N41EF

I replaced mine on a 03 Boxster S with original from Sunset. Three of the four boots were split and had slung grease. With shipping it was right at $1000 for both, I know they were much cheaper than Pelican. I'm guessing the other prices you list are for rebuilt. Another option is to do you own. You can get the 4 boot kits from Sunset for about $100 and count on a couple of messy hours to rebuild them, and it took me about 4 hours to pull and install the axels.

Just my two cents, Spark plugs used to be an every 20k miles things, before all of the platinum and iridium. Even at 6 or 8 dollars a pop, I replaced mine at the 60k service point like the book said, just so I didn't have to worry about them later on. Plugs tend to degrade slowly as they burn or wear and the computer changed to compensatae for them. They are cheap, replace them when the book says to. Also, if I'm buying a car, and the simple things like plugs havent been maintained, what else did not get done?

Just found the pictures. If you have more than 50k miles, you need to replace yours.

Not sure if I follow your question. What do you mean by release? Won't shift from Park to Drive? Reving the engine shouldn't make any difference. With the car running, as you put your foot on the brake pedal you should hear a click of the selinoid or relay for the interlock. If that's not what you mean please reword the problem.

You might buy the bearing with tools from LN Engineering, then sell the tools online when you are done. I know I'd be interested in a set, since I can guess to be replacing the clutch and bearings in about a year.

Low battery can cause all kind of low voltage warning lights and a CEL. I would disconnect the battery cable, and then charge the battery fully. After the battery is completely charged, then reconnect the cable, turn the key on and see what happens. If you have an OBD reader you can clear most of the fault codes, but may still have air bag warnings and such for low voltage. I hope you are handy with tools, I can think of lots of things that may have went, or, you might get lucky.

Yes, you can use a ross-tech cable on your Porsche. You can read the OBD2 stuff, including the live data function, read and clear codes. It will do in a pinch, but you may want to find a used Durametric, they do show up on eBay once in a while.

From Pelican: http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/90-ELEC-996_Cluster/90-ELEC-996_Cluster.htm

I paid about $230 for an OEM waterpump from Sunset. Stock thermostat is about $40, the 160 degree LN thermostat is about $170. Coolant is about $30 per gallon and you'll need two. Labor? I did mine in four hours including an oil/filter change and flushing the brakes.

Do all three at the same time. I replaced the front engine mount about six months ago, and due to a chirp noise on cold starts ordered a new water pump and LN 160 degree thermostat. I took it to the base today, put it up on a lift and replaced the thermostat and water pump, changed the oil,and flushed the brakes. I read through the Bently's, several thread here, the DIY on Pelican's website, and the oil temp info on LN's page. Pedro has a lot of good info with pictures too. It really isn't that bad of deal, but as Pedro points out lowering the engine would make it easier. All of you folks who post here and on those other site thank you for your help. Yes, my water pump was going (71k miles) when I removed the belt and reaching up from below I could wiggle the water pump pulley. I removed the thermostat first after letting the coolant drain, then the water pump was pulled. The middle inboard (left) bolt is a pain! I used a deep 1/4 inch drive 10mm socket and a breaker bar, the rest I got off with a 10mm combo wrench. Cutting the old metal gasket was a pain, I used a box cutter to cut it, but that gasket is SHARP, be carefull or you will bleed on your car. I didn't have as much trouble bleeding the coolant this time, the LN thermostat has a bleed hole with a flapper in it, the stock thermoatat was solid. I think that little hole makes a huge difference. Outside air temp was about 50 degrees, the engine coolant temp was between 190 and 196 going there, and 176 to 180 coming home. I think it will average out to about 15 or so degrees cooler with the LN thermostat. The gage show a smidg cooler, but not much, the durametric showed it running cooler. IN summary, if you plan to replace any of these three things, do all of them at the same time, and if you Boxster sqeeks on cold start, it is the first sign of your waterpump going.

The blinking light is a low coolant level. If the level is fine it's a level sender issue. It isn't on the cap, it's on the bottom of the resevoir. The parts diagram show what it looks like, and the fact that most carry it, makes it seem that they fail. I'd check the wiring to it, then the sensor itself.

That is the bolt and nut on the in-board side that allows for camber adjustment. If you removed the nut, and the bolt won't come out, you have some preload still on it, try loosening the end on the wheel carrier to take the stress off it, and the bolt should come out. Something binding it, might try putting a floor jack under the outboard end and lifting it to relieve the tension.

Plug replacement on my '03 was easy, jack the car up, remove the rear wheel and take your time. Took an asortment of allen wrenches to get the coil packs orr, the wires to the pack plug in from the top. As far as the waranty part, just go to your dealer and buy the plugs filters and other parts, then keep the receipt and write in the car's maintenance manual what you did. I would buy the oil at a local parts place, again, save the receipt. If you brake fluid hasn't been replaced it's time to flush it, you need a liter. And if you don't know if the collant hasn't been replaced, I'd do it too, two gallons coolant and two gallons DI water for an "S" car. If you've worked on your own cars before none of this is tough, and there is probably a member close to you who could help and offer guidance.

