Qtwo

Hi all,

I just opened up the engine area on my Boxster and it is in a need of a cleaning or dusting. My question is, can you carefully wash the Boxster engine on low pressure with regular car wash soap? And is it normal for the engine area to look so "dusty"? It is a '98 that has 95k miles and has been check thoroughly for any RMS issues -- and luckily, it is one of the ones that escaped the issue but the engine looks dusty/dirty as hell.

Thanks in advance

I also have a 98 Boxster and was concerned about using water to clean the engine. It does not appear to be a good idea in general

because of the obvious. We have found the common cleaner called Simple Green will do an excellent job of cleaning your engine.

Simply spray it on directly out of the bottle, let it loosen the dirt for a few minutes then wipe it off with clean soft cotton cloths.

You will be surprised at what a good job it does. The engine house on my car looks just like new and I have 95k miles on the car.

One thing I forgot is to suggest blowing the engine down with compressed air if the engine has really picked up a lot of dirt. After the first cleaning you will probably not have to blow it down again as long as you clean it regularly with Simple Green.

Good luck

If you would like to try a temporary fix until you decide how to proceed, cover the tear with a piece of the clear, flexible box packaging tape. It will at least keep the tear from getting larger. I have had a piece on my back window for a year and it is still holding well. You can hardly see it.

Good luck !

****

Just bought a pair of Contis from TireRack that beat the local tire guy by $38 for the pair, but now I need a mount and balance. The local tire shop's price includes the mount and balance service, but sometimes his guys are hacks and I don't trust 'em with my perfect 18" wheels.

A local and very fussy Porsche specility garage wants $65 to do the pair (off the car). Does that sound about right? I'm not used to those prices but this Boxster is new to me and I am not yet used to the cost of repairs and services (do most of my own!). They're 40s on 18".

Thanks...... Bob

Bob,

That seems a little steep to mount and balance your new tires. You might check your local Porsche Distributor to see what they would charge. I would ask whoever does it to guarantee that they will not damage the wheels with their mounting tools. If they won't, go to somebody else. Also, if you plan to drive your car at higher than posted freeway speeds, definately tell them that you need the tires balanced for 110 to 120MPH. If you have well balanced tires at these speeds you feel like you are floating on a cloud (with good road). Finally, if you don't know the wheel history, make sure they install new, good quality air filler valves. Don't forget to eyeball your brake rotors and pads. Maybe $65.00 isn't too bad. I would pay it if I didn't know anybody else.

****

Chris,

Go into the dealer where you order your parts and ask to look up the part with whoever is looking at the exploded view. Sometimes these pictures are hard to to figure out.

Good Luck,

DQ

Since none of our usually good experts are on line this morning maybe we can at least get you started on your diagnosis and correction.

Check the on-line instruction manual to see if your vintage car is fit with a hydraulically actuated clutch. The manual should have very explicit instructions

to bleed the clutch if it is hydraulic. If hydraulic, locate the slave cylinder. Now locate the clutch fluid reservoir and make sure it is topped off. Bleed the clutch with a helper to depress the clutch pedal. It should be a simple fix if you do have a hydraulically actuated clutch. If it is an electrically actuated clutch then you will need appropriate instruction which I do not have. A word of caution, use only the specified clutch fluid if needed.

If none of the above works, stay on line with RennTech because someone will have specific knowledge to help you.

Good luck,

So sorry to hear of your clutch problem. Hopefully the damage is contained to the clutch area and will be easy to repair. With all of the knocking noises that have taken place I would consider, if it was my car, not trying to run the car until it has been disassembled and checked for damage. I would have it put on a flat bed and delivered to the repair site. Ask a local Porsche repair expert on 986's for his advice before attempting to drive the car. Preferably the one who will do the physical work.

Best of luck with the repair.

qtwo

Your picture is a dot matrix cluster for a car with the OBC option. Your cluster has a segmented center display because you do not have the option. Two different clusters.

But you can still do the retrofit. Your car will look like the one below. You need to do the retrofit with the stalk or switch because the OBC displays are shared with the trip odo. Without the stalk or switch you have no way to cycle through the displays, so all you would see is the trip odo.

The 1997-2000 cluster is different. On those years you could have the OBC turned on and see the outside temp without the stalk or switch. That is what your mechanic was trying to tell you.

To: Tool Pants

I am trying to get my 98 Boxster to be able to read outside temperature. I do not have the 4th stalk going to the OBC but I do have a sensor located in the face of my cooling air duct on the passenger side. I read a posting that shows how to activate the temperature gauge which is located at the lower area of the center gauge. Just like the picture above. I have been looking for that posting for three hours during the last two days with no luck. Would you please be so kind as to help me locate this document. Thanks very much!

