944 Mod: CR-220 Radio.

"Mathias Rios" (Mars478)
12/19/2013 at 09:59 • Filed to: 944, radio, CR-220, mars478

As many of you know, our friend !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! owns a burgundy 944 affectionately named "Carla". However that !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! came with a glaring omission... a radio.

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A few weeks back we went on a parts trawl to look for parts for our cars, since he owns a 944, and I own a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! many of the parts are actually interchangeable. One of the things we bought that day after panhandling on the street to afford Porsche parts was this CR-220 radio. Guess how much it cost?

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10 bucks.

The guy said he didn't know if it worked or anything, sold as is. We didn't test it but for 10 bucks it's a steal. These radios go for at least 100 bucks on eBay usually.

Today we finally got to test if this radio worked. Aaron asked me to wire this radio into his car (amazingly a few people actually had the nerve to say that this couldn't be done... wtf?) which already had been wired for a standard DIN radio (aka the garbage you find at Wal-Mart), but that was not good enough for the Porsche radio, so I told him to order a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and with that I tore into the already chopped up radio wiring and wired in this 996 harness. What do you know, it worked. Aaron got the code off renntech, and tomorrow we need to tweak the wiring for the speakers (since only two were wired to the previous DIN harness and I assumed they were just both fronts but it turns out it was just one side of the car f+r), and the antenna connector on the 944 doesn't fit in the CR-220 so we gotta splice in something that does. The last and final touch is for me to find a switched power source so the radio turns on and off with the car, but I didn't do that today because I was lazy and working on the side of the road in NYC by CCC. It was cold.

So in the end, you get a decently modern and stock looking radio, and no amplifier was needed (Aaron thinks pretty poorly of people who invest into car audio systems... like I did).

Yay for (classy) mods!

DISCUSSION (6)

lonestranger > Mathias Rios
12/19/2013 at 00:44

Yay! Glad that you were aware of such things like reverse harnesses and the fact that "it can't be done" is false. Anything can be done if you put your mind to it.

The first thing that I thought of, though, is why this head unit? I understand wanting an OE one, but isn't this from much later? 1990s or so?It looks like it'd be more at home in a 968, 993, or even 986 & 996.

Mathias Rios > lonestranger
12/19/2013 at 00:49

:) Thanks!

Basically, the reason this head unit ended up in the car was the price. 10 dollars is cheaper than literally any radio of decent quality you can get, anywhere. And that it does the job. From far away it actually doesn't look that out of place. I believe this radio was out of a late 90's 996. Besides, the radios that come with 944's are hard to find and practically useless.

lonestranger > Mathias Rios
12/19/2013 at 01:04

Yeah, that's what I figured. If I had a Porker and came upon a $10 OE unit, I'd slap it in, too. Nice fine, NP!

NoahthePorscheGuy > Mathias Rios
12/19/2013 at 07:51

Pretty sure that it comes from a 986. Careful in the winter with it if its cold, they were notorius for having the screen go crazy and start speaking german and fail and shit.

Source: My dads 986 had one and it went crazy and start speaking german and failed and shit.

Mathias Rios > NoahthePorscheGuy
12/19/2013 at 09:54

They used these in a bunch of cars. It has a 996 part #, so I assumed 996, but they could've the same part number for a lot of parts like MB does with some parts (140.XX)

Aaron Brown > NoahthePorscheGuy
12/19/2013 at 11:30

That's hilarious.