grover

...but if anyone else can shed some light please do...pardon the pun.

Tomorrow, I'm changing out the differential pinion seal on my camaro. I harbor no preconceptions that it will be anywhere near as easy.

Car is stiff enough to jack up one side then stick the jack stands under the proper places and then go to the other side.

I am jacking the car up on the rail under the car. Just cut up a hockey puck and it works great.

4 ramps or 4 jack stands - you really only need to raise the car a few inches for an oil change.

Once, I was able to get both right wheels of my lawn tractor up on ramps to get to the blades easier, but that also involved lifting up the lawnmower to put the ramp under the rear wheel. I don't think I can lift my Porsche...

Yes, it's possible... isn't removing the ball joint what you were trying to do in the first place? The procedure is just like Highlander posted on page 1, using the tool everyone was pointing you towards. You'll have to grind off the bent part of your old ball joint, too, I think. You need a ball joint removal tool, and when you apply enough pressure (and WD40) it pops out. Then, another special tool + more pressure inserts the new ball joint. It was $10 for a new ball join the last time I had to change it on a domestic, so probably about $200 for this one ;)

20-21mpg on 93 octane here in my 04 Boxster S (Virginia, US).

Every time I think about just taking it easy, I have to remind myself that I'm not only driving a Porsche, but that I paid extra for the bigfer engine and wouldn't want to feel like I'm wasting my hard-earned money ;) Anyone who's getting more than 25mpg (US gallon) is either making an error on their math, or driving it wrong!

Since the fronts are part of the headers I have a couple of suggestions:

1. Replace the front cats and headers with clean stainless headers and hook them up to new rear cats and the existing.

2. Replace the front cats and headers with new cats and headers, install the rear cat bypass pipes and connect to the existing exhaust.

3. Replace the front cats with turbos :jump:

The back wheel reads 8.5 and 48

The front wheels read 7 and 55.

Sorry, couldn't resist ;) Porsche went to exquisite pains to give the Boxster perfect 50/50 weight distribution for incredible performance and handling... and then proceeded to spec out stock wheels and camber to make it plow like a front wheel drive sedan. Makes it safer that way; less likely to fly tail-first over a cliff.

Without getting too deep into the physics of it, wider tires grip better when cornering than narrow tires. So, if you're driving your Boxster really fast around a corner, Porsche designed it so the front wheels (205mm wide/0 camber) will start slipping before the rear (255mm wide/-1.5 degrees camber). This way, if you skid, you skid straight ahead. It's nice and predictable and the anti-lock brakes will help you steer. Whereas if the rear tires lose grip first, the car will want to spin. Which is good for racing, and fun for drifting, but bad for lawyers, I suppose.

Have you bought the Bentley manual yet? If so, turn to page 44-1 :) If not, WHY NOT??

Narrow tires also resist hydroplaning better, so they're safer in the rain as well. Oh, and be mindful of the offsets; you need to use different spacers if you change wheel sizes (for instance, if you use the spare tire) to keep the tire from rubbing in the wheel well during suspension travel. It's all in your owners manual and the Bentley manual.

Sumitomo HTR Z III seem to be pretty popular right now- comparable to Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 in performance, and much much cheaper.

I race autocross and wanted the fastest tires I could buy. So, I just put Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs on my 04 Boxster S... and the grip is absolutely incredible! They're noticeably louder than my old tires, though. Which, honestly, is just music to my ears, especially when they're singing in the hard corners ;)

Started right up today with battery charger in "start" mode. Again showed 14.25 vdc. I took battery to Parts store where purchased 1 year ago. Load meter shows only 62 cold cranking amps on a battery rated for 875 CCA. 12 volts dc present. Parts girl said no shorted cell. Said problem with something in car draining battery. I am thinking otherwise.

Suggestions anyone?

Other possible thing to check:

1) If this is a flooded wet cell (oppose to AGM), what's the electrolyte level of the battery? Did you overcharge it and drive off too much water? If so, you might be able to bring it back by adding more distilled water to bring the specific gravity back to spec.

