Jay H

This really is the key sentence in Dave's post. You just never know when you will run into an emergency situation and require the entire limits of your tires and the car's suspension. Porsche can get quite loose at the limits with mis-matched rubber. Been there, done that. I agree 100% with the advice of running the exact same brand and model of tire in front and back. Jay 02 986 90 964 84 911

Man, that's HOT. A stunning interior!

Congrats on the purchase! You MUST post pics of this color combo! I'd love to see it! Jay 02 986 90 964 84 911

Thanks Loren for answering my question!

Hi All, I've searched quite a bit and can't find a direct answer. I apologize if my question has been duplicated in the past. I've had two dead battery situations after my '02 base 986 sits for about 48 hours. Current battery is 1.5 months old. Since I've purchased the car in early November 2008, I've left the car in my locked garage with the key in the ignition. Should leaving the key in the ignition create a large draw on the electrical system? If I leave the key in the ignition, I'm noticing a huge 2 amp draw on the battery. If I remove the key, I'm seeing a .03 to .02 amp draw. Thanks for any help! Jay 02 986

Since you seem to like this car due to looking at it twice, the way to answer your question is this: How much would this car be worth if it was mint in the same mileage and location? If the market shows that it is a $12,000 car and this seller wants $9000, can you fix everything that is wrong with it for $3000? If so, then $9,000 is a decent price. If it would take $6000 to fix everything (DIY labor or dealer costs - doesn't matter), then paying $6000 is really the price you should pay for this car. On the flip side, if this is THE car for you due to colors, options, sentimental reasons, etc. and you intend to keep the car for quite awhile (more than a few years) then the equation changes. I bought a 1984 911 that was in rough shape. I just plain liked the car due to it's odd ball paint to sample and interior colors, low options and full history. It's a one of kind car and I searched a year and a half for such a 911. I paid $12,000 for it and I have $26,000 into the car after restoring the paint, suspension, A/C and other repairs. If I had to sell it right now, I would be lucky if I could get $15,000 for it. I'm waaaay underwater on it from a monentary aspect. For my $26k investment, I could have bought a nearly new 1984 911. But, I don't care since I really like this car and intend to keep it for quite some time. I'll never realize my loss of value on the car since I don't intend to sell. That would be the only situation where it pays to buy cars like the one you are considering and what I dragged home. However, I agree with everyone else here, there are far too many early 986s around to choose from for the same money that are most likely in much better condition. Good luck! Jay 02 986 90 964 84 911

This winter while changing my air filter and topping up the power steering, I took my shop vac with the duster attachment (the brush) and vac'd off the top of the motor. It got a lot of the dirt off and I didn't disturb the coating on the motor from the factory. A damp rag (just water) touched up a few of the other areas and then I treated some of the plastics and hoses with Vinylex to help preserve those rubber/plastic components.

I have a 2002 986 with the 220 head unit and the 4 channel amp. No Bose. I currently have the loudness set to on and all the other tone controls set to 0 or flat. Nothing clips with that set up (even really pushed hard) and I believe the loudness contour reduces back to flat as one increases the volume on the head unit. I'm not sure how much the 2003 and newer systems change, but you may wish to flatten all the tone controls to zero if you want to use the loudness setting too. If you feel you need more bass than what the loudness contour (or low end eq setting increased) can provide, then you need to add a sub. Good sounding systems require very little additions of equalization.

Andy is 100% correct. I'm a musician and a sound tech and have been using pro-audio for 25 years. My rule of thumb was to take the RMS rating of the driver (speaker) and double it. Use that doubled rating and get a power amp that is able to deliver that amount of power at it's RMS rating. When I was running sound for bands, I would typically take 800 RMS watt JBL subs and run them with a 1600 watt power amp. With that amount of power, I'd never clip the amps and I'd never blow a driver. A 400 watt amp on that same 800 watt sub would most definitely blow the sub up if the amp clipped and it was easy to clip an amp when it didn't have enough power to do the job (400 watts on a sub in a small club isn't enough). This is similar to Andy's example of the head unit power not being enough power to drive the separates in the dash at a high level with the top down. The head unit amp simply isn't enough power to generate enough volume and amp clipping happens quickly. If an amp is clipping heavily, it doesn't take long to ruin the drivers. Plus, there are no such things as clip lights on internal amps in a head unit so that you can monitor output levels. So, if you buy a 40 watt RMS set of separates for your dash, use a 60 or 80 watt RMS amp to drive those. Have a 200 watt RMS sub? Buy a 400 watt RMS rated amp to drive it. Kinda like engines, you can never have enough power...!

I just finished replacing my LCD panel on the ventilation controls. Super easy with the kit supplied by the vendor that sold me the new LCD panel. I also cleaned all the buttons and it also was easy to clean off the coffee or cola that was spilled on the buttons.

