£10 DIY Bluetooth install for dummies (987.2 CDR-30)

[spicer92]

I thought I’d give a quick guide on how to add bluetooth to your car on the cheap. My headunit is the basic CDR-30, but it should work on many others as long as it has the same quad lock connector on the back. I'm impressed with the audio quality, I was expecting it to be terrible but realistically it's as good as the CDR-30 will allow!

FYI, if I can do this, you can. I’m terrible when it comes to electrics. I had no idea what I was doing and just relied on many other threads to build my knowledge. You can also use this to wire in an aux lead in the same way if that’s what you prefer. There is another thread on planet-9 that helped in particular, but all the images etc are long gone

https://www.planet-9.com/threads/installed-a-hardwired-bluetooth-music-adapter-in-my-987-2-cayman-cdr-30.100035/

 

I have included links to buy, and item descriptions for if the links no longer work.

First, a few things to buy:

 

Bluetooth kit:

yes it says Skoda. Nope, that doesn’t matter. It has three cables in the plug, it’s just a case of moving them to the appropriate sockets for your radio. The same thing labelled as ‘Porsche’ was double the price on eBay, hence why I bought this one.

eBay listing name: 12pin Bluetooth Music Radio Adapter Compatible for VW Audi Skoda RCD RNS 200 210

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12pin-Bluetooth-Music-Radio-Adapter-Compatible-for-VW-Audi-Skoda-RCD-RNS-200-210/383439076258?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Fuse tap:

This is what you use to plug into your fusebox to give the bluetooth kit power

eBay listing name: Add A Circuit Fuse Tap Piggy-Back Standard Blade Fuse Holder ATO ATC 12v 24v

NOTE: there are different shapes for these available. A 987.2 uses a ATC or ATO tap. Don’t order a box of ATM ones like I did.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Add-A-Circuit-Fuse-Tap-Piggy-Back-Standard-Blade-Fuse-Holder-ATO-ATC-12v-24v/180735526749?epid=27027059860&hash=item2a14ad475d:g:qdIAAMXQXZZRez~m

 

Some wire.

I used 1mm diameter wire. Not sure if this is ideal, but hey ho it works. You need just over 1 meter to reach from the radio to the fusebox.

 

Step 1: remove the radio

There are other guides out there to tell you how to do this, so I’ll just summarise it.

1. Remove small carpet bits on the side of the radio (down by your ankles). I think they use a t30 torx, with 1 screw on each side
2. Remove the 2x screws for each side of the soft fake leather panel on the side of the radio (4 screws total)
3. Pull these side panels out. Pull from the back, they pop out straight into the cabin.
4. Undo the radio. There are 4x hex screws on the side of the radio, you need an L shaped Allen key to reach them. They’re quite hidden but only require a gentle 1/4 turn. BE CAREFUL. They’re plastic and break easily, trust me on that. If you break one, it’s not the end of the world- they just press some thin metal tabs on the side of the radio outwards to prevent the radio coming out. You can press these tabs with your fingers if you brake one of the screw bits.
5. Remove radio by pulling it out. I put my gearstick in 4th and then it’s in a good place to rest the radio on.

 

Step 2: connecting BT to radio

First off, you want to move the wires in the 12 pin connector of the bluetooth kit into the correct pins. Two of these are the left/right channel for the audio, I have no idea what the third one is. Ground maybe?

For this particular bluetooth kit, that means*

White: pin 2 (L/R)

Red: pin 7 (L/R) (you might have two red wires. This is the thinner one).

Yellow: pin 8

*Note, I’m not sure if L/R are the right way round, but that doesn’t bother me.

If yours are wired into different pins, you need to swap them.

The connector on the BT module should have two parts: the 12 pin block the wires go into and the white ‘outer’ which fits your particular radio. Remove the 12 pin block, then press down the metal spring-tabs on the individual wires to release them, and pull them out. 

Note: don’t press them too hard, just enough to deflect them out the way so you can pull the wire out. When you have the wires out, use a small knife or similar to lever that metal tab back up, so that when you put the wire back in they clip back into place and won’t fall out.