I've the same problem too with my 986 Boxster S Tiptronic RHD 2004! Tried most of the tips from this forum but still keys won't work! Central lock works if I depress the button on the dash. Remote LED blinks. Alarm goes off after a while from manually opened door( when key is not quickly inserted into the ignition). When door is unlocked manually, passenger side door is still locked. I need to close driver side door to unlock passenger door. Bought car from non-Porsche used car dealer 3 months ago No IPAS! Getting really frustrated now as this is my 1st ever Porsche & the remotes are not working! Any real success stories other than going to Porsche as they'll not entertain me as car was not bought from them!

To update (04 Boxster S), I bought the Star Specs, 225/45-17 front and 255/40-17 rear. Autocrossed it over the weekend and WOW, what a difference! It drives like a completely different car now. The understeer is gone, replaced by just enough oversteer to help rotate through the corners, and I can really feel the difference in grip over the "old" BFGoodrich g-force sports she had on when I bought her. I went from 50th percentile every race last year to 6th fastest raw time (out of 76 ppl) in the club, and just 4.8 hundreths of a second from a top 10 PAX finish.. Of course, it was pouring down rain and the tires were brand spankin' new which helped (my class assumes r-comps), but still, I am VERY happy with the Dunlops AND the wider front tires :) I gave the PSM quite a workout, too, lol... Never had to worry much about oversteer before!

Now all I have to do is figure out what pressures to use... and how to drive better! :drive:

edit: somehow wrote 255/55-17 rear tires and didn't catch it... I went 20mm wider up front, but did stick with stock 255/40-17 rear dimensions.

I heartily recommend Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec. They'll still wear out after 10-12k miles (any tire worthy of going on a porsche will), but you'll be much faster ;)

Sumitomo HTR Z III are also supposed to be pretty good for the money. They have a higher tread wear rating, too. They're relatively new, so not too many reports yet of tire life.

I researched boxsters to see which are most reliable and least likely to have repair issues and found that the 1999 and 2003 boxsters are the most reliable, I did this research in October 08. One of the sites where I found what I think is excellent unbiased info was at www.consumerreports.org, if anyone knows of other sites for unbiased car ratings please post. But as stated earlier each individual boxster should be carefully inspected and evaluated. I also found that reading the car computer for engine abuse is a good idea, you dont want an abused engine, a good tool that I bought after buying my car to look at the codes if any, and to check the engine is the Durametric Diagnostic Tool. You can read about the Durametric here at renntech on some other threads. Good Luck.

986Wheelz

Generally speaking, the newer the car, the better it is. Porsche found and fixed more and more problems and steadily improved the design as time went on.

Excellence does an excellent article on this every year; I'd highly recommend tracking the most recent one down.

I hear there's a guy in your area who has one wheel to sell that matches your other 3!! maybe you can find him and buy it from him?

The PS2 will grip better than the A/S in most conditions, and will oversteer under the hardest cornering. The A/S will provide better grip in the snow and the car will tend to understeer when it gets slippery.

Basically, the car will exhibit the worst characteristics of both tires. Which really isn't that bad in this case, but still. Why not just use PS2s? You can't drive in the snow with PS2s up front anyhow, so there's little drawback.

Got tired of waiting and went exploring again.

The short answer: Yes there is an intake extension behind the grille that is removable and is tapered, presumably to restrict airflow. If you yank on that extension, it does in fact pop off and you're left with a larger intake hole. Going to go for a spin (to buy a torque wrench so I can snug up my lug bolts for tomorrow)... will update on whether it made any difference.

Speaking of which, where can I get one of those cigarette lighter things with a 9V that you can use while changing a battery so the DME and radio and all don't reset? I don't remember ever seeing them, is it something a typical chain auto parts store will have?

Thanks again. First perf. mod will be the Evo intake. :D

Signed up for my first autox this weekend, too. Looking forward to that!

If you really get into autocross, be aware that any mods you make will knock you out of stock class, and into the same class as the race-prepped corvettes and 911s. If you're driving for fun, it's not an issue. But if you get good, you'll find you won't be as competitive as you would have been stock.

FYI: cone rash buffs out pretty easily. I've started putting painter's tape along my front bumper so that I don't have to worry about it, though.

Charles and Jake have spent thousands of their own dollars to come up with solutions to improve these engines. The have hundreds of oil analysis samples that prove fuel intrusion begins at the 6 to 7k mile point. I know I am a "parrot" repeating their claims, however, with all the evidence they possess, why would I not believe their recommendations? The way Porsche has handled this matter, they are the last source I would trust.

