Glyn

I had same problem, ordered two new D2S bulbs - problem gone. Mine did something but was not quite sure what they did, I would be driving and the left lamp would sort of flash - like lightning but the lamp would remain on, It was all so quick and totally random when it would happen that i couldnt actually be looking at the area when it would do it, Eventually the problem got worse, more frequent and the bulb would go out, turning the lights off and back on would sort the problem- I had a choice in my mind between the light switch - a know weak spot for the Boxster or the bulbs - Picked two bulbs up for £30 - fitted - problem resolved

FOLLOW Up: For some reason, I thought that the stalk assembly should be pushed back closer to the instrument panel. The opposite is the case. Again thanks - all is well again with my 9yr old Boxster. What a great car! Thats what the forum is for, we all have experiences and we all can help each other

You can also check for disc run out by driving the car to a good speed then applying the brakes - disc run out will induce a wobble felt through the steering wheel, when you release the brakes it will significantly reduce

Either disc run out or wheel balance

When you installed the 4 stalk unit you have not located in the right position, All you need to do is measure the excess gap you reffer to, strip down to the securing bolt on the stalk unit and slide it towards the steering wheel to reduce the gap - once you have the fit you want just tighten up the locking nut on the stalk unit. The horn and the airbag - Make sure the two plastic snap connectors are properly clipped together (think one is orange the other Blue- anyway two distinctly different colours) If this is all correct then its the connections to the horn earth and general earth wires - with the airbag unit removed clean up the two earthing connectors that the short brown (i think) and the long Black cable connect to - make sure they are a good fit - Your horn and airbag feed will then return. BTW - you dont need to tape the spring unit as it cant fall apart - although i know it looks like it will, and it cant rotate because of the spring catch that the steering wheel boss pushes over to unlock. Indeed, there is no spring in the spring unit - all it is is a long data cable simply wound around quite a few times. Also, you dont need to replace the unit because you break the two plastic locating pins as they are only present to turn the spring unit top assembly with the steering wheel, without them the connector where the wires come through the elongated hold in the steering wheel boss simply moves the spring assembly top around This is all a very simple job, dont worry

perhaps its me on the wrong track, i read this post as reffering to the amber orientation lights. One at the top and one in each door handle, if so, Im not sure how long they remain on - mine seem to be on for hours but they are all out when i get in the car the next day

Not quite the same response as your first post "Typically if I'm driving at night, I have all the lights on, Front Fogs, Rear Fogs, etc. People get irritated because they're so bright, but bah... whatever" Rear Fogs do dazzle, try being sat behind someone that has them on, the glare after a few minutes is more than irritating, If they were not bright they wouldnt be much use as a fog light now would they?

You can run a cable from the side that works and splice this into the connector, one side will feed the other without issue. However i fail to understand the need to have all lights on, fogs front and rear - what is the purpose? The rear lights are much brighter than tail or brake lights and when in stationary traffic they dazzle the drivers behind, i can understand why some people get irritated - this is just inconsiderate driving, the effect is pretty much the same as someone driving behind you with main beam activated - you are dazzled in the mirrors. Im amazed at your arrogance driving like this when you are aware you are creating issues. Here in the UK we have a law whereby fog lights front or rear must only be used in poor visibility such as Fog or Falling snow, some people here do drive with all lights blazing but will get pulled by the Police who ask them if they are aware the fog lights are on, if you reply yes, you are nicked for breaking a law, if you say No then you are nicked for driving without due care.

There are two seperate codes, one for PCM and one for navigation. If the unit was working and the battery was disconnected then the unit should only need the PCM code, The Nav code is put into the unit only once when first commissioned. Disconnect the battery, then reconnect the battery - you should find it will only require the PCM code. occassionally the logic circuits become illogical after a power down and the Nav will ask for the code- a second disconnect usually puts this right.

Did you fit new anti squeel plates? These plates are stuck to the back of the disc pads and have two alloy pots which slide inside the centre of the caliper pistons, If you have not fitted these the pads will move a little within the caliper and can cause a click - most prominant when you reverse and apply brakes then go forward and apply brakes. If you did not fit them at all then you can take them off your old pads by using a stanley type knife, just push the blade between the backing material and the pad, work it round the edges then a screwdriver pushed inbetween, give the screwdriver a twist and the squeel plates will start to seperate from the pad. Put the squeel plates into your calipers first, then the pads, then go for a spin, the heat generated will re-stick the pads to the squeel plates and your clicking will be gone

