Thumper

I ordered a set of the door speaker boxes a year ago and have yet to receive them. He occasionally replies to my emails requesting a progress update, but I haven't heard from him in a few months. I even offered to let him off the hook if he would just refund my money, but he said he would find the time and complete my boxes. That was several months ago. Too bad, because they really look like a quality product.

Yes, I still have it and it's still for sale. PM sent

I like the use of the Harbor Freight Motorcycle jack to handle the removal/install. I have been eyeing that jack for some time and now I have another good reason to pick one up. Well done, well documented. Haven't seen the engine support at Harbor Freight that you used. I'm going to have to add that to the list for the next time I go tool shoppin'.

This is the support topic for the DIY Tutorial Rear Storage / Speaker Compartment Mod. Please post here if you have any questions or feedback.

Any update on this?

Thanks

He ultimately only made one and I bought it from him when he sold his car last year. I intended on using it when I upgraded my stereo system, but ultimately changed my mind and it has been sitting on a shelf in my garage ever since. I've been meaning to post it for sale so someone could get some use from it. If anyone is interested in it, let me know.

<_<

Hi when I open the door inside or out my window drops as it should. When I let go off the handle window closes fully then catches on roof when closing door.

Any ideas?

Mine is 2003 3.2s

Thanks

Paul

Your window regulator is going out. The only way to fix it, is to replace it. Do a search and you will find instructions, or take it to the dealer.

When I did this on mine, I did not take steering wheel off. I just disconnected the 4th stalk off the new unit, unscrewed steering column screws, separated column covers, screwed 4th stalk to its place, did the wiring (of course instrument cluster needed to be removed) and put it back together. Worked fine. :clapping:

I did not need to replace my other stalk switches, they all work fine.

Hope this helps. :renntech:

That's exactly how I did mine. Just took off the 4th stalk from the new unit and added it to my existing 3 stalk unit. Purchased the parts from Jeff at Suncoast, made my harness per ToolPants instructions (I used heat shrink vs. the cloth tape to keep the harness wires together) and put it all back together. I did not have to have my OBC turned on as I swapped out my 986 cluster for a 996 cluster which already had the OBC activated. The only hassle was taking the column plastic off and putting it back on without taking the steering wheel off. You can access the screws by turning the steering wheel 90 degrees either direction which exposes the screws.

Due to travel, weather, etc. I haven't driven my '01 much in the past couple of months, but I am now experiencing problems that I originally thought were just a low battery from sitting so much. The battery is a 6 month old Optima that tests OK on my home charger/tester/starter, and after a short charge, the car starts right up. The next day, I would go to start it and it didn't have enough juice to turn the engine over. Once I hooked up the jumper cables, it would start right up. It did this to me three days in a row.

I installed a Carrera cluster about a year ago so I would have a volt gauge and an oil pressure gauge (and the OBC with the dot matrix display..very cool). So I went for a short drive after charging the battery while watching the volt gauge, I noticed that it would vacillate between 11 and 14 volts. Which made me think that the voltage regulator had gone bad, or was going bad.

So I pulled the alternator (thanks for the DIY in taking it out that I got from searching previous posts) and took it to my local Autozone. The alternator checked out fine, lamp/diode trio - good, regulator - good, rectifier - good. My next thing to test is to take the Optima out and have it checked.

Anything else I should check? Possible ground problem?

Wow, there has been some developments since my last visit. So a MY02+ C4 cluster may prove to be a viable candidate for the swap? This is interesting. I have a MY02 C2 tip cluster in my MY01 986 and the fuel gauge is dead on accurate. I ran my fuel down to near empty (at least far enough for the light to come on) a week after the swap as I was verifying the fuel gauge was indeed working correctly. My only issue is the top light, which really isn't a pressing issue to me at this time. As far as the mileage goes, I didn't opt to have my mileage changed on the cluster, but instead took pictures of my 986 cluster just before I pulled it, and then took a picture of the C2 cluster after I installed it and powered up the car. Should I ever decide to sell my 986, all I have to do is fill out a mileage affidavit and will attach the pics as additional verification. I actually am on my second C2 cluster, as I decided that the grey gauge faces on my first cluster didn't look as good to me as the black faces on my current C2 cluster. I also have a silver gauge face turbo cluster (It came with the 996 gauge pod that I picked up on eBay) that I would have liked to have used, but didn't due to worries about the fuel gauge being inaccurate. Would the turbo cluster work?????

If anyone is interested in the grey face cluster, let me know.

