trygve

All finished -- it works fine once again! I was glad to find that connecting the new cable to the transmission was very easy. I recall seeing another thread here that described having to use pliers to remove the old cable from the worm gear because it's a very tight friction fit, but I did not find that to be the case; the cable simply pulled out just as it did at the motor, in fact in retrospect I don't think it was necessary to remove the gear cover. The only thing that was unclear to me is what keeps the cable pushed fully into the transmission. There seems to be enough tension on the cable to hold it in place, but nothing mechanical like the U-clip that holds the other end tight at the motor. (Or did I miss something important?!) One other thing to mention. I'd left the key in the ignition and switched on long enough while working (2 hrs?) and run the motors a few times, to the point where the battery was dead when I finally went to start the car. Left the trickle charger in overnight and it charged right back up. But it's worth noting that the motor draws a lot from the battery, especially at the end of travel, so be careful about using it too much on its own. Chris, thanks a lot for the helpful information on this and other threads!

I received the replacement cables from Sunset Imports yesterday, and will replace this weekend. Sunset's prices was about $25 per cable (compared to $50 at the local Porsche dealer), and quick delivery for under $10.

That's weird. I assumed the lever stays up until the clamshell pushes it down -- is the lever simply pushed down, or not there at all? (Maybe a spring pushes it back up and is not doing the job?) Your unraveling cable strands look just like mine.

Following up on the same topic... I had the transmissions and cables replaced a few years ago after having the stretched cables syndrome. The other day I heard some weird groaning from somewhere back there as I was putting the top up upon arriving home. I stopped it immediately and saw the clamshell raised not quite evenly. I disconnected everything per the Bentley manual's "emergency manual top closure" procedure -- disconnecting the two arms on each side, and manually raising the top. When I went to inspect everything this afternoon, what I see suspicious is this: The little braids in the cable seem to be tearing away from the square core. This makes it difficult (but not impossible) to engage the retainer clip because the cable head protrudes just a hair too far. Chris, since you seem to have expertise on this, do you think this unraveling could cause uneven motion of the two sides that just happened? My inclination is to replace this cable (or both). It doesn't sound from the Bentley manual like that's very hard (remove the transmission, r&r the cable there, then reassemble). I tried driving the cable with a drill and it seems to move OK on its own, but that doesn't mean it's turning with the same force as the other side. flickr

Well it's possible we're talking about two different things (or things that are different per model year; mine's a '98), but when we did my suspension changes we had to remove the front underbody tray to r&r the sway bar, and I distinctly recall those six or so clips being metal and we re-used them. I recall them being roughly the size and shape of a stick of chewing gum with about 1/4" to 1/2" of each end bent at a 90 degree angle.

If you mean the big flat center front underbody panel, held in place by metal clips (about 1" x 2" if I recall), those clips do not break when you pull them off. Just pry at one end of the clip with a small screwdriver until it unhooks, then do the other side if needed.

Yep, it is completely plug-and-play. You might want to get a few spare plastic clips, in case one or two break. I think there are fewer than 10 of them, holding the wheel well liners in place. As Jeff says, you will want the non-tiptronic version of the 996 bumper so that there is no open hole in the center (it should be black plastic where the hole would otherwise be). That's what I got, although I later cut out the center bezel section when I installed the center radiator. Before cutting center out: link After cutting center out and installing center radiator: link

I find the aspheric mirror useful. I think it does reduce the blind spot. For the first day or two with it, it was weird, almost like I couldn't focus correctly, but then my eyes got used to it and I have no problems with it at all.

Mark, I have had what seems to be the exact same problem on my '98 986 for over 3 years. A very slow PS fluid leak that shows up as wet oozing where there is a hose connecting to the PS rack in front of the driver, about 12" or so inboard of the front wheel. I just have to top up the reservoir every few months. May I ask about how much the parts and labor were? When I first went to the dealer for this they ordered a new high pressure PS hose, then said it was back-ordered, then lost the order, then dropped the order, etc. When I went back for regular maintentance a year later and said "hey, what about that PS hose?", the guy said it's so expensive that I should consider just living with the problem. I don't trust those guys any more. So I'm wondering what your actual cost was. Oh wait, MY2005, I'll bet you had it fixed under warranty!

