mikefocke

Good news. Thanks for the update.

It is either going to be a 5 minute job in which case he will get grief for charging you some flat rate or an absolute bear where he will lose his shirt. Mechanics make money doing a flat rate job and doing it faster/better. Yours is a guaranteed labor intensive risky job where no mechanic will want to take it on because the probability of his beating the flat rate time alloted for r&r of a water pump is minimal. Most mechanics want to do the whole job from start to finish, not patch up somebody else's half done problem. Just as most mechanics don't want to use parts you brought in. They figure if they are taking responsibility, they want to source the part where they can get a new one from their normal local same-day supplier if it goes bad, not have a lift tied up while the problem part goes back through the owner and then to the internet source that originally may have supplied the bad/wrong part. This is part of the reason I divided my car maintenance tasks into those I can do with no risk (maybe have to buy a tool); those I could do and don't want to; and those that I have neither the tools nor expertise nor appetite for risk to take on. I farmed out the latter two categories to the best P-car mechanic I could find. Some could say I lost out on learning oppertunities. I'd respond my Boxsters were super reliable and very cheap to maintain. And when I didn't have such a mechanic I could trust, I sold em.

There are transplants from 996s and there are total rebuilds with new and supposedly improved parts that can go bigger in displacement. But the cost of the latter is probably more than selling yours and buying a newer car. Though it might be better. Options here.

There is a list or wrecking yards here and you only want to buy from the most reputable sources. But the horn issue is commonly reported and the "grommets" fix the usual solution reported.

Glad you have it sorted out and the cost is merely a new battery. Batterys fail on a bell curve, just like most other parts, some sooner and some later and most in the middle. Nothing special about the Moll battery Porsche bought and perhaps labeled but surely marked up.

Would the Merc's battery fit in the P-car? A several day trial and if it runs down too you know it isn't the battery (as both would have to be bad).

Listen to JFP, he runs a P-car shop. He knows. What it comes down to is battery or alternator or connections. A simple test is the load test on the battery after an external charge. If it passes, then it isn't getting charged sufficiently by the car's charging system (alternator/regulator). If it fails, then QED. Here is the sort of device that does the load test. JFP pointed me to one several years ago. If the regulator is the culprit, it is a Bosch and commonly used on lots of German brands (VW, Benz, etc) so is widely available. Bosch F 00M 145 350 And the sagas I read say the replacement is trivial, it is getting the alternator in and out (behind the panel behind the seats) that is a bear.

It takes about an hour for the drain on the battery to reach its low point. There is a table here that shows the progression from about a 900/1000s AMP draw down to 30/1000s for the early 986s. JFP may well have a more accurate figure for later years but notice the progression in the table as sensors and security systems go into deep standby mode where they check less often. Is 13.8 really low? I've seen other posts which cite 14.4 but more often or not the posts say that 13.8 is about right. At what RPM are you testing? Of interest is the voltage after 4 hours. Fully charge it, disconnect it and let it sit. Then test it. Lets see if it exceeds 12 volts then with no draw. You don't say how old the battery is or if you have ever done any maintenance on it. Given where your profile says you live ... the heat can be as tough on a battery as cold. If the battery is one that has any possibility of being opened to examine the acid/water level I'd look there first and use distilled water to fill it if low. And I'd clean the terminals and the clamps and tighten them down. I'd do the load test and the charging voltage test which require access to a special tool (about $100 US) but any mechanics shop should have one, and any place that sells batteries would too, I'd think. My bet is the battery is bad. You don't need a special Porsche-branded one. In the US there are dozens that work just fine. Just pay attention to the size and the CCA ratings. You may lose the setttings on the '03's windows when you swap the battery but the owner's manual has an easy no tools proceedure you can do to re-establish them. You have a MOST Radio so no need for radio codes. Good luck.

One reason you maybe aren't getting a lot of answers is this is the convertible top section (sub forum) of the forum. Cyl 1,2,3 are all on the AOS side of the engine. Could you have done anything that got them disconnected while you were doing the AOS. I'm assuming here you weren't getting those codes before. Plugs, Wires, Coil Packs

Yes the wind deflector and headrest inserts are stock and so the insurance company or wreckers are entitled to them. You could have CDs in the car too, that is one thing I couldn't get out of mine for some reason. Go over every storage comparment, under and behind the seats, etc. Take all your personal stuff.

And of course Maurice can give you instructions via the same web site for replacing the total canvas on the '97 frame with an aftermarket canvas with a glass window...smaller and a bit of a PITA to get access to the engine afterwards but clear and can have defroster in the glass.

