rambo

Hi; I own a 2000 Boxster S that I bought new. I only drive it when the weather's nice so it only has 28,000 miles on the clock but the windows failed in the exact manner that you experienced. I have owned at least one Porsche for every day of the last 36 years, and I am no slouch mechanically but this problem has me stumped and I don't want to start replacing $$$ parts without as much info as possible. I posted this question directly to the forum as well, but I thought I'd also ask you directly if you found any solution to your problem How did you resolve it? Many thanks for the help. By the way, I'm surprised that you didn't get some responses to your posting, I've found the guys on this forum to be very helpful in the past. thanks again, Rob

thanks for the diagrams Loren! D1's obviously the main window motor fuse. However, the fuse block label in my car definitely calls out A6 for the windows as well. On your pic of the B-block. the 6 fuse protects two identical components that are shown as "PW TIPP". It's my guess that PW must stand for "power window". I wonder what TIPP is?

Hey thanks Kbrandsma. I've owned at least one Porsche for every day of the past 36 years, and some of the prior Porsches would've been taken apart and put back together about 6 times by now but this one's so good there's not much temptation to mess with it, honestly. I bought this car new in 2000 so I can attest that the console is untouched and there are no other gremlins or electrical misbehaviors beyond this window issue. To be clear, in my haste above I wrote A6 but meant of course B6. (i wasn't referring to my sheet when I mentioned A7 or B7, which don't apply, I just recalled that I'd checked them and then misspoke). Anyway, my fuse label does state plain-as-day that A6 is the fuse for the "direction indicator lights, power windows, convertible top (Boxster)". I also saw fuse D1 listed as "power windows front", but I mistook that to mean that they'd just forgotten to print (911) there, as printed elsewhere on the fuse label. I have just checked all fuses (and also swapped them around) but no joy. Again, a tug on the interior or exterior door handle causes the appropriate window to lower 1/2", so the motor wants to work if it gets the signal to do so. Any common point for the two windows? a common switch ground or something that came loose, perhaps? Dang, I really need to find my $hop manual for the schematics! thank you guys again for your suggestions and help.

thanks for the reply Loren. perhaps my "S" model is different because the fuse map attached to the fuse box cover clearly lists A6 and A7 for the windows, in several languages. :-) I actually looked at all the fuses in the box and they appear fine. although I grant you that this style of fuse often lies to one's eyes. Anyway, the 30 amp comment makes sense although it seems to me that the movement that I do get would come from the same fused circuit. I will try pulling and checking all the higher-amp fuses. should have done, but very busy and trying for a quick fix. I just moved and I am unsuccessfully trying to squeeze my well-equipped 24x36 garage into the new 24x28 one, and just now I can't find my Porsche $hop manual$.

Hi all, I am a once and future contributing member in need of a quick fix. It is now primo backroad season in the Ozarks and my power windows just died! The 25A fuse(s) #A6 (+#A7) are fine, and the windows do their little top-seal-saving 1/2" dip when the door latches are pulled so the motors seem ok. The rocker switches will not operate either window, and the drivers side window would not lower via use of the key in the door lock (as described in the manual). The top latch interlock seems ok and the top was cycled and relatched. The circuit seems simple enough - what else is there? thanks for any help.

Hi all; I ordered my 2000 Boxster S new in 2000 and I plan to keep her unti I die. (I've held an unbroken string of Porsches going back to 1976, so this is not an idle boast.) :-) Anway, seriously, virtually the only thing I dislike on the whole car is the plastic rear window and, despite great care I will eventually need to replace that. The plastic is not yellowing or cracking, but it is getting harder over time and it's starting to kink when I put the top down despite my efforts to be gentle. The prices on these replacement tops seem pretty reasonable so I might go ahead and get it over with, even though my top is still in great shape overall. Can anyone answer Kojiro's questions about the glass window? "...from the looks of the size of the window, how does it fold into the clamshell? I have seen some replacement tops that look like they have half-height glass windows that would fold just fine, but these bigger windows I don't understand." I also have a question of my own: The "S" top is MUCH quieter, more refined and generally a good upgrade from my '97, non-S Boxster due to the nice headliner. The headliner situation in these replacement tops is not clear to me. It seems as though these companies sell the headliner FABRIC, but not a fabricated LINER, per se. I assume that I could use my existing liner, but that seems kind of like swapping a clutch and using the same old throwout bearing. Is there a nice aftermarket headliner that's made for the Boxster S, or am I on my own?Thanks for the info, as always. There Is No Substitute for you guys! :-) Rob Rambo

I just wanted to second what DC said: this is a common but benign characteristic of boxer motors. A tiny bit of oil seeps in and pools in the cylinders if the engine's been sitting awhile, so you get a blue puff when you first light it off. I've owned Porsches for every day of the past 34 years and counting and in my experience virtually all the flat sixes seem to do it. Look at it as one more endearing quirk. Cheers!

HI Gregor, sorry you are having problems. the people on this forum are very knowledgeable and helpful and you should get some good suggestions. I have owned Porsches continuously since 1977, rebuilt a couple from the ground up. I now have a 2000 Boxter S that I bought new. It has quite a few mods on it and I like it better than any Porche I've had. Anyway, I have had no problem such as you're describing on this car but I have had it on two prior Porsches. both times, it turned out to be the actual shift linkage. Once, on a 914-6 the shift rod was actually bent and once on a 951 (awesome car, but life's too short to drive a hard top. :D ) the linkage was contacting a bracket in the tunnel. In both cases, adjustment fixed the problem. It is definitely worth looking at from that perspective. before you tear into the transmission itself. I know that this is just kind of generic advice but I hope it helps, and good luck.

