bcc

bcc wrote:

> A good way to know your mileage is the following:

> 1) fill your tank

> 2) reset your trip odometer (or note your mileage)

> 3) drive

> 4) when it is time to refill, fill your tank completely and note the number of gallons

> 5) divides how much you drove in 3) by how much you filled in 4)

A good way..? I didn't think there was any other way...

-- peer

Well that was a reaction to another post which I quoted, I was trying to point out that

the info CJ_boxster gives are not sufficient to compute the MPG value.

About another way though, the onboard computer on my boxster has a function that gives the MPG average since the last reinitialization.

That is what I usually use. I don't know how accurate it would be but probably same as the above method. Talking about that, the real problem about the way to measure that I described is the odometer reading, I noticed that my speedo is always showing a higher speed than what I am running at according to my GPS and I wonder if this reflects into a higher number of miles on the odometer. I have been wondering about that for some times actually as the difference is significant (maybe 8%) and car prices depends on the number of miles. I am really not an expert but I assume that odometer and speedometer both rely on the number of turns from the wheel and they could both be off if the assumed wheel perimeter is incorrect.

Benoit

Yes, that is what I was talking about. thank you for the detailed info. As far as the royalty. if you ever in my area drop me a line and a deer is in order. After I post this thread I manage to reach the previous owner and acknowledge that the top was replaced, hence why the problem.

Ben

The same problem has happened to me after a top replacement and I was/still am unhappy at the upholstery shop which found the issue told me about it and said they spent a couple days looking for fix without finding one. There is an official Bulletin on it they should have known specially if a guy like me who doesn't know anything about mechanics and soft tops can find the fix on the internet in a matter of ours.

This being said, the fact that it often happens after replacing a top makes me think that to do so (replace the top) the shop has to remove this spring and more often than not put it back in the improper position. Or that the process of replacing the top puts too much tension on the spring making it loose its original shape (hence the need to reverse it).

Anybody has any thoughts about that

Benoit

....

Thank you. By the way I noticed that because after the bumper installation I had a whistling noise at highway speed coming from the front.

Turned out that even after correctly installing the sensor that was not it. It seems that it was the hood which too high compared to the bumper.

Benoit

My top fabric goes to the outside of the B pillar when the roof is closed. If I guide the fabric into the correct place it sits about 1/4" away from the post rather than go into the locating groove.

I downloaded the Porsche 'fix' and found that the springs were sitting flat down on the part they are located on by the two screws. I assume the top end of the springs are meant to sit on the sliders so have moved them on top of the sliders. Is that correct?

The springs were not bowed atall just flat so turning them over makes no difference. Should they be a bow shape?

Any other ides as to why the fabric does not locate?

Thanks

Jim

When I had this problem, I noticed that the spring was slightly bowed toward the front (away from the roof) and reversing them did the trick very well.

You may need a new leaf spring. I would go to a porsche dealer to have them check it.

Well, i filled my tank to the brim and i drove about 120-135 miles before using half a tank of gas, So i would be getting anywhere from 240-270 miles per tank full...... topup the entire period. whats that equate to in mileage per gallon?

A good way to know your mileage is the following:

1) fill your tank

2) reset your trip odometer (or note your mileage)

3) drive

4) when it is time to refill, fill your tank completely and note the number of gallons

5) divides how much you drove in 3) by how much you filled in 4)

I am afraid that "half tank" or "full tank" are not very good measures as they are never really half or full tanks as you never know what is left in your tank

Benoit

Usually I drive with the top down, even when it's cold, but for the heck of it I decided to check my gas-milage with the top up. (Well, this was actually the first time I checked the gas-milage) And yes, mine is a none-opt model.

After depleting one tank of gas on 70% freeway, 20% city, and 10% high-rev canyon roads, I ended up with 23.4 MPG.

Is this about average for a '98 Box with its top up?

-- peer

I drive 80% suburb and 20% freeway with a 98 boxter and according to the onboard computer (I didn't redo the computation myself) I do 24.3 mpg with the top down as often as I can.