If it is happening upon opening the door, slow down and give the window a chance to lower itself(its automatic). If it is hitting on the closing, then a micro-switch is not working correctly as another poster mentioned. Thanks, it seem to be working now. What is happening is it is getting out of sync. If I have the doors open to long they lock and when I unlock them while they are open that is where I have the issues. Actually its not fixed, the drivers side works, you open the door the windows drops, you close the door it raises. The passenger side, you open the door the window drops and as soon as you let go the handle it raises unlike the driver door that raises after it closes, you pull the handle and it drops again....any thoughts Passenger door lock mechanism. Now it depends on how handy you are with a spanner. Option one - get a secondhand lock and replace the unit Option 2 Take the door lock apart (Porsche will say this cant be done) The plastic electrics are held to the mechanics by half a dozen screws, seperate the two parts and swap out the microswitch - this microswitch can be bought from Maplins, when the door closes the microswitch is activated to tell the window to go up, clearly this is permanantly in the "To go up mode" and overriden by the second microswitch on the door handle. Option 3 is to take it to an Indy or OPC and have them replace the whole unit

At this point I would probably believe anything and I trust what you are saying, but I have to ask, how do you know that it is the Air/Oil seperator? Have you had this problem before and replaced the air/oil separator and had the problem go away? 2 weeks ago i went from the UK to Germany to get on the Nurbergring, Got to the ferry point and the car was emmiting a squeeking skweal sort of sound just like fan belts do sometimes, thought it was the car behind me and only realised it was mine when i pulled away, loaded on the ferry, switched off, thought nothing more than a dry pully wheel - i would change it when i got back, started up after the two hour ferry crossing and it had all gone away - confirmed in my mind it was the idler pully. On the way to Germany stopped off at Brugge, getting back on the motorway i noticed i had a slight squeel back but strangly only on the overrun, light throttle and it went completely, i had another 170ish miles to go so carried on, the noise got worse, much worse, embarrassingly so, thought all the other cars would be hearing it too, but a little throttle and away it went. Now it didnt go immediately like a light bulb does when you turn it off it sort of reduced in volume immediately then dissapeared over what may have only been two seconds but this fade was obvious, Stopped for fuel, restarted - gone again. Cleared the rest of the miles and had entered the town the hotel was at, pulled away from traffic lights and clouds of blue smoke. Long and short of it is, Porsche picked up the car, took it to Bonn, analysed the car and announced the air/oil seperator, gave the go ahead for the work to be done. Expected on collection of the car that i would need to do the squeel job later, drove the 450 miles home, and drove it hard - not a jot of a sound out of it. The only part changed was the seperator. Clearly the noise was generated by vaccum and this dissapears when the throttle is opened as the valve open to allow the induction to suck the internal gasses away and burns them

Now you wont believe this!!, without doubt this is the Air/Oil seperator, told you you wouldnt believe it. This is the valve inside the AOS and only emits the noise when on overrun in the early stages of failure, open the throttle and it goes away, at idle it sounds like the idler bearing squeeking.

Has the illumination been turned down? Cant remember which button it is but one of the two switches that poke through the instrument cluster lens (clock set/trip) needs to be twisted either clockwise or anti clock for a few seconds - a bar graph will show in the display, keep holding the button and illumination will rise. Cant see that all the bulbs for illumination would fail together

Fact - When on the overrun no fuel is injected until revs drop to tickover speed Fact, fuel used to contain an upper cylinder lubricant - lead, unleaded still has lead its just that extra lead is not added, valves, valve guides are manufactured to run on unleaded and require no additional lubricant than is added by unleaded and the oil that swirls around the camshaft.

Front or Rear Chris. If rear I changed mine about 12 months ago and i took pictures of the whole job, used no special tools and with each photo i have written up exactly what is going on, I have indicated the bolts or nuts to loosen remove etc with arrows pointing to them. The file is 1.8 meg and this is zipped as low as i could get so i think it is too big to upload here, but if you want the file PM me and i will click reply and attach, of course anyone else wanting the file just do the same

Front or Rear Chris

The alternator has diode packs - a diode only allows current in one direction. If a diode pack breaks down power will be routed to the alternator in the opposite direction which will then try to turn like an electric motor, however it cant because of the drive belt, this will drain the battery very quickly. Put a clamp meter over the positive cable with everything turned off and the vehicle left for at least 20 minutes to ensure all components have ceased to draw power and read the drain in milivolts, over 40 and you have a problem. Pull the fuses one at a time and see which circuit is drawing the power

