SpectreH

I purchased a Kenwood DMX8709S HU with Apple CarPlay and had a few questions. I’ve been reading through this forum and it has a vast amount of information but I get lost in it sometimes. My car is a base Carrera, no AUX inputs or Bose. From what I have read, it seems there is an amp. It also seems like the amp and the radio antenna need to be powered on. However, the HU itself only seems to have one wire for powering things on. I do plan to use the RCA outputs so I don’t send amplified outputs to the factory amp. Any advice on how to power the antenna and amp?

Ob917

Normally blue with white is amp power on, use the same for the antenna power. The main reason there was a blue wire is so the old school power antennas would not stay up unless you were listening to am/fm

SpectreH

I wanted to ask another series of questions:
Speaker connections are strait-forward, so no issue there.
I believe I have found information For illumination and parking brake within this forum.

1) Do non-Bose cars have an amp? I see nothing in the trunk, but maybe that was for Bose cars only. Trying to determine where the AMP ON wire from the HU would go. Assuming an amp, I am using the RCA outputs. If no amp, I need to use the HU amplified outputs.
2) It looks like the antenna on is in the big quad lock connector. Based on Ob917’s comment above, I will need to run the AMP and Antenna power off of the HU Ant On wire. Is this a correct assumption?

Thanks for any advice.

Nate R

Base 997.2 stereo definitely has an amp. It is located under passenger seat. Installed a kenwood 9907 HU today and no sound until I connected the amp power wire to the car amp wake-up. The connector for the amp is the red and white wire in the blue connector (car side).

I ordered the $200 install kit from Suncoast. On the fence if this is necessary. Haven't figured out the illumination wire yet for auto dimming. VSS (vehicle speed wire) is not required for car play. Skipped that one. Will update once complete.

Grounding the parking brake wire to the HU chasis allows you to operate all the features whenever you want.

Rig.Stunts

Illumination wire can be found in the console 'cigar lighter'.

SpectreH

Simple and easy to get to. I like it.

SpectreH

I hope to have time to install mine next week.

SpectreH

Thanks to all that helped, especially Nate who has shared his experience offline. I bought the kit from Suncoast, even though it is a bit pricy. It is much sturdier than the Crutchfield kit. I purchased RCA connectors and wired them the the Suncoast quad lock harness. I ran two wires off the HU amp/antenna wake wire. One to the blue and white wire (antenna on) on the supplied adapter, the other to the red/white wire (amp on) on the car-side connector. I used a wire with the proper sized pin for that connection and zip tied it in place around the other wires.

I went with Rig Stunts idea for the illumination signal wire, and tapped into the yellow parking brake wire for the parking brake signal.

The wireless CarPlay works great, and along with the ProClip wireless charger, I can connect and charge the phone without plugging it in.

it does take about 15 seconds for the phone to connect to CarPlay wirelessly. I also note a slight lag in response on wireless versus wired CarPlay mode.

In all, it’s not too hard to accomplish with help from our friends on this site.

Pictured below headlights off vs headlights on.

Nate R

Final result - really like the head unit so far (Kenwood DDX9907XR). Screen resolution is quite a bit better than the PCM. Getting my PCM repaired to return the car to stock if / when I ever sell it. But chrono still works just fine without it and I just selected something other than audio to display in the instrument cluster. Appreciate all the help from the guys on the forum!