battery.burner

Similar bang sound experienced when pulling on handbrake at about 20mph. Tried adjusting up - didn't fix it. Could feel pulling back on the hand brake lever when rocking/coming to rest and putting on the hand brake. Removed discs to find handbrake mechanism rusted solid on both sides (two fulcrum points each side). Plenty of penetrating fluid later and it could be freed off disassembled de-rusted lubricated with thin film of brake grease and refitted - all OK now. Caution take your time with the calliper bolts these had corroded too and picked up in the alloy mounting holes - more penetrating fluid and working back and forth to avoid damage (poor design should have been thread inserts from factory), threads chased both parts before reassembly.

I'm going touring round Europe, so I was looking for easy to fit fuel economy mods for my 1999 2.5. I started by fitting new O2 sensors and MAF (as the ones fitted looked original and it has done 140k miles). Also the usual replacement higher flow stainless exhaust and de-snorkel had been done. I'm now trying water-doping (this is the cheaper, less complicated and more fuel efficient version of water injection). For the initial testing I have mounted the water reservoir where the US cars have the aux air system (right hand side of the engine bay), the vacuum diffuser is inserted into the engine breather pipe (from the air/oil separator) and the mist heater/gas reactor is clamped to the right-hand exhaust pipe next to the O2 sensor (see pictures). The first fuel refill check showed an average of 31 mpg (UK gallon), this was for mixed driving (including motorways, city driving, traffic jams and some short journeys where the engine did not get up to temperature), also the water doping device was not installed for the first 50 miles of the tank of fuel. The fuel economy improvement is about 10% and the car feels nicer to drive too. The current installation requires an engine cover lift to refill the water reservoir, so if the economy improves sufficiently and I decide to keep it installed I will make a remote fill system to save lifting the cover. If there is interest in water doping of Boxster engines I am happy to post my touring fuel consumption figures in about one month - let me know accordingly. Update 29 July 2016 - We have just calculated the French trip mpg for the Boxster 2.5 fitted with the water doping system shown above, over 2736 miles (two people and full of luggage, with speeds of up to 130kph) the average mpg was 33.45. The anti-stall and idling seems smoother too, so we wonder if the steam has helped to de-carbonise the idle control valve. Encouraged by this we have designed and installed a new configuration with custom alloy bubbler (looks better than the plastic one), added a remote filling reservoir (so it is easy to top up - next to dipstick) and it now has twin mist heater/gas reactors. It now feels even better to drive (more responsive and more low down torque), so we are expecting even better results. I agree with the comment below about not buying a Boxster S for fuel economy, but the Silverstone journey sounds like a very good economy drive. The 1999 Boxster 2.5 is my daily drive, it also has high miles (and cable throttle), so is not a refined as later models in terms of fuelling and economy. I am happy to save fuel and enjoy the car daily without such a big dent in the wallet for petrol when it can be saved cheaply with no detriment. BTW I do all my own maintenance and am prepared to experiment, this sort of project may not suit others. If anyone would like details of the updated installation and long term average fuel economy let me know.