I think this would be useful for all:-

https://www.porsche.com/uk/accessoriesandservice/porscheservice/serviceandorgininalparts/originalparts/

Just select what your after and download in PDF.

A new cable can be had for about £20, the part number is : 986 561 921 00

Open the roof about halfway, look at the base of the B pillar and you will see the bottom eyelet of the cable. Undo the screw and if you can pull the cable then its broken inside. It's a good idea to put a cloth underneath to avoid losing any screws etc down the drain hole!

To get to the top of the cable you will have to remove the front part of the roof from the frame as it is hidden inside behind the top of the window. Firstly remove the two roof latches:

Then the screws along the top rail:

Then the two at the corners that hold the side seal on:

Pull the seal completely away from the front and the side you're working on:

Under the side seal is a plastic retainer with four screws that needs to be removed, looks like this :

Under that are more phillips screws with one hidden under a piece of rubber seal that you need to pull off, took me a while to figure out why I couldn't undo it with all visable screws removed!

Now the fun bit, you need to carefully pull the roof back from the frame, there's a lot of adhesive but you will see underneath an aluminium plate with the top of the cable attached to a spring in shrinkwrap, which you will need to split :

Undo the top eyelet from the spring and pull it through the piping, here was mine, or at least half of it ....

Thread your new cable through the piping, attatch to the spring, and re wrap. I put the plastic back around it and then electrical tape to hold it.

The cable comes with the other eyelet unattacthed to allow you to thread it through so you will need to crimp it on. Then it's just a case of putting everything back together! 

My roof now sits perfectly on that side so I hope this helps some of you with this problem if you have tried other options. It's a shame Porsche didn't make it from galvanised steel would save a lot of hassle!  

Also, if not included:

socket size, 

crush washer use

volume of oil (assuming 75W-90 synthetic gear oil..)

And importantly - is this a ramp or axle stand job due to the removal of underbody bracing (i can make the car horizontal due to my driveway slope..!)

Thanks in advance

I hope that this guide is ok with the admins on here, I have asked for permission but haven’t had a reply yet but I am hoping that others can benefit from the guide.

This guide will hopefully help fellow 981 owners who have no footwell lights fitted, Porsche deleted them around 2014 onwards and made it a part of the interior lighting package option.

The wiring loom/harness in this guide has been made by myself (I have a company producing harnesses / kits for retrofitting to VAG vehicles) and the lights I have used are Audi parts but I will give more information at the bottom of the guide.

The footwell lights are powered by the BCM (body control module) located in the drivers upper footwell, the power wire is fitted as standard and is routed within the main vehicle harness to the passenger footwell behind the passenger side footwell panel. The wire goes into the a brown connector but on the other side of the connector there is no corresponding wire – this is where the wiring ends and where Porsche deleted the footwell harness.

In order to retrofit the footwell lighting it’s a case of populating the mating connector in the corresponding pin and feeding the footwell lights.

Parts Required:

1 x Footwell wiring loom/harness

2 x Footwell Lights

The footwell harness used has the correct terminal which plugs directly into the mating brown connector, a earth loop which is fixed to the body of the vehicle and then 2 connectors which plug into the passenger and drivers side footwell light units.

There are 3 options for the footwell light housings:

1. Genuine Porsche Halogen Light Housings 

2. Genuine Porsche LED Light Housings 

3. Genuine Audi LED Light Housings

Prices of the light housings vary significantly, genuine Porsche housings are very expensive for what they are (halogen are about £12.50 each and the LED versions are about £45 each and the Audi LED ones are about £12.50 each).

The hole which the light housings fit into are ever so slightly too small for the Audi LED light housings so plastic has to be removed however this is hidden away and is quite straight forward to carry out with a sharp knife with the added benefit of a big saving over the Porsche LED lights.

Now onto the fitting guide:

Firstly remove the side panel in the passenger footwell which uncovers the fuse box and the connectors.

Check that you have a red and black wire on the lower brown plug – this is the feed wire from the BCM. If you do have this wire you’ll notice that there is no corresponding wire on the top part of the plug.

Unclip the top part of the plug remove from the mating connector and using a flat bladed screwdriver push the pink locking tab across – you’ll feel it click.

Insert the red wire from the harness into the corresponding slot which is pin 2.

Push the pink locking tab across back into position, replace the brown plug.

Pull back the carpet to reveal the 2 earth studs, undo the nut to the stud furthest away and fit the earth loop from the harness. Refit the nut and replace the carpet.

Remove the cover underneath the glovebox which is a foam held on by 4 plastic fixings, feed the connector for the drivers side footwell light across from the passenger side to the driver side behind the PCM (I used a piece of stiff wire to feed it across).

Fit the driver side footwell light and plug in the wiring and repeat for the passenger side.