Atle; Well, you nailed it! I swear that I had looked at both transmissions, but evidently not well enough. This microswitch was integrated with the LEFT transmission so well that I missed it. I must've inadvertently unplugged it when I removed that transmission. For anyone else's future reference, this is a very small connector. With a casual look, it is very easy to miss. It has very small black shrink-wrapped wires and a tiny black plug. The wires only have an inch or two of slack, so it is tricky to get them plugged back in. This is such a classic Porsche quirk. I bet that just about every Porsche ever built has a few similar non-standard/oddball parts or configurations ready to drive their owners nuts. Just another reason to love 'em, I guess. Anyway, everything now works great. Thanks to both you and to Maurice for your efforts to help me out. FWIW I will be shown as a contributing member shortly, this is a great resource and well worth supporting. Again, my sincere thanks. Rob

Hi; First, thanks very much for your trouble! I have to say that I looked the transmissions over pretty well last time I pulled them, and there were certainly no wires connected to them or anywhere inside their enclosure area, but your advice is the only lead that I have right now and - well, the switches have gotta be somewhere, right? Anyway, I will go pull the left transmission for the third time, and check again. I will let you know what I find out in an hour or two and I really, really appreciate your help. Rob

Hi Maurice; I have seen your name on many of the postings on this site and as with many other people, I very much appreciate your efforts on behalf of your fellow Porsche guys... Anyway, I'm sorry I wasn't clear, but the handbrake light does indeed work properly and I had, in fact, already followed your suggestions on the double relay (multiple taps, unplugs, re=plugs, etc.) but "no joy" as they say in car repair manuals written in England. As I mentioned, I have been pretty much all over this forum, in my attempts to not ask a question that had already been answered, and had already seen the post concerning the top lock microswitches but discounted the notion because I'd already checked them pretty thoroughly. The car is always kept in a heated garage and the weather has been mild, so there is not a lot of opportunity for temperature change-related mischief. Per your suggestion, I will check them out again at lunch time today and will also try to activate them manually to see if the top magically starts to work. Honestly, I don't have much hope, though... Do you have ANY idea where I could look for top switches for a 2000 Boxster S? Again, none visible (and no extra wires) on the top motor, no switches or wires on or near either transmission, nothing that I can find on or near the clamshell tracks, etc. The wires I mentioned earlier near the drivers left shoulder was the only slight hope, but per your comments this is likely the defogger connection. ( I will also verify this today.) This is 'typical' of Porsche, to change the design sort of whimsically, and it will drive me nuts if I don't figure it out. So close to success, and yet still so far... thanks again for all of your help to myself and others, Rob

Hi all; I have owned and driven Porsches continuously since 1977. I special-ordered my present Boxster-S in 2000; this is my 7th Porsche and – niggling problems aside – still my favorite one so far. It only has 20K miles on it, but I have had to replace trunk cables, tires (naturally!), both horns, and some other top and electronic components etc. I’d had similar failures with my regular Boxster, so I wasn’t totally surprised. Anyway, I almost literally turned every bolt on several of my previous Porsches and I am an engineer by trade, so I am not often stumped by them anymore but this time, I am very much so. Failure: The top failed to go down, raising only the drivers side of the clamshell (and slightly bending it before I noticed). I powered the clamshell back into the down position with the top up, and referred to Bentley’s manual. The right side drive cable turned out to be broken, so I replaced both sides. Now, the top is inoperable. The windows do not move when I unlatch the center top lock (but work fine otherwise), the yellow top light on the dashboard stays lit at all times, and the top up/down switch does nothing. However, I can put 12V directly across the top motor and drive the entire mechanism manually and it works fine. Where the heck are the top microswitches??!!! I did print out and go through the “Micro switch trouble shooting sequence” that was very kindly provided elsewhere in these forums, failing at #6. I had already metered out the micro switches in the front top lock and both worked fine, as did the handbrake switch. These are the only two micro switch locations I can find. There is no –repeat – no – switch located on or near the top motor itself. There is a vague reference in Bentley’s to a microswitch on the right transmission, but I SWEAR that there is no microswitch anywhere near the passenger side transmission. I even took both of the stupid transmissions back out and checked all over the place for wires that could’ve led to this mysterious switch or another one. Nothing. Finally, there does seem to be a small (~1” x 1”) plastic housing at the drivers side left shoulder, mounted just behind the base of the roll bar. This assembly contains two wires that enter it from the bottom and which are terminated as two pins that stick up vertically inside this small housing, looking as though they should mate with two female sockets on some sort of plug. However, that housing box is simply covered with a snap-on lid that has a plastic actuator-looking thingie molded into it. There is no switch, or even a piece of metal that could serve to short across the two pins and complete a circuit. Nevertheless, thinking that perhaps the switch had just "disappeared" even though I was nowhere close to it in my cable replacement process, I jumpered across these pins at a couple of points in the top up/down process, which did nothing – no affect on the dash light, on the operation of the other switches, or of the top. In sum, the drive cables, drive motor, and entire top and clamshell mechanisms are proven to work fine, and the top lock and handbrake switches (and fuses) are fine, but the control circuitry is somehow screwed up. I do not have enough info to troubleshoot the bowels of the top control relay and assume that it is too expensive to swap on a whim. Can anyone help me?