John V

The armrest is easy. There are two pins that both secure the armrest to the door and serve as hinges. You can push these out and / or pull them with a needle nose pliers. Be careful not to lose the little washers and make a note where they go so you can reassemble properly.

It is quite easy to do without removing the bumper. Not sure why people remove the bumper. The "trick" is to remove the two fasteners from the center of that long flexible piece that you have shown attached to the muffler in your picture. You can see them in that pic. The long flexible piece then can be pushed backwards out of the transmission to muffler mounting plate and the muffler will drop out.

To bump an old thread... This happened to me today (inability to fill fuel tank). Fuse E6 was blown. I tapped into the circuit (which has a pigtail under the dashboard) to power some data acquisition equipment and it accidentally shorted momentarily. Circuit E6 powers some sort of valve in the fuel filler neck. Once I replaced the fuse, I heard a "click" from the front of the car and I could fill the tank with fuel again. Weird stuff, Porsche.

Maybe I just corner harder to the right than I do to the left... :P I have the same issue. My suggestion is to use some spray degreaser to clean the cam cover thoroughly and then drive the car until you see the leak's source. John V

Hate to say this, but: learn to live with it. :( The gas pedal assembly is sealed, with an internal spring and potentiometer. You can try to spray some nonconductive lube inside there, but I would be hesitant to do so. I'm forwarding this thread to a buddy who disassembled his pedal assembly as much as he could and got some lube in there - it seemed to help a little bit.

Perhaps after a short shift kit installation? I am in desperate need of the part in this picture, which you cannot buy at the dealer. If anyone can help, please shoot me an e-mail at vitamvauser (at) hotmail.com Many thanks!

You mean you drilled in through the inlet pipes to the muffler? What did you use, a hole saw? How far in there do you have to get to be able to cut the baffle? Have a look around on this board or others for photos of a Boxster muffler cut open. The two inlet pipes are actually the same pipe. As gases enter, they are forced against each other, and they push themselves into two intermediate chambers. From there, the gases move to the opposite outter most parts of the muffler, and then circulate to a central chamber before exiting. By opening holes about three inches from the edges of the entry pipes (two inches into the muffler itself), gases will bypass the intermediate chambers and go directly into the nearest outter chambers, then into the central chamber, then out. I used a Dremel tool with a flex extension and a cutting wheel to cut slits in the entry pipe. From there, I used a chisel and a pry bar to open the holes. The pry bar allowed me to create fins within the pipes, directing flow to the outter chambers. Looking into the pipes when the exhaust is apart, it's not the prettiest work I've ever done, but it's internal and man, does it work! The picture is what the stock muffler does...I hope my description is clear enough to show the differences. I think I understand. So you opened holes on each side of each of the inlet pipes, inside the muffler. I may have to try this! Thanks for the information. John V

Which I'm pretty sure is exactly what I said. Doing a brake style on a Chassis dyno is commonly referred to as a Run Down by people who operate and tune on them which I explained in my post. You said "brake horsepower" referred to horsepower measured on an engine dyno as opposed to a chassis dyno. This is not true. It applies to both. No big deal. Furthermore, you also said "brake horsepower" referred to an engine measurement without any parasitic components. Again, this is not true.

Not quite. bhp is brake horsepower, but a engine dynos AND chassis dynos can be brake-style dynamometers. I agree it is more clear to say "whp" when referring to a measurement taken on a chassis dyno. Furthermore, the bhp quoted by manufacturers does include the water pump, generator, full exhaust and intake and accessory drives. It's all spelled out in the SAE testing protocol for engine horsepower ratings.

You mean you drilled in through the inlet pipes to the muffler? What did you use, a hole saw? How far in there do you have to get to be able to cut the baffle?

I used the Flexane 80. It's more than hard enough to the touch. I will urethane the mount that just came out of my car as well... maybe trying a softer compound of urethane this time. You ABSOLUTELY need to lift the motor. I used a floor jack. If you have a reliable floor jack that is easy to control, I would say to use it, but to have a jackstand or blocks under the motor just in case the jack fails. You need to support the motor to loosen all the bolts, and then lower the nose of the motor (towards the front of the car) slightly to allow the lower bolts to back out and the mount to come out. It takes some wrestling with the coolant hoses, but it will come out. Here is the mount that came out of my car. Again this is a 2000 S with about 40,000 miles on it.

