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So.... I botched a repair on my Bose amp and now it is dead. Mort... Cold... and I am to blame.
Question: Where to buy a new one or used one? Experience and price?
So... what went wrong?... well my parents were just dating and drinking too much and ..... well that is a different story. The latest suspect was some sort of voltage regulator or whatever chip that is upstream and common to the amp chips and caps... so, let's blame it as the problem. Mouser has them in stock here and very cheap: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail...LEmr7SFw%3D%3D
The challenge is this chip is a surface mount deal with small leads.... I have all the tools (no skill or brains) but didn't realize the chip was actually glued to the board surface... so I pried it up and tore a few of the traces... I failed to remove all of the solder. I suspect this was a real rookie move.
Anywho... I undertook this knowing full well I may screw it up and would have to replace the amp. Sooo.... time to find a new amp.
I have emails out to about four dismantlers, Becker in NJ, Suncoast Porsche for a new one, and an email address in China from a Rennlister who purchased one there for "a fraction". My local Porsche dealer has a new one for just over $1,100, so at least you can still buy them. Ebay has refurbished for around $800. Opinions? Opinions about buying an amp, not on my screwup, thank you.
Part Number: 997 645 444 04 New Part Number: 7PP035223AA
Peace
Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)
Last edited by Bruce In Philly; 06-30-2024 at 09:25 PM.
Piggybacking on your post Bruce. I was hoping someone here could post a solution to these dead amps. Mine is sitting in a box in the garage and I play music through a portable Bluetooth speaker. I m glad my window sticker shows $$$ wasted on a Bose. Since my car has too many miles for someone who think it is precious, I plan on changing the head unit. So, piggybacking on your thread, and Crutchfield telling me the car is fiber optic, what has to be done to install a "normal" head unit and attach it to the speakers? I would rather not splice the speaker wires.
Piggybacking on your post Bruce. I was hoping someone here could post a solution to these dead amps. Mine is sitting in a box in the garage and I play music through a portable Bluetooth speaker. I m glad my window sticker shows $$$ wasted on a Bose. Since my car has too many miles for someone who think it is precious, I plan on changing the head unit. So, piggybacking on your thread, and Crutchfield telling me the car is fiber optic, what has to be done to install a "normal" head unit and attach it to the speakers? I would rather not splice the speaker wires.
This is why I am hesitant to buy a used amp from eBay or from a dismantler... probably all eBay is from dismantlers. I am just getting the same problem or one about to happen.
I am still awaiting responses to my flury of emails last night.... stay tuned. One dismantler returned and said they have one for $200. Hmmmm....
Peace
Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)
Last edited by Bruce In Philly; 07-01-2024 at 12:51 PM.
None... the leads and corresponding pads are super tiny. To do this work, one needs to wear a magnifier headset. These surface mount chips are not like the old days where leads were pressed through holes and soldered on the back sides. I pulled the pads and trace leads up on a few of the leads... these leads were torn off of the board. To repair, you would have to scrape the board material and expose the trace, and then somehow leave a trace of solder. No way to wire it. This is super tiny stuff. Again, the cost to do this work was very low and I was at my wits end with this amplifier. I have been threatening for years to buy another one... so again, I knew this was a hail mary play. I was not sure that chip I was trying to replace was even the problem.
So far, I replaced the fan thinking the problem was thermal and the fan wasn't working.... then I replaced the power capacitors since in my experience with audio equipment, they are a common failure point, and now this chip is the next item upstream from the single channel chips and caps. Even if I soldered it up correctly, there was, oh I dunno, a 50/50 chance that was even the problem.
After sleeping on it, knowing now that the chip was glued to the board, I should have put my heat gun on super high and roasted it... this may have released the glue as well as the solder joints at the same time. I have aluminum tape that I needed to insulate the chip from other components... I coulda done it that way but went in too cautiously with just enough heat to melt the solder thinking the chip would just release. Oh well.... rookie me.
The chip I am talking about is right of the donut transformer and its length is about the width of an average thumb... knowing this, now look at how many leads there are.... the amp chips on the periphery are the amps for each channel: FR, FL, C, RL, RR. I believe the design of this amp is Class D with each of the 5 channel chips being an integrated amp with a digital to analog converter built into the chip. The right side of the board under the silver grounding cage is the digital side of this processor. This is not just an amp but and amp & digital processor.... heck it could have been a chip on the digital side that failed...
Thanx, but the .2 amps are totally different animals from the .1 units. .2 units are located under the passenger seat. the .2 PCM 3 systems are actually pretty sophisticated in that they play DVD A 5.1 surround.... I have a stack of DVD A 5.1 and they sound pretty darn great. The Doors, Queen, Jethro Tull, and many others.
