larez2

What's rusted and how bad is the rust? Is it just surface rust? The underside of the car is already coated with Cosmoline and should've protected it...

I've used a product call POR15 on other vehicles - it works good but is kind of messy. Removing the old cosmoline will probably be a big pain. Might be more manageable if you do it a section at a time.

How is your car running? If it's running good, maybe one side of the tailpipe was not finished properly/up to spec and when it heats up either something is going on with the finish, like burning or turning black or something like that. Did you notice this problem before?

There is a picture somewhere on here of what to do, and i couldn't find it via search. I got rid of my 99' boxster so i can't take the pic either, but basically you have to stick something thin like a really thin screw driver or a nail file in the slot between the front and rear trunk levers and slide the plate with a u-shaped cutout to release the lock. It is pretty easy to figure out once you look at it.

The reason manually locking and unlocking doesn't work is because that locking plate is controlled by a solenoid and with no power, it won't slide.

I have heard, but do not know for sure that putting in one of these cigarette ligher powered battery chargers for a few minutes might give the car enough juice for the solenoid to work when you unlock the car.

Good Luck,

Larez2

... if you have spark and you have fuel what are you missing???? that's right - air! Check the MAF and intake.

A similar thing happened to me - it ended up being the intake boot had a big leak - check and make sure it's conntected nice and snug on both ends. It could still be your MAF.

If connection from the ignition coil to the distributor cap is not working, that could cause a non-start issue as well.

My 944spec buddy told me that 99% of hard or non-start issues are related to the ECU...

Good Luck

Yes there is another light bulb (parking light), it's not wedged in anywhere - sometimes people call it a wedge bulb is all. If you have litronics its a H6W bulb, if your headlights aren't litronic, then its a W5W bulb. Sorry but I don't have a picture of where it's located - its there though, I've replaced it before. It's a small bulb if that helps.

I think you have your light bulbs mixed up. When you turn off the car, your head lights are supposed to turn off. Your parking lights will stay on though - there are wedge/parking lights, and it sounds like one of them is burned out. Its a special size bulb that is easy to replace but can be hard to find. I had to go to the dealership to get it as none of the local auto parts stores had them. I think it is a 5w bulb.

http://news.yahoo.co...s_dependability

It was nice to read that the cars we love and drive are also considered the most dependable too :)

one other thing it could be is your parking brake. If you don't use your parking brake and park on an incline, somehow pressure gets put on the shifter making it harder to shift out of park.

in other words, when you park after putting it in P, if you don't use your parking brake and the car rolls forward or backward a little bit on an incline while still in park, it's hard to shift out of park once you want to get going again.

The tiptronic will not over-rev the engine. If for example you are going to fast for a gear it just won't let you down shift no matter how many times you push the minus/downshift button. The Tiptronic S is an amazing transmission in my opinion. I think the 99-01 tiptronics are different than the 02-05 tiptronics.

What do you mean by safe? Yes you can shift from Neutral to Drive while the car is moving. I don't think its the best thing for your tranny espcially at higher speed/revs.

I saw that car on the freeway over the weekend or maybe it was someone else's flat black 997 - can't imagine there are too many of them around. It looks really good in real life.

The booster seat I use is the "Recaro Vivo Lite", it fits well in the back and has worked great. It has a backrest. There are some boosters that don't have backrests and if you kid is big enough that'd be even easier to use.

If you do a forum search I think you'll be able to find some other suggestions as well...

A Britax Marathon will fit. I am positive because that is what i used to use. It is a really tight fit, but works. Whoever is sitting in front of the baby seat needs to be small since the front seat needs to be scooted up all the way. There is an upper latch point back there too that you can hook into.

Depending on the state/local laws for child seats where you live and the size of your child, once they reach 30lb and at least 37", you could switch them to a Recaro Vivo lite booster seat. It fits much better back there.

One other thing to try is to blow some compressed air where the stalk meets the steering column and around rotary switch on the dash. I've had some wierd issues that doing that has helped for before. It helps clean out any dust and clean up the contacts etc. Maybe wilggle the stalk around a little bit while your blowing the compressed air but don't wiggle too hard you don't want to break the stalk! HTH.

I have a MY02 Tiptronic. Does anyone have a picture of the fill hole/check valve? I changed my tranny fluid a while back and I didn't need or use any special tools. The fill hole i used wasn't the bottom hole either; there was one near bottom hole but a little bit higher (on the transmission pan itself). I didn't use a special threaded adapter hose or anything like that to fill it. I used a fluid pump to pump in the new fluid through the fill hole, and like you said - I just filled it, shifted it through the gears, measured the temp, and topped it off. Some fluid spilled out while I was filling it but it wasn't bad at all.

