0586slb

Marc, The workshop were correct if they told you the faults were not present - but should have elaborated on that. In OBD II rules, if a fault occurs with the engine, it has to be logged in the ECU. The fault code will then be tagged as present, or intermittent. If intermittent, it has occurred but has cleared itself. intermittent faults are stored for 50 driving cycles, then cleared by the ECU itself (A driving cycle is engine start, run for a certain length of time I can't remember, then stop - so its no good just cycling your ignition 50 times). For example, if you disconnect the Engine Coolant Temperature sensor and scan the car, you'll get a 'Engine temperature sensor P0115'. Reconnect it, everything will be fine with the running of the car, but the ECU will store P0115 as an intermittent fault. (There, but not present). Here's my :soapbox: moment: Vehicle technicians seem to be just getting taught how to read scantools and change the component, but not to just step back and think about the fault for a moment. An example is my friend took his Audi in because he had a CEL come on. They replaced all of his injectors, all of coil-packs and the camshaft position sensor at horrendous cost. CEL appeared again in four weeks. I have a scantool program so checked his car - found the same nine fault codes, (Cyl 1, 2, 3, 4 ignition coil short to bat +, cyl 1, 2, 3, 4 injector short to bat + and crankshaft position sensor short to bat+) Now all those components couldn't go bad at the same time, so I started looking for some commonality and after two minutes with my multimeter found the ground connection to the cylinder head had gone high resistance. A further two minutes and a 63 pence crimp solved the problem. He is still battling with Audi on this one...

Would this void the body and paintwork warranty?

Are you asking if this is peculiar to 987s only? Factory fit Xenons or Litronics do have a very distinct cut-off line - its every credit to the designers of the optical projectors. They are designed to give the projection of as much light as possible to the low beam 'pool' but not to let it escape elswhere - to prevent dazzle of oncoming motorists or yourself (with reflection of roadsigns). To attain 'e' approval in Europe, all manufacturers that factory fit xenon discharge headlights have to have self leveling and a headlamp wash facility fitted, to keep that cut-off as clear as you mentioned.

Jean, There's really no substitute for the real adhesive. Be sure to clean *all* remains of the old adhesive then clean, clean and did I mention clean the affected areas with a good solvent, such as acetone. (But not nail polish remover, as the residue will prevent the fresh adhesive well, adhering). Take your time over the job, make sure the black pad is intact on the screen and this has been thoroughly cleaned too. When you're slurring your speech with the solvent fumes, thats about clean enough! :lol:

I have the same problems, along with creaking noises near the sunroof. It would be great if you can help with viewing the TSB. Thanks. Ed <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Great way to view the TSBs is to click the "PayPal - Donate" button thats at the bottom of every page. Loren will then upgrade your status to 'Contributing Member' and you will be able to View all 711(!) TSBs, including the 215 that are applicable to your car... :rolleyes:

wwest, the penny has dropped and I now see your point. I hadn't realised that the A/C was directing to the windshield in AUTO position. :blink: FWIW, the A/C in my Audi A4 works faultlessly. (A Hella unit for Audi). When in auto, if interior is cold, warm air is directed at your feet. If hot, cold air is directed to the centre/face vents. The windshield only gets air when you ask it to. (Pressing Defrost or pressing ^ button). This is exactly how I want it to work. It even knows if the engine is not warm enough to heat the air and keeps the fan off until it is. My Boxster however, just seems to blow the air no matter what the engine temp, which is pretty annoying considering the above. However, if its warm enough to have the A/C cooling - its warm enough to have the top down :lol:

This characteristic is re-creatable on *any* A/C system worth its salt, as the exit temperature of the cooled air should be an arbitary temperature of 5-10C. If this airstream is directed at the front screen, the air will reach its dewpoint on the outside. Instead of directing the cooled air to the windscreen, would it be sufficient for those users to have it distributed from the face vents an floor vents too? I have the face vents set high so the airstream is not directed to my face, and find this makes for a refreshing interior.

But that looks like a 987. Are the windows in the glass 986 and 987 the same?

Take your wheel off, turn it round and just pop the centre through from the back, with a hammer handle or something. You'll see its just held in with a circular clip. (I presume you meant the centre cap??)

How do you remove the engine panel that is behind the seat backs? (Not the one where you put the top into the service position) Does the carpet just pull out of the way, or are there some clips to release? Is the panel then held with the same kind of quarter turn fasteners that the lid is held with?

There was one little attention to detail that Porsche made that makes its factory alarm stand out from all the rest: having to get the key into the ignition within 10 seconds of opening the door with the key. With the RFID and crypto technology thats in use now, the transmitted code from the keyfob is fairly secure. But a lot of manufacturers have the factory alarm wired to the door lock, that is, you deactivate the alarm just by unlocking with a key. Well the thieves discovered that if you force the lock, the switch operates just the same - but Porsche added the feature that you have to get the key verified by the Immobiliser to prevent the alarm sounding. The front end of Immobiliser technology is again very strong. However, its the 'undocumented features' of systems like this that allow them to be breached. For example, the Immobiliser modules of some manufacturers have a very strong encryption technique, code hopping, seed response etc. but the module sends its 'Yes - OK to start' to the ECM in the same way every time. Its then not difficult to build a module that just says 'Yes - OK to start' and bypass the Immo. An Aftermarket alarm/immo will just cut the ignition feed, starter, fuel pump and maybe some other circuits, literally at the point where the dozy installer can see where they go (i.e. right next to the starter switch) and stick the control box under the dash with duck tape... In summary I'd say keep the system factory standard, the Porsche system is quite robust but if they want your car, they'll just take it unfortunately! On the back of a low-loader or towed away.

My thoughts and questions too... It may be just flash bounce from the picture inside the car. Would anyone who has seen the new top 'in the flesh' comment please?