If the pedal feels good, and you don't have the bite, you need to bed them. Get the car up to 50ish, and hit the brakes, slow the car down to 10 or so, then back up to 50ish, back to 10ish. Repeat this five or six times, it will burn the protective coating off the rotors, and will fit the pads to the rotors. Don't bring the car to a stop, drive the car a bit to let them cool down, then stop. You should have much better bite on the pads.

Are there any signs of leakage on the underbody? When I replaced the front engine mount I was struck by how many joints there are in the cooling system. The hard and soft hoses run to the front of the car behind black plastic panels, if you had a slow leak there, you might see some evedence on the panels. If you have leakage into the oil slowly you might not ever see it on the dipstick. You might try draining the oil to take a look at it, you'd need something huhe, then check for coolant and pour it back in. Might also do a compression check, remove all 6 plugs, screw the tester into each cylinder and crank it checking for low compression, if you are sucking coolant into a chamber, you'll have low compression. Try removing the coolant cap with the car running to see if it is pressurzing. I think leaky oil coolers leak oil into the coolant syaten, not coolant into the oil. I would also do a very good visual check. You could have a minor leak that is dripping onto headers or something that is burning it off, hence it wouldn't leave a puddle. Keep us posted what you find.

I can hear the "thunk" as the car locks, and usually glance back to see the turn signals flash. Come on, it's a Porsche, if you don't look back every time you walk away, you need to sell it and get a Kia, you have no soul.

Maybe someone has the conduit part that they would be willing to loan out? I know some of the VW guys do things like that.

Not sure if I understand what you are saying. My regulator failed where the green pastic part attached. It kind of crumbled, and let slack in the sytem. If your cable came off, and you can get it back together, great. However, you'll find, instead of half-assing a repair, it's easier, and cheaper to fix it right the first time.

Do they smog test it on rollers? Two wheel or four wheel? My Mecedes C230 has a wierd ABS problem, where if the front tires weren't spinning within a certain percentage of the rear wheel speed, or vice versa, you couldn't put the cruise on, and the ABS would trigger, like the car thought it was sliding on ice. Does your car have the stability equipment? PSM? Is there anything in the owners manual about dyno testing?

Yes, there are two different clusters for your 03. There is the base cluster (which you and I have), and the OBC cluster that they put in the car if you ordered the OBC. There are OBC functions in the base cluster, and by doing the four stalk mod and enabling you get the basic functions. Without installing one of the better clusters what you see is what you get. The functions I get are: Speed Waring, outside temo, ave miillage, dist to empty, tripmeter. The only oil function is during startup.

It wasn"t hard, take your time. There are two small clips that plug into the inside door handle, they are tricky to get off and if you leave them unlugged you'll get to take it off again. You'll need a stubby phillips to get the plastic screws inside the door pocket. Be carefull witht he c shapes platic clip that snaps over the door grab part, it's easy to scratch.

If PB Blaster or someother penatrant isn't doing it, cut them off and replace with new. When I do jobs like that if any bolts nuts whatever look suspect I drop them in a labeled baggie and replace them. It's better to make one trip to Tractor Supply or the auto parts place and get all the new stuff at once. Cutting with a dremel would take a while. If there is room an angle grinder, and if the end of the bolt is looking right at you I've also drilled the bolt straight through the nut and removed it that way. You might also try a nut splitter which clamps the nut from the side and literaly splits the nut off the bolt.

It's regulator time. The motor attaches to the regulator and might make noise or operate irregularly, but it wouldn't cause the window to drop suddenly. The lack of window dropping as you lift the handle is a classic failure mode. There is a plastic piece on the regulator that looks similar to a cable adjuster that breaks. On mine when the window didn't drop as the door opened, you could gently push down and the glass would go down, then when you shut the door the glass would pop back up. I ordered my regulator from Sunset at the top of this page, took about an hour to do assuming you've ever done anything like that before. The Bently"s had great directions, I marked the location of the old one and installed the new one in exactly the same place, no adjustments required. I did get a set of panel removal tools from Harbor Freight. A set of 5 or so blue plastic pieces was about 5 bucks and made getting the panel off easy. You'll probably tear the black plastic water shield, make sure you have duck tape or something similar to seal it back up.

I think you have two issues to deal with, and getting the cylinder in the ignition switch to make the door is one thing, getting the electronics to read it is a different story. There is a round ring that goes in the dash around where the ignition key goes in, that ring reads the key to see if it should let the car run. Can a Porsche key blank be changed in the key or is it made part of the key? VW is molded, but Land Rover can change the key blank. Trying to figure out why someone would have changed the ignition cylinder, the only thing I can come up with is the ECU or BCU got wet and had to be replaced. If they were replaced with a used unit that were coded to another car that would explain the two keys. Does the key fob for your ingition switch lock/unlock the doors? Do you have the third valet key? Based on experience with a VW Cabrio and the "two keys" issue, it was easier to have the door and console keyed to match the ignition key, because of the programming required to replace the ignition key. Check with the local locksmith shops to see if they can key it. And, let us know what you find.

Isn't it shocking to find parts in stock localy? I installed a Goodyear Gatorback belt, and according to the sleeve it was in, it is the same belt as mant V6 GM cars. I'm sure it was coincidence, but it works great, and reasonably priced.