The Bose sound system is very good; it sounds excellent, even with the top down and at high speeds. As much as I like the sound of the engine, it does get rather tedious after a few years of hearing the same song over and over ;) I added an FM transmitting mp3 player to mine, but would love to do that satnav/DVD install, too...

One very easy mod is to increase the camber of the front wheels as negative as it will go. Between this and good tires, it will make a lot of difference in cornering performance. Lowering the car will decrease CG and allow increased negative camber, too. You're not going to be able to lower it all that much, though; it's already a very low car.

For any significant engine performance mods, I think it's going to be far cheaper just to sell the Boxster and buy a Boxster S or C2S.

You have quoted Porsche correctly but what they say is misleading

The 15k service interval is recommended only for "normal driving conditions" which may be defined as moderate temperature long road trips in non-dusty conditions.

"Severe conditions" is what most of us drive in, a mix of in-town, hot and cold, stop and start driving with a few longer runs. Under those conditions, the recommendation for shorter intervals comes from Porsche (owner's manual), the "experts" and many owners.

The "experts" who recommend shorter intervals are recommending 5k or every year. The "experts" are those who tear into the internals of the engines to see why they fail, who have engineered solutions to design problems our M96 engines have and who have extensively tested our engines.

The failures in these engines suggest that Porsche and many owners are maybe not changing their oil frequently enough, not using the most effective oil filter, not using anything to trap iron particles, AND MAY NOT BE USING THE MOST EFFECTIVE OIL.

I'd prefer to invest about $60 a bit more frequently to avoid a catastrophic failure and having to spend $17K to replace the engine.

While I don't doubt that more frequent oil changes are prudent for some, doesn't that more apply to those who are actually racing their cars?

2mm total, but I think I messed up my math so that's probably N/A.

I just got back from a corner weighting session with the local autocross club, which was far more theory than DIY, extremely interesting, and got into a lot of the alignment stuff. Turns out a lot of the other guys in the club do their own alignments like this, too, and tweak it constantly as they drive & adjust.

Anyhow, I gave checking it a shot today :) I have 0 front toe (less than 1/32" at least), which matches the alignment done 8k miles ago (0.01°LF and 0.02°RF, both toe-in). My DIY camber measurements different, though; I measured -0.8°LF and -0.3°RF which differ considerably from the alignment record (-.2° and 0.0° respectively). I did just top off my gas tank today, though, so this is likely reflecting slightly higher loading than normal for a static alignment on raceday when I try very hard to consistently start with 1/4 tank. Or they may have shifted since alignment, hard to say.

If I have 0 toe on the street with 1/16-1/8" (?? what's the sweet spot?) for racing, I'll be thrilled. But from what you and others are saying, I might as well just set my car with camber to the max (-1° or thereabouts), neutral toe, and just leave it alone after that as camber in this range isn't terribly abusive to tires. I'm shifting to slightly larger tires in the front (225 vs 205) so that may impact the most desirable alignment, too.

Thanks, had me worried! What difference would 2mm or so of toe-out make in handling and tire wear? Would I notice a change in either?

OR, you could had just solder 2 wires to your remote to a new switch in your car for less then 2 bucks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...and just leave it laying on your seat? OR would you also take apart the dash, run some wire to the controller, hide the controller in a place that is easy to get to so you can replace the battery, and hopefully your garage door controller won't get stolen...kinda makes for easy entry into your house. It's a little harder to steal the car.

You can also retread your tires to save money, but you wouldn't, or would YOU?

I saw that how-to online already, actually :) I'm a bit confused as to why you say adding negative camber would cause toe-in; with the strut canted several degrees towards the rear of the car, it seems it would cause a very slight toe-out when negative camber is added. (Roughly 2.4mm net toe-out if my guestimates on the angles are close.) Toe is right about dead even at 0.01° right now, so I'll have to watch that.

My plan right now is to wait until my new tires come in, and DIY the alignment (slide the front camber to the stops). The local big chain tire store has been offering a free alignment check, which will conveniently tell me exactly how I did and what the toe and all looks like, so I can choose then whether I want to pay them to realign it, leave it alone, do it myself with string and chewing gum, or take it down to the local race shop.

Of course, the local chain tire store used the wrong wheel weights when they patched my flat last month, and did a lousy job of balancing it, too.