The growling noise is symptomatic of low PS fluid level (and likely a leak, perhaps a slow one). To top it up, take off the engine cover and you'll see the filler cap at the very front in the center. Be careful to only add an ounce or two at a time before re-checking the dipstick, because the dipstick is short (it may appear "dry" with a small loss, which can be enough to start the growling). I belive the entire PS system capacity is about 1L. --Trygve

This is the best place to go: The SCCA High Performance Driving School at Thunderhill in Willows. A pretty easy drive for you from Roseville. The price is about as good as it gets, and you get a full day of lapping sessions with an instructor riding with you the whole time. Looks like there is a class on June 6 with space open. Having said that, you should check to see if they'll accept the Boxster. They did before, but I see they have new language regarding restrictions on convertibles.

That's indeed the part. It's brown plastic on one end and black on the other. Twist 90 degrees and then you can pull it out. It's kind of a pain to get to with your hands because there's so little space. If I remember correctly, I think you can temporarily move or remove that black plastic part with the swiss cheese holes in it. When my brake contact switch went bad, it turned out that the inside was gummed up with grease and dirt, making the electrical contacts not work. My brake lights would just give one faint momentary flicker when I braked.

Several of us have installed the Sparco Evo and Sparco Evo 2 seats, so it's a tried-and-true install for the Boxster. They're very nice seats. The Evo fits probably most people; the Evo 2 is needed by larger folks (it's an inch wider or something). You can get it for under $600 bucks. There are at least a couple of different ways to attach the seat to the floor. I chose to get the Sparco sliders (so I can slide the seat fwd and back), and got the Brey-Krause floor mount adapters that work with them. Now the whole thing comes out as a unit, with 4 bolts, just like the factory seat (same holes, same bolts), so it's not too bad to swap seats. You can also omit the sliders and get the other Brey-Krause floor mount adapters, and that should give a little more headroom. Total cost for mounting hardware is probably under $200. You can bolt your BK lap belt adapter to the seat. I think you can get out the door with a total cost of under $800. I notice you're in the Bay Area. Don't forget that in GGR a race seat may bump you up into a different autocross class and prevent your car from being competitive! I forget if that is currently the case, but it used to be. The GT3 seat sure is nice looking (love that leather) but the price is ridiculous!

I removed the door panel to replace the window motor/regulator and documented the process. Here is the link to my page on r&r'ing the window motor/regulator, with some info on removing the door panel: power window repair and door panel removal Here is the site where I found some more good detailed pictures for removing the door panel. A couple of things were slightly different on my car, and I described those on my page linked above. door panel removal pictures

Quite a few of us who take our Boxsters to the track have installed the Brey-Krause rollbar extension. How it looks is subjective. It's easy to install...20 minutes maximum, less once you know how. Two bolts on top, two bolts for the shoulder belt brackets, 4 more for the sides. The optional padding kit, or something like it, is VITAL. It would be very dangerous to drive without padding, because the roll hoop brackets are right behind your head and in a minor rear-end collision you would be asking for a cracked skull. The center windstop will fit with the extension on, but the hoop wind screens will not unless you cut them to fit around the bracket. (Of course, when you remove the extension, everything fits back in place.) Here is a page of mine with photos and more information than you need: More B-K Roll Bar Extension Info

The most you're likely to get out of the stock suspension is -1.0 degree in the front, if that. So on stock Boxsters you are not "seeing" more than that. If you lower the suspension you can get more negative camber in front. For the street, -1.0 is probably fine. For the track, more negative camber is desirable (-1.5 or even "more") for nice even tire wear and a flat temperature profile.

