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geoff

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Everything posted by geoff

  1. geoff
    More update: I took the car back to Steve at Johnson's Alignment yesterday. They put the front up in the air, he took a look, then called me over to check it out. I put my fingers around the chrome center rod of the right front shock and pushed, and the shock wiggled around. The left side didn't move nearly as much. I guess shocks aren't supposed to be loose like that. Supposedly Bilstein is having a 4 for the price of 3 sale in the April timeframe. I may just get new shocks then. Still need to talk to the dealer to see what they say, or at least get them to note the problem in their files. I am expecting that shocks are a wear item. Steve's recommendation was the Bilstein HDs will ride better than stock. But he pointed out there's no need to rush and replace the shocks, as nothing is leaking at this time, so no sales job
  2. geoff
    I took my '01 Boxster to get it smogged today. I always get cars smogged at the cheapest place possible ($48 out the door, including CA certificate - obviously not a Porsche dealer), figuring they just want to get cars out as fast as possible. Today, they decided they wanted to see my engine while a dozen other customers waited. While running the smog test with the smog machine plugged in to the ODB2 port, while the tech was accelerating to 15 and 25 MPH on the dyno, I noticed my speedometer (both analog and digital) didn't read any speed. I asked him about this and he said he recently did a 2009 911 Turbo and it did the same thing. Is this normal for Porsches? I never heard of this before. The speedo worked fine after being unplugged on the drive home.
  3. geoff
    Maybe obvious to most, but what is the advantage of replacing the rubber bushing with polyurethane ones? Does it reduce the inherent give in the rubber ones? Polyurethane doesn't disintegrate over time like rubber? Or something else?
  4. geoff
    Check with Tool Pants (although I haven't seen him here lately). I think he found some reasonable transmission rebuild shop in San Jose for his Toyota pickup. The base Boxster manual transmission is sourced from Audi, not sure about the Tip. Given the transmissions have been around for a while now, I expect a non-Porsche shop might have the wherewithal to tackle the job for a lot less than the dealer You might want to check some of the wreckers up there as well to see if somebody crashed their car without damaging the tranny. See http://mike.focke.googlepages.com/listsofsources
  5. geoff
    Got an '08 Cayenne (V-6) loaner today when I took the Carrera in for a final warranty item. Driving back through the canyons, with the cruise control set, the Cayenne kept accelerating on the downhill stretches instead of automatically downshifting to maintain speed. So yes, the Cayenne tip/cruise control operates fundamentally different from the Boxster or Carrera :o
  6. geoff
    Sounds like it would almost be the best of the Boxster and Cayman worlds. Only problem I see is that the folding hard tops take up a lot more space than soft tops. If you look at some of the Mercedes sports cars with the folding hard roof, there's hardly any room left in the trunk with the top folded, whereas the current Boxster top takes away no trunk space. As others have noted, the folding hard tops also add to weight, hurting performance
  7. geoff
    Last July when I took the car in for service, the dealer said they reprogrammed the mirror, which I assumed meant something with PIWIS. Never got a definitive answer, but it's never clear how much the service writers really know about what is done and how. But I still have the problem. Is there something specific I should mention when I drop off the car in the morning?
  8. geoff
    It should logically, but doesn't. Nobody else has chimed in to say theirs does brake. Next dealer service, I'll see if I can get a Cayenne loaner and do a comparison. I asked on the PCA tech section, and Peter said "One of the things here is to know that what Porsche has put in the Cayenne is a Japanese transmission and control unit where as the Boxster and Carrera use German systems. Somewhere the two don't have the same philosophy and maybe that will change in the future... " More fuel for the Cayenne bashers, but we still love driving the Cayenne. It's no Carrera or Boxster, but for an SUV, it still drives quite nice :)
  9. geoff
    A status update: I took the car in the other week to let the dealer diagnose the problem. The mechanic's diagnosis was the right front strut bearing had excessive wear (why is it always the right side that wears?), so they replaced both side strut bearings under warranty and realigned the suspension. The dealer reported the rear alignment was "in the red" - camber at -2. I'm still waiting to get a printout from my service advisor, and Steve at Johnson's Alignment said to bring it back and they would look it over again and let me know if the shock still appears loose. Alignment was street use for better tire wear. I have no complaints with the work from either Johnson's Alignment or the dealer. The car drove quite a bit better after Steve did the alignment, and even more better when my dealer service advisor (another Steve) finished the strut bearing replacement. More to come after I take it back to the alignment shop...
