joee

I would look at the Bentley manual and at RennTeck.org. You did not say what year your car is there was a change in the drive motors for the top in late '98 or early '99. If you have patience, can have the car out of service in a garage for a couple of days and don't mind buying some parts that you may break in the process you'll be fine. I would rate it an 8 on your 10 scale, I think it takes a lot of adjustment and knowledge of how to get things to work. I have a '98. I replaced the drive motors myself. I would rate that as a 5 or so on your scale. Depends on what the starting state of the top is, ie stuck in place or working. The rear window went out on our car and I was told $ 600 to fix it and $ 1200 to replace evrything. We went the $ 1200 route and changed colors. oops this is Renntech.org, check the TSB's on Boxsters for the update on the drive motors.

I would replace the belt and keep the old one in the car with a set of used wrenches to do a replacement. When that belt goes a lot of important stuff no longer works and I really would not drive the car very far.

I have a skid plate on an '02 Carrera. I was told by a great Porsche Tec to always take it off when changing oil. There is just no way that the oil discharge will always hit the opening in the plate. The angle of flow changes greatly as the oil gets lower in the engine.

Just change the oul and don't worry about the ecu. I have not had problems with low oil messages after several oil changes on a '98 Boxster and '02 Carrera. I would just focus on doing a proper ol change.

I went by my local Porsche dealer and purchased a new switch. It is an Audi part, the parts guys said they sell to all the time for the earlier model year Porsches. It looked the same as the Autohaus AZ part I had replaced. Only positive in this is that I am getting to be an expert at changing out the switch....

I found the old switch last night and reinstalled it. Everything seems to be back to normal. Of course I have to watch this switch to be sure it doesn't act up in the old way again.

This is for a 98 Boxster in which I replaced the ignition switch last year. I replaced just the electrical part using a switch from Autohaus AZ, part number 4A905 849 B, in January of '05. Over this last weekend at a Porshe club DE the car had some strange behavior associated with the turning of the ignition switch. When I turn the key to on the LCD displays in the instrument cluster went crazy, they flickered between the normal start-up display and the normal run display. Also the warning lights did not all light up. If I turned the key further to the start position the displays and warning lights were normal but I had to turn the key to off and then to on to start the car. Today the car sometimes seems to just stop after it is started. Usually restarts with one or more turns of the key. Other strange behavior is that passenger side window dropped down to the top lowering position once and I was getting false indications of low brake pads and low brake fluid over the weekend. The brake pad senors are tied out of the way and I had plenty of brake fluid. When I look at the TSB's I see that Porsche recommends replacing whole lock assembly. And ideas on what's going on? Seems like a switch failing after a year of use is strange? Should I replace just the electrical part of the switch again, the dealer has the Audi part in stock? Should I replace the whole lock assembly? Any ideas as to possible bigger problems? It was very hot at the DE, 95+ on Saturday and close to 100 on Sunday. The car ran very well on the track and the way home.

Yes... If the condition clears for a period of time or if the battery is disconnected for a few minutes the codes are cleared. I think they are stored in the DME computer and can be read back with a Porsche tester. If the condition has been cleared the light stays off. Watch out for radio code if disconnecting battery( be sure you have it before). I think airbag warning light can not be cleared by disconnecting battery.

It's an 8mm allen for the drain plug. Look under 996 forum and dyi section.

I'm on vacation and don't have manuals with me. What I remember is that the drain plug is a 7mm allen. Be sure you have the right and a good metal oil filter wrench before you start on the filter. Also, be sure you have a torque wrench for reinstalling both the plug and the filter. There mustg be DIY instructions for oil change.

What was the parts cost and time required to change out ?

Bentley is very good and well worth the bucks. I've used it several times. Also check out http://www.cannell.co.uk/Manuals.htm . Let us know if this works out for you.

Mark, I would bet your coolant is a little low. My '98 Boxster flashes the coolant warning when it is low. This will now recover while driving as the coolant expands but if you turn the key off and on it stops, due to expanded coolant levels. You didn't say where the temp indicator was. I have almost pegged the indicator with the Boxster on the track. This caused no harm but I run 15-50 Mobil 1 in the summer. I think that is almost 250 F. I didn't do this for long but we got up there. It was about 110F out at the time. Joe

How's the clutch replacement going? I have the same problem with the same year car and am thus interested.

I added one of these to our '02 Carrera. I got it from Gert at carnewal. The car was used and already had a few hits on the oil pan (plate). This part was recommended to me by a Porsche Tec. I've been glad I had it as I have used it (unintensionaly) a couple of times. I would rather put a little scratch in the ss than a big gouge in the softer oil pan.

If you still have tread you should be able to see the indicator in the grooves. You might also look for steel cord showing on the inside edges of the rears...

Loren, Thanks !!! Joe

I had nothing when I left home on Thursday. We're on the road now and will not be back for several days. Kind of disappointing, they look like really nice decals...

Loren - thanks again !!! I just sent some emails out....

Me too!!! Had some emails from the supplier but no decals!!! Too bad to because I thought they looked great!!!

Very interesting and helpful. This worked on our '98 986. Either approach did not work on our '02 996. Since the 996 came with the computer built in I wonder if this is done through the computer. I could not get anything to work. Anyone got any ideas or info. Thanks again to Loren!!!

The full story... I ran the car at the track without changing out two year old brake fluid. I had some real brake fade and was pumping things up too much going into turns. Packed everything up and headed home. Put the car on jack stands, took the wheels off, drained the brake fluid too much, and refilled and bled the brakes. Back to the track, after a lecture on the rules of what four hours means, ran for an hour and a half. Going into turns where psm would come on even with it turned off get a brake fluid warning light, audio alarm and message from the computer on the LCD. Acknowledging the message on the LCD with the computer stock got the lcd display to clear and the audio alarm to shut off. Car works really well, brakes were fine. Turing the ignition key off cleared everything. Went home and bled the brakes again, wife pumped the pedal and things looked fine. Drove to Parade and everything was fine. Did autox at Parade and the whole thing starts again. Again car works just fine. Drove to NJ. Made an appointment with S-N on route 35 in like Long Branch (?). Told the SM I wanted them to bleed things with the psm pump on. They did what I asked and said there was a very small amount of air in the system. Did an autox with the Northern NJ PCA group and things were fine, no lights-audio alarms-computer displays. Drove back to CO and haven't had a problem since. You might also have problems with backing plates on the rear brakes. These are plates on the inside of the brake discs. I guess they keep things clean. Under hard braking the plates on our Carrera they wrapped and rubbed the discs. I bent them out of the way a couple of times and they have been good since....

May need to have a dealer do the bleeding and use their computer to turn on the psm pump. I got a small amount of air in our '02 and had to go to the dealer. Cost me an hour's labor, $ 98.

Chrome plating usually lowers the fatigue strength of the base metal... I don't think Porsche will warranty chromed wheels, just fyi .

Do not even put the key in the ignition!!! If you have the radio code I would disconnect the battery. The dealers will sometimes turn off a seat belt light for free, it's about 15 minutes of work and you must remove the key and then start the engine all over again to get it out.