Refit the foam trim and the passenger side footwell side panel.

***Please note that some owners may be tempted on splicing into the red/black wire to add aftermarket LEDs - from experience this is not something that should be carried out as the wire is not rated for higher electrical loading and the BCM may throw a fault if overloaded***

Remove the lock barrel first! Once the lock itself has been removed, take out the retaining ring (shown at the top left of the picture). Just lever it off the edge carefully and take it out, then you can pull out a lot of stuff. Make sure you don't lose any small parts, keep track of the order and orientation of the parts.

To access the steering wheel lock bolt, you need to remove a cover, shown in the middle of the components in the picture. The best way to do this is to insert a thin screwdriver into one corner and carefully lever it out. It pops out! You can then also remove the retaining bolt -- take notice of its orientation!

Then clean everything thoroughly, preferably in an ultrasonic bath. After the components are dry, use a dry lube especially designed for locks. I used a Teflon based lube. Reassembly is done in reverse order. The rings are "coded" an there is only one way they go in. Put the cover on and "caulk" it to the housing with a small chisel/screwdriver. Then check that everything is working properly and you're done.

Hth!

I looked around for aftermarket options and I think the cheapest was around the £250 mark. 
 

I then came across a Citroen pump which looked suspiciously similar. 
 

I had hoped to be able to just swap the plastic housing on top of the pump but found that there were slight differences in the alloy body of the unit and thus had to perform a motor swap instead.

1. Obtain a Citroen air pump, part number 9653340480, I paid the princely sum of £32.

2. Remove existing pump from the car and bench test it to confirm that it is in fact dead.

3. Remove the upper plastic housing from both pumps, the housing is in 2 pieces and has a central bolt and 4 around the edge, you will need to use some gentle force to separate them. 
 

4. Remove the alloy ring which holds the rubber bulb in place, there may be a couple of screws or in may just come off. Now you should have both motors exposed. 
 

5. You will need to use a punch to push the motor shaft out of the centre of the fan in both units and the fan can then be removed. 
 

6. The motor is held in by 4 screws, remove the motor. I had to then open up the central hole in my old housing to accept the new motor. 
 

7. Take the wiring from the old motor and transfer it to the new, I had to desolder the connections on the new motor and change one of the spade connectors. 

8. Reassemble in the reverse order, I had to adjust the motor shaft in and put a little to line the fan up perfectly (I also used the new fan as I knew it would fit the shaft. 
 

9. Use a little RTV to seal the plastic housing as you reassemble.

10. Bench test it before refitting to the car. 

looking to get my 718 onto axle stands using pads in the jack points.

if you jack the car up using the jack points then you can’t get the axle stands in place.

Are there additional jack points that then leaves the jack points clear so that axle stands can be placed?

Tia

Get told that it takes 6 weeks.

Wait 4 months & chase.

Get no update.

Chase again, them miraculously receive an email saying you’re a ‘member’

But wait another 6-8 weeks for your membership pack.

 When it eventually arrives, marvel at just how shyate the membership pack actually is…

You’re welcome 👍😂

So a few weeks ago these turned up

I had read that it is easier to do this job by removing the bumper and I have to say that I think doing it this way saved a lot of struggling with the clips etc.

Started off by removing the five small screws on the leading edge of the spoiler and removing the cover

This revealed two nuts that secure the rest of the spoiler to the mechanism

I then removed the tail lights by unscrewing the single bolt in the boot and pulling the lamp out. I used a tip that I found on another forum which was to use a cable tie in a loop around the rear of the lamp to pull it cleanly out of its mounting.

Next it was just a case of removing the 2 screws on each side behind the lamps, the two from below the spoiler, two from the wheel well on each side, two from behind the bumper near the exhaust exit and two more each side underneath the diffuser.

The bumper then could be pulled free on each side 

After disconnecting the multi plug for the PDC etc. I was able to remove the complete bumper and diffuser revealing the inner workings of the rear of the car which I think are a work of art in themselves.

I then unclipped the PDC sensors & the various fixings that secure the diffuser to the rest of the bumper

This is the rear part of the old diffuser that clips back in place to secure the new parts.

And this is the bumper with the diffuser completely removed. I was a little surprised at the amount of gravel rash on the bottom corner of the bumper after 12000 miles but I don't suppose you can expect to make an omelette without .................................etc.

Reassembly was basically the reverse of above and this is a shot of the completed assembly before I fitted it back to the car.

The exhaust tailpipe was showing signs that I had not polished it in 12k miles so with a little elbow grease I made it acceptable. I would like to perhaps get this re-chromed in the future but as its welded in place, this will require grinding it off and welding back on.

And this is the finished job back on the car. I reckon that the whole job took about three hours including photos and coffee - so not too bad.

