pomocanthus

Loren and other gurus, I know this is an old thread but a lot of good information in here. I recently got a good deal on some new staggered 18X8 and 18X10 with 225/40/18 and 265/35/18 mounted on them. These are the new Turbo design knock-offs which the sellers guarantees t Boxster fitment. Of course he didn't mention the need for spacers. In any case I want to mount them on MY99 Boxster. In looking at the TSB 4440 that you recommended, the table on page 4 mentions nothing about spacers for this setup. It does mention that Snow Chains cannot be fitted and there is also footnote 6 concerning parking brake cables. Am I missing something here? I KNOW I need some kind of spacers for the rears because when I dry-fitted them, the rims were right up against the struts (I replaced my struts w/ RoW030 if that makes a difference). I also found other threads here that other people used different size spacers (7mm) that are not called out in the TSB. I am looking for a little guidance on what I would need to make these rims fit properly and more importantly safely. Thanks in advanced for you help, Hung What are the offsets of the new wheels? Loren, I was told the offset is 50 and the guys at the tire shop insists that they've installed the same rims on Boxsters before. Unfortunately, I bought these online so I can't bring the car to these guys. I don't know if that's for all four rims or not. I couldn't find stamps of rim size or offset. Is it possible for both fronts and rears to have same offset? Thanks, Hung The front rears should have different offsets (on 18" wheels). If they are Porsche wheels they will be marked on the wheels. FWIW, I ended up adding 23mm spacers from FVD on the rears. The tires fill out the wheel wells much better now and I have about 10-12mm clearance to the struts. I have some H&R 7mm on order for the fronts although they seem to fit just fine w/o spacers.

Loren and other gurus, I know this is an old thread but a lot of good information in here. I recently got a good deal on some new staggered 18X8 and 18X10 with 225/40/18 and 265/35/18 mounted on them. These are the new Turbo design knock-offs which the sellers guarantees t Boxster fitment. Of course he didn't mention the need for spacers. In any case I want to mount them on MY99 Boxster. In looking at the TSB 4440 that you recommended, the table on page 4 mentions nothing about spacers for this setup. It does mention that Snow Chains cannot be fitted and there is also footnote 6 concerning parking brake cables. Am I missing something here? I KNOW I need some kind of spacers for the rears because when I dry-fitted them, the rims were right up against the struts (I replaced my struts w/ RoW030 if that makes a difference). I also found other threads here that other people used different size spacers (7mm) that are not called out in the TSB. I am looking for a little guidance on what I would need to make these rims fit properly and more importantly safely. Thanks in advanced for you help, Hung What are the offsets of the new wheels? Loren, I was told the offset is 50 and the guys at the tire shop insists that they've installed the same rims on Boxsters before. Unfortunately, I bought these online so I can't bring the car to these guys. I don't know if that's for all four rims or not. I couldn't find stamps of rim size or offset. Is it possible for both fronts and rears to have same offset? Thanks, Hung

Loren and other gurus, I know this is an old thread but a lot of good information in here. I recently got a good deal on some new staggered 18X8 and 18X10 with 225/40/18 and 265/35/18 mounted on them. These are the new Turbo design knock-offs which the sellers guarantees t Boxster fitment. Of course he didn't mention the need for spacers. In any case I want to mount them on MY99 Boxster. In looking at the TSB 4440 that you recommended, the table on page 4 mentions nothing about spacers for this setup. It does mention that Snow Chains cannot be fitted and there is also footnote 6 concerning parking brake cables. Am I missing something here? I KNOW I need some kind of spacers for the rears because when I dry-fitted them, the rims were right up against the struts (I replaced my struts w/ RoW030 if that makes a difference). I also found other threads here that other people used different size spacers (7mm) that are not called out in the TSB. I am looking for a little guidance on what I would need to make these rims fit properly and more importantly safely. Thanks in advanced for you help, Hung

Cloudsurfer, So if I have a wheel with an offset of 50mm and I add a 7mm spacer, it would bring the offset back to 43mm. Is that correct? I have 99 Boxster and got a great deal on a new set of Turbo knock-offs. The seller advertised that it fits Boxster as well as 996 but when I installed, the rears are right up against the strut. It was obvious that I need spacers so I am trying to figure out what size. The wheels are 18X10 ET50. The tires mounted on them are 225/40/18 and 265/35/18. The front seems to fit fine with no clearance issue. Thanks for your insight in advanced, Hung

