KevinC

Here's an example of what I consider to about the best possible set of engine upgrades to a Boxster S: http://www.ppbb.com/boards/ppbbphp/showfla...42267&fpart=all Andy dyno'ed his car at 251 HP at the rear wheels and estimated that represented about 291 HP at the crank. If you want to keep the costs down, you could just upgrade the headers, intake and add a chip. That might get you close to 30 HP. Cheers, Kevin

Yeah, I just leave the sensors in the stock pads when I remove them. It's easier to unplug the sensors from the connector on the strut than to remove them from the pads. I have a set of "stub" sensors which I plug in to keep the dash light off.

Ignition off is not enough. (Air bag light will come on as a result of disconnecting the seat wiring connector.) Key out of ignition *is* sufficient to keep the airbag light from coming on.

Here's an example of what I consider to about the best possible set of engine upgrades to a Boxster S: http://tinyurl.com/d6hqk Andy dyno'ed his car at 251 HP at the rear wheels and estimated that represented about 291 HP at the crank. If you want to keep the costs down, you could just upgrade the headers, intake and add a chip. That might get you close to 30 HP. Cheers, Kevin

Do folks really want the crummy Becker head controlling the iPod? Instead of the iPod's rich display with artist name, album and song title, you get some "virtual CD's" corresponding to some playlists. I would much rather mount the iPod near the center console and use it's display and controls. This is especially true with the nice bright displays on the new color screens. The Dension Ice Link is probably very slick with a more sophisticated headunit, but I don't see the value when the headunit has a non-alphanumeric display.

5mm spacers dont cause very difference?... why Porsche recommends it? <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It doesn't sound like you should worry about spacers. If you have the stock 7.5, 9" wide wheels with the stock 225, 265mm tires, the wheels will fit fine. The handling improvement from spacers would be *very* small. Unless you are trying to make the tires look more aggressive in the wheel wells, skip the spacers.

No need to remove the wheels to check. Just look between the spokes where the wheel attaches to the hub/brake rotor. Without a spacer, the wheel will mount flush to the "hat" in the middle of the brake rotor. If there is a 5mm spacer, you will see the thin disc (less than 1/4") between the wheel and the rotor hat. Porsche put 5mm spacers on the 550 special edition Boxsters. If you don't have one of those, you are not likely to have the spacers on the car. The increased track width may provide a very marginal improvement in handling. A lot of folks like to use larger spacers to improve the appearance by making the wheels flush with the fenders. Popular sizes are 14mm in the rear and 7mm in front. If you add spacers, make sure you use longer bolts. The Porsche 5mm spacer kit comes with longer bolts which are distinguished by red sleeves at the top of the shaft.

I didn't need to loosen the adjustment screw. However, that may have been because my handbrake was not very tight. I say give it a try and loosen the adjuster if you have trouble removing the rotor.

Removing the rear caliper is very straightforward. Just make sure to release the hand brake to free up the e-brake shoes and allow you to remove the rotor. If you have not already seen it, check out this link for lots of info on Boxster brake work: Trygve's Boxster Brakes page I replaced a front bearing with the help of a friend recently. There are definitely some specialized tools required to pop the ball joints, press out the hub/bearing and pull one of the bearing races off the hub. With the right tools, the job should go pretty smoothly.

Don't even leave the key in the ignition while the seat connector is open. I believe that is enough to trigger the air-bag light.

I had a nasty clunking noise up front which I heard when driving over even very small bumps in the road. It turned out to be worn out rubber bushings in the front strut mounts.

Once the tires and wheels have checked OK on the road force test, the dealer should stop worrying about them! I would investigate the rear wheel bearings. Usually bad wheel bearings produce noises but not much vibration. However, I just replaced a badly worn front bearing and it cleaned up a vibration I was feeling in the steering. There were a couple of spots on the bearing's races which were badly scored. Are you hearing any noises from the rear?

Jeff - I did the 210->220 swap in my '98 and your information is correct. I got the alarm beep until I taped the end of the alarm wire. The important thing is to realize that the metal bracket for the 210 is not needed with the 220. :D Once that bracket is removed, the 220 slips right in and the old connector plugs right in.

Plexus is great for routine maintenance of the plastic rear window. Unless it is especially soiled, I just hose down my convertible top (no soap/detergent). I avoid getting a bunch of lint on it by blotting it dry with a dark towel.

The Boxster has an "open differential". Equal torque is delivered to both wheels and that's the problem. The torque delivered to a wheel with good traction is limited by the amount of torque which can be delivered to a wheel which is slipping. Open differentials are quite standard on modern road cars. Some performance cars come with Limited Slip Differentials. These ensure that the wheel with more traction will get more torque than the wheel which is slipping. LSD's are not available on Boxsters. However, the Traction Control option provides a similar function using electronics and the brakes. TC monitors the ABS wheel speed sensors and when it sees that one wheel is slipping, it applies the brakes on that wheel, thus increasing the torque the engine can deliver to both drive shafts. It sounds like your '98 was not equipped with Traction Control. (On newer Porsches, traction control is a subset of the functionality provided by the PSM system)

A couple of notes - the R-9030 bar is for use with the stock Porsche sliders, not the Sparco sliders. Without the bar, there are still a variety of ways to mount the sub strap(s). I have an Evo-2 with Sparco sliders in my car. I love it. My only complaint is that there is some play in the Sparco sliders, causing the seat to wobble a bit. If I were doing it again, I would try to get a second set of Porsche sliders. This would require the R-907X side mounts instead of the R-906X, R-9041, R-9045 hardware. If you are happy to leave the seat in semi-permanently, you could re-use your existing sliders. The 907X sidemounts have a threaded hole for a seatbelt buckle. With the 906X sidemounts you can attach it using a longer bolt in the inside rear mounting hole, along with some washers to prevent the buckle from binding. I agree with AR on the wheels. I have 8,9.5x17" wheels with 245/275 Victoracers. Kevin

