KevinC

The rear pads will fit. The front pads will not.

The garage may be referring to the spring plate which pushes the pads down into the caliper. If this broke, if could cause the pads to rattle. However, I think it is pretty unlikely that this part would fail. It is more likely something in the suspension. My car developed a nasty clunking sound over small bumps which was due to busted rubber bushings in the upper strut mounts. The sway bar and drop links would be another good place to check out.

I was in a similar situation last summer - IMS failure in my 2000 Boxster S; PCNA declined to help despite two previous defective engines; high initial quote from dealer. I wasn't aware of the work of Jake Raby at that time, so it seemed that my options were either a junkyard engine or a new engine from my dealer. I didn't want to take the chance with the junkyard engine, especially since I heard that the dealer engine would have updates to the IMS and other problem components. I wasn't happy with the dealer quote, so I investigated sourcing the engine from Sunset Porsche in Oregon (I'm in CA) and having a good local mechanic install it. Sunset's price for the engine was thousands less than my dealer's. (I believe the number was $8900.) I would have to pay to get it shipped and would also have to pay for shipping the old "core" back to them. However, the shipping costs (about $400 each way) were offset by the fact that I wouldn't have to pay sales tax on the engine purchased out of state. I got a quote of $2000 for installation by a very good independent Porsche mechanic. Armed with this info, I was able to get a much more reasonable quote from my dealer. I paid just under $13K which included a new clutch, various fluids and sales tax. Fortunately, I had resisted the urging of my dealer to allow them to start tearing the car down for inspection. That would have made it expensive to pull the car out of the dealership. You might be able to put together a similar competitive quote for your dealer by sourcing the new engine from someone on the east coast like Suncoast Porsche in Florida. I even found that the parts department at another local dealership happily offered me my standard 10% PCA parts discount on the engine. You can also hit your dealer with the cost of installing a used engine which should be about half the number they quoted you. Bottom line - $17K is much too high. In these times, your dealership should be willing to make a more reasonable offer to keep your business.

It's just a question of boiling points. Any DOT 4 fluid will be fine for driving on the street, but for $13 why not buy some Ate Super Blue or Typ 200 (gold)? It's a great brake fluid which stands up to hard use at the track. It has a dry boiling point of 536 degrees and a "wet" boiling point of 388 degrees. This qualifies it as a Dot 5.1 (or "Super Dot 4") fluid. http://www.livermoreperformance.com/brake_fluid.html#ate Check out this link for more info on different types of brake fluids: http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_brakefluid_1a.shtml

I like the Autovation pedals. They are reasonably priced and the gas pedal has a shape which makes sense. The pedals with the extension on the bottom of the gas pedal can be a problem. Since he pedal hinges at the bottom, pressing on that extension does little to depress the pedal and mostly just acts to twist the fragile plastic hinge. The Autovation gas pedal has an extension along most of the side of the pedal. If your feet are narrow, this extension can be very helpful for heel-toe down-shifting. (Keep in mind that a lot of folks just press the brake with the ball of their foot and roll the right side over to the gas pedal.) I like the Competition Matte finish pictured below.

I don't think the beveled holes will change things much. If you are just driving the car on the street, the rotors will be fine. If you are driving it hard on the track or autocross, cracks will form at the holes. The holes will also act a a cheese-grater and cause grooves in the pads and rotors. IMHO, the holes are there mostly for appearance. Modern pads do some out-gassing when they are first getting bedded in but after that, it's not an issue. The holes may also improve the initial action of the brakes in the wet but in general, braking in the wet is very much limited by tire traction rather than braking force.

You might have a bad wheel bearing. The sound is very similar to tire noise. I have had dealer service techs repeatedly dismiss wheel bearing noise as tire noise. When I pointed out that the noise was the same before and after replacing the tires they took the trouble to check and identified the bad bearings - noise gone.

I just backed the rear onto a set of Rhino Ramps. Kevin

I installed my Porsche Sport Exhaust without removing the rear bumper cover. However, removing the cover isn't very hard and it will give you better access and visibility. Most of the process is pretty straightforward. The clamps on the "U" pipes can be a bear to get apart so be prepared with a rubber mallet and some WD-40 to loosen them up. You will probably need to move the upper mounting bracket over from your stock muffler. As Savowood mentioned, attaching the bracket to the top of the transmission is a b!tch because you need to do it blind. You'll be reaching up from the front side of the car, trying to get the nuts on the mounting bolts without being able to see them. It's tough to get a wrench in there to tighten the bolts. I played around with a few different ones until I found a setup that worked.

I don't know about Orange County, but up here in Santa Clara County I have never had anyone request that the engine be exposed for a visual check. I usually go to the "Smog Pros" at an Arco station. They just roll the car onto their dyno which is built into the floor, then hook up the OBD-II connector and the sniffer. Ten minutes later I get my certificate. kc

The car has 90K. The engine has 40K. kc

I'm afraid that Dan might have an intermediate shaft failure. My car is throwing the same kind of misfire codes (also a "signal implausible" code for the camshaft position sensor). One of the first things my mechanic checked was the oil filter. He found lots of metal in the oil and his experience told him the problem was most likely the IMS failure. My car is now at the dealer to get their diagnosis and then to see if Porsche will help me out with a new engine. kc

I had a metallic clunking sound in my 2000 S which turned out to be bad front strut mounts. The rubber bushings in the upper strut mounts had deteriorated, allowing the shock rods to contact the metal portion of the strut mounts. The sway bars could also be the culprit. Check the drop link connections as well as the chassis mount points with the bushings.

Yikes! My mechanic is saying that the engine is toast. He found lots of metal in the oil. He's assuming that it's an intermediate shaft failure. Is that likely given that the engine still runs?

I was on the track when my engine suddenly started running *very* rough towards the end of my first session. The CEL was on. I was barely able to limp back to the paddock and pulled these codes from my Durametric scan tool: P0300 Porsche fault code 62 - Misfire damaging to cat. converter P0301 Porsche fault code 63 - Cylinder 1 misfire damaging to cat. converter P0304 Porsche fault code 66 - Cylinder 4 misfire damaging to cat. converter P0305 Porsche fault code 67 - Cylinder 5 misfire damaging to cat. converter P0306 Porsche fault code 68 - Cylinder 6 misfire damaging to cat. converter P0341 Porsche fault code 112 - Camshaft sensor bank 1 Signal implausible After limping it into a friends trailer and then into my garage and waiting a few weeks to return home from a trip, I see the following similar set of codes: P0300 Porsche fault code 62 - Misfire damaging to cat. converter P0306 Porsche fault code 68 - Cylinder 6 misfire damaging to cat. converter P0341 Porsche fault code 112 - Camshaft sensor bank 1 Signal implausible P1340 Porsche fault code 322 - Camshaft position with respect to crankshaft bank 1 below limit value The engine still runs but it is very rough and vibrates badly. No smoke, no fluids, no nasty mechanical sounds. It certainly sounds like something is going on with the camshaft position sensor. Does anyone have any experience with that? I'm praying that this is just an electrical problem with a bad sensor or a bad connection. Any help would be much appreciated. The car is a 2000 Boxster S with 90K miles. No engine mods but lots of suspension mods. Kevin