Joe, Someone, somewhere on this forum has done it. I've seen a photo of what I can remember, a red car that was either a Boxster or 996 cab. I saw it when browsing the forums when I joined. (Well, there's only 21 thousand posts to browse again... :lol: ) They had installed a monitor in the dash that looked like an in-dash touch screen with a nice silver frame that seemed to mach Arctic silver interior parts. I'll have a look over the next few days!

Yipster, The position of the 'clamshell' or lid, will have nothing to do with the installation of the Smart-top. Have a look here for the subforum all about the softtop. Maybe your transmission is not quite set correctly. You'll find loads of useful info in this forum.

The 9 volts is just an open-circuit 'floating' voltage that is a symptom of how the alarm horn is controlled by the alarm unit. The 9V is shunted by the horn when it is connected. (Horns are surprisingly heavy current consumers and therefore quite a low resistance) Incidentally, on later model cars, there is an alarm siren as well as an alarm horn. So it 'screeches' as well as 'toots' when the alarm is set off. However, if a zone is left open you just get a single 'toot' from the horn.

This is going to be a fairly big job. What are you going to do with the components that you remove? This is what you'll have to do: Arrange for a vehicle A/C specialist to collect the gas from the system. Ask him/her if you can have some plugs to cap-off the various things you remove. Are you going to remove the wiring harness too? In the engine bay, you'll need to remove the compressor, belt and tensioner. If the comp. is driven with the same belt as the other engine ancillaries, you'll heed a different belt. There will be an object known as a receiver/drier somewhere in the engine bay. Remove that too, along with the pipework. Remove the pipes from under the car that go towards the front. The front bumper will have to come off to remove the two condensers from in front of the radiators. In the scuttle area, you'll need to remove the battery and a lot of other brackets and stuff to gain access to the pipework and service valves etc. Inside the car, remove the steering wheel, column etc. to remove the entire dashboard assembly. Once thats out of the way, you'll find the A/C plenum chamber. This has to be removed and replaced with a non-A/C version. Once thats out, don't forget to cap off the hole where the evaporator drain pipe exits the car, otherwise you'll get wet footwells when it rains. Whilst everything is out of the car, consider how much of the existing wiring loom can be used with the new heater system and consider how you may have to graft one loom to another. (Wiring diagrams for A/C and non-A/C cars are essential for this) Oh, you'll need a different set of heater controls too. If you don't intend keeping the car, think of how gutted a future owner will be if they see A/C on the options list and you've removed it, so its probably best if you keep all the equipment and modify the wiring as little as possible. - Best of luck! -

Do I not get an itsy bitsy teensy weensy little bit of credit? :huh:

Its good to see the water drip - as bavarian says - perfectly normal. It kind of proves the A/C is getting cold enough. Think of an ice cold beer on a warm day, there's water droplets that form on the outside of the glass. Well, this forms on the evaporator in the dash and is ducted to drain under the front of the car.

Its functional as well as cosmetic! The hard plastic strip is supposed to be clipped into two plastic clips, on the rear edge of the appeture (just below where the clamshell locks into). This keeps the fabric taught. The flap catches water that has drained off the rear window and seeped under the clamshell, the hard plastic strip then channels it to either side of the car, where it can then flow out through the drain pipes under the car.

What year/model/country/market is your car? On my 2002 UK Boxster S, the motion sensor works with the top open or closed. However, I've heard that the American guys use something known as the 'Red Clip' - a factory part that clips over the top latch and holds the microswitch in.

Sorry, the cluster is the rear light cluster. The earth cable is solid brown. Re: chat? - You have a PM. 0586slb

Remove the light? No. It's an LED thats integral to the cluster. At who's risk? The light denotes there's a fault. The airbag system may have detected an open circuit in on of the bags. That will not deploy in an accident. It may have detected a short in the wiring. This can prevent all bags deploying. If the wiring has gone open circuit, any form of static can now deploy the bag at any time. Would it be fair to pass the car on to another owner if the light was left disconnected?

zacharie, It is quite hard to see, due to the close proximity of your photograph, but it looks as though this is part of the exhaust manifold. If so, these parts are made of a cast material, (not sure if it is actually cast iron) and it is very normal for them to have a 'rusty' appearance. The 'rust' is a surface patina or oxide that forms, however this never gets worse to the extent that it begins to rot away - once formed it prevents further or deeper oxidation. You say the surface gets very hot in normal use, if it is the exhaust manifold, expect temperatures in excess of 600C. The workshop manual is quite particular that no part of the exhaust system needs or should be treated with any corrosion protection, be it underseal or paint. The use of this material for exhaust manifolds is not peculiar to Porsche. (However, I'll eat my words with Humble Pie if this is not your exhaust manifold..!)

Yes, PWM is constant, if you turn the ignition on but don't start, you can hear the throttle 'whine' and it will change tone with the position of the gas pedal. The spring controls the throttle to the closed position in the event of a malfunction or disconnection of the drive. No, a stepper motor starts from a predetermined position, then a number of steps will move it to another known position, (if this is interrupted, it has to motor back to its start position to know how far to step again) whereas the position of a servo motor is allways known because of the position feedback potentiometers. The stepper motor has a complex field/armature arrangement, so one impulse moves it, say, 5 degrees.

Are you saying the 'small' bulb is coming on when the switch is in position '0'? Just that if you turn ALL the way to the left (<) it puts the left parking light on, one click to the right, (>) the right parking light, another click, (0) Off, Another, (=DC=) side lights, finally all the way to the right (=D) dipped main beam. (I hope that doesn't sound patronizing, I surely don't mean to be) The non-Litronic headlamp does not normally have any power to it when lights are off, so I can't think of any other thing to cause this.