Anyway, here it is:



UKTINPOL 2 hack: DRL's for 987 Boxster

(Taken and edited from http://www.6speedonl...-lights-15.html)



I completed the Utkinpol II DRL hack using these tips and pictures...



(1) DIODE

Bought it from Maplins: item code QL73Q (1N4001S 1A Silicon Diode/Rectifier) £0.49 each

(2) REMOVE LIGHT SWITCH

I removed the light switch by pushing in the light switch while in the OFF position, and turning gently clockwise until it clicked. Then the switch just slides out. Unplug the Light switch from

the wiring harness and plug.

TIP: Be careful... The rubbery paint on the circular trim piece that seats the light switch

is extremely delicate. Even slightly scraping it with the wire harness could cause it to peel. I suggest placing or taping an index card there so you don't accidentally remove your paint. Do not put tape on the trim paint itself, however.

(3) REMOVE THE WIRE PLUG

TIP: No need to cut the black wire-tie. Here's what I did...

Instead of cutting the wire-tie, I was able raise the release clip (see picture 1), insert a small screwdriver in the slot next to the clip, and slide the plug out of the plug cover.

The yellow/white and red/yellow wires are clearly visible once the plug is out.

(4) PREPARE DIODE

TIP: No need for shrink tubing or wire tape. Here's what I did...

The diode can fit nicely inside the plug cover. Bend the wire leads 90 degrees, close to the diode, as shown in picture 2. This will be just wide enough for the diode to fit between the yellow/white and the red/yellow wires on the plug. Cut the diode leads to a length of about 1/2"; should be long enough to reach up to the windowed metal "triangles" shown in picture 3.

(5) INSERT DIODE

Slide the diode leads into the plug, along the yellow/white and the red/yellow wires. The cathode (the side of the diode with the silver band) must be inserted along the red/yellow wire. Again, picture 3 shows how this should look.

TIP: The diode side with the silver band goes with red/yellow wire.

(6) REPLACE PLUG COVER & REINSTALL SWITCH

Slide the plug with the diode back into the plug cover, and snap in place. Reconnect the plug

and wire harness to the light switch. Then, insert the switch into the circular trim piece on the dash, gently push in the light switch and turn counter-clockwise.

(7) MY EXPERIENCE

It works, and the car looks as though these lights were intended to operate like this. Certainly no more distracting or attention grabbing than some of the VW OEM setups (or plenty of other brands not using LEDs as DRLs).

I did the hack sometime around the end of August 2014; so far no battery drain issues, no issues from other road users including the boys in blue, and no error messages or the like.

With the ignition on and the light switch in the Home position the fogs now come on on their own i.e. no dipped head lamps or sidelights (either front or rear). The fog light symbol on the light switch surround illuminates to remind you they are on, and if you wish to switch them off you just have to turn the switch to Off.

When you turn the side lights or head lights on, the fog "DRLs" go out so the car only has the lights on you would normally expect.

The "Home" lighting functions remain exactly as normal, too.

It was a surprisingly easy and quick mod; maybe 10 minutes, tops. Reversal would be just as easy and quick, too. No soldering or cutting of wires required!

Newbie here. I searched and couldn't find an answer. Please be gentle ?

I have a new petrol cap retainer strap (original snapped). The retainer is on the cap OK but I'm struggling to know where to fit the retaining end of the retainer on my 987.1

There seems to be a black 'peg' at the bottom of the hinge but the gap is very tight. Please could someone help ? Pics appreciated.

TIA, Davebo.

Couldn't find the lower cowl so I bought one for £15 to modify so I didn't risk ruining my original one. 997-552-475-03 is the part number for the modified one but seems to bring up the non cruise ones two when you searhc the bay.

I got the link cable from Design 911 for £38, which seemed to be the cheapest I could find. The part number is 997-622-674-00.

There are lots of guides online how to fit the stalk which is really straighforward and was helped as I had a full set of stalks to see how it came apart.

I opted to remove the wheel for eas of access and so I could fit the inner screw which a lot of people don't bother with. To be honest, because of the way the stalk locks in to the wiper stalk above, it probably isnt needed.

What I couldn't find online though, was a guide on how to modify the lower cowl to fit the additional stalk, so I'll write my experience here.

Here is the lower cowl and steering wheel removed. 
The upper cowl has been moved up out of the way. You can see the clip to the right of the clock spring that holds it onto the steering module. There is one on the opposite side and one at the 6 oclock position (however that clip on the set I bought and on my car was broken).
 

Here is the cruise stalk fitted. The clock spring has been moved up out of the way for the inner screw.

Here is the lin kcable fitted between the cruise stalk and wiper stalk.

Modifying the cowl.

