21Feb2011
Boxster Completed
Finished up the Boxster project the other day. Got the replacement brake lines installed, as well having the old 3m headlight protectant removed and replaced. Old brake line removed. And new one installed. After the lines were installed, I bled the system and we had a good hard pedal. Then I had Miles replace the clear bra on the headlights for me. He does excellent work. The old 12mil guards. And the new protectors installed.
17Feb2011
Center Console Swap
While I had the boxster here, we decided to install a gaurds red center console as well. Not difficult, just a little time consuming to swap over all the panels and clips to the new console. Poof! Magic! On the table ready for disassmbly. The lock, lid, switches, and side trim need to all be swapped to the new console. There are a couple of lid variations. Some are riveted (which is the case of our new one), and some …
17Feb2011
Boxster Shocks
With nearly 100k miles on the clock, it was time to replace the shocks and struts in this 2.7L Boxster. The obvious choice for replacement comes from Bilstein, so I got them ordered up, and was able to get the job knocked out. I have never really enjoyed doing the rears on the boxster, as the design of the mid engine and multi link rear suspension makes it a lot more involved then it should be, lol. The big kicker …
15Feb2011
Boxster Oil Leak
Last week when I changed the oil in this boxster, I noticed an oil leak on the passenger side. Typically that is due to the oil fill tube being cracked and leaking. After further investigation, I confirmed the tube was beat up a bit, so I ordered a new one and finally got a chance to tackle it today. Since the oil fill port on the boxster is in the rear trunk, the oil must pass through a tube to …
09Jan2011
986 Boxster Smoking Issue
Helped a freind out with an emergency on Friday afternoon. Turns out his boxster started smoking excessively out the tailpipe. On most cars you would fear the worst that maybe a headgasket was blown, but the M96 engines use an oil air seperator that can go bad and allow oil vapor back into the intake stream, where it is burned off in the cylinders and causes the smoke. Pearing up over the passenger axle, you can see the OAS attached …
31Aug2010
Boxster S 90k Service
Had a freind bring by his 2001 Boxster S for it’s 90k service. We replaced a couple of blown parking lights, fuel filter, air filter, oil change, pollen filter, and the drive belt. Back of the litronic headlight setup. Small bulb for the parking light. Had to get into an argument with the autozone jackasses because they kept trying to sell me the parking lights for the non litronic setup (different). Even gave them the part number and showed them …
18Aug2010
Another Oil Air Seperator
Had a freind bring by his boxster that had started smoking on him excessively out the tailpipe. Worse on startup, but would happen when driving as well. This is pretty typical of a bad oil air seperator. When the car got here, it was idling extremely roughly and had a CEL. This was odd, and you start to think the worst. Read down the CEL and came up with the following laundry list! P1128: O2 sensing adaption (bank 1) P1130: …
26Jun2010
996/Boxster Climate Control Display
One problem that is popping up in the 996/986 owners is the display unit on the climate controls going bad. Sometimes parts of the numbers do not illuminate/burn out, or you get a half moon or bleeding of the LCD screen. The solution use to be replace the control unit which ran about $350 plus install. There is now a cheaper solution of just replacing the LCD screen. This boxster had an issue with part of the numbers (temperature) not …
16Jun2010
Boxster Charging Issue
Had a friend bring in his Boxster yesterday because he was having a starting issue. After some basic tests, I felt the first step of action was to replace the battery. We did that, but it didn’t solve the problem….but…..it triggered a few more symptoms which pointed to a bad alternator. Before we did the battery, the battery light was not coming on which usually triggered when the alternator goes south. After we did the battery, the battery light came …
14Jun2010
Sunday Emergency Service
Got a call Sunday afternoon about a Boxster that had overheated and needed to get back on the road. We had the car towed in and I started tearing into it. This was a car with about 80k miles on it, which had not had it’s major services done……ever from what I can tell. Unfortunately, a $40 drive belt caused about $1,100 in damage. Basically what happened, is the drive belt broke, and the owner kept driving the car even …