  10. geoff
    2005 Carrera. The outside right (passenger) mirror is set to dip when reversing. For the past year or so, the mirror intermittently doesn't return to normal when shifting from reverse to drive (it's a tip). Dealer has ordered a replacement mirror motor. When it doesn't return to normal, if I toggle the mirror adjustment control side from right to middle, and then back to right, the mirror usually moves back to where it should be. Anything else to have checked at the same time? Car has about 300 miles left before it passes 50K miles on the warranty.
  11. geoff
    Has anyone ever tried to put an Optima red top in a Cayenne? Will it fit in the battery space under the seat, or is it too tall?
  12. geoff
    A good friend had Ruf do the first 987S upgrade to 3.8 X51 and loves it (Excellence did an article on the car a while back). Since it was the first time, it took them a little longer than originally expected to get everything sorted out. Ruf in Dallas is a nice short drive from you, or you could give them a call and find out why they don't do the upgrade on the base 987. Maybe the suspension isn't as beefy to handle the additional power, or running gear like wheel bearings, etc? Ruf had to do some suspension upgrades on my friend's car. If you can afford the S now and are ultimately looking for more power, get the S and enjoy the additional power over the base model until you do the upgrade. By the time you upgrade the engine, the Jake Raby improved engines should be worked out and you may be able to get even more power then In 5 years time, direct injection will probably be widely available on all the Porsche cars and able to produce more power, better MPG and lower emissions. Not sure how feasible it will be to retrofit direct injection to a 2005 in the future. Maybe have a contingency plan to go for direct injection when you plan to do the engine upgrade by buying a 2010 model with a dead engine :o
  13. geoff
    Congratulations on what is hopefully the end of your long engine ordeal, so you can get back to driving and enjoying your car!
  14. geoff
    I bought one of the CTEK 7000 battery chargers (from Amazon, best price), which is a souped up version of Porsche's fancy battery maintainer. It claims to have a "supply" mode, described on their web site (http://www.ctek.com/EN-US/Buy-US-Charger.aspx) as: Thanks to its SUPPLY mode the battery charger provides power even without a battery. The SUPPLY mode is indispensable when changing the battery as you avoid losing complicated program settings I haven't tried it, but since you're local and want to give it a go some weekend, I would be interested in getting together and finding out if it really works. It's a great battery maintainer and probably gross overkill for anything I need
  15. geoff
    I noticed shortly after I replaced the MAF on my '01 Boxster my car started idling unevenly (a little under 50K miles on the car). From everything I read here, idle problems are often caused by a dirty throttle body, so I went through the steps and cleaned it. Idle problem solved - smooth like a new car. The job is definitely DIY - plan a few hours and lots of swearing in the process. The process is described here on renntech and elsewhere You didn't state mileage on your car, but I suspect around 50K miles a number of unexpected wear items all start hitting in short order, like MAF, dirty throttle body, worn front engine mount, AOS, etc. (not to mention tires, brakes and all kinds of other wear items). At this point, I won't be surprised if a number of small things start going wrong in the next 15K miles or so.
