clubhead

I'm thinking of replacing my 997 GTS PDK transmission mount as well since the car is 8 years old. I called Sunset and the person said that the mount (circled in red) is part of the transmission and not sold seperately.

So what happens if the mount is worn? Porsche can't possibly expect us to purchase a new transmission just because of the worn mounting right??!!

Will an insert work if the mount is worn/torn?

That would be me (Shawn). Let me know if you have any questions and don't let ANYONE tell you it comes upstream from the air filter area, impossible!

Awesome writeout Shawn and thanks! I'm glad I'm a contributing member to this forum.

My 8 year old Boxster is beginning to spit pieces of sponge at me through the various aircon ducts! Bits and pieces come out from the side, center, top and bottom vents. I figured the sealing sponge inside are all dried up and breaking up into pieces.

I thought the problem would eventually go away but after months, they're still coming out at me!

Does anyone know the parts that needs to be replaced to solve this? I brought this to an aircon shop and they said the entire dashboard needs to come off for the replacement. Anyone had this similar problem before and solution to it? I'm quoted $600 to replace the sponge.

I had a similar problem albeit on a different car but my squeak when cold turned out to be some mounting bolts on the exhaust system. Might explain why the difference in temp affects it.

Hmmm....that's something I hadn't thought about. I did have the exhaust adjusted recently to center it and the squeaking became softer. Let me take a closer look end of next week and report back if there's any improvement.

Thanks for sharing this!

There is always a risk after installing a ROW 030 kit for squeaks on an older 986 - 996, some suspension parts takes a different possition. In first place the control arms with the camber adjustment, mounted on the bottom of the wheel bearing housing and the rod with the toe-in toe-out adjustment mounted on the rear side of the wheel bearing housing. The rubbers on the sway bar are replaced i presume. Let a helper shake the car up and down when cold while you take the mountings on the housing with your hands, you can feel the vibrations and hear the squeak at the same time on the faulty pivot. This is the cheapest way to find out.

The squeak was there before I replaced anything actually. And it's still there after I replaced what I listed in my previous post :(

I guess one sure way is to leave the car overnight at the mechanic and have them shake down the car the morning after when everything's cold.

I've this nasty rear end squeak when the car is cold. It happens in the morning when I go over speed humps as I leave my house. Squeak when I go up the hump and squeak when I go down again. When the car is fully warmed up, it's all quiet again even when going over the same humps.

I've since replaced :

1) Struts, springs & rear sway bar (ROW 030 kit)

2) All 4 suspension top mounts

3) Rear control arms (this stopped the rattle when going over uneven surfaces)

4) Rear sway bar drop links

5) Engine mounting (rubber was cracked and I replaced it wtih those from Pedro's)

6) Gearbox mounting (since I'm replacing the engine mounting anyway)

But the **** noise is still there!! It's driving me nuts as I've spent thousands of dollars till date.

Does anyone has any suggestions? I've seached throughout this forum and can't find anyone else with similar experience.

Clubhead:

UPDATE

I just received an email from the guy who was trying to replace the complete convertible top and frame mechanism of his MY98 with a new top and frame mechanism from a MY05 and he confirmed for me that it will NOT fit.

He also confirmed that it only took him 30 minutes to take the complete top and mechanism off his MY98.

So, it looks like the best route to follow to get a glass window AND good access to the engine on an early Boxster is to get a complete top and frame mechanism from a MY03 or MY04 986. The whole swap should take around an hour.

Regards, Maurice.

Thanks for posting this update Maurice. Appreciate it. I know now not too try :)

I know for one that the doors are identical. What about the convertible top? I may be able to get my hands on a wrecked 987 top in good condition and am thinking of replacing that original plastic top of mine....

Clubhead:

The 987 and 986 tops are not the same. If you want a glass top and to still get good engine access, you can retrofit a convertible top AND frame mechanism from a 2003 or 2004 986. The 986s with vinyl windows have 3 bows, the 987's have 4 bows.

Regards, Maurice.

Got it. But what if there's a complete 987 donor car. Would I be able to transplant the entire top and mechanism from the 987 to the 986? Including the bows you're talking about?

The doors are not the same on a 986 and 987 - the most notable part being the mirror wings.

I've had a major dent on my door and one of the local body shop offered me a door off a 987 instead of panel beating it back to shap. I initially refused but guess what, it fitted almost perfectly. The gaps between the door and the body is about 1mm larger but I was told it's normal for door retrofitted outside of the factory.

I'm referring only to the metal door panel. I swapped out everything else, inner leather door panels, wing mirror, glass windows, etc from my original door.

I know for one that the doors are identical. What about the convertible top? I may be able to get my hands on a wrecked 987 top in good condition and am thinking of replacing that original plastic top of mine....

Although you've recalibrated your DME to take the new MAF, there's no reason why GIAC does not have a program for it. The recalibration far as I know is just to tell the DME to read the voltage from the MAF or something similar. My local dealer told me this 'recalibration' will also load the latest fuel/ignition map into the DME but I'm not sure. I've had mine done about 1.5 years ago.