Hardtops from '99 would fit on 986s 1997 thru 2004 US model years, yours may be different...lets just say any 986. But go to the shop and take out the "spinlocks" as they will be necessary if you are going to put the hardtop on a car that has never had one on it before. They were extra cost parts that the hordtop fit into and were under the clamshell that covered the bay that the top folded into. Off to the side. You'll be surprised how expensive they are.

I totalled my '99 Boxster too...my fault too. I know how you feel. I didn't think the damage to the front was really that bad.. Other car without a scratch...well really it was a truck. But when a P-car knowledgable shop started adding things up, I was amazed at how much sense it made to let the professionals scrap it for parts and pay me to get a new P-car without any possibility of frame damage, broken suspension bits, etc. My estimate, based on what it cost to fix my son's Honda was exactly 10% of what the P-car with seemingly less damage would have cost to fix. Insurance paid me more than I had paid for the car 6 months before. I bought a 2 year later S for the money. Unless you are a professional at auto restoration, don't let your affection for the P-car rule your thoughts. Take the money and go shopping.

Even an Actron or something similar might give you some codes to research.

You can clear the codes with darn near any code reader can't you?

Tops section of mikefocke's site. Google it.

Is it the MAF or a sensor that is sending a bad signal to the ECU? Is there a relearn after battery disconnect? Yes...pretty long and complicated involving multiple runs at multiple throttle points and other variables. Until then the ECU uses some presets. Are we sure that the Bosch MAF is the correct one for the model year you have? 0.280.217.007 sometimes sold as B3130-70627? Same as the original "bad one"? Any sense that the ECU has ever been flashed?

Must be someting about PA. Seems to me several years back I recall another 2 failure car from there, only you got 5 times the miles he did IIRC.

Look in the articles here since Maurice doesn't seem to be around in person recently. http://sites.google.com/site/mikefocke2/thetop-itsmaintaince%26replacement

Suggest posting on babblers, the bay area Boxster forum as you are mikely to catch a local there http://www.babblers.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5

You have to have loosened some connection with your maintenance is my theory. Do you have an amp in the front trunk near the battery? Did you disturbe some wires/fibre going between units? Connections at either end?

I'm wondering from the number of electrical problems if this car was in a flood.

Go back to Loren's first post. Find an expert Porsche mechanic with the correct diagnostic equipment, manuals and experience. Even having the Durametric sw/hw, you still have to understand the theory of operation, the diagnostic flow chart, and have the other diagnostic tools sometimes. And the experience to put it all together and not just shotgun parts. Sometimes there is no substitute for knowing how to do it right the first time. By all means do the simple things yourself, buy OEM parts, use a generic mechanic where appropriate but also know when the problem calls for the experience and equipment that only an expert can provide. My scan of the web says Jones might be the place I'd try.

So you have a sensor that isn't responding as quickly as a new one would (P0133), one whose signal is not within expected limits (bad sensor, bad wiring, bad ECU???) (P0150), a code showing your catalytic converter is suspect (How long has the CEL been on? Could it have dumped so much bad stuff into the converter that it fouled it?)(P0420), and the P1130 has multiple symptoms; Incorrect signal from MAF sensor Intake air system leaking Fuel pressure too low Volume supply of fuel pump too low Fuel injectors fouled Exhaust system leaking So lets ask a few basic questions... when did the symptoms start and is the car stock and has there been any work done on it recently? And the answer is you just bought the car and so there aren't any real clues. So you can shotgun parts starting with 2 O2 sensors which typically last around 60k miles. The previous owner may well have just ignored the CEL, removed the bulb to sell the car after giving it to the dealer after a test ride when it had all warmed up. And an accumulation of miles with non functioning sensors eventually dumped enough unburned gas into the cats that they are damaged. You can also look for air leaks into the intake system or out from the exhaust ssytem ahead of the front O2 sensors. See my article on O2 sensors and alternatives to the Porsche-branded parts. Or you can go to an expert Porsche mechanic (doesn't have to be a dealer) and have him help you diagnose the problems. Or go back to the guy who sold you the car and ask him to refund the sale due to the fraudulent emissions system tampering you discovered. Good luck documenting it.

You want the Porsche part for the updated Rear Main Seal. You want to know, for the InterMediate Shaft Bearing, if they are using a Pelican kit (like the original Porsche one as Porsche doesn't offer any IMS parts) or the LN kit. Once they have the work done to replace the clutch, they have easy access to the RMS and IMS so any labor change for doing those should take that into account.