Here is the template that I measured up. The wiper stalk diameter is 39mm, so mid point is 19.5mm.
The cruise stalk is 35mm.
From the top of the cruise stalk where is meets the wiper to the bottom is 38mm so the mid point is 19mm.

I bought a 35mm hole saw for the task.

And yes, its on the wonk by about 2mm.
I measured dozens of times, but I guess I screwed up somewhere.
It came good in the end though.

This is after I cut away the remaining material. By this point I was just shaking my head, but glad I had bought a sacrificial piece.

But this is it finished after a little fettling with the dremmel. Not too bad and the stalk hides a thousand sins.
I'll keep looking on the bay for a genuine part or I may revisit this in the future.

All I need to do now is get it coded and all should be good.

Thanks for reading.

These kits are stupid money from Porsche and D911 etc. So if your in need its Textar 82076600. And will fit 986,987,981 cars as far as I can tell.

https://www.mymotorworld.com/textar-82076600-brake-pad-fitting-kit?srsltid=AfmBOorq6ZhtxsAMfYsfb6Ua1J_xDMMrMfEC3H6FWUnoQ_dspaGYOCD7#productInfoDetailed

They arrived this morning, and 30 minutes later, I've got adjustable lumbar support in both seats! I highly recommend this to anyone else who's looking.

Installation was easy - I just snipped off the hose with the pressure gauge and tied a fold in it with a cable tie, then folded the cuff back on itself (one half inflates and the other doesn't), and slid it behind the backrest pad - you don't even need to remove the pad. I put it with the folded flat side against the metal supports in the seat frame, and left the rubber bulb coming out at the bottom corner to lie on the floor near the seat controls.

The oil leak was not leaving any spillage on the floor and was discovered when I remove the wheel to check the brake pads pre MOT. A Reasonable amount of oil around!

Set about removing the hex studs around the drive shaft. Need about 24'' of extension bars to get the breaker bar on and beyond the body work though. They were impossible to remove on my own as I could not support the bars and put enough force on the breaker bar. Fortunately my big impact gun removed them easily. I was cautious as I didn't want to shear the  studs.

All Studs removed safely. Unfortunately the drive shaft wouldn't move far enough away from the flange to allow removal of the flange. The exhaust was split and the cat removed to allow the shaft to drop far enough. Thank fully all the exhaust system was stainless including bolts. Fitted pre my time. The rear bolts of the cat pipe to the silencer was surprisingly slack. This may be why she has been throwing some emission codes occasionally? Resealed with paste when she was put back together so time will tell.

Drive shaft lowered and cleaned around the area. Marked the flange and the housing so as to get them back in the same place. May or may not make a difference.

Center stud has been loosen ready for removal and removing the flange.

Decided at this point to try and remove the diff oil. The official Porsche way is to split the casing that the flange sits in and release the oil. you can just see one of the said studs sitting at 1 o clock above the drive shaft. 12 of these altogether. I didn't fancy this in case the sealing ring didn't re-seal so opted to vacuum pump it out. The vacuum pipe would not fully go to the bottom of the diff casing so opted to take out as much as possible.

Only managed to remove 0.4litres. The diff holds 0.8 litres when filled to the level plug. I put back 0.5Litres when I re filled it at the end. So I had lost 0.1 litres of oil due to the leak and so have only changed about 65% of the oil. Better than nothing . The old oil from the diff looked to be in good condition. Will re visit this in 2023.

The Flange was easy to remove with very little force. Note the brown mess on the seal seating area. This was cleaned off before re fitting using brake cleaner so as not to score the surface.

Out of focus, sorry. Flange is removed and and the seal exposed.  Brown ring. Removed this by drilling a small hole in the seal, without touching the casing, and putting a self tapper into it. Tried to pull the seal out using  a pair of mole grips on the self tapper. Didn't want to move. Before putting a second self tapper in, opposite the 1st, I used a small sliding hammer attached to the mole grips. So easy with the right tools.

Seal removed exposing the bearing race behind.

New seal gently tapped back till it is fully seated. Not a slack fit but not requiring too much force. Note this seal is black and not brown. I ordered the wrong seal from Porsche and as it took a week to come opted to us the local bearing supplier for the replacement. 75-90-8 is the seal size. Apparently the brown colour signify use in extreme conditions or in contact with corrosive liquids. As the composite differences where temperature related, the brown seal about 5 degrees C lower to -40 C. I've taken the view that I'll have little chance of problems. Time will see. Price difference of £11 for the black one and £64 from Porsche!

Re assembly is the reverse. Torqued the studs back up to 81Nm as per the 'Bentley Manual' There  are locking tabs on the studs in pairs. You can make them out in the picture. I used loctie also. This had been used before and was the reason for them being so tight. Was properly done when the CV joints and drive shaft was done, again pre my ownership.