I will be checking back in on this thread to see how LowFlyR does with the fuel gauge issue.

Good stuff.

I would suggest that you not spend any more time or money on trim parts until you can get that 996 cluster working on your Boxster.

You are going from a 2001 Boxster to a 2002 996 cluster with unknown specifications. I do not know anyone who has updated like this.

Too late, I spent the money on trim parts, installed the 2002 996 cluster w/ unknown specs into a 2001 Boxster and wha-la, it works just fine.

Lucky me. :D

I do have to admit that the first cluster I tried was a bad one, but the second one worked great. I still need to get the cluster coded to let it know that it is in a cab so the top light will work, but tholyoak was kind enough to share the procedure. I am taking his instructions to RUF to have them code the cluster and then it all will work. I also did the 4 stalk OBC hack at the same time (great DVD's - made the job a breeze). The dot matrix display is very cool. I need to take a pic of the cluster with the engine running to show all the gauges lit up. Thanks to Bill for an excellent write up and for his continued help and support throughout the entire process. :clapping:

I've been doing some reading from several different sources and from what I've read, a common problem is that the ball and socket gimbal can come loose in shipping, which appears to be what has happened with mine. I'm going to have to partially disassemble both lights to reset them. It's just so tight in there and difficult to see what you're doing. Nothing is ever easy anymore.....

My Litronic retrofit kit showed up today (man is that a big box or what?) and when I pulled the gleaming beauties out of their respective boxes, I noticed that the internal light assembly appears to be grossly misaligned. Do they just need to be adjusted? Or is something really wrong? They don't rattle, yet when you take the back off, the connector on the back of the top bulb is touching the black box (real technical, huh?)

Any help, advice, etc. is greatly appreciated.

I would suggest that you not spend any more time or money on trim parts until you can get that 996 cluster working on your Boxster.

That's my plan.

You are going from a 2001 Boxster to a 2002 996 cluster with unknown specifications. I do not know anyone who has updated like this.

Not real confidence inspiring....I guess we'll find out if it works pretty soon. I'm under the assumption that since my Boxster is an '01, it has the updated cluster so I must use an updated cluster from a 996, i.e.; 2002+

If my thinking is flawed, please let me know.

That is the way I wanted to do it. But I have Boxster red leather. And I could not find a 996 surround and cover in Boxster red that would not have cost an arm and leg. Loren has a 996 with Boxster red interior but he would not let me near his car. Black will be easier to find.

So I decided to cut my surround to fit the 996 cluster. In the picture I have the 996 cluster face next to my Boxster surround/cover to figure out where to cut. There are actally lines that you can follow. But then I thought maybe I should first make sure the 996 ebay cluster worked, and that is when I found out the middle LCD display was defective. End of project.

If you look at Whall's pictures I can tell that he cut his Boxster surround.

I found another guy who has done this swap and he trimmed his Boxster surround and then found out that the aluminum gauge rings would not fit on the gauges with the trimmed Boxster surround, so he changed his out for the 996 surround. I was really wanting to put the gauge rings on my new cluster, but the only used 996 surrounds that I've found were $475 and $500 respectively. Ouch! Before I commit the additional funds, I think I'll wait until my cluster arrives and make sure it's not defective.

Will the 996 cluster have the OBC activated? Or is that an option on the 996's the same as it is on the 986's?

996 surround does not work with a Boxster instrument cluster cover.

I was thinking of the entire cluster cover and surround from a 996.

Like this only in Black

Ray says that he will have more clusters next month.

Ray Robles is the name I could not remember. One of our local guys (Raman) bought a use Boxster S cluster for the silver gauges to put in a base Boxster. I tested that cluster before it was put in and it worked. Another local guy (Henry) bought some interior parts and had no problems. This was a few years ago. I had also contacted Ray back then when I was trying to do my 996 cluster swap, for the 996 surround and dash cap.

Hope it works. Ask Ray to keep an eye out for a 1999-2001 cluster with manual transmission for me.

I'll be more than happy to pass that on.

Anyone have a black 996 cluster surround laying around?

The knob shafts on the new style cluster are plastic and they break off if you hit the knob hard enough. Porsche does not sell the shaft. If that cluster checks out then you would have to take the shaft out of your cluster.

If you plug the cluster into the correct year car the mileage on the cluster will be displayed. I guess the $45 deal is to send it to a speedometer shop to check the mileage, but why if your are going to have it changed.