Here is an example of where the offset is stamped into the inside surface of the wheel: Yours should have similar markings, but you may have to clean off brake dust and road grime to get a good look. Regards, Maurice. Maurice, So if I have a wheel with an offset of 50mm and I add a 7mm spacer, it would bring the offset back to 43mm. Is that correct? I have 99 Boxster and got a great deal on a new set of Turbo knock-offs. The seller advertised that it fits Boxster as well as 996 but when I installed, the rears are right up against the strut. It was obvious that I need spacers so I am trying to figure out what size. The wheels are 18X10 ET50. The tires mounted on them are 225/40/18 and 265/35/18. The front seems to fit fine with no clearance issue. Thanks for your insight in advanced, Hung

Thanks for quick response. Holly cow! No wonder Porsche is the most profitable car company.

Loren, MY06 S. Sorry to have posted in wrong forum. Hung

I'm looking for the seal/trim for the rear quarter window on the Cayman. Does anyone know where I can find it? Thanks in advanced, Hung

Door: The trunk and the hood releases on a '97 are mechanical, so those are unrelated to your dead battery or other electrical problems. Do a search here and you will find instructions on how to open the hood and the trunk without using the releases so that you can inspect the operation of the release cables. If both windows don't work, first check the fuses in the fuse panel located at on the left kick panel, just to the left of your calf when sitting in the driver's seat. If the fuses are okay, then it's either the switch(es) (unlikely that both went bad at the same time), or the central alarm control unit under the seat. There is also a 15 amp fuse located at the back of the control unit. Regards, Maurice. FWIT, when I have my car parked for more than 5 days the remote does not open the doors. After opening the door manually (using key and not remote) I found that the hood and trunk (what I thought were mechanical latches) wouldn't open either. Frustrated I just tried to start the car. After starting car and turning off, both latches were "reset" and I was able to open.

No blown engine that I know of. I just wanted to see what worse case scenario would cost me ... I drive home after handing over suitcase full of cash and the engine falls apart. I'm not sure why so cheap but I am heading over to look at car as soon as possible. It looks like a very good deal unless it just runs like crap.

I haven't had a chance to check out the car yet but pics look good. Not very much wear at all on the seats, coupled with the fact that approx. 20K miles per year implies that mostly highway miles. I will look at car this weekend and bring my trusty Durametric along. If all looks good then will get Indie shop to do complete checkout. I figure $30K + $10-$15K for engine replacement gives me a 997 with "new" engine and 2 years warranty; not bad considering you can barely get a 987S Cayman for that price.

Does anyone have an estimate on what it would cost to install a Porsche remanufactured 3.6 into a 997 Tiptronic car including labor? I am contemplating a MY05 997 with 66K miles for ~$30K but want to take into account the potential cost of total engine replacement.

I bought same headers on eBay from same seller over a year ago (for much more than what you paid). A couple of words of advice: make sure you tighten the cap on the "unused" O2 sensor ports before installing. I was so excited to install headers that I didn't check these and one fell off during morning commute; talk about LOUD. I also suggest that you spend an extra $30 to buy the OEM header to block gasket from your local dealer. The gaskets that come with the headers can be leaky. Other than this, it was worth the money. There was less of a backed up air sound and more of a whooosh everytime I accelerate. One more thing, be aware that these headers provide a challenge when you have to replace the thermostat. One of the tubes block straight access to one of bolts for the thermostat housing. I had to remove the passenger side header recently to replace my thermostat. I also bought a less restrictive muffler. It sounds better at high RPMs but between 2-3000 rpm, it sounds like a Civic with fart pipes. This also just happens to be rpm range at highway cruising speed. I am going back to OEM but using S exhaust because I hate the single oval outlet of the non-S muffler.

ebk Thanks for the writeup! You're not the ONLY one changing VR after coolant flush. I just did my Tip and followed same instruction to pull that darn fuse. After a short few hours, my battery died. Until now I suspected that somehow the Alternator died coincidentally. I will definitely be replacing VR this weekend if I can get part from local VW / Audi dealer. Thanks again; you have quite possibly saved me hours of fruitless diagnostics. Only downside, no good excuses to down the Vodka. Hung

Thanks Boxsterfahrer. I may have been off topic in my first post. This was the closest thread I could find for removing rear lower control arm (item #9). The boot on the bolt connecting to the hub is torn and I since I am installing ROW 030 suspension, I wanted to replace lower control arm also. Hence my question.