John, the Prof is correct, brake pad replacement on the 9x6 is easy if you mechanically cable enough of removing the wheel. I have a detailed set of information at the link below. It's oriented to the 986, but the differences in the 996 in this case are solely in the part numbers, and perhaps related to what kind of vibration dampers are used. So if you get the right pads, the rest of the info should be accurate for you. http://www.bombaydigital.com/boxster/projects/brakes/

Update: Just finished putting the new switch in. It's a little uncomfortable to crawl under the steering wheel on my back, and get my head and arms into a workable position in the footwell, but mechanically very easy. The old switch comes out with a quarter twist, then pull. Then you can more easily unplug the connector. Putting things back, I found it worked if I put the switch itself in first, and then plugged the cable in. When I tried w/ the cable plugged in first, I was unable to get enough force to push and twist with my fingers in the tiny space. It's a 5-minute job. The switch was a little under $20. There are two strange things about the part number, although in the end they don't seem to matter. First is that the part that I got has 3 different part numbers imprinted on it! They are: 996.613.111.01 996.613.113.01 996.613.114.01 Second is that the parts catalog shows that two different parts are required depending on whether you have a Tiptronic and whether you have cruise control. And yet, these two part numbers are both imprinted on the part I got (I guess they figured out how to make one part that works for all three cases, and that was not originally true?). The guy at the parts counter said there is another part with a red collar instead of brown. Here's what the parts catalog says: 996.613.114.01 - for manual transmission (M481) with cruise control (M454) 996.613.113.01 - for tiptronic (M249) with cruise control (M454) 996.613.113.01 - for manual without cruise (my car) (Looks odd, but that's what it says.) And finally, I took apart the old switch and the mechanism is dead simple. Pushing the pedal just makes the contacts...make contact. There was some greasy gunk on the contacts, probably whatever lubricant they use, gone bad from dirt. A good cleaning of the inside was probably all it needed. Worth a try if your switch goes bad. Thanks for the help. :beer:

Thanks for the quick reply, Tom! That's great to know.

I have a flaky brake pedal switch -- my brake lights usually just flicker once, momentarily, when I press the pedal. I can wiggle the switch or hold it tight to one side, and sometimes that will get it to work better for a few presses, but then it gets flaky again when I drive. So I'm pretty sure the switch is bad. My question is (since it is very hard to see under there, and I probably won't see how things are really hooked up until I remove the seat and really crawl under there!), if I get a new brake pedal switch, can I replace it with "reasonable" ease, or would I have to remove and disassemble the whole brake/clutch pedal assembly? I'm hoping that the switch comes off the pedal assembly without having to remove the pedal assembly. Thanks, Trygve

I'm in the process of replacing the power window motor/regulator on my '98 Boxster. I got used replacement parts from a salvage place for less than half the cost of new parts. After taking the door panel off and getting the window glass out, I took out the old machinery and prepared to put the new ones on. The used parts came together -- motor/regulator as one unit. But it seems like the new regulator is about 6" too short on the cable length. There's just no way I can get the cable to thread around all 4 pulley wheels at the rail ends. Any 3 are OK, but then there's not enough length in the cable to reach the 4th pulley, by quite a bit. I can see that the two springs next to the motor compress an inch or so each, but that's not enough slack. I figured out how to separate the motor and regulator, and verified that my old motor is fine (plugged it in and ran it), and that it's just that a plastic part on the regulator broke and caused the cabling to get tangled up and damaged inside the cable housing. So fortunately I should be able to just buy a new regulator (without a new motor) if I can't get this regulator cable to reach. Any suggestions on how to get the cable to reach? I'm thinking maybe there's a trick to it. I looked inside the new regulator's cable housing and it looks pristine and neat, so I don't see how there would be more cable length/slack from it. I guess if you've done this you can picture what I'm talking about, if not then this will make no sense! Anyway, I'm stumped. Thanks, Trygve