Gave it a good clean off underneath and on top of the aluminium reinforcement plate. This is were most of the oil had been sitting.

Not too difficult a task to do and took about 1.5 hours including cleaning. Was also quite satisfying to do .

300miles and no leak so far.

I wanted to switch on some door safety/puddle lights I had just installed, switch on the rain sensor, alter steering feel to GT3RS and adjust the speed the spoiler deploys on my GTS as I have the larger Spyder type rear spoiler.

The ThinkDiag just plugs into the OBD port of your car and then works via an app on your phone. Finding things is a little hard work as it is with a PIWIS but with the help of a PDF Ken G and Croc 2.0 on the 718 Forum have put together I have managed all but the spoiler so far. 

There is a huge list of things you can alter in the PDF link below:-

https://www.718forum.com/attachments/x431-coding-guide-by-ken-g-and-croc-2-0-update-9-1-2024-pdf.77222/

The ignition switch up to model year 2003 is a VAG part 4A0 905 849 or 4A0 905 849B and for 2004 is 4B0 905 849 which are listed as these numbers in the Porsche parts catalogue.  For my fix I sourced an aftermarket item for about £38 form ECP as they had one and it was urgent.  They can be had from about £15 upwards.

Tools required - Torx T15 driver, PH2/crosshead screwdriver, flat blade screwdriver, small 3mm tip flat blade screwdriver like a spectacle marker's screwdriver or small electrical screwdriver.

For a RHD car the switch can be access easily through the top of the dash by removing the driver's side air vent section and a section of the vent ducting.  First put the vent into the closed position, this stops the mechanism that controls the flap in the vent fouling on the dash as you remove and re-fit it.  The duct section of dash is held in by three screws (Torx T15), one in the recess of the headlamp switch and two down the door shut by the A pillar and fix to the pink captive nuts in the picture.  Remove the two in the A pillar then the headlamp switch removes by pulling, (mine did not have this screw in place which was good as I found pulling the switch out damned difficult, so I left it in place in the vent section. Once this vent section is removed, using a cross-head screwdriver remover the section of ducting that the vent attaches to (blue arrow), the section across the bottom of the dash will probably fall out too when you do this.

From here you can see the two retaining screws (red arrows) for the switch which will have some red paint or thread lock on them as shows better below.  This is where accessing from above works for RHD, not going underneath as in LHD, although you will be working by touch and feel to line up the screwdriver blade in the slot of the grub screw.

Remove the large round pink loom plug on the back of the switch, you can reach under the dash to access this whilst looking down from above, it takes a bit of waggling to start but eventually comes easily once it starts moving.  Loosen the two grub screws once the loom is unplugged, don't take them out fully unless you fancy spending more time getting them threaded back in... then slide the switch assembly out of the metal casting.  Once removed, take a note that the two ribs on the sides of the switch, these slot into place between two pairs of lugs that the grub screws are in.

Using a flat blade screwdriver make sure the new switch is turned to the 0 position, fully anticlockwise when looking at the slot in the top of the switch.  Connect the loom to the new switch, it is much easier to align correctly before refitting the switch (I know I tried the other way first and had to take the switch out again), then offer the switch and loom back into place ensuring the two plastic lugs slot between the two pairs of metal lugs.  Tighten up the two grub screws.  Test that the new switch starts the car and ejects the key correctly when you take it out. 

Replace the horizontal ducting and screw the duct that feeds the back of the vent back into place.  Re-fit the vent section into the dash taking care to ensure the screws line up correctly with the pink captive nuts (these can move when removing or refitting the vent section).  Job Done.

If the key still does not eject properly when you switch off, your next move is a replacement key barrel/steering lock assembly 996 347 017 07 which is an up issue used from 2004 onwards but is backward compatible on all Boxsters.  Frustratingly this also come with an ignition switch but at £250 or so is 10 times the possible basic fix parts cost....

Obviously no guarantees or responsibility on my part for any issues you come across, this is meant as a guide only, and not as some sort of service or professional guidance.

My Background

Bought one, loved it, broke the bank for it.  I bought mine for under £3k as a project, and I wasn't scared of doing a bit of work - it was almost the whole point.  She was on Autotrader with a small "garage" about 30  miles away, but having done a drive by on Google Maps, it wasn't possible to find the garage.  I went for a drive by in the car, and found that she was sat looking mouldy in the corner of a hand car wash.  There were a lot of cars around, but they were all packed together more like a breaker's yard, and none of the cars had any visible sign that they were for sale.  Upon viewing, they had to get a jump pack out and didn't even know where the engine was, never mind the battery.  The interior was mouldy, the battery was screwed, but the roof worked and I saw potential.  I knew what I was getting into, but there was a lot more to deal with under the skin.