I just ordered a new amp... not taking a chance on a used one... nope... A few Porsche dealers online have them for sale. I purchased mine from Porsche Delaware with shipping for $1,129.30 total. Wow.... My two local dealers wanted $1,478 and $1,359 before tax. Sheesh... Interesting that so many dealers are running a sale and so many have them in stock... I think that says something is going on here.
Oh well, I fought it like hell. The thing is I drive my car and use the stereo all the time. A few times a week, I drive into Atlanta, shut the car off, get back in and it is dead.... I was just getting sick of this thing. The way I figure it, yes all emotions, is that I saved so dang much money buying OEM and DIYing work that well, OK, I bent over and took it.
Bruce glad you worked it out
but does anyone know if an aftermarket amp unit works with the stock head unit
You will have luck with a .1 car than a .2 car. The issue you face is a digital interface between the headunit and amp... there is some MOST adapter out there... do some searching... I have always felt the badish sound from our systems is all in the amp... I swapped out my speakers for Focal units which was a ton of work and included using a Dremel on the car... scary, but I did it. Worth it? Some here say yes, I say meh... the devil is bad, hard, amplification IMO.
Piggybacking on your post Bruce. I was hoping someone here could post a solution to these dead amps. Mine is sitting in a box in the garage and I play music through a portable Bluetooth speaker. I m glad my window sticker shows $$$ wasted on a Bose. Since my car has too many miles for someone who think it is precious, I plan on changing the head unit. So, piggybacking on your thread, and Crutchfield telling me the car is fiber optic, what has to be done to install a "normal" head unit and attach it to the speakers? I would rather not splice the speaker wires.
You have a .2 car.... our PCM 3 is a 5.1 channel system that plays many different file types. This signal is sent from the head unit to the amp/processor under the passenger seat via fiber optic cable. So.... it you want to replace the amp and not use a Porsche Bose amp, you have two choices... there is a MOST adapter that translates the digital signal from the optic into a two-channel analog signal that can then feed a plain auto amp. However, I have heard these didn't exist, then they do, then some complained about sound quality and loss of functionality such a front to rear fader controls.. I am very wary of such a solution.... google around....
The other solution sounds to me like a better approach.... butt... oh that big butt... you need to get your head unit coded at the dealer to be a non-premium stereo system. If you do this, the analog outs become active in the back of the head unit and you can control volumes/channels using the head unit's controls. Now you can take the various channels out direct to amplifiers. I only heard this is an alternative, but have no direct experience. Also, I don't know what channels present themselves such as just L-R, or do you get rear channels and the center channel too?
Good luck, if it were me, I would replace the amp as I am doing now. If you don't want to spend the big cash, dismantlers are selling used units for as low at $200 out there.... I would go this route before I would do anything else.
You have a .2 car.... our PCM 3 is a 5.1 channel system that plays many different file types. This signal is sent from the head unit to the amp/processor under the passenger seat via fiber optic cable. So.... it you want to replace the amp and not use a Porsche Bose amp, you have two choices... there is a MOST adapter that translates the digital signal from the optic into a two-channel analog signal that can then feed a plain auto amp. However, I have heard these didn't exist, then they do, then some complained about sound quality and loss of functionality such a front to rear fader controls.. I am very wary of such a solution.... google around....
The other solution sounds to me like a better approach.... butt... oh that big butt... you need to get your head unit coded at the dealer to be a non-premium stereo system. If you do this, the analog outs become active in the back of the head unit and you can control volumes/channels using the head unit's controls. Now you can take the various channels out direct to amplifiers. I only heard this is an alternative, but have no direct experience. Also, I don't know what channels present themselves such as just L-R, or do you get rear channels and the center channel too?
Good luck, if it were me, I would replace the amp as I am doing now. If you don't want to spend the big cash, dismantlers are selling used units for as low at $200 out there.... I would go this route before I would do anything else.
Peace
Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)
I got the car recently from my brother. The amp is in a box. I am having the fuel pump and some other work done (4k) so cash is at a premium, plus I want to have some work done on the 968 i got last year so it is useable (flex plate another 4k). The fuel pump and flex plate are probably beyond my skill set. I don't want to spend on a used amp when the issue is so common. Do it once.... My initial thought is get a head unit that doesnt need the amp, splice into a power supply and then to the speakers. There has to be a way to hook to them without cutting. I miss Radio Shack.
I'm genuinely curious so please don't take this as me being an a-hole:
If you were willing to take a dremel to the car to install speakers you obviously don't care if it stays all factory original, so why stick with a factory amp and not use this as an opportunity to upgrade rather than pay $1100 for an amp that causes "baddish sound"?
06-30-2024, 08:39 PM
Bose Amp Repair FAIL!!! I suck. Advice please
