tweety

Nice toy. Wanna trade? I'm down the street from you in Houston and it sounds like you are in the same boat that I was a few months back. Forget about the dealer as the only 2 in town will try and sell you on the EZ Care warranty. Look up and read about WarrantyDirect and ContinentalWarranty. I have Continental and from what I read about both of these companies, they are nearly the same in every manner from cost-coverage of parts-coverage of labor-complaints. Complaints on both of these companies are very very small. Both have solid underwriters and Continental's is on the stock exchange with old money (Great American Ins Co). The kicker with both is this: you must go at least 30 days and a specific amount of miles without using their claim service. Again like you, I waited until I was about 2-3 weeks out from the OEM going flat before making the call. They just don't want you to sign up and buy a warranty and then suddenly turn over a pre-existing issue. Mine was something like 500-ish down and 120-something per month for the next 18 months. It covers 100% of labor and will replace parts on the car with OEM parts. I think the term was 'direct replacement' or something like that. They cover other things like rentals and so on. Call on them and ask for them to give you details. Ask for Jonah if he is still there. Nice kid and not fast talking like a saleman to get you to buy TODAY but think about this...the longer you go in time the harder it will be to get some coverage.

Now while I am still learning about these cars I didn't take what he was telling me as being wrong. In fact, at first he didn't want to do the car because he didn't have the scanner and would have to ask for it elsewhere. He showed me the nearly new alignment machine and on the screen it was asking about the specifics of the 911 line...4s, PSM, and so on. I explained and pointed to the line that showed the PSM. He said that the car would have to be reset to know where the new settings were.

True or false. When getting the new tires on next week and needing a new alignment, I need to have the computer reset?!? I went to this shop that does upper end machines and the dude told me that he didn't have the tool to reset my machine when he was done.

We'll mark this as something NOT TO DO. I am sure glad that I wasn't on the track with you when you were doing this. I roadraced in CMRA which was our club racing and you may have been in WERA. If you had the 'feel' of a tire going down than you should of had the 'feel' that it wasn't the right way to run. Wow. Plugging a performance tire is good ONLY if you do it to get home and if you are in a bind. If you plan on running the car at any higher speeds then please do us all a favor and replace it. DE's and a plugged tire seem like a not so bright thing to combine.

Locate a local craft store of sorts and/or make a visit to the lock hardware store. Visit the section that works with bathroom products. They most certainly have some form of rubber seal that you can mold into place that won't dry out (daughter's toy will dry out).

You know, I can't knock Eric for his product since I too bought them for my car. But to think that all it would take is .50 per plug at the local harware store and a tube of touch up paint and clearcoat?!? What a concept! Then again it's one of those things where he thought about it and we didn't.

For my money and if I had waited longer for it to show up for sale, I would spend the money on a 2004 40th anniversary edition. Many non-porsche shops that take these in on trade think that it's just badging on the car and have no clue that the motor is not standard. So in some cases you can get even more car for the money.

Loren- How comprehensive is this information? Specifically if I wanted to have the wiring layout of my car. Is it worth the 110 bucks for the doc or is it vague like a Chilton's manual would be for other cars? In the coming weeks I will be putting in my own stereo and it may or may not be of value to me. What's your opinion?

2003 Targa, 6spd currently just over 25k previous owner: both front seats - recall tires - 7k 15k mile service me: RMS - 19k window guides - 19k head lamp washer - 21k battery, user error - 23k Some squeaks and rattles but otherwise functioning fine. This will be its first true summer in the south being that it was originally from CT. Curious to see how it handles the heat and traffic.

Thanks for doing that viper. Showing me this only makes me more irritated at Bose for being so pigheaded with the information. Like I mentioned, the speaker that I had pulled out had nothing on it at all. What I had located on my quest was that the speakers were 2 ohm. Obviously from the photo shown the information was wrong.

Yeah, maybe....but to me I can't really see the problem with the speakers I have now. Not being an audiophile nor having been in another p-car with different speakers, I really don't know what I am missing. It isn't like I won't upgrade before the year is out but I need tires before speakers and I already have the other toys in the que now. Spending a day or so putting in the new unit now while it is still spring will go over better than trying to do in a month from now.

When I pulled out the rear seat ones the other night I didn't see anything that was useful. It may have just been the one that didn't have anything on it and I didn't pull any others. I did find one and only one post on the net that spoke of the ohms per but there isn't any way of knowing if that would apply to my machine or not (03 model). What I found was that the fronts, door, rears were 2 ohm and the subs were 1. Now if I could know the Hz of each then I think I could be in better shape. Thanks for your help.

Talk about being stubborn people. In the coming weeks I will be pulling the OEM head unit out of my 03 Targa and putting in the AVIC Z1 or 2 and adding a JL 5Ch amp. At this time I want to hold on to the speaker due to the added cost. Now before getting on me about not doing the speakers let me add that I have a 30K check up coming next month and 4 new tires to put on prior to a May DE event. Tossing in another grand for speakers isn't in the plan this month. So I want to run this new stuff off the existing Bose that's in the car-right? The car came with the High End stuff which means more speakers. All I want from Bose is to tell me what each one does and what the rating is per unit. They won't tell me. What's the big secret here? When it comes time to tweak the amp to the speakers, it would be decent to know what they can take so not to destroy them. Sheesh!!! I have gone through page after page on this board and found many things RE: Bose but haven't found this specific answer as of yet. I have read enough and printed off nearly everything that I would need to do this installation myself but I don't have any experience with the fine tuning aspect and would like these numbers. Am I looking in the wrong places?