Know your limits

The most important thing with any used car, but especially Porsche, is to know your limits.  These are:

1. Your financial limit
Don't under any circumstances buy a Boxster if it costs only what you can afford.  The common advice is to allow a budget of £2,000 to get things attended to, but I'd say this should be more like £3k if you buy a £3k or less Boxster, and want all the annoyances resolved.  It may cost less, but you need to be prepared to spend more to get things fixed.  Even budget discs and pads could cost over £300 fitted, so don't spend your last penny on a purchase if it's all you can afford.   These cars were very expensive toys when new, and they are a sum of their parts - don't expect a £3k car that once cost £38k to have cheap service parts.  The oil capacity, for example, is twice that of a standard 4 cylinder hatchback, at near 9 litres for most engines.

2. Your mechanical limit
Boxsters can be easy to work on, but not necessarily as they get older.  Many of the parts are a combination of aluminium housings, with carbon steel fixings, and so you can end up in situations where things don't unbolt like they should.  This can end up with you at a mechanical impasse, and a 'simple' ARB Drop Link swap can turn into a full strut/hub removal, with cutting tools involved.  There's no predictable pattern as to what might get seized on these.  You may well find that a Boxster is much cheaper to maintain if you are willing to learn and attempt the basics (oil changes, brake parts, filters etc.), but if you're a disabled fella with limited mobility, be prepared to weigh up any potential faults with the labour costs accounted for in the section above.

3. Your Driving Skills
The Boxster is a mid-engined, rear driven car...and a well balanced on at that.  It's near the pinnacle of driving perfection due to the well balanced nature of its build.  When new.   Over time, and especially with a budget Boxster, you will find that things become unsettled - the car may drift or twitch, depending on any issues/alignment/damage.  Do you live in an area where you expect to see a lot of ice?  Is it a weekend car only?  Can you afford 3 points on your license?  All of these questions need to be weighed up against your personality to determine what spec or engine you want, if even a Boxster at all?  I bought mine intentionally for the security of having traction control, and it's got me out of trouble plenty of times when I wasn't even pushing hard.   Some think driver aids 'ruin' the experience, but they can be invaluable if you want an all-year cruiser without the need for constant restrain and concentration.

Things to look out for

Cars with faults can fall into three main categories:  

- Those where the seller knows about the issue, but attempts to play down the significance
- Those where the seller knows about the issue, but has attempted to hide them
- Has not yet noticed, or is oblivous to the issues

I'll try and cover some of the common things I've experienced, and hopefully clear up any of the above scenarios.

Pre-Visit Checks

You can do a number of pre-visit checks for free.  These are invaluable for sorting the decent from the weak, and can help to anticipate future issues:

1. MOT History (https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk)

 You can check the MOT History for any vehicle for free via the above site.   You only need to enter the VRM (Number plate) and Make of the car to get a visible full history.  This will only go back as far as computerised MOT History allows, which is after the vehicle is around 3 years old and after 2006.

Look out for repeated advisories, especially from recent MOTs.   A persistent history of tyre wear, especially abnormal, may indicate a history of accident damage.  You can also spot any other issues to look out for, and to raise with the seller for a status - some sellers may have corrected any advisories post-MOT, so it's always worth asking and not assuming.  

2. Sales and general history (http://www.ukvehicle.com/)

You need to register to use the site, but it is worth it.  This site provides some MOT history, but also provides any details of for sale adverts it has scraped from Gumtree, eBay, Pistonheads etc.  It's not definitive, but can help.  A car which looks to have been for sale recently with a different location in photos may be being sold on quickly due to underlying issues, or even a scam.

3. Vehicle Enquiry Service (https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk)

This page will offer the latest information on whether the vehicle is taxed and MOT'd, but also gives a snapshot of other info, like engine capacity (always worth checking you're not off to view a "2.7S"), and export status.  It also lends a few clues as to whether she'll have been off the road for a long time - if it's now December, and the tax ran out in April, it raises eyebrows perhaps.

4.  Paid-for identity checks

It's always worth paying for a check on a car before proceeding.  Sites like https://www.mycarcheck.com offer checks for only £1.99, which include whether or not a car has been previously written off.  You can upgrade a £1.99 check to a 'gold' check if you decide you want to later on, it costs another £7.99 or so.  There's never an excuse not to do a check for less than £2!

Identification and Basic History

You should always ask to see the V5 Registration Certificate as part of a viewing.  Check the nominated VIN against the body.   The VIN is a 'Vehicle Identification Number', and is assigned to a manufacturer based on ISO 3833 - the first two letters, for example, indicate the country of origin (i.e. Porsche are German, so have 'WP' as the first two characters of all VINs).  The main point of interest here will be the sticker under the bonnet (seen right picture, VIN is at the top and starts WP0ZZZ):

As you can see from the sticker, it's from a '993'.  You can also see 'L3AZ', which is Ocean Blue Metallic, signifying the body colour.   The codes below it are option codes, which are things which detail what the car came from the factory with (options and wheel choices, equipment etc.).  You can decode most of these here.