Loren, Is there a trick to removing the bolt (#12) holding the lower control arm to the frame? There is a notch cut into the threaded end of the bolt that matches the notch in the eccentric washer (#13). After the nut has been removed, can I simply but carefully pound the bolt out with a hammer? TIA, Hung

Loren, I'm not familiar with your terminology. Could you please clarify? "Stabilizer to side member" for the front ... is that the two bolts holding the bushing bracket? Also, what torque to use for connecting the transverse control arm to the car frame? The 2nd bolt (from the front) on Boomerang bracket in Terry's original question. TIA for your help, Hung

Fairly important. When mine went out, my coolant temp was consistently above 180 and several trip in bumper to bumper traffic resulted in leaking coolant. At the time I didn't realize that I could have turned on the AC and get the fans running at high speed. You run the risk of busting your coolant reservoir if you keep overheating and that replacement is a pain. I used crimp splices instead of soldering and they seem to be holding up just fine. I ended up removing the front bumper cover to get better access. The rnew esistor will come with a connector and as I recall, two of the wires on the existing (failed) resistor on the car had the same color so I didn't know which to splice. With the bumper cover removed, you can disconnect the connector and end up only splicing one wire to the fan (I think). Removing the bumper cover is fairly easy and you get a chance to clean your radiators as well. Trust me they need cleaning, oh and don't use high pressure water. Good luck, Hung

Thanks Loren. You rock! :notworthy:

Loren, Do you know if the kit number you stated above is also good for '99 Tip? Sunset tells me that there isn't a distinction between 5spd and tip, although I would think Tip should have stiffer rear springs because of higher weight. Others, Definitely be sure you check ALL your parts against Loren's list above. The kit I received had all same P/N except for one front strut which had P/N 996.343.041.16. Thanks, Hung

OK so I think I found the answer to my question. I figured I'd post it in case others were confused as well. The pic of the stock exhaust above (borrowed from another thread) is from a Box-S, which has the cylinders attached to each end of the cross-bar. I have a '99 Non-S which does not have the cylinders and only 2 instead of 4 fasteners near the top of the exhaust (item #29 in 1st pic below). I've hijacked pics from yet another thread that shows the differences between non-S and S exhausts. The first pic is a non-S and the 2nd is an S model.

So I'm digging through these old posts and need some clarifications. I recently bought a Dansk exhaust and want to know if I need an adapter to mount to my '99 Tip Box (non-S) or not. In the first pic, to remove my stock muffler I need to undo the 4 fasteners circled in orange correct? Is it possible that there are only 2 instead of 4 fasteners? I can only seems to find 2 by feel. Do the two cylinders to the outside of the orange circles remain on the stock muffler? I can leave the triangular adapter piece along with the upper crossbar attached to the car? In the 2nd pic, the top two bolts (circled in orange) on the Dansk muffler goes into two of the four holes on the upper crossbar (where 4 fasteners were removed in previous step) correct? Thanks for your help.

$1400 = front struts, shock stop plates, alignment, labor hmmm ... seems pretty pricey !!?#??

There are a few things that I can't DIY so I am bringing to a local indy shop for an estimate. My 99 Tip Box needs new suspension and also to have the ATF topped off (shifting 1 thru 4 is fine but 4 to 5 there is a little hesitation and slightly higher revving). After inspection, the shop told me that they can perform 90000 miles service which includes flush and replace trans filter for about $1100. They also said that my front struts are shot and they can replace (just the front) with Beilstein Heavy Duty for $1400 including labor. What do you think? Are these prices legit or are they trying to get me to pay their next mortgage? 1. I priced RoW M030 thru Sunset and the kit costs $1000 and in another post, Renntech members have said to expect anywhere from $750 - $1000 for install; so $1400 just for front Beilstein seems high 2. I didn't see ATF flush as part of 90K service list. I can do most of 90K service myself except for ATF flush because I don't have way to measure ATF temp. What do you think is fair price for just flushing and refilling ATF? Thanks in advanced for your help!!! Hung

pick out the applicable steps ... http://www.realtime.net/~rentner/Porsche/R...r/Radiator.html