Watch out for used clusters on ebay. There are defective ones out there. Some were warranty replacements that were supposed to be destroyed, but they show up on ebay. Whall was smart and saw the cluster in action before he bought it.

If you talk to the seller in Pamona let me know his name. There is a guy in Southern California that was selling good used parts, but I forget his name. If it is the same guy some of the local owners bought parts from him and the parts were good.

The guy in Pomona is Ray Robles. He says that he's sold quite a few clusters and that he gets them from a couple of local dealerships when they swap them out due to broken knob shafts. He tells me that he replaces the shaft and then resells them on eBay. He also said that he's never had one returned for being defective. He took the grey faced cluster in to the dealership that he deals with the most and verified that it's from a C2. I'm not sure how they checked it, but he seemed like a good guy over the phone, so we'll see how it all works out. I have a local speedo shop that's going to reset the mileage and I'll have them check functionality. If the speedo shop can't test everything, I'll take it over to the guys at RUF and see if they can check it out. I got it for a decent price, so worst case I have a relatively inexpensive shelf ornament.

Now I need to find an extra cluster surround to trim (I like having extras in case I get over zealous with my dremel).

There are a few candidates on ebay, starting at $99.99. But you would need to verify the application and condition.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PORSCHE-CLU...sspagenameZWDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PORSCHE-INS...sspagenameZWDVW

I'm actually watching both of those auctions, but the $99 auction states that they don't know the application and the clock set stem is missing. But the price is right. The other auction I'm having trouble tracking down the part number in the parts catalog I have. I am calling the seller tomorrow to discuss this cluster. He also has a grey faced cluster, but he tells me that some numbskull removed the part number tag on the back.

996 Grey Cluster

He does state that he can check the mileage for additional $45. Not sure how he does that without talking to him first.

This search may be difficult without actually knowing what vehicle the cluster actually came out of.

Glad it finally worked out. 996 non-MOST cluster retrofit on a MOST Boxster and the 996 cluster even has the dot matrix display. The only person I know that did this is bluboy 911 but he removed the oil pressure and volt meter gauges - so minus 1 point. http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?s...p;hl=radio+code

What I call the old style cluster was used on the Boxster from 1997-2000, and on the 996 from 1998 (1999 in the US)-2001. The new style was used on the Boxster from 2001-2004, and on the 996 from 2002-2004. The old and new style do not interchange.

Other things to consider. A tiptronic cluster has gear position indicator lights that the manual transmission does not have. The first year for the dot matrix cluster was the first year of the turbo - 2001 - but you do not want to use a turbo cluster. The first year for the dot matrix cluster on the Boxster was 2002 and I think the same year for the 996. You got the dot matrix cluster if you have factory OBC.

Ok, the swap actually looks pretty straightforward. I have a 2001 Boxster with Tiptronic. So from what I gather, I would need a 996 tiptronic cluster from a 2002 and newer C2? Any idea what the part number would be?

Thanks,

Jeff

I eventually got it all sorted out. I replaced the fuel pump relay....did no good...then I replaced the fuel pump...started and ran great for two days....then wouldn't start again. Same problem. I finally gave up and had it towed in. What I found out was that the new fuel pump relay was bad and caused the new fuel pump to burn out. My original problem was just a bad fuel pump. After replacing the relay and pump for the second time, it now works great.

I have a 2001 986 2.7 tiptronic trans. 55K miles.

I have never had any real issues with the car until this morning. I put in the key and try to start it. The starter turns the motor over just fine, but it won't start. No weird lights, all appears as it always has, but it just won't start.

Let me back up a couple of days. I took it on a 200 mile road trip in which I did run into some moderate rain for approx. 1/3 of the trip, but it ran strong with no problems. I get back, turn it off and go into the office for a couple of hours. When I hop in it to go home, the starter turns, but it doesn't start. I turned it back off, waited 10 seconds and then tried it again. It turned over for a couple of seconds and then fired right up. Idled fine and drove home without incident.

Two days later (today) It won't start. I tried it three times, waiting approx. 10 seconds between each try, but to no avail.

I'm thinking fuel pump/relay problem? Any ideas of what to check/try?

I've come across a DSP unit and corresponding amp from someone that has upgraded their factory stereo. My '01 did not come with the DSP option and I would like to add it to my setup (CDR220). I will also be adding rear speakers.

I have yet to receive the DSP unit and amp, but I am wondering if this is basically a plug-n-play or am I in for some head scratchin' and rewiring to get this to work?

Thanks,

Jeff