Roadster 986

As a follow-up to the whine heard and referenced in this thread - today I completed rotor and pad replacement on all four wheels. Taking it out for a 40 mile shakedown cruise, I am happy to report that the whining noise is gone. I don't have a micrometer handy to get a good measurement just yet, but the rotors are probably worn ~ 1.5-2 mm each side (yes - out of spec). The ridge along the periphery of the rotor is what I believe caused the whining or “scraping” noise, as it wedged the pads into the wider groove worn into the rotor face. As for the brake job itself, let’s just say it is a joy to work on this vehicle.

This was interesting and timely information; my 02 has virtually the same symptoms. Mine seems to be on the driver's side; a whining noise that becomes noticeable around 25 mph on acceleration, and disappears at about the same velocity on deceleration. Just loud enough to be irritating in that I know something isn't quite right. A lot of searching this site previously had me thinking a bad air/oil separator, or as you had been suspecting a bad bearing. My first hunch, and the one that seemed the most plausible was brakes so I'm encourage learning that was what you verified to be the source. I had already jacked the car up, checked bearings for unusual feel or noise, and pulled the wheels to inspect the brakes but found nothing that seemed to indicate a problem. The pads are far from being worn down, and the rotors are only slightly grooved as you mention. I guess the AOS project can be put on the back burner, and brakes moved forward – thanks for the follow-up!

Having just installed the PNP rear speaker kit, my guess is you would be disappointed with option 1. And as for your description of option 2, the rear speakers would still be disappointing. In my Boxster, to hear the rears at speed powered by the CDR220 head unit the fader needs to be set so much to the rear that the front and door speakers are barely audible. I was looking at that same Blaupunkt THA275 amp from Crutchfield, and plan on using it for the rear speakers, leaving the stock front and door speakers powered off the head unit. I’d even recommend going that route first, before replacing the dash and door speakers. Live with it a while, and see what you really want to hear… for me it really is that sweet note only the Boxster can produce--at about 6,000 RPM--but, sometimes rock & roll is a nice touch!

Try 1266 or 1264 Loren - Turns out the 1268 was correct, thanks for helping to verify.

Loren - If you could please look up another radio code. Preparing to install PNP speaker kit, did not get a radio code card with the (used) vehicle; although "1268" is hand written on the option sticker under the hood. Would like to verify before proceeding. 2002 Boxster 2.7 5 speed manual US Becker CDR-220 Type 4462 Serial # 15005474

I've done a little searching and found some standard fonts, and other readily available freeware add-ons that are close, but not exact. Blazing and Bradley Hand ITC are close, but no cigar; Viner Hand ITC is my favorite, but it was unfortunately not available for my project - But WhisperWrite (a third party font readily available via search engine lookup) is probably the closest match I've seen. With some modifications via font spacing, italicizing, and bolding these fonts can be made fairly passable, but certainly not exact matches. My search was for the purpose of selecting a font for the folks at http://www.signnetwork.com to use for creating my "Tschüß!" (bye-bye!) custom spoiler lettering. :P

Cheap being relative ... OK - gave it another try before deliberate destruction, and managed to get the driver side clamshell pushrod off from the V-lever. Used several pry bars, modified one with a notch to work (but it didn't), and ended up using an open end wrench to pry directly underneath the ball end. Now for the troubleshooting; 1st off I see no plastic whisker on my limit switch for the clamshell to contact telling the motor it is at the end of travel, just the metal spine down inside the plastic housing. Ah-ha - there is a connector to the driver side transmission that seems to have replaced the whisker perhaps? Without it connected, the motor would not run. Reconnected temporarily, and verified motor got voltage, and ran both directions. Found root cause of problem to be the passenger side cable (Chris_in_NH was absolutely right), it was nearly frozen up in the sheath, and would barely turn when forced with a wrench across the flats of one end. Ends were twisted, probably more so during the laboring I was noticing on recent top up/down exercises. Looks like all it will take is a new set of cables and I'm back in the fun part of Boxster ownership (i.e. my wife can drive it again).