Also, you can't drain all the tranmission fluid like in the torque converter without a PST2 or PIWIS, so i just drove around after the first drain and fill for about 100 miles and drained and filled it again.

Its been 6000 miles since I changed the fluid change and no problems.

Does it do it all the time? Does the tranmission enter the reduced driving progam ever? Where the D and 4 light flash back and forth? That would indicate an electrical fault within the tranny.

10-15 seconds is an awefully long time to shift. Does it take that long in both Manual and Automatic mode?

I suggest you get the tiptronic code history read to see if there are any faults. You may want to get the tranny fluid changed to depending on how old the current fluid is.

Another option is the reset the memory by unplugging the battery temporarily, and then letting the tranmission relearn you driving style.

I've noticed that when my car is cold, the transmission tends to stay in the lower gear longer before upshifting, especially when i lift, but no where near 10-15 seconds.

Sounds to me like you need a new coolant cap and/or thermostat. A gallon is quite a bit to have drained or evaporated off. The check engine light may or may not be related.

I'd use rescue tape or a similar silocone product. It's self fusing so no sticky mess. It is temperature resistiant as well. Just make sure to clean the connecter surfaces before you use it; it doesn't work as good on dirty surfaces. They also have lots of different colors which is nice too. Kind of pricey when compared to duct tape or electrical tape, but well worth it IMO.

What you describe sounds like your throwout bearing. I had a similar issue - mine didn't start doing it until about 15k miles though. The noise mine made was really faint and if i pushed the clutch pedal down like 1/2 inch the noise would go away. A dab of grease did the trick applied by pulling back the dust boot on the clutch fork did the trick.

The seats cushions are just velcro'd inplace so they pull up pretty easy. Never tried to remove the carpet but i think it would be a major pain to pull it up.

Perhaps it is bushing of some sort that is worn or something that needs to be tightened that is making the noise.

What's an axle stand? Is it the same thing as a jack stand? some people will wrap their shocks with plastic \ while the car is lifted off its wheels for extended periods of time to keep the dust off the shaft of the shock since more of it is exposed.

Is your battery/alternator indicator glowing? My guess is that perhaps something is wrong with your electrical system like maybe your alternator and or battery or maybe something with your supercharger sucking too much power at startup. Since when you apply your brakes that uses up some juice, maybe enough to stall your car.

I asked them to confirm that this drains the tiptronic fluid and differential and only got a vague reply "it drains both".

Maybe they thought you had a manual transmission in which case the transmission and differental DO share the same fluid...

Having recently changed my own tiptronic tranmission fluid - in hindsight i would rather have paid $450 to have the dealership do it. If you DIY, parts alone are about $200 (filter/gasket/fluid). Also, you need a PST2 or PIWIS to drain the torque converter otherwise you can't completely drain the old fluid. Also it is EXTREMELY messy. It's not hard to do it is just kind of a pain and really messy.

It sounds like something is wrong with your first gear. If your tranny fluid was really low, one of the first things you'd notice is it would be very difficult to shift gears.

I doubt changing the tranny fluid will fix it, but it is worth a shot. When you change it, inspect the old transmission fluid to see if there are chunks of metal in it (possible chunks of your first gear).

Another possibility is your shift linkage - perhaps it is not getting all the way into 1st gear is why it is making the noise.

...Some additional thoughts. Im told that this tt motor has issues in some cases with the secondary shaft.

Basically if this goes replace the motor - cost 40K...

...I'm just concerned the motor may be a unknown pissue. I have no warranty for powertrain.

I will have the car checked anyway prior to purchase.

Any idea on who provides warranty? thx Ed

Secondary shaft? never heard of that before on the 996 turbo. Some 996's and 997's too have intermediate shaft failures due to a failed intermediate shaft bearing. It is my understanding the 996 turbos do not have this particular engine issue because they are based on different bottom end. I don't have a TT but some guys in the local club do; for the most part they seem to be very robust engines, no major problems that I've heard of. $40k sounds right for MSRP, but recently I saw a brand new 996 turbo engine for sale Suncoast or Sunset for something like $20k. But even if you do have problems what makes you think you'd need a brand new engine, and not a rebuild or something.

Good Luck, TT's are sweet cars!