mark in sunnyvale

Ok, I think I figured out what my temp gauge is going crazy. My radiator fan won't turn on when my AC is off. This causes my temp to go really high during stop and go traffic.

I'm about to spend some quality time this weekend checking all the sensors.

Any one with an idea which sensor/ resistor is responsible for turning on the fans when the AC is off. I believe TP mentioned theres a Low and High speed resistor?

Thanks!

Mark

I'm still wiating for you to figure out what's going on with OUR O2 sensor :) . Your smog is 1 month ahead of mine, right :thumbup:

Just open it partially, if you look underneath the clamshell, there are some nuts. You just loosen those.

I don't remember the size. It took us 2 minutes to do it.

If you were good, and decided to stop operating the top as soon as the joint snapped, you might be in luck. Like Toolpants said, If the transmission are still in sync, you might be able to just unscrew the red ball joint and screw in a new one. Probably a 10 minute job. Of coure you can't buy the joint separately, that would be ridiculous. You need to buy the whole $45 set including the arm.

If you are close to Sunnyvale, you can swing by my place and I'll look at it. I can give you an idea what the cost of fixing it will be.

I now have a clue. After reading all of the postings regarding tops I found out that what happened is that the plastic joints in the push arm broke.  Are these easy to replace?  I can only find instructions on how to take them out but nothing on putting them back on.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the offer Jeff, I might have to take you up on that offer one of these days.

TP,

Where did you buy that tool to remove the spring band clamps? That would've saved me a lot of time when I did the water pump on my Explorer.

I'm planning on replacing the water pump on the boxster a few months from now. That looks like a worthwhile tool to have.

Thanks!

Hey Jeff, I have the Audi/VW cap. I will go ahead and get the new cap.

I drove around for 30 minutes today. I left the bleeder valve open to burp the system. I had no loss of coolant. The temp was normal.

Who did the tech session? I might give them a ring in case I need some work done to my car.

Thanks for all the help!

I'm assuming a hiss is good because pressure was allowed to build up? Well, I ran my car for a while to check if I see any leaks. I even removed the carpet to see if any drips will come from the reservoir. After 15 mins, everything is nice and dry.

I'm going to drive the car around to see if I lose any coolant. I'll let you know if I find a pressure tester that will work.

I know, I know. I wish I made it to that tech session.

I'm glad I didn't invite anyone. I didn't even make it to the top of the hill! It was very embarassing.

I'm praying that it was just a simple boil-over.

Hey TP, I'm trying to find if I can buy a pressure tester so I can do the pressure test myself, any suggestions? I'm hoping the stuff you buy from Kragen will work.

I just had my coolant boil over or at least I think it is. I was driving up Mt. Hamilton. The temp reached to the left of the 0. I stopped, and a minute after I stopped, the coolant light flash, there was coolant underneath my car. It came from the read passenger side.

I know I'm gonna get stoned for this, but let's remember that I was all the way up the mountain! Due to where I was, decided to wait for the car to cool down and re-fill the tank with distilled water. It took three tries to get all the air trapped inside out. I lost about a gallon when the tank boiled over. I drove the car all the way down the mountain. The temperature and water level was normal, so I decided to take the risk and drive it home. I plugged in my OBD-2 reader to get a digital raedout of the coolant temp while I was driving. It was normal.

I'm wondering, what sort of test should I ask the dealer to run to see if there was any long term damage from this incident.

This happened about 3 hours ago, I'm letting the car cool down and getting ready to check for more leaks.

My car doesn't do it, too. Jan. '97

Paul,

The first thing to check is the red ball joint. That usually breaks. If that's fine and your top is still correctly timed, ToolPants described a process in the Top section on how to shorten the cable. You pretty much removed the metal ferrule(?) cut some of the housing and re-install.

-Mark

Ah, now I know why you're not getting a response. We never had to removed that part when fixing the other tops. I'm afraid I can't help you there.

Hmm, this picture looks familiar. Wait, it's my car! =)

Hi CHris, I'm not really sure what you're referring to. Did you check http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1666 ?

The way ToolPants did it was wedge something between the the metal spring connector a bit and slide it off. There were no rivets that I could remember. He had a picture in one of the post, but i can't find which one.

I can't remember the size of the hex driver that you need, but since your buying a set, you should have that covered :) .

Good Luck!

The up a bit and down again behavior is normal. All tops do that, or at least mine does.

The switch signals that the clamshell is closed, it keeps going to seal.

Like I suggested above, I think if you shim something between the switch and the clamshell, the cycle will terminate earlier. Good luck.

_Mark

I'm not really sure what's causing your problem. I'm assuming you've repalced the cable, and everything is synchronized properly.

The only way I can think of making the running time shorter is by extending the switch on the motor so it gets actuated sooner.

Ok, this is a half-assed idea and I haven't tried it myself. So please take it at it's value. I would suggest that you place something on the edge of the switch so that it hits the clamshell sooner. Do a temporary mock-up, if it works I'm pretty sure you can come up with a more elegant solution. My $.02

Hi folks,

I've never timed a new transmission before. I would assume that the procedure is the same.

Put the Clamshell in the service position.

Use the motor or a drill to line the black arm with the joint.

Once both black joints are on, connect the red joint.

I hope that helps!

-Mark

Shojitsu,

Remember that word document I sent you? Verify that the switch connected to the motor works. I think that's responsible for registering if the top is open or close.

See you folks there!

Hi Everyone,

I'm free the 4th of April and the 17th or 18th. I'd love to look at Golfhom's car. Although his problem sounds like a different problem since he mentioned that the windows will not lower now. I guess we'll find out when we see it.

TP, Let me know if any of these dates will work for you.

-Mark

Hey TP,

Sorry, been busy. I was out of town last weekend so I wasn't able to work on cars.

Is Alienz local? If he is, tell me when you want to film the process.

So Alienz.. what did you buy? 450 sounds a littlesteep. The parts when I did mine cost $150. But if you bought a transmission($400 each) and a motor($150), $450 is a really good price!

Make sure that the black joint is snapped firmly in place, this might be causing your alignment issue. Also check the red joint.

So, when do we work on cars?

whoah this is weird, I thought I posted a reply last night. I was going to suggest what Marco said.

I looked at my car and it seems that you can disconnect the cloth cover(the one you remove when accessing the engine) from the inside. Once you do this, you can access the levers and do what Marco described. Also, I have a word document that's been zipped that may aid in diagnosing the problem.

If you don't hear the motor running, it may be an electrical issue. Send me a PM with your email address, so I can send you the file. Good luck!

great news, Marco! :clapping:

Thanks for the offer Toolpants,I finally found a website that might be selling back issues, they didn't have it available a month ago. I had to pay 5 bucks to ship it though, oh well. No biggie. If they come back and tell me they don't have it, I'll take you up on your offer.

I just want to see what's involved in replacing the clutch. I just want to know if it's something I can attempt myself.

Here's my problem, my clutch would judder sometimes at engagement in 1st or reverse. It doesn't happen all the time, probably 10% of the time. It's a really nasty metallic rattling. It doesn't slip in any gear or any RPM once engaged.

I'll call around for quotes, if it's reasonable I'll just have someone else do it.

Thanks Loren and Jeff!

I believe there was an excellence article on Boxster Clutch Replacement. I think it was the September 2003 Issue. Does anyone know if it's possible to order a back issue from the publisher. I can't seem to find their website! Thanks.