adamo

Hi all, new 911 owner, need some help here please..

I recently picked up an Alpine iLX-W650 and all of the associated gear (or so I think) required for the install- brought it to a local shop for installation, as I'm not too comfortable with the 911 yet, and didn't want to bugger anything up.

I have the Alpine head unit, and the Seicane MOST fiber optic adapter, so I can keep the Bose amp and the speakers. Never had an issue with the sound quality or volume, but wanted to get rid of the Flintstone era NAV, and add things like Bluetooth, Android Auto, etc.

Everything installed, system looks and sounds great- but the dash lit up like a Christmas tree as I was driving out. Also, no brake lights. Had the shop check and recheck all wiring, everything appears to be ok.
Did a bunch of reading on here and the Pelican Parts forum, and swapped out what seemed to be the likely culprit, the brake light switch. No change. Possible I got a bum switch from the dealer?

The shop that did the install is telling me that there should be something in the chain that communicates with the CANBUS system, and that's most likely what's causing the error- they're trying to sell me the NavTV unit, which isn't something else I want to add.

Anyone else have similar issues after replacing a head unit with one of the inexpensive MOST boxes?

Petza914

You have disturbed something in the canbus network with the stereo install. It can be anything in the chain from the DME to the audio system or the adapter you're using isn't actually canbus compatible even though it's sending the proper signals from the new head unit to the Bose amp.

For an example of the crazy stiff that can happen with a canbus fault, check out this video of my wife's car


Turned out to be a bad 3-axis accelerometer that was part of a TPC DSC controller that was internally shorting and connected to the DME.

adamo

^^ Thank you for that - I have done a bunch more reading, and purchased yet another brake light switch (still no bueno).
Looks like the adapter that I'm using may not be CANBUS compatible- are they any modules that are solely the CANBUS component? The digital optical portion of the kit appears to work just fine.

Petza914

I think the only way to find the cause for sure is to have take the stereo adapter out of the fiber optic canbus network and see if the problem goes away. If so, you'll need to do some research on other adapters used to keep the hose amp and speakers that worked successfully (I think the NavTV one you mention is one) or decide to use a conventional amp and upgrade the speakers so none of the sound system is on the canbus.

adamo

I'm chatting with the shop to figure this out now. If I replace the amp, that should negate the need for the MOST box. Would I have to replace the speakers though? I believe they're standard 2Ohm driver units.
The speakers sound perfectly fine to me, I just think it'd be nice to have working brake lights.

Petza914

Speakers should be OK except they're kind of matched to the Bose amp. I don't really like OEM Bose stuff and if you're getting a different amp you can get a really good one that can drive much better speakers than the Bose ones.

Thinking about this further, how long did the shop have the car and did this problem start immediately afterwards? Did the disconnect the battery when doing the install? Its possible they severely discharged your battery during the install by having the doors open, etc and I'd they discharged it far enough where the car wouldn't start, that they jump started it with a booster battery. So the 2bscenarious here is that your battery is either low or damaged and not supply g a clean 12+ volts to the electrical system (the PSM warning comes on when you disconnect or lose voltage from the battery) or that if they jump started it they damaged the battery or a module in the car.

Start by disconnecting the battery and fully charging it disconnected. DON'T LATCH THE FRUNK OUT OF HABIT!

Then when it's fully charged, reconnect it and drive the car to clear the PSM and other normal errors (if they will) and see if you still have the same issue. You might find that the disconnect and reconnect once supplying strong, proper voltage might resolve the issues.

If not, move onto the canbus issue.

adamo

Thanks for the replies- really do appreciate your time!

The car was in the shop for less than two hours, and the dash lit up as I drove out of the shop. I was waiting for it, and watching them work.
I don't believe they disconnected the battery during the installation, and there was no hesitation when I started the car, so didn't think it would be a voltage issue. As a means to diagnose and clear faults, we disconnected the battery, waited a good 15 minutes, then reconnected and drove away. The faults didn't come on right away, but appeared within about ten minutes. No brakes lights at all during this time.

I do have the car going in for an oil change Friday morning, so will have them run an AVR test on the battery/electrical system.

Petza914

OK, sounds like it's probably a canbus issue then, but I had the windows tinted in my Cayenne that took about that same amount of time and it depleted the battery far enough where it wouldn't start, and after that, the battery would never reach a full charge again and I had to replace it. At the auto parts stores it would load test fine, but using my Optima battery charger I knew it wasn't healthy because the charging amperage would never reduce down to below 1 amp and shoe the battery charged beyond 75% which it always does when charging a good battery, so I don't believe the results from the testers they use. If your battery is 3 years old or more, you might want to replace it anyway. If you do, fully charge it on a bench before installation. Porsches are very sensitive to proper battery voltage.

adamo

I will check the battery really closely, thank you!

adamo

Those of you that have used the inexpensive Seicane (or similar) fiber optic adapters, what are you connecting the CAN HI and CAN LO connnectors to, from the car's wiring harness?

vern1

I ordered the harness with the MOST adapter from Crutchfield. Works fine. Didnt have to connect the HI/LO separately as it was part of the harness so cant help you there

No need the spend some crazy amount of $$$ on the NAVTV one

shyamvenky

I've the Seicane module that I briefly used on my car before switching to one supplied by Connects2 (my guess is that they're both the same, at least going by the prices).
I've had no issues so far, and I also have retained steering wheel controls using the module Connects2 which also operates using the CanBus protocol.
It could be that you got a bad example of the MOST module.. I too think it's not worth the extra money to buy NavTv stuff.

IIRC
Can Hi goes to the yellow/blue from the car's harness
Can Lo goes to the black/blue from the car's harness

NavTv's manual should help point the right pins as well.
https://navtv.com/media/products_fil...nual_rB7_1.pdf

adamo

Thank you, I'll have to take it apart to take a look again.

I'm tempted to put the OEM unit back in just to make sure it's a Canbus issue and not an amazing coincidence that I'm getting the ABS and PSM errors, plus brake light failure all at the same time.

shyamvenky

I've done that sooooooooo many times during my quest to retain steering controls. For about 2 months, I drove the car without the side panels for the center console, of which several days were without even the HU.
And when I finally got all the components working, I was impatient and just crammed all the modules into the cubby and installed the HU (which still projects 1cm out from the cubby , and I'm not messing with it again, unless I change the HU)

adamo

That would push my OCD into overdrive, and I'd be angry about it every time I looked at it.