  16. geoff
    Try the Internet Archive "wayback machine" to go back in time for dead links: http://web.archive.org/web/20070811023322/...emarkermod.html
  17. geoff
    "Wobbly" as in the shock mechanism is loose, which I took to mean the shock piston has some side-to-side play. I'm starting to find that something as simple as OEM shocks isn't so simple. Nobody seems to replace the stock shocks with the same or the Bilstein HD ones - or at least never post anything about it. I also posted on rennlist and 6speedonline, and received conflicting responses. A call to Bilstein tech support gave me the same information I could get from their web site - they make the stock Porsche shocks, but no idea how the HDs differ from OEM in terms of ride, performance, handling, comfort, etc. The comment most consistent with what I've heard multiple times in the past is that the original shocks can wear out by 50K miles sometimes. Steve Alarcon and Johnson's Alignment, where I took the car, have a sterling reputation and he wasn't trying to sell me anything. I hope to get some time later this week to get the car in to the dealer before the odometer rolls over 50K miles, to have everything checked out before the warranty ends. I was already planning to have the dealer service take a look, and see what they say about whether shocks are a warranty replacement item or just a wear item like tires and brakes. If they confirm it's worn, I need to call board-sponsor Sunet for their price on OEM shocks, and see how that compares to the shox.com price ($949 for front and rear for the Bilstein HD).
  18. geoff
    Loren - any update? I'd like to search all 997 (and 996) registry entries for "Bilstein HD", but looking at the registry, it only searches for year, make, model and owner. No suspension entries in the Reviews, so not much to search there.
  19. geoff
    I took my wife's '05 Carrera in for its first alignment this week at 49+K miles (trying to get everything checked out before end of warranty). The work was done by Steve Alarcan at Johnson's Alignment in Torrance. He noted one of the front shocks was wobbly, but not leaking yet. His recommendation was to replace shocks all around with Bilstein HDs, which he said were quite a bit better than stock (even for a car like this which is only driven on the street - no plans to track, ever). The dealer said shocks are a wear item and not covered by the 50K mile warranty. Since the car is still under warranty, the dealer will probably work some kind of deal. OEM shocks have a 2 year parts warranty; the Bilsteins have a lifetime warranty. Does anyone have any comparative experience with the OEM and Bilstein HDs on a plain 997 tip, no PASM, driven on the street? Are the (more expensive) Bilsteins noticeably better? Car is stock height and will stay that way, so PSS9s would be a total waste of money. If I go with OEM, I would only have to replace the front shocks, but if I go with Bilstein HDs, I'll probably have to replace front and rear. Of course, the dealer only knows about what Porsche sells, so no useful input from them regarding shocks (and I do like my dealer)
  20. geoff
    During the 12K mile service this week, the dealer gave me an '08 Boxster tip loaner. My wife has an '05 Carrera tip. When the cruise control is set and driving down a relatively steep grade at 50+ MPH, both the Carrera and Boxster tip transmissions automatically downshift to maintain speed instead of accelerating. My '08 Cayenne S never downshifts as it picks up speed on a downhill grade with the cruise control set. I realize the Cayenne is fundamentally very different from the Boxster and Carrera, but should the Cayenne tip transmission automatically downshift to maintain speed with the cruise control set? Or isn't it that smart?
  21. geoff
    I took my '08 Cayenne S in for the 12K mile service this week, and asked the service advisor about something I haven't been able to figure out. He looked in the owners manual (which I had read), and couldn't figure it out either. I've had the car since May, and still can't tell what the thing does. I circled it in picture with yellow and red: The 2 dash vents controls labeled A control air flow out the center. What does the other A dial control? It does not appear to do anything for the windshield air flow!
  22. geoff
    The commercial for Progressive Insurance that was on TV the other night says their web site lets you compare insurance quotes from a number of different insurance companies. Might be easier than getting multiple quotes
  23. geoff
    Probably the US version has a warning that the RoW doesn't need to protect us from our own stupidity :D
  24. geoff
    Try putting a piece of electrical tape on the cell phone connector behind the center console. See this post and this one
  25. geoff
    What size/brand of tires? I haven't tried my '08 Cayenne S in the snow, but it came with mud and snow tires (19" rims), and there's a little sticker on the dash that explicitly says not to exceed 150 MPH because of the tires. I think the 19" wheels are the largest Porsche offers on the Cayenne with all season tires. I drove my Boxster back from dinner one night when the outside temperature read 32 degrees and I had noticeably worse traction on the canyon roads. High performance summer tires aren't so great when the temperature drops below the low 40s
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