Cheap being relative I'm hoping to avoid breaking something more expensive than parts that can readily be replaced without much cost or time. This post by Tool Pants on 6/3/07 indicated the potential to break the V-lever using a pry bar to pop the tie rod ends, I’d rather sacrifice a $12 part to avoid destroying a $41 one. Using a lot of force already, with a lot of metal flexing but nothing coming unglued yet. I suspect the cables as well, just having a bit of an adventure in getting to the point of determining that for sure. I was wondering about the operating sequence; seems it should have been easy to utilize the limit switch for full extent up and down to disable power to the electric motor. Not entirely positive, but I think the light may have gone off and then come back on when raising the top the other day, without disabling the motor. I had to wonder when reading the owner’s manual in more detail (afterward, of course) and finding that the instructions state “operate rocker switch continuously until indicator light in the instrument panel goes off”. Maybe that was just the technical writer’s way of explaining what the controls are intended to do. I was following the thread on the Bentley service manual for the Boxster, guess I'll order one of them up so as to have some wiring diagrams from which to cipher out the intended logic behind the hardware.

Well, it seems I too have found that the convertible top can be temperamental. I've searched the posts in this forum folder, and they have provided me with a great deal of knowledge, but I am left with a question as to the least-cost method to proceed in repairing my non-functional top. Here is a brief history as to the symptoms; the electric motor had seemed as if it was laboring somewhat, although with the car new to me there was no point of reference to know if that was unusual. The top had over-traveled when putting the top up day prior (it approached the latching position, and while still holding the button in the same position, the top reversed travel). That was operator error, the rocker switch button was held in past the point of the indicator light going out, The top was immediately reversed by toggling the rocker switch and latched up. The top had been lowered again, and later put back up after that without incident. On lowering the top today, a pop was heard on the driver’s side, and I took visual notice of things not being right. If viewed from centerline of vehicle; the driver side V-lever top side connected to clamshell strut is at about the 1:00 position, and the driver side of the clamshell fully closed. Again viewing from vehicle centerline, passenger side V-lever was probably more like 12:00. Passenger side of clamshell was open about 3". After consulting several of the posts about top problems here, I proceeded to attempt popping the clamshell tie rod ends off from the V-levers. I managed to get passenger side off without much trouble, but the driver side is stubbornly refusing, as it is under significant tension. The passenger side of the clamshell now rests about 3/4" from closed; the convertible top appears to not be fully retracted and is obstructing further travel of the clamshell. Force has been applied in various manners to free the driver side pushrod from the V-lever, but not wanting to break things just yet I decided to yield before some expensive part does. Hoping to be smarter than the machine, I supposed that operating the top via the rocker switch to raise it only momentarily would relieve the tension the driver side clamshell tie rod, but that is only providing brief, minute motions of the driver side V-lever, and nothing from the passenger side. I suspect that is a strong clue as to the real problem, but I am getting ahead of myself in attempting to diagnose that without first being successful in removing the driver side clamshell V-lever tie rod end, I've thought about removing the clips on the opposite end of the clamshell strut, but my fingers aren't quite that long. I've also noted that the strut is very close to, if not already contacting the guide arm (98656155101), which seems reasonable considering it is in the closed position, perhaps even a bit beyond. Any thoughts on an approach that offers a bit of finesse to get past this roadblock, or is brute force and potentially breaking things just the way it is? If so, I’m thinking the ball pin (98656168900), at $11.96 is expendable, and using a sawsall on it while taking care to vacuum up the filings while cutting might just be the sensible approach.

Thanks; got it to clear for now & bookmarked the DIY fix.

I'm new to the car, Durametric, and this forum - so please excuse my asking if I am missing the obvious. Using Durametric to diagnose an airbag light failing to extinguish, I found: 3 "Supply voltage" 46 "Belt Buckle Driver" Not wanting to leave well enough alone, also finding under Instrument Cluster: 9130 "Power Supply" 9150 "Spoiler Control" And under Alarm: 42 "Wrong key or wrong transponder" frequency 31 60 "Central locking limit position" frequency 127 33 "Interior Sensor faulty" frequency 22 54 "Tilt sensor not in idle position" frequency 15 21 "W lead (DME immobilizer)" frequency 1 61 "Central locking limit position, unlock not reached" frequency 1 Never have locked the car yet, might try that now to verify no problems there as I've found some posts referencing that along with the (60) and (61) codes. Airbag light on is what I bought the Durametric software to address, I thought the (46) buckle problems had been rectified in the MY2002, but I suspect that may be a relatively easily verified/corrected issue. The (3) and (9130) codes, might they simply be due to the ignition key was switched on and engine not running? The (9150) code seems insignificant, maybe a position sensor? Spoiler works manually and in response to speed as advertised. Using the links from within Durametric, I get a “Sorry there is no additional information on this error code” to each hotlink. Is there an available resource that might shed more light on what each of these codes represents? 2002 986 2.7 33,600 miles, Guards Red/Savanna Beige