FYI - the part number for the 'clips' (the water intake and outlet hoses) that I mentioned is: 996-106-425-02 - $3.16 cents from Sunset. As noted, the hose clips on my car were very brittle and broke when removed. For $3.00, they should be replaced along with engine mount or fuel filter. Quick bump to this thread. I just did the motor mount on my '00 S. 40,522 miles and it was torn almost all the way around. The center aluminum portion was hanging on by just a thread of old rubber. I was forced into using the factory Porsche mount because I use this car for competition and a urethaned mount would be illegal. However I purchased a replacement mount from a ppbb member and urethaned it. I cut away all the old rubber prior to doing this, because the center part had clearly moved off center - plus all the old rubber was deteriorated and dry-rotting. I didn't believe it when everyone said these mounts fail at a young age, but it seems to be true if the car is driven hard. Definitely buy the clips that LemmyCaution suggests. I was as careful as I could be, and I still broke both of mine. I'll post pictures up later of my turn mount and my urethaned mount which I'll hold onto as an emergency spare.

Ok, So I have a set of Hawk pads, and a new set of wear sensors and the Porsche recommended brake kit. I will also be painting my brakes red with new logo's when I do the b. pad change. My question is, how do I tell if I need new rotors. I dont really have the extra cash to spend on new rotors right now. And besides I really want to upgrade to cross drilled anyway. It does not look to be any deep scoring on the rotors,...but I bought the car with 47k in it, she now has 59k and I have no idea of when the rotors where last changed, if ever. What to do? You need to measure the thickness of the rotor. This can be done with a micrometer or a vernier caliper. The minimum thickness spec for the rotors will be cast into the back of the hat.

You might want to take these pictures down. You may have just voided your warranty. :D

LOL! I put a K&N on my old motorcycle years ago. It flowed enough more air over a factory paper filter that I had to shim the needles and bump up the main jet one size. For that thing, there was a noticable gain with the filter, and the motorcycle was so cheap that I really didn't care too much what happened to it. I guess for my $30k car I'm a little more "by the book."

Sure enough, his K&N had a slight tear in it, about big enough for a quarter on-end to fit through. See that doesnt apply here, cause the spike accured while the filter had a tear in it. Did the individual replace the filter with a new K&N then re-test? Carlos, with all due respect, you're missing the point. The point is that yes, additional grit coming into your engine can have a direct and measurable effect on engine wear. The K&N filters have proven to filter less well than a factory paper filter. Seems a silly risk to take for no gain.

I get the same exact noise on both sides of my 02. It is louder on the passenger side. So, I would like to know what the cause is as well. According to the local Porsche dealer, this is a common problem. The solution is to replace the window regulator. If the car is under warranty take it in and they will replace it. Otherwise, probably best to just live with it until the window stops working.

Oh my goodness. Where to start? Let me start with an anecdote. One of my good friends, who has owned his car since new, also has had oil analysis done on his car's oil since new. The neat thing about oil analysis is it can track trends in wear metals, particulates, even the additive structure of motor oil. His oil analysis detected the formula change that Mobil 1 enacted in the late 90's. One month he saw a spike in silicon on his oil analysis sheet, and a corresponding spike in wear metals (mainly lead). The oil analysis folks write some suggestions and comments on the sheet. One of the comments was along the lines of "check your air filter." Sure enough, his K&N had a slight tear in it, about big enough for a quarter on-end to fit through. But this tear was enough to let grit into the engine, make its way into the oil system, and start tearing things up. Would he have seen an engine failure 10, 20, 30k down the road? Probably not. Would it affect the lifespan of the engine? You bet. Saying that you did something once and didn't notice any adverse effects is akin to consciously deciding to smoke. Will you start coughing right away? Will you get cancer in ten years? Probably not... ;) The bottom line is it is a personal decision. Up to you entirely! Bear in mind that Porsche's MAF sensors are VERY sensitive to contamination, even with the stock filter in place! The slight amount of oil that is passed by a K&N is easily enough to foul it up. Since there is no performance gain, to me it is not worth the risk. But if a slight increase in sound is worth the risk to you, go for it!