You'll also find the VIN on the window cutout below on the scuttle, and also near the door latch on the driver's side.

It's quite obvious that all four locations should match the same VIN - if they don't, be prepared to walk away.  No excuses.

Granted, the bonnet could have been replaced for an innocent reason, but it also could have been accident damage.   Unlike a front engined shopping car, the boxster has a 'tub' at the front which isn't so forgiving to a frontal impact.

If the buyer gives a genuine reason, you will need to weigh this against the evidence - it's likely to have an effect on resale, whether by value or general complication.

Checking the option codes against what you can see in photos is valuable - you can't always see if the heated seat buttons (just forward of the arm rest/cubby) are actually buttons or blanks.   This can sometimes be serendipity - i.e. finding the car is a higher spec than the seller has advertised/knows, or an honesty filter - checking if the car has had lots of things retrofitted/removed.   A car which has a completely different interior colour than that on the build codes could flag up a lot of questions as to why - has it been damaged, stolen recovered or vandalised previously? 

(to be continued....)

A short while ago I rebuild my headlights to fancy LED ones with the 4 leds around.I ran in quite a few problems/hiccups I didn't like about the standard way since it made the LED unit off center. So I thought to share my process with you guys so you can make the nice ones too. the annoying work is already done like 3Dscanning the unit and make drawings from it as a base.

I used these LED units https://a.aliexpress.com/_EIv8w6f with these rings to match https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ez1g3sB

you will need to cut up the rings a bit to make them fit nicely. keep it in mind.

What you need: 

- LED projector
- LED ring light
- Piece of aluminium sheet metal large enough to fit the backplate on (170x200 mm) I'd advise to take a 3 or 4 mm thickness to make it nice and sturdy.
- Several flathead bolts I think I used 90mm, 70mm and 60mm M6 ones as far as I remember
- Piece of aluminium tubing, my local hardwarestore Hornbach had a 8x1 mm (outher diameter 8mm inner 6mm, wallthicknes 1mm)
     https://www.hornbach.nl/p/kaiserthal-ronde-buis-o-8x1-mm-aluminium-100-cm/8829150/
- Some electrical spade connector thingys to connect the power to the units.
- some Matte black paint
- an oven large enough to fit your headlight or a paint removal heatgun

Now the workies part!:

Step one:
Bake your headlight to remove the lens cover or use the heatgun, be carefull though. (I dont know which temps I used so not going to disclose it exactly, but lots of how-to's on the internet)

Step two:
Remove the internals of the headlight and unscrew the small ball-click thingies on the internal unit, we're going to re-use those.

Step three:
Print the Word file which as the template for drilling and cutting the aluminium plates.
Boxster koplamp backplate scaled to actual size.docx

Step four:
Paste the template on your aquired aluminium plates and start drilling and cutting, keep your LED lens unit close by to check up the measurements end fitment.

Step five:
Cut up your aluminium tube to aquire 6 small tubes with the following lengths, 2x 80mm, 2x 60mm and 2x46mm.
Using these tubes and re-using the ball click thingies from the original internals make it possible to adjust them the same way as the original lights.

Step six:
Piece the bolts, plate and ball-click thingies together, look at the original internal unit for orientation of the ball-click thingies. the 80mm tube should be on the upper side to the center of the car, the 46mm on the lower side of the center of the car, and the 60mm on the outside of the car (left and right are mirrored so I used the whole car as reference).

Step seven:
Paint your new headlight internals black and everything els as far as you want, this is the moment to do other mods like I did with the plastic scale on the inside of the headlight.

Step eight:
Mount the LED lenses on the painted backplate (after it is dry of course!) and click the whole unit in the headlight. I butchered mine so please dont pay attention to the backside looks.

Step nine:
The LED ring, I disassambled it to adust it and make it more to my taste by painting a few bits black with hand. I only wanted the 4 LEDs to light up, not the actual ring.
Make some adjustments where necassary to thou outer ring, there's a chance its not even necassary. I had to with mine during the trail and errors with fitting it firstly in the original internal unit before escalating to make my own backplate.

Step 10:
connect the wires to the loom inside the headlight, connect the white DRL to citylights, turnsignal to the turnsignal lights, LED lens power to low beam and the solanoid for high beam to high beam. I left the original turnsignal intact an put the LED ring one parallel to it. this choice was made since there's no delay between citylights and turnsignal when flashing which makes the turnsignal of the ring LED a bit hard to see. it is still a work in progress and am busy with a time delay circuit board for it, I will post an update when ready.