Well I just got mine done. The door speakers are Focal 165V3, 6.5 inch mid bass and the dash is 4" midrange with a 1 3/4" tweeters. Behind the seat is a set of 6" Scanspeak woofers in a custom box. I've also installed the Eclipse AVN 6600 Navi with DVD and Sirus radio. The unit sounds great. Had to move the AC control down to allow the Navi. I've also installed the Parot speaker phone. I works well as long as the car is not moving. Engine is too loud, don't waste your money on that. I'm using a Alpine PDX 4.150 amp to drive the speakers. The amp is setup as a 3 chanel using the 3rd chanel bridged to run the sub. I also installed a Ipod controler with the AVN 6600. The system works well and sounds really good. I have the cupholders above the head unit...From what I understand, you can remove the cupholders and then be capable of adding a double-din head unit. Question is...where do I find a fit-kit to surround/mount the new unit? I'm looking at the AVIC-Z2 by Pioneer I too am looking at the Pioneer. I talked to an installer this morning about what the car should or could have in it. Besides the Pioneer, he suggested a JL amp (300/4) and Focal Speakers. I don't remember which he talked about as the information all seems to be a blur. My question is if I need to change all the speakers in the car or just the ones listed in the previous post by HPaddict? Seriously now, just how hard of an install is this? I have tools, I have location, I just never did a stereo install before. I can get more toys for the car if I didn't have to tie up the car for a day or 2 for an install and especially if I get the parts online somewhere. It isn't about being cheap....nothing on this car is anyway....it's about not being ripped off.

The antenna if small enough should be able to fit forward of the security light in the recessed pocket on the dash. Aside from that, an installer I talked to yesterday told me that you could mount the antenna under the trim between the wipers. The trim will not interfere with the signal since it's plastic. Question that he couldn't answer for me that some of you may already know>>> What, if any problem is there with the onboard computer when installing an aftermarket unit like this? How does this aftermarket set up work with the Bose system in the car? My MY03 car came with the upgraded stereo but not the NAV.

May I jack into this thread please? This weekend I pulled the rims to do a cleaning and noticed some unusual wear on all 4 tires. The rears are in need of replacing soon and are smooth on the inside but according to this thread, the rear wear is normal. But the fronts....now the fronts have a wear pattern on the inside that looks like cupping to me. That would certainly explain the recent hint of shaking on some really smooth streets. The car doesn't pull left or right at all but can there still be some way for me to know when the aligment is off before seeing wear? (996 targa)

Being the skilled driver that I am, I put a nice 5-8" smiley on my rear rim tonight. Is there any way to derive the information off the pictures? It says Wurth, I got that, but what about the specific product so I can get it off their site and start my repairs? The tutorial matches the paint nearly perfect and his rims are the exact same as mine. Or at least they appear to be the same, CIII rims.

Or maybe the girl car has a thing. I've seen that kind of thing on the net once...maybe twice....on accident while looking for church services....!

Aside from obvious visual ques, what is the difference between the 997 and 996 Nav systems? I had seen a great deal on a full set up for a 997 system that came complete with disks, harness, cage, and drive system. The thing that caught my eye was that the shape of it looked a bit different but that the overall size was the same. 1. Would it connect up to a 996 console? 2. Would there be a different horseshoe to buy to dress it up? 3. Would the computer see it as a vaild system? I have a 2003 Targa.

Steve- Have you decided what to do with your front end yet?

I figure that now with the weather coming around more that I may be able to finally get some of the scratches out of the finish. Nothing major but it bothers me to see it. Thanks.

My toy color is called Meridian Metallic. It sometimes looks silver and sometimes looks a bit mauve-ish. I have 2 containers of 3M polish that I have used on my previous cars. One is for dark cars and the other is for light color cars. Where would mine be defined? Light or dark? Please answer if you have actually seen this color in person.

While my garage may not be perfectly level, as designed to allow water and such to flow out, it is level enough so that the car doesn't roll when not in gear or with th e-brake on. I will look into the stick length.

Okay so let me fill you in on what I did this weekend. It was a multi-pronged approach to try any and all suggestions and including those that matched the book. Saturday morning before turning the car over I checked the stick. Nothing on it at all, not even to the first notch. I turned the car over and waited for the idle to drop so I would know that it was warmed up enough to drive. Turning the car off I checked the oil again. Still nothing showing on it. Yes, the stick was pushed in all the way! So then I drove the car around from store to store looking for the correct weight listed in another thread and returned home. At this point the oil was very warmed up for sure. I checked it again. I got the jack stands out and lifted the car and supported it. This took about 20-30 minutes and then I checked the level yet again. Guess what? Still not a lick of oil on the stick. And no, the meter on the dash wasn't showing anything more than the single bar. The underside of the car was and still is dry at this point too. I drained the oil into my 9qt container. (I didn't need a filter since the oil/filter change was done in December when they fixed the RMS leak) The container was filled to the rim. 9qts of slightly used oil!!! I turned the car over to warm it up some and checked the level. There was some on the stick and slightly abover the first notch. Oh and looky-looky, the meter is working too. Is there some ghost that I didn't know about here? Now I don't mind doing this from time to time and it can never hurt to change out oil too early but it is a false sense of security when the methods of measurement are giving mixed signals. Side note: This was the first time in the last 3-4 months that I have owned this car that I had been underneath it. What a mess!!! That RMS leak covered nearly everything. I started to use Simple Green and a brush to clean the motor and surrounding bits but is there something that is faster and yet will not hurt any rubber or gasket areas?

Our Wally World has a place in the back to take the used oil-free. I got this 9QT container from WW some time back. It has 2 openings in the top to receive the oil and a threaded cap on the end to drain it. I fill up the container and cart it off to WW to dump it. No intermediate transport required.