The latter model MAF was used on the latter model cars. If GIAC does not have a program for it, does it mean they've no program for cars that comes from factory fitted with the new MAF? I doubt that.

Did you try calling them? Most of these companies are flooded with emails everyday and I will call them if my email goes unanswered.

Good luck with this!

I went through a near identical experience as you. Replaced the old model MAF on my Yr 2000 Boxster S with a new model MAF which requires the DME to be re-programed. My dealer told me the fuel/ignition map will also be updated to the latest version along with this re-programming. Does anyone know how true this is? I reckon it's just calibrating the DME to read a different voltage of the new MAF sensor.

Why I'm asking is I did a baseline dyno run couple of months later and the car showed to have lost about 15bhp. This is comparing another run which I did before I got the DME re-programed for the new MAF sensor. There will be variance between each dyno run but 15 bhp seems kinda big...

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Ahh silence is golden :D

Hate to tell you this : It's been about 2 weeks since I've had the pads filed down. They didn't squeal the 1st couple of days. BUT, they do now but the pads needs to be much warmer for that to happen. The good news is overall, the pads squeal less.

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How much mileage on the current mount and brackets?

Regards, Maurice.

I'm doing about 38k miles currently but the car's about 8 years old now so have been replacing a few items of late as a preventive measure. Rubber rots over time so time has to be a factor as well I guess.

Thanks Maurice for the useful information :)

Is there a need to replace the transmission bracket when swapping out the motor mount then?

I'm planning on replacing my engine mount. I called to enquire about the part and the dealership person told me over the phone that the transmission adapter will also need to be replaced at the same time.

Can anyone confirm this? If it makes sense, I want to use the opportunity to replace hard to get to items and save on the labour....

Part numbers for both the engine mount and transmission adapter will be much appreciated as well :)

Thanks.

Yes, I got rid of the squeak! :) Mine's a Zimmerman discs and Porterfield pads combo. The pads will squeal quite badly after they've warmed up. My mechanic removed the pads and filed down the edges and the noise has since dissapeared. You should try doing the same.

Have you tried Carnewal.com?

I finally got the kit from Carnewal after a 5 weeks wait. It seems the kit doesn't come with any bumstops and I'll take this opportunity to install new ones rather than re-use my existing ones.

Is there anything else that's not included in this kit but would be a good time to get new ones rather than re-use the existing parts from the stock suspension? I want to make sure everything's in place before the swap begins..

Thanks.

I was considering the Zimmerman rotors as well until I was told (by people on this site) that parts of it can rust (unlike the OEM rotors.) I hate rust! ...Phillipj

Yes, the Zimmerman rotors do rust but I figured it's not big deal. The rotor 'hat' area is not painted like the OEM ones so they form a pretty layer of rust in a couple of days. I'm gonna switch to stock rotors and hope the noise will go away... Probably do that in Oct though. Will report back the results.

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If so how difficult and how time consuming? (Relative to the ~$300 I think for a brand new one, or less if rebuilt ones are available.)

Thanks for your help!

Toby

I'm planning to change out the pistons seals as a preventive maintenance in a couple of weeks. They're basically rubber dust seals that prevents dust from getting between the pistons and the caliper body. I'm having my regular workshop perform this job and will advise how difficult it is once it's done.

I recently DIY'ed 4 new Zimmerman drilled rotors and used Minitex pads... ...

I used Performance Friction racing pads on stock rotors, no squeak...

Switched to Zimmerman drilled rotors with Porterfield R4S pads, major squeaking when the pads get warm. I figured it's the **** rotors :( I've just purchased a set of Mintex Red pads hoping to replace them to get rid of the squeak but after reading your posts :( ****!

I'm hoping not to revert to stock pads because of the dust level. I'm considering switching to stock rotors now.

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Also, how difficult is it to replace the stalk?

Same thing happened to me except I broke the pegs myself when I held down the stalk when it tried to cancel. You can't just replace the stalk. You need to replace the entire assembly. As what CJ_Boxster has mentioned which is what I did, it's the perfect time to replace your current 3 stalk assembly with a 4 stalk unit, adding cruise control in the process. And you know what? The 4 stalk unit is cheaper than the 3 stalks one! It's not plug and play though to get the cruise control. There's some wiring that needs to be DIYed and you can find it from the sticky thread in this forum.

Good luck!

Have you tried Carnewal.com?

Thanks! I'll check whether they've it in stock. About $150 more than Sunset but I rather pay for it now that wait indefinitely.

I ordered my ROW M030 kit from Sunset in late December and it showed up in late June....

My goodness! So it can take that long. Good to know. I'll probably hang on to the order while I search for other alternatives. Thanks for the info.

My order with Sunset has been pending for 12 weeks now and Germany is still unable to give a reply to Sunset as to when the kit can be expected. There's a particular part missing (which Germany is not telling) which prevents the kit from being 'completed'.

Does anyone know where else I can get hold of a ROW 030 kit? Sunset has given me the option of cancelling the order...