I don't know anything about those cars, but I suspect the horsepower gains are minimal and thus in my mind it doesn't make sense. The factory filter is better as a filter, so that's what I'll keep using.

The K&N is supposed to be oiled for proper filtration. It won't filter as well without oil. Peer, don't do it. You won't see any horsepower increase from installing a K&N on the Boxster, and they don't filter nearly as well as the OEM paper filter. You're wasting money to wear your engine out faster. False economy. John

Like this? Those are two Magnaflow mufflers with two 3" tips. DON'T DO IT, unless you are already deaf or really like feeling like your head is about to explode. There is way too much science in effectively designing exhausts for these cars that don't resonate that I recommend you not waste your money.

Sure, lots of people. The first thing I did when I picked up my '00 S was set the front camber to max negative (about -.5 degrees, not much) and reset the front toe to zero. A friend with an '03 S did the same thing, yet his handles much differently. More push on turn-in than mine, even with the larger (Stock) rear swaybar installed on the '03+ cars. I believe this is because my car has less rear camber and toe than his car does. As soon as the weather warms up and I can install my US 030 suspension, I'll get the car realigned. The plan is to start with zero front toe and maximum front camber. The rear will start with minimum rear camber and zero toe as well, but I'll dial in camber as needed to keep the back end in line. This is for an autocross car with 245 front and 285 rear tires. Hope this helps. I didn't realize camber adjustment was so limited (then again, strut suspension). I'm going to max negative camber up front and the tiniest amount of front toe-in. My experience has been that going to a tiny bit of toe-in will compensate for bushing flex and will toe-out to zero once the car is moving. What toe and camber settings are you running in the back? I'm thinking of going to zero (as it looks like zero rear toe is w/in spec). Has anyone done that? Is it twitchy, or is the toe curve on the rear suspension aggressive enough to compensate for it? I'm a big of a suspension buff, but I'm not terribly familiar with the motion ratio and geometry of the 986. This is all on a U.S. M030 car, btw. I don't know my rear toe and camber settings exactly since the car's never been on a rack, but based on quickie measurements of the camber and how the car feels, it's around -1.5 degrees negative camber and close to zero toe. The car is not twitchy in daily driving. I don't know how much toe the 986 gains through compression. Although it has struts up front and limited negative camber, the 986 has a bunch of caster and has good roll stiffness, especially a US 030 car. This helps the front camber situation a bunch. You can certainly do some toe-in up front, but I don't think there's a reason to. What do you want to do with the car? Track? Autocross? Spirited street driving? I can tell you what I've done and what others have done with the car, but unless you plan to drive it like us it's not gonna be too helpful. ;)

Sure, lots of people. The first thing I did when I picked up my '00 S was set the front camber to max negative (about -.5 degrees, not much) and reset the front toe to zero. A friend with an '03 S did the same thing, yet his handles much differently. More push on turn-in than mine, even with the larger (Stock) rear swaybar installed on the '03+ cars. I believe this is because my car has less rear camber and toe than his car does. As soon as the weather warms up and I can install my US 030 suspension, I'll get the car realigned. The plan is to start with zero front toe and maximum front camber. The rear will start with minimum rear camber and zero toe as well, but I'll dial in camber as needed to keep the back end in line. This is for an autocross car with 245 front and 285 rear tires. Hope this helps.

It depends. Where do you want to increase oversteer? Corner entry? Mid-corner? Corner exit? It's not quite as simple as you're trying to make it. A larger rear bar will decrease understeer on corner exit, while doing almost nothing on corner entry. Since Boxsters which are properly aligned are already pretty loose on corner-entry, a larger rear bar could balance the car well.

Here you go. The M030 isn't adjustable. John V is right on, you won't increase grip by just changing sway bars but you will increase responsiveness and reduce body roll. Keep in mind when comparing sway bars or any kind of torsion bar, that diameter, thickness and material determine stiffness. You can't tell stiffness just by diameter alone. http://www.cb-racing.com/boxster_030.html Yes, right on. The M030 bars are probably a good upgrade for a street car. The aftermarket bars available for the Boxster are way too stiff to work well with a stock suspension, not to mention the risk of bending the front tub that comes with running a super stiff bar.