I have set of Goodyear F1 All Seasons in 17" sizes on my Boxster. Great tires! They handle very well for an all season, ride well, are very good in the wet and handle deep snow, slush and packed snow conditions pretty well. The only negative that I have noticed is that they are somewhat noisy. Not obtrusive, but the drone is there. Not a big deal IMO. I'm positive 3 season tires will handle better in dry conditions and dedicated winter tires are better in snow conditions, but the F1's seem to be a very good compromise tire if you need it.

On the home page, scroll to the bottom. In the middle of the screen, you'll notice a climate control picture/link. Select that, then on the next page, click on the link to open the PDF of the instructions to fix the Porsche climate control LCD.

That's great to hear you had a first year MrkV and didn't have any problems. Your V Dub looks good in UG. VW sure got it right in the styling department for the GTI (hats off to them for putting plaid in a modern car interior!). They are great looking affordable performance cars that can be modded quite easily for tangible gains in hp and torque. I'm pretty sure I got a bad one... It (the '07 GTI) sat on the dealer lot for over a year before I bought, even though it had only 80 miles on it when I took delivery (and I put 40 of those miles on it while test driving). I would bet after a winter of moving that car to plow the lot time after time, it probably took a toll on the clutch... Those lot boys and sales staff can be hard on cars if they have to move them a lot to clear snow. Good luck with the new Boxster!

My temp buttons stick as well in the cold weather. I recently ordered a new LCD panel from www.modulemaster.com due to the fan speed display not showing all the indicators on the lowest 3 settings. Included on their site is a step by step diagram on how to disassemble the climate control panel. The instructions for the LCD panel replacement include cleaning of the contacts for all the buttons. I have yet to do this repair, but I will post my findings on how the buttons work after I clean everything while replacing the LCD panel. Hope this helps a bit, Jay 02 986 90 964 84 3.2

As a long time 911 owner and former VW owner, you'll love the move up to Porsche. I just bought a 986 as well and love every minute of it even though I'm a serious 911 guy. I had a 2007 VW GTI that I bought new just over a year ago. It went down the highway like a million bucks. However, after the drivetrain started making noise at 3200 miles (dealer told me that the clutch disk was probably slipping and the throw out bearing was going - not completely under warranty), the keyless entry was irratic at best, wipers would go on and off at will, headlight washers would also have a mind of their own, horrendous traction control programming to the point of being almost dangerous, and too many rattles that would be fixed for 6 days and then return with a vengance, I divorced myself from VW completely after 129 days and 3423 miles of ownership of that beautiful, but evil GTI.

I'll add to 70Sixter's list of Porsche design issues... 1974 to 1977 Porsche 911 motors typically lasted 30,000 to 60,000 miles due to a poor design and emissions equipment. Those cars will probably never regain the resale value that they lost due to this stigma. I have a 1990 964 that should be leaking like an Exxon tanker due to the design of the cylinder to head area. Porsche took 3 years to fix this. Add in the failing dual mass flywheel issue and the dual distributor belt breakage and the 964 never has recovered from these shortcomings as far as resale values go. The beloved and "faultless" 993 has now developed CAI issues that are troublesome in the emissions testing station and can be very expensive to fix. I remember very vividly back to the time when 993's were thought to be completely bulletproof. I have a good friend that recently sold his 1996 993 and found resale values had sunk a bit due to this issue. 1978 to 1983 911SC's can suffer from broken head studs. Some 3.2 Carrera's had premature valve guide wear issues, and the list goes on and on and on and on and on. All of these fixes are expensive. So, poor motor design from Porsche has been around for decades... It's too bad that the 986 couldn't be a bit more robust. In time, the aftermarket will take care of all of these issues and Jake's company is the start of better things to come (and really good profits for his company too due to Porsche's mistakes!). For example, if you buy a mid year 2.7 liter 911 and rebuild the 2.7 liter motor correctly, remove the thermal reactors and get a real fan in there, you will have a great package and a very reliable car. I can't see why the M96 motor will be any different. There are just too many 986/987 cars out there for the aftermarket to ignore. I'll also bet that in time, you'll see plenty of ads for Boxsters that will proclaim "new Jake Raby motor at xx,xxx miles" which will add value. Maybe I drink too much Porsche kool aid, but I sure enjoy the driving experience of my two 911's and now the Boxster. The feel and experience is extremely hard to duplicate in most new cars made these days. It's too bad we can't have our cake (a Porsche) and eat it too (100% reliability). Jay 02 986 90 964 84 3.2

Hello, Does anyone know what this loop is for in the area in front of the passenger door? It's a plastic loop with a short plastic cable attached to it. The other end is not connected to anything. I have a 2002 Boxster and have read nearly all of the owner's manual... Thanks! Jay

May I please request a code for my 2002 Boxster. CDR220 Serial Number 15008361 Thank you! Jay