After reading your wonderful posts and doing some resarch, I got a Riocar yesterday and had it istalled in my 2002 Boxster. I'm getting the engine noise (the whine) through the sound system. Anyone had experience with this? Also, the illumination is not dimming with the rest of the interior lights. And, are the "buttons" supposed to be lighted? Finally, what color face plate is best...The amber is a bit off.

Many thanks!!!

A lot of people have complained about noise in Boxsters. Search the installation forum for ``Boxster''. There have been several solutions, IIRC.

Just for reference, mine didn't whine, though my illumination didn't dim either (was it supposed to?). The buttons are not supposed to be lighted. I used Amber ... I agree that it's not quite right -- it's a little too yellow, but I think it was the best of the colors.

Mike

Here are some reference threads for you to review.

http://empeg.comms.net/php/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=install&Number=77207&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

http://empeg.comms.net/php/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=empeg_tech&Number=60062&page=&view=&sb=&o=

http://empeg.comms.net/php/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=install&Number=56970&page=&view=&sb=&o=

You can also search for the following posters, all of whom have discussed this subject extensively:

"ClownBurner"
"Neo_to_Rio"
"sendero"
"ellweber"

My illumination dimming works fine but I had to select the proper signal from the Porsche cluster, most accessable at the HVAC control unit above the radio. Alternator whine has been successfully eliminated by a variety of means including ground loop isolators, DC-DC inverters ot isolate the Becker and Empeg grounds and gorrilla (lots of copper required) grounds between the two.

Check out the above posts in detail for more info.

Lynn

I don't have any whine unless my volume is up around
+38 or so. I did purchase a cable kit from Becker to make
it easier to connect to the factory radio. It wasn't expensive,
and it did ensure all the audio grounds were properly connected. Other than that, I don't recall any tricks or
problems when I installed mine. Good grounding is obviously important, including the sled sheet metal. I think I just bent a couple of the ears to accomplish this.

The buttons don't light up, unless you install a button light kit, see elsewhere for that.
I don't like any of the faceplates. I have my top down a lot, and all of them are invisible in direct sunlight. The best I've found is Darkstorm's smoked faceplate, the color won't match, but none of them did anyway.

If you're in the SF bay area, I can probably help you fix it.

-gbeck

Incidentally, I had it so that the stock radio ran into Aux In on the Empeg, so the Empeg was the "primary" head unit. Don't know if that impacts anything...

Thanks to all who replied..I'll let you know how I make out. And to the lister who made the "pink" transparancy to adjust the color, that was a briliant idea. I however, do not have Corel Draw. Any hance of posting a jpeg of the item? I'd be happy to compensate you for your effort!!!

Thanks againn!!

Do any of DarkStorm's colors match what you want? Click on the "Lenses" link at the top of this page to see all of his available colors.