Put them back in according to the order above, and plug in into the back of the radio (top left port as if you are looking directly at the back of the radio. If my image isn’t working, google search ‘CDR-30 pinout diagram’

You should also have a black ground wire hanging off the BT kit. Mine has a metal tab on it, so I removed a screw out of the back of the radio and screwed the ground tab under this.

Whoa. That’s the bluetooth connected to the radio. Easy! Now it needs some power.

Step 3: Powerrrr!

You should have a thicker red wire coming out of the BT kit. This is where your power goes in. Using the wire you bought, join it to the wire on the BT kit. I just wound them together and put some electrical tape around the join.

Run this wire through the back of the radio port, under the dash and down to the fusebox near your pedals.

 

Remove the fusebox cover (it just pulls off).

Remove the three screws you can see (one at the bottom, one either side at the top, circled in white on the image). This holds the carpeted are around the fusebox on, pull it off (starting at the bottom, as it has a tab at the top holding the top in place).

 

Now hook the wire around the back of the fusebox, and poke it from behind through one of the empty holes at the top. This just saves you having a wire dangling and visible from the front of the fusebox. Nice and tidy.

 

Now, make sure a bit of the end of the wire is stripped, and poke it into the open end of the cable of the fuse tap. Get some pliers and crimp it down so that the cable is secure. There are ‘plugs’ available which go into this female socket if you want to be able to unplug it easily, but I just crimped the bare wire, it works fine.

 

Now put some fuses in the tap. I put a 10 in the inner side (closest to the fusebox) and a 7.5 on the outer. The outer should be a lower number than the inner. I don’t know why I put these ones in, so if you’re an electrician and I should have used different ones… please let me know. My BT kit has it’s own dedicated fuse in the live wire too so I wasn’t too worried.

 

Now you need to plug the fuse tap into the fusebox. Whats important here, is that you want a 12v ‘ignition switched’ socket. This means that that fuse is only active when you turn the ignition on. So the bluetooth won’t drain your battery when you’re not using the car. Handy!

There are loads of threads on this, but I used the C1 fuse space, apparently C5 also works, as well as many others.

The fusebox cover should have a manual in it which describes what each fuse port is used for. Have a play and figure out which ones only work with the ignition on. Or google it.

NOTE: at this point I was press confused, as when I poked a voltmeter (which I couldn’t get to work) into the individual fuse sockets, I could only find one metal connector for each fuse to plug into, so only one side of the fuse seemed to be plugged in. I removed other fuses and saw that all the fuses the were already installed had two connectors. When I turned it on it all worked. This seems like wizardry to me, but it worked, so I’m happy. See image, green arrow = no visible connection, white arrow = visible connection.

 

Step 4: check it. 

Turn the ignition on (put the key in AND turn it). You should see a little light on the BT module light up. Whoa, it worked! Pair your phone and see if the music plays. If not, go back to step 1 and follow my instructions closer this time.

 

Mine also included a microphone, which I can’t comment on how good/bad this is yet. I put mine on top the side panel of the radio, but there are loads of places where you can put it.

 

Screw everything back together, and voila.

Hope that helps some of you out there.

[MikeT999]

Nice, and a bit of a bargain.  Can I ask, how do you answer an incoming call - can you do it without touching the phone ?

I'd try and make a better connection on the live wire if you can, solder / heatshrink or even a crimped bullet connector.

Great idea though - I'm using one of those plug in cigar lighter types that connect over FM to the radio - it's a bit rubbish tbh.

Cheers,

Mike.

[spicer92]

Thanks Mike, 

there are no buttons on this BT module, and my car doesn't have any steering wheel buttons etc, so it would be answering using the phone screen as normal. If there is a version with these features, I'm sure it would just be an additional wire or two to go into the 12pin socket, I'm not sure which ones though.

To be honest, I don't like speaking on the phone while driving as I still find it quite distracting, I just did this so I could remove the aux lead and stream music wirelessly.

FM transmitters are always a bit hit and miss!

Cheers, Joe