When driving on a 5 day trip in the smokeys (blue ridge parkway mostly so not too quick but a bout on the tail of the dragon) with a drive to and from Charlotte (4 hours freeway) the first and last day I got 26 MPG, that was also with the top down as much as possible including on the freeway.

Your number seem a bit on the low side.

Benoit

I have been looking for the fix on my ragtop. When I "karate chop" my plastic window on colds days the passenger side does not follow the groove when I close the top. Can someone direct me to the thread or the fix to eliminate me having have to stop the top and guide the fabric into the groove. I would like to install one of "one-touch" operation for my top. In the origianl thread a spring was mentioned. I am not sure where that spring is.

Ben

are you talking about this thread:Top fail to close properly

If this is the issue you are talking about, your problem is a leaf spring that has become to loose and does not pull the roof fabric sufficiently.

Here is the picture of the spring

What you need to do according to the TSB is remove it and flip it other before installing it back

you should also apply lubricant to the place the spring pushes on the roof

Loren got his message in before me, and he raises a point since the car may have been repaired.

Here is the plug where the sensor would be, on Fong's car.

Do you have a picture with the sensor installed to show how it is secured.

I had my bumper replaced and following this there is a loud whistling noise coming from the front end when going other 70 mph.

I think this is because the sensor was badly fitted and is now dangling by its wires in the air intake

Hello,

I had the front bumper replaced and the body shop did not fix correctly the outside temperature sensor. It is hanging by its wire inside the right side air intake in the bumper. It is not clear to me how it should be fixed but if I can do it myself, I'll spare me a trip to the body shop which is not close. Can someone post a picture or explanations on how the sensor fits in the bumper

Thanks

Benoit

Do you know if this is true for aftermarket tops? I had one replaced and i still have the same issue with the lip. It looks like we myu top has stretchy elastics.

Regards to all. Great forum here!

Thanks

It does, in fact I had this problem which only started with an aftermarket top, I am not sure if it is because during the top replacement hte upholsterer had to remove the spring and reinstalled it wrong or if the installation led to a weakening of the spring.

Anyway I want ot give a big warning when you are doing the procedure, it works very fine but you must be carefull when reinstalling the spring, when I did one of the screws fixing the passenger side hole partially stripped the hole. 2 weeks later when closing the top the screw came out taking the rest of the hole threads with it.

I had it repaired since then by a shop who rethreaded the hole in the B-pillar. I am still not sure if the stripping happened when I applied the fix (because I would have tightened the screw too much) or if someone else (the upholstering shop which installed the new top) broke it

The gearlever in my 97 ROW 986 (60,000 miles) is becoming increasingly stiff in the lateral direction of movement (left to right, i.e. mid way through shift from second to third; also when on the way to reverse). It has steadily got worse over the last year (so a progressive problem I believe).

When I was at Ninemeister eighteen months ago getting my variocam solenoid replaced, the shop supervisor pointed out the gear cables to me and said they had a tendency to fray internally and eventually needed replacing. Is this my problem and how hard to change the cables? Anyone bought a pair before?

Thanks.

Never heard of that problem before so i would consider this is not a tendancy at all,

Before you shell out have a look at the gearlever pivots (underneath the gear knob gaiter) they are just a plastic type material. give it a quick spray of WD40 and try again, if this corrects it then go back to the pivots and work some grease into them to make a longer lasting solution (WD dries up prety quick)

Glyn

I'll second Glyn's approach. I just installed the B&M short shifter. There is no cable involvement when moving the shifter laterally. I'mm surprised that there is some binding. I can imagine that something fell through the console, via the ash tray, and is binding, but not likely given the distance ti would have to travel. Pull the lether boot and inspect the mechanism. Shouldn't be too difficult to see what is happening.

By the way; I love the new feel of the shift!