You are correct. My statement was definitive - to shift without a clutch is wrong. Of course, you can attempt to shift without it and play russian roulette and hope that the synchros survive. The clutch is there for a reason. And I agree that there is a risk and it is unusual, however the poster was simply asking about the consequences of shifting without the clutch and i believe my answer identified the risks, your answer did not, Your answer was more of a parent telling a kid not to do something, no reason - just because you said so I always use the clutch and agree its there for that reason -----so we can argue whether it should be used or not :rolleyes:

Everyone here is entitled to there own opinion. Please respect your fellow members opinions. There is need to flame other individuals - please re-read the board Guidelines/Rules (that you agreed to when you registered here). Loren, I am not trying to inflame anything, my statement regarding the post from Adias was that the statement was wrong in that he said :- "Direct answer: shifting without the clutch should never be done" It was delivered as the be all and end all not as an opinion - and i stand by what i said in that factually it is incorrect. If i have come across as inflamatory then i appologise. I tried to answer the original post in a simple terms as possible, i wanted the poster to know the consequences of clutchless shifts if they are done wrong but above all i wanted to answer his question. If indeed clutchless shifting should never be done then surely the reason for this statement should be added so the poster has something to evaluate. My post, i believe, set out the pros and cons, i tried to explain what is happening to the components so the poster has an informed viewpoint, my post was not my opinions but a factual reply. The comment :- "But as you said, it's your car, you can abuse it as you please" further re-enforces the absolute statement that it should not be done, which i feel did not answer the original question (now this is my opinion) Note to all, I know my posts can be somewhat controversial but i am not trying to inflame anything but simply to promote lively debate and discussion. Loren, I will abide by the rules

It is a bit of an art shifting without using the clutch and if you have mastered it so that the gears go in cleanly - ie, you dont need to exert excessive pressure on the gearshift then you are actually preserving your gearbox. Yes once again my post flies in the face of popular opinion. OK, In the old days the first gearboxes were straight cut gears and had no syncromesh, they whined like a pig as a result of the straight cut and crashed as they went in gear, the secret was to match the engine revs and the gear box shaft speeds so they went in without crunching, Indeed it is not that long ago when all trucks were like this, certainly in the early 80s, however all trucks now have syncro boxes. The syncro came about because the gearchange without crunching was an art that not everyone could master and syncros allowed those without any empathy with their vehicles to be able to change without drawing attention to it. The syncro hub assembly has two baulk rings - these are just tapered rings of brass that move towards the selected gear when the gear shift is moved to a particular gear, the gear also has a taper in which the ring fits, as the gear is selected the two tapers move together the taper slows down or speeds up the rotating shafts within the gearbox which enables the gears to lock together without the gears running over each other (this is the crunching) The more out of sync the speeds the more the baulk rings have to do to match the rotation speed, of course the rings are designed to do this and will last a very long time so there are no issues with excessive wear. Pressing the clutch disengages the engine from the gearbox which only leaves the now undriven shafts (that do not have a massive inertia) to speed up or slow down so wear on the baulk rings is at acceptable levels. Changing gear without the clutch means there is a massive inertia on the drive shafts so extra force on the gear shift is required to force the baulk rings to speed up or slow down not just the shafts but also the engine, if more force than is usual to engage a gear is required when changing gear without clutching then you will induce premature failure of the baulk rings and your syncro hubs so you will need a new gearbox. If you are changing gear with very light pressure and not using the clutch then you are in harmony with the car, you have developed the art and instinctively know when the engine revs and speed of the car are just right to engage without issues, therefore the speed matching of the shafts means there is no work for the baulk rings to do and there is even less wear. If you are changing gear perfectly well and your comfotable with it then carry on, you are doing no damage to the gearbox or anything else. The statement from ADias is without foundation

Me too. Would like to know how the problem was resolved and i am convinced the problem was minor, do give us an update

I have found Durametric to be very helpfull. They write the software and therefore they know how to interpret the reading. Drop them an email

Your picture is quite normal, more miles driving means less of the mayonaise. This is caused by frequent short runs in which the engine gets a short time at opperating temperature and is shut off, (short runs) this creates much more condensation, the condensation which formes droplets of water gets thrashed and mixed with the oil and emulsifies, then when the engine is at opperating temperature the moisture and emulsified oil becomes like steam, this then cools and forms the mayonaise. Short runs need more frequent oil changes, not simply to prevent the mayonaise but because more moisture in the oil will cause the oil to breakdown a little quicker. Oil has antioxidents and they have to work harder or become less effective the more moisture is added. Dont worry about it, your engine will not suddenly die because of it, it is perfectly normal

You can get away with removing the gearbox by having the car on stands, and two people will be able to lift the gearbox out without a jack. Try reversing with no additional revs, just slip the clutch in slowly then foot completely off the clutch