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This DIY is for replacing the Bose amp with the same in case yours fails. "Audiophile" consensus is that the Bose amp sound quality is trash, but the sound is good enough for me, particularly listening to streaming music in an otherwise noisy car.
Background:
-One of the first mods I made on my car nearly 10 years ago was to replace the Porsche PCM with a modern double DIN replacement, using the MOST-HUR kit sold by Loi at euromotorspeed (ebay). Worth every penny. Awesome customer service.
-About a year or two later I would have occasional times where the only sound output was from the subwoofer and the regular speakers wouldn't work. Always fixed by turning off the car and restarting.
-More recently this progressed so that whenever the temp was less than 80F when starting the car (only a few months out of the year in Miami), a terrible ear-splitting "white noise" would come out of the speakers on startup and then only the subwoofer would work. Again, fixed by a restart but only when the car had been running for about a minute or so.
-Whenever this happened my head unit otherwise appeared to be working just fine, so i figured it probably had to do with the amp. I made sure all the connections on the amp itself were snug, but this didn't help.
-A quick ebay search the other day revealed that a used "PORSCHE 911 997 987 BOXSTER CAYMAN FACTORY BOSE AMP AMPLIFIER 99764533422" was only about $140 shipped on Ebay. Figured why not. LA dismantler had it across the country and at my door 2 business days after ordering.
-Swapped it out tonight in less than 5 minutes.....so far the problem seems to have gone away. Fingers crossed.
How to:
1. Unplug negative battery terminal.
2. Remove cover at the bottom of frunk that hols the toolkit, air compressor, tire goo, and cookie crumbs to reveal the amp.
3. The right side of the amp has three wiring harnesses attached to it. To remove the long one, pull down on the tab circled in red first. The other two are behind the long one.
4. Once the wires are off, then pull off the metal clip (red circle) securing the amp on the right hand side, and the amp will then just slide out of it's rear backing plate.
5. Installation is the reverse of removal.
6. Whenever you've had the battery disconnected for a bit, the car will read "PSM failure" on startup. Not to worry, it will go away after less than a minute of driving.
Hope this helps someone out there. If I knew how cheap (in Porsche terms) and easy it was, I would have done it ages ago.
Thanks for this post, I know it's a bit old, but i'm having the exact same ear splitting white noise / crackling (at high volume) upon startup in colder temperatures in my bose equipped 997.1. I wonder if there's an upgrade that doens't cost an arm and a leg while you're in there, or if just replacing it with an OEM unit is the best bang for the buck route. I've got a sony ax3000 and factory subwoofer that sounds wonderful, though the startup noise is going to make me pull my hair out anyday now.
I was looking for better audio quality so I eventually ditched the Bose amp and went with a Hertz Amp from Car Audio Innovations. They have many solutions for that era 911/boxster/cayman. It came with a bracket, wiring and detailed instructions and took a few hours to install DIY if you're handy with car audio. I can't say enough good things about the customer service from Rod the owner.
That being said the price difference between that and a used Bose amp is significant.
I was looking for better audio quality so I eventually ditched the Bose amp and went with a Hertz Amp from Car Audio Innovations. They have many solutions for that era 911/boxster/cayman. It came with a bracket, wiring and detailed instructions and took a few hours to install DIY if you're handy with car audio. I can't say enough good things about the customer service from Rod the owner.
That being said the price difference between that and a used Bose amp is significant.
Thanks for the heads up, looks like like $1200 vs a used replacement is a few hundred.
I fixed mine by pulling the amp apart and replacing the eight 2200uF@25VDC caps as well as refreshing the thermal conduction paste. Easy and cheap if you have experience replacing parts on multi layer PCBs.
I fixed mine by pulling the amp apart and replacing the eight 2200uF@25VDC caps as well as refreshing the thermal conduction paste. Easy and cheap if you have experience replacing parts on multi layer PCBs.
I have experience with re-capping electronics and the thermal paste. I think I will try this first. prolly cost a few dollars - if that. Thanks.
Although I threw out the past I had for my last receiver recap, during my last move thinking I would never need it again. Ha.
I fixed mine by pulling the amp apart and replacing the eight 2200uF@25VDC caps as well as refreshing the thermal conduction paste. Easy and cheap if you have experience replacing parts on multi layer PCBs.
I replaced just the eight caps and refreshed the thermal paste. Had to cut the hot melt glue off the old caps before heating the legs to remove them. Couldn't solder suck all the holes so had to heat some of the PCB pads as I inserted the caps.
This is awesome. BHM let us know how it works for you if you try it out.
I would have given it a shot if I had known, BUT, I have to say the new amp sounds (subjectively) so much better.
11-30-2020, 11:40 PM
997.1 Bose Amp removal and replacement DIY. EASY
