting in a puddle of a liquid that appeared to be Armor All or some such!

The dissembled components. The excellent directions that came with the new LCD made this a very straight forward project.

The new LCD along with it's zebra connectors just waiting to be installed.

Installing the new LED was no more difficult that it was to remove the old one. This was a fun project and it looks much better now.

The working part of the LCD is sandwiched between two layers of glass. There was evidence that the Armor All had wicked up between the glass layers so perhaps that's what caused the display to go bad.