Step 11:

test the unit, if it works heat up the glue again and press the seams together. I flunked mine su used some rubber glue to re-attach the headlight lens cover. henceforth the ductape.

the result should look something like this (without the ductape if you've done it right):

Good luck and enjoy your fresh new and awesome headlights with rediculous light output

parts you need:

- 10x 220 Ohm 1/8W resistors, preferrably SMD 1206 although normal ones also work, I used those since they we're lingering around.
- 4x 270 Ohm 1/8W resistors
- 2x 470 Ohm 1/8W resistors
- soldering iron, preferrably the heat blower type
- Blue 3528 20mA LEDs somewhere around 50pcs so just order a strip of 100 and you're good.
- solder, preferrably tin-lead, I used 60/40 other ones with more tin and silver will work but are also mora a pain in the ar*e...
- soldering fluid, I use S39 for everything.
- tweezers because the parts are small.

Changing the resistors is a necessary evil since every color of LED has its own threshold and forward voltage (V_T = starting and V_F = operating voltage of a LED), the original yellow ones had a V_T of 1,739V which is in the lines of 2,2V_F for a yellow LED.
Since I wanted blue 3528 20mA LED's which has an operating V_F of 3,0-3,2V, the resistors had to be changed accordingly to end up to the same current (20mA) for normal operation.

If you want another color of LED you'll need to adapt accoringly. although most LED's like yellow, red and orange have the same threshold Voltage so you don't need to change the resistors. The threshold Voltage of white, pink, purple and blue are also mostly close to eachother so just change them to these values. green depends on the LED you pick, if its V_F is around 2.2V like yellow so you don't need to change the resistors. If somewhere around 3.0-3.6V_F and its the same as blue so you'll have to change to the same values as the blue ones.

So first things first you'll need to remove the cluster from your car, there are a lot of how to's out thers so I'm going to skip that one.
Presuming you have your cluster now warm and cozy on your bureau, start removing the two upper screws on the back, the daycounter zeroing and the clock buttons (just pull them straight out) and remove the retaining clips on the two side taps.
- Now you can take the cluster apart, remove the white centerpiece as a whole and drop the outer shell somwhere safe.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/yiiImVM.jpeg[/img]

- Next remove the 4 screws retaining the mainboard and loosen the flexcable (topside of pic) from the mainboard to the gauges. (red circles)
- On the back of the mainboard you'll find 10x 358 Ohm resistors for the LED's underneath the center display. replace those with 220 Ohm ones by soldering.
- While on the back of the mainboard, carefully loosen the white clips retaining the mainscreen. when it's loose you can unclip the matrix cable of the screen.
- turn the mainboard around and remove the mainscreen you've unclipped. Underneath you'll see 30 LED's. They are in series per 3 LEDs with one resistor on the other side. Desolder all of them. The cathodes (negative) are all pointing south on the board, Keep in mind that direction is important with a LED. After removing the old ones replace them with the new ones.
It is a bit finnicky, for me it was a revelation when I put a small drop of solder on one of the two pads per LED and solder it stuck to this side first, then finish the other side.

CONGRATS! you just finished the firts half

To continue our journey we go forward to the gauges.

- Flip over and make a picture of the exact gauge pointer stand after you pushed them carefully back to starting point, you'll notice when the pointer won't move further.
- Remove the pointers by pulling them straight up, if you need tools make a small cover for the plate wit toiletpaper or something like it to not damage it. Though I didn't need it.
- Flip over to the back again and remove the screws on the back of the gauge board.
- the two small screens on de side gauges are retained with 4 small retainers/tabs each, unclip those. (black tabs on the picture)
- Flip back to the front, between the center gauge (RPM) and the side gauge (TEMP&FUEL or SPEEDOMETER) there's a plastic white retaining clip, carefully push it in while separating the the white plastic front with the face plates from the gauge board.

The board is a bit flexible between the side gauge and the maingauge don't flex it to much, it will break.

- Replace the two resistor sets left and right with the 270 Ohm resistors (original 375 Ohm), these are for the leds behind the side gauges.
- Replace the center resistances (original 633 Ohm) with 470 Ohm.
- Flip the gauge board around again, as you can see on the white plastic there are 4 LED's per gauge spread in half a circle for the speedometer and the RPMmeter, the Fuel and temp gauge has a block of 4 LED's at 2 o' clock. 12 in total. desolder those and replace with the new LED's
- The two small sidescreens also have a block of 4 LED's underneath them. desolder and replace these too.
Small fact, by now you have desoldered and soldered 50LED's and 16 resistors☠️

Now, put everything back together et Voila, you have the most beautiful gauge cluster ever seen in a Boxster!

here's my result:

and it is a very quick version of a way to do it, not like the way I did it in my how to.