What does it mean when all the sports suspension kits come with firmer suspension - in particular the shorter/stiffer springs and firmer dampers? Does damper mean shock absorber? Yes, but damper is a better description of the part. It doesn't absorb shocks (the springs do that). It absorbs (or dampens) oscillations (bouncing). The shocks provide some resistance to the motion of the suspension. The result is that they *transmit* shocks to the chassis. If a shock absorber is firmer, does it mean it doesn't absorb shock as well as a softer one? See above. So if I hit a bump, instead of the wheels move up and the car body stay level, the whole car moves up and jumps to air, this is meant to be good for roadholding/handling? It's a tradeoff. If the shocks were softer, the car would continue bouncing after you hit a bump. The stiffness of the shock must be matched to the stiffness of the springs and the weight of the car to properly dampen the bouncing of the chassis. Alternatively, what happens when I hit a ditch? Stiffer spring would push the wheels down faster and therefore allow better roadholding? Is that it? Only partially. (See below.) Or is it all about cornering? Stiffer everything so the car doesn't roll sideways? I have found sideways roll to be a good indication of how far the car is being pushed, with the roll eliminated, doesn't it mean that there will no longer be an indication between flat cornering and when the car starts to loose grip when cornering hard so the car becomes unpredicatable? Up to a point, stiffer springs do improve the handling of a car by reducing lean in a turn, diving under braking and squatting under acceleration. You can get your cues from the sensation of cornering G's and feedback from the tires, not just the leaning of the car. A car with stiffer springs still leans, just not as much. You need to recalibrate yourself.

I believe that 18x10" wheels made for 993's (or 993 Turbo's?) have the proper offset to work on a Boxster.

If you don't want to spend $2000+ on the PSS9 coilovers, you could do pretty well with Bilstein SP shocks along with either Eibach or H&R springs. The springs will lower your car 1-1.5", allowing you to get a lot more negative camber in front. This setup should perform better and be cheaper than the factory kit. I remember seeing prices around $1200 for the factory ROW 030 parts. You should be able to get the Bilstein Shocks and the springs for less than $700. The factory 030 kit includes new sway bars, but I'm not sure how much difference they make. You might want to wait then either get a stiffer rear bar for less understeer or get a set of adjustable bars so you can tune the balance. Regarding wheels - 3-piece forged are generally the lightest and strongest, but they are pricey. Brands like Fikse, Kinesis, and HRE can be up to $1000 per wheel. However, CCW (Complete Custom Wheels) makes forged wheels for about half that cost. http://www.ccwheel.com/

Are you using aftermarket wheels? I had a vibration problem with the 7mm spacers needed to clear the rear suspension after installing the euro PSS9 coilovers. The problem was related to my Kinesis wheels. Those wheels have a beveled center hole. After the wheel was pushed out 7mm, the "tangs" of the hub no longer contacted the center bore of the wheel, but touched the beveled portion. This allowed the wheel to droop down when mounted. I was able to re-center it, but it was a PITA. Scott Burrow pointed me to "hub-centric" 7mm spacers available from SCarGo. They have extended tangs welded to the inside which fit between the tangs of the hub. They are expensive at $125 apiece, but they completely solved the problem and made it much easier to mount the wheels. However, I wouldn't think you would have this problem with Porsche wheels since the ones I have seen have almost no bevel at the end of the center bore. Then again, unless someone made them in their garage, I would be very surprised if a 7mm spacer could be significantly out of balance.

I think you need to find a better alignment shop. The rear toe is definitely adjustable. There are eccentric bolts for adjusting rear toe and camber. Apparently there is some interaction between the settings. If the car has been lowered, achieving the proper toe may require 2-2.5 degrees of negative camber.

OK, here's my $0.02. I went through some teething pains when learning to heel-toe in the Boxster and tried the Wings device. I quickly decided that I hated the thing. I was constantly catching my foot on it. The concept is very poor. At a minimum, it adds about an inch to the height of the pedal (much too much - no additional height is actually needed). It doesn't change the width of the top portion of the pedal, but has a large extension at the bottom, apparently so you can use your heel to blip the gas. However, since the Boxster pedal hinges at the bottom, the extension has little leverage and basically just twists the pedal, risking damage. If you have very narrow feet, it might be beneficial to get a pedal which extends the left side of the gas pedal slightly. (See the ones from www.autovation.net.) However, if your feet are not very narrow, this would probably also end up getting in the way. My feet are size 8.5M and I have no problem blipping the gas with the right side of my foot. Basically, I agree with DANNOV. After a lot of practice, it is now completely natural for me to heel-toe on the street at low braking effort as well as at the track at very high braking effort. It's all about getting lots of practice. While it's true that the foot motion is a little different under lighter braking pressure, it's probably best to start practicing that way on the street and then start doing harder stops, as you would on the track. Having the flexibility to do it both ways will pay off on the track.

Hi Jeff - I don't see any pictures. Are you saying that some dealers literally sell Ate Type 200 as the replacement brake fluid, not a can relabeled as Porsche?

I think the proper procedure to reset the one-touch windows is to run the window up, release the button, then press it for another second. I believe you will find this explained if you Read The Fine Manual. ;)