Also in my case one of the plastic pivot was actuallly broken. The symptom was not that it was hard to shift but that the shifting action was very vague, but I can imagine that if one of the plastic pieces had gone into the wrong place it could do what you describe

I don't know if that has anything to do with what happened to you, but I have a 98 boxster and when I bought it (3 months ago) the gearbox was not very loose and sometime some gears were harder to go into than usual.

I knew there was something wrong before buying as I had the car inspected by a dealer who mentioned that there was something worn in the shifting mechanism (not the gear box) and that it would cost me around 450$ to replace it

It wasn't very bad but still bothersome so I figured I'd kill 2 birds with one stone and I would put in a short shifter kit.

What was wrong was obvious during the installation, the rear bushing in the shifter was completely broken:

Note: the picture is not from my shifter but is a picture from the B&M install manual, I just added the red circle showing the bushing broken in mine.

I wonder if that could be your problem, there are several plastic bits in that shift mechanism (including this bushings and some ball joints) that looks prone to breaking.

In my case I now have the SSK but I think I may have been happier with an upgrade that didn't change the shift throw but just improved the mechanism by using metal bushings and ball joints.

Benoit

Yes you can get the switch from a dealership.

I couldn't figure out how to get the center console off but you can see the switch if you look in there... I got lucky and turns out the connection was just loose on mine. Re-seated (poked) it and it worked again. Good Luck!

if you have not yet found how to remove the center console here is a link:

Center console removal (part of B&M SSK install)

Also similar instructions here:

official B&M SSK install

Both set are for the samething but with different pictures which never hurt

I got my glass top from Cabrio World, who buys them from Robbins Top. Quality is great, but the tension cables seem too short. It has been over a month and the top will still not close smoothly. Still has a 1 1/2 inch gap between the windshield frame and the top. I have to manually nudge the hook into the windshield header. :drive:

The same happens to me after changing the top for a GAHH one. I will try to loosen the cables myself as the opening hour of the installer for the tops are very inconvenient (only week days during business hours) and it seems not too difficult. Also since the guy had the car for several days and managed to give it back to me with a top that did not close correctly (needed to turn over some springs see TSB 6128) and was too tense, I have lost confidence in him.

If you have found another solution to your problem I would appreciate if you could tell me what you did

Benoit

Thanks to Tools Pants I now know where the adjusment bolts are and will loosen the top shortly

There is an adjustment bolt for each cable. To get to it you need to put the top in the service position.

thank you

Hi Tool pants,

can you post another picture showing where is this bolt? Is there only one or one per side (it looks like it)

Hello,

I have had a new GAHH top installed on a 1998 boxster, after the installation the top has 2 problems:

1) the side do not correctly go inside the B pillar as described in TSB 6128 9/97

2) the top is too tight.

Now that I found the TSB and got access to it I'll have the installer repair the point 1.

For point 2, the problem is that normally when the top is all the way up (top light turned off) to close the latch I just have to work the mechanism and it does so easily. Now the front part of the latch does not quite reach far enough in the windscreen hole to grab and so I have to pull on the front of the top to get it to latch. I asked the installer to loosen it but he tells me that the roof will probably loosen and that it is better to have it installed tight.

I don't want to have to apply force on the roof mechanism so I'll ask him to loosen it regardless of what he thinks (his credibility with me is quite low now that he messed up the installation of the roof and could not find the TSB while it took me a non expert about 1h to find the solution on this forum). On the other hand I want to be able to retighten it myself if necessary.

Can someone post pictures and explanation on how to adjust that part of the roof mechanism.

Thank you

Benoit Cerrina

PS:

if you leave in the Charlotte, NC area, I don't know who to recommend for upholstery work but I can tell you one shop to avoid.

Hello,

I have had my top replaced and after the replacement it had exactly this problem. I checked the spring and they do seem not tight enough, I am confident that will be my solution so I'd like to thank ToolPants for puting up the picture, I didn't really know how to describe the problem and it showed so clearly what I had that I went right away to get the information in the TSB

I'd be interested in an answer to this post