****

I would also suggest that you check to see when your gasoline source has checked their pump or pumps for the presence of water which can leak into their tank. The gas manufacturer could also be a culprit because they all formulate their additives at some distribution point. these formulations can be problematic at times. We have that trouble where I live and our solution is to change your supply of gas to a major brand such as Shell or Esso. Do not buy from a local, no name, food store. Change your fuel filter again because you have just contaminated your new one then add a can of HEAT (Red can, not Yellow). If water was your problem it should now be gone. Like wise with the gas formulation. I have done this successfully with my Boxster and my wifes turbo Saab.

Bedst of luck,

Qtwo

how has he 'contaminated' his new fuel filter?

Good question, it took me a couple years to find out. "If" there has been water contamination, it takes a while to plug up the fuel filter but it doesn't stay plugged completely. Naturally that depends on the amount of contamination. Reading the original post, I could see that the fuel filter was replaced but strange behavior soon resumed. My experience with a partially plugged fuel filter(free water) was that it really caused the car to behave strangely. eg. You could usually start the car ok but after you drove it for a while it may just quit for no reason and then not start. You could leave the car alone for a while and it would again start and even get you home OK. Everything in the electrical system checked out just fine.

Wow, now what can we look for? So we looked for intermittants with components. No luck.

Then, one of my mechanic friends said that I might have water in the gas problems (this includes alcohol which is mostly water and was mandated by my state to be added to gas for emission reduction)and suggested that I try to add a can of Heat to my gas and change the gas filter. It worked like a charm. The next step was to find a new gas source free from water. I did and haven't had any problems since.

I responded to this request because it would be very inexpensive to try to eliminate water contamination first then go on to component replacement if that didn't work. All of the responses though looked good to me. I just like to try the easy, inexpensive things first. Sometimes they work.

Hope this helps answer your questions. There is a lot more to this though and both my Saab and Boxster responded the same and are now free of these problems for the last two years.

I would also suggest that you check to see when your gasoline source has checked their pump or pumps for the presence of water which can leak into their tank. The gas manufacturer could also be a culprit because they all formulate their additives at some distribution point. these formulations can be problematic at times. We have that trouble where I live and our solution is to change your supply of gas to a major brand such as Shell or Esso. Do not buy from a local, no name, food store. Change your fuel filter again because you have just contaminated your new one then add a can of HEAT (Red can, not Yellow). If water was your problem it should now be gone. Like wise with the gas formulation. I have done this successfully with my Boxster and my wifes turbo Saab.

Bedst of luck,

Qtwo

Has anyone had one these fitted? Just wondering peoples thoughts. I like the fact its a bit smaller than standard wheel... as I think the standard wheel is too bit.

(Boxster 2000 plate)

Both my 986 and 911 use the 15" wheel. Porsche has probably selected that diameter with more spirited driving in mind but I have a friend with a 911 who fit it with a 14" Momo a few years ago and I can't tell much difference between the wheels as far as driving is concerned. If you like it go for it. Sounds like fun!

Past experience with performance cars has shown me that a quick and light accelerator spring pressure will allow one to finesse the car much better during track conditions as well as normal spirited driving. Blipping the throttle quickly can be a real asset at times. My 98, 2.5L Boxster with a Tiptronic transmission has what I would call very stiff accelerator function. To me, it takes too much pressure to make the accelerator move downwards quickly. This results in sluggish performance. Granted that there is no clutching required and therefore speed matching needed but it would be advantageous in downshifting to be a little quicker when you push the throttle down to grab the next lower gear.

So my question is, do we have any type of adjustability on the foot pressure required to push the accelerator down ? How about pedal return time?

Thanks,

****

:lightbulb:

Ok, I'm still working on the same no acceleration problem, but I have more info (and corrected info) now. The first P-code I got was P1502. After checking the book again, I noticed I was looking at the DME 5.2.2 list instead of the 7.2 that is in the '00 model so the code explanation was wrong. Here's what I've done so far, and the new codes I'm getting.

1) P1502=Fuel pump relay output stage. Short to B+ / above upper limit / rich mixture threshold. I replaced the fuel pump relay, but still have the problem.

2) After replacing the fuel pump relay, I started it and plugged in the AutoTap to watch what happens. One thing I noticed was the mass air flow rate was ~1.4 lb/min while it was idling at 970-1000 rpm. I watched for a little while and waited for error codes to pop up. The new codes were P1502, P1115 and P1119.

3) P1115=Heating of O2 sensor, cyl. 1-3 and P1119 is the same for cyl. 4-6 so I'm thinking clean the MAF.

Here's the freaky part. I cleared all of the codes then suddenly everything worked beautifully. Suddenly I hit the gas and it jumped to 5K rpm, idled at 700rpm, everything is normal again. Shut her down and restart, and it's back to the problems again.

I pulled the MAF and it was pretty dirty. I cleaned it with electronics cleaner and let it dry then put it back in and cranked her up. Still runs crappy and won't accelerate above 2K rpm.

So, before I order a new MAF at $300+ is there anything that comes to mind that I should try first?

TIA!! :cheers: