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So funny that this old thread was revived. My quirk is not quite the same, but strange nonetheless...I can't turn off the unit! Everything works but I can't power it off. Luckily it turns off when car is turned off. So I just leave it on lowest volume because if I do somehow manage to turn it off, I may not be able to turn it back on again. Probably just a bad switch, but not worth it to try to fix.
Well I'm glad you resurrected this thread. I've been having trouble with my radio since owning my 04 C4S. I really don't want to change out the radio and when it does act out, I just shut it off and listen to my car. Currently my radio plays nw, but it will not accept a CD. Occasionally it would go to the TP mode, now I know whats going on. Thanks
I just cannot resist adding my own $0.02 to this old thread. I have owned my 03 C2 with Bose Sound CDR-23 for seven years and up until a week ago had never had a problem with it. I was aware of the potential problems described in this thread and the purported fixes.
Well, a week ago I disconnected the battery to do some electrical work and left it off for a couple of days. When I had all the work done, I re-connected the battery. Everything that I had done (nothing associated with the sound system) worked perfectly except that the radio now had no sound. It lighted up, said "PORSCHE", showed response to changing from CD to FM, AM, etc. Just no sound.
So, I can honestly say that I searched this forum and all of the others I could find for solutions and tried each and every one with the exception of installing a new HU or amplifier. Not a one of them worked. In the mean time, I continued to drive my car, locking and unlocking it while still trying to get the sound system to work. No luck until today.
I backed the car out of the garage and washed it. No sound. I left the car in the sun for a couple of hours at about 70 degrees and, on a whim, locked it and then unlocked it by remote just before I was about to drive it back into the garage. As I turned the ignition key on, the radio began to blare! Now it again works perfectly.
What is to be learned from my experience? The fact is, I have no idea. This bothers me a lot because I have always respected Porsche for their high quality engineering and that of their suppliers (Becker in his case). This just lacks a logical explanation.
Chalk it up to 13 year old car stereos can be finicky?
Any chance it could be a symptom of your ignition switch starting to go bad? That can cause all sorts of gremlins.
Chalk it up to 13 year old car stereos can be finicky?
Any chance it could be a symptom of your ignition switch starting to go bad? That can cause all sorts of gremlins.
The ignition switch was replaced two years ago. Plus, the HU always powered up and all of the buttons responded, just no sound. Still can't figure it out.
Ok, so here's my story with Porsche, Becker sourced stereo system... From looking at all of the original service invoices, the original owner had nothing but problems with the Becker systems. He ordered the car with "Hifi Digital System" option which I assumes means the CDR23, amp, and higher quality speakers with digital signal I/O via fiber optic cable yadda yadda. Unfortunately for the seller, the system went "Becker silent" when I went to purchase the car. The owner was upfront about the problems and so I offered him a price with the cost for replacement in mind. After many different "rennlist tricks", nothing seemed to work. I looked into having Becker service the unit, but after hearing about their service rates and decided it wasn't worth the money. Instead, I purchased a Blaupunkt system that integrated perfectly and offers more capability such as streaming music from my iPhone (Bluetooth), hands free phone calls, SD ram input, etc. Plus, it has virtually the same type of wiring hook up and so installing the trunk amp (to drive the door sub-woofers) and other speakers was painless. Basically, I downloaded a Porsche wiring schematic and hard-wired the system properly and it worked beautifully without any error codes from the car. It also has a nice clean look over the others such Pioneer, Sony, etc... they look more Spaceshipish if you ask my opinion on it. Cheers!
I went with the Blaupunkt Brisbane 230 back when it was being sold for around $150 - $200 for the main unit and the Blaupunkt amp for the subs. However, Blaupunkt has discontinued the Brisbane (which excepts CDs), but you can still get the non-CD version called the Adelaide 130 for under $100.00. This unit is being heavily discounted because I believe they are going to discontinue it. A lot of people are doing the double DIN type stereo with Apple CarPlay or Android, but they're expensive. The Blaupunkt New York 940 with Android goes for $650.00. Cheers!
My money is on the ignition switch not powering up the amp.
OK, but why would the HU be completely powered on and absolutely no sound. Even if the amplifier was not powered, would not there be some reduced amplified sound to some of the speakers? Or at least some noise/static?
Also, the ignition switch was replaced less than 1 1/2 years ago.
Here's the way the Blaupunkt looks installed. It comes with a white display and it's relatively easy to add an amber filter to match the other displays. As I said before, the other stereo manufacturers tend to think the more the display and buttons resemble a space ship control console, the better, but I prefer a cleaner look. Performance is the top priority for me and it boiled down to either Blaupunkt or Alpine. But I must admit, I really wanted the OEM Becker system to work, but the more I looked into it, the more I realized the Porsche/Becker digital systems like the CDR23 are not reliable and expensive to repair; plus, they don't have some of the more modern features like Bluetooth for phone support and Streaming music. Hope this helps. Cheers!
GelberPfeil - OK, but why would the HU be completely powered on and absolutely no sound. Even if the amplifier was not powered, would not there be some reduced amplified sound to some of the speakers? Or at least some noise/static?
Also, the ignition switch was replaced less than 1 1/2 years ago.
I don't have a CDR23 in my car and in reading about them it is certainly possible it is the head unit. With radios I have worked on you use a different plug if you have an external amp so the speakers are attached to the amp not the HU and if the amp is faulty you may get reduced sound/channels out etc. but if it is off you should get no sound. The reason I'm betting on the ignition switch is that "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, problem comes and goes" is pretty typical of ignition switch problems. There are lots of reports of ignition switches failing again in only a few months to a year or so. There are probably many that have never failed again, or even once but it is a common failure component that can cause all sorts of strange intermittent electrical problems.
It could also be a frayed wire, partially cut or damaged insulation, all sorts of possibilities. It may be worth wiggling the wires around near the amp and battery to see if you can recreate the issue.
Mine (in the C2) went silent a few months ago. Powered up, looked ok, but no sound. I got to work, wondering what this was going to cost. When I got in and powered up to drive home, we had volume, lots and lots of volume. Go figure.
As noted above, my ***** are sticky, too. Anybody have a fix for that?
The GT3 has the same sound system, but unless you crank it all the way up you really can't hear squat over the Mezger yelling "I vant to eat chu" at every Miata we pass.
09-04-2015, 11:56 PM
