huytonman

Finally refitted my PCM3 head unit after changing the hard drive to an SSD - always a relief when you switch on the ignition and things appear to operate normally!

Keith

1 hour ago, skoosh1970 said:

...what setting do you guys have it set too.... i use sport 8.

Sport 5 (sometimes 6) - anything above this can get unruly in lower gears (plenty of wheel spin if not careful), reminds me of my old M5 with its dual clutch box which always needed a sensitive right foot. Only time mine isn't switched on now is when driving in towns or slow traffic when the standard setting feels more appropriate.

Keith

Mine is a late 2010 car with 49k miles, last year the weather/COVID blah blah meant around 500 (maybe less) and intend to make up for that in 2022!

Keith

Cheers, yes agreed, I wanted to see how easy the cloning process was before ordering a 2nd drive to repeat the process - it would be sods law not to do that and then find a failure later screws you up!

Thanks Keith

Just completed a swap of the PCM3 hard drive to an SSD drive - preventative maintenance after having a blue screen moment on one of the few really hot days last summer. I need to refit the unit and test the operation but if all goes well I at least have a backup drive should this new one fail.

Keith

100% agree, i learned this when trying to carry a wheel with a puncture, it was either the wheel or the missus, no room for both

Keith

1 hour ago, ChrisW2 said:

So up front I'll say I'm a newbie and if im honest not particulalry mechanically minded.

I'm looking to change my second family car and with the kids now a bit older have come round to thinking why not get something a bit more fun for weekends and holidays?  Prob 5-7k miles a year max.  I always thought a Porche would be out of my range, but having had a scoot around I'm becoming increasly tempted by a 987.1.  Budget would be £12.5 to maybe £14k so I guess i'd probably be looking at a 2.7.1, c2005/06 and maybe 50-70k miles.  I know a 3.2 would be more desirable, but not having owned a sports car a reckon the 2.7 would still probably blow my socks off. 

As I'm not mechanically minded I'd want to avoid any Cat C /D's etc and probably lean towards buyingfrom a Porche specialist (I'm Midlands based and have my eye on JR Motor Co in Coventry)

So I guess my question is is a car of this age a releatively sensible choice?  Do you have any particular advice on what to look out for, desirable / essential extras, pitfalls etc.  Maybe even recommednded dealers or cars available?  I don't have a garage - is that a deal breaker for this type of car?  Would changing the stereo to DAB Apple play unit be a faux pas?

I'm not naieve, I know it's going to cost more to run than a family saloon, but I can't finance a bottomless pit.  I've had a look a the 'Boxter Spend' thread and to be honest it was a bit of a concern, but I'm not likely to be undertaking perfomance upgrades etc and obviously hope with a sensible well maintained buy to be able to avoid a catalouge of big bills, but in the knowledge that I may have to change clutches, springs etc in due course.

So, any advice.  Should I go for it?  Am I being daft?  What are your thoughts / experiences?

Thanks for your time.

 

 

 

 

 

Echoing whats been said with an addition, I would avoid black or dark blue cars, maybe Ive been unlucky but the couple of dark coloured Porsches that ive owned have had lots of very obvious stone chips, the shape of the car and low height of the bonnet doesn't help - my current Boxster is black but it has paint protection film over all of the vulnerable areas to offset the problem. The stock at JR looks decent and in your circumstances I would definitely be going to an indie who has a reputation to protect - that will be worth a lot more to you than a pointless used car warranty.

Good luck Keith

They can drain the old bank account that's true. I bought a 993 back in 2008 from Stirlings, Mark always puts his cars through his local Porsche dealer for a full check and rectification prior to sale and the 993 bill was just shy of £9k (copy supplied to me)...he is an expert buyer but even he was caught out by the size of that and puff went any profit margin. Wind the clock forward to my 987 Gen2, the guy I bought it from spent the thick end of £5k over 18 months having various jobs done, lots on suspension and the memory seat module failed in May this year under my watch, that cost just shy of a grand to fix BUT its the only repairs Ive paid for of this type after 16 Porsches so I must have been blessed along the way.

I bought one in 1999, it was around 12 months old, low miles, nice spec, BRG etc and at the time I thought it should be decent enough and as I used to work for Austin Rover I still had a feeling of some sort of pride in buying British plus I had owned a midget, MGB, TR6 in the past so it was like a continuation in my mind. The drive home was about 40 miles, the car was for my missus mainly and I parked it in the driveway when I got back and said to her "you aren't driving that thing, I'm selling it". It really was a pile of junk, didn't feel safe, flimsy, uncomfortable, just rubbish and so disappointing - the best bit was the K series engine which for the time had decent power and liked to rev. Sold it for what I paid after a few weeks (they still had long delivery times for a new one so good second hand market). Bought a 1.9 Z4 brand new which was gutless but was at least well built and then swapped that for a new Z4 2.8 which wasn't gutless, was well built and handled like a pig and after three years that was displaced by my first Boxster. I've owned a couple of Mk1 MX5's since and can safely say that they are streets ahead of the MGF but they are getting old now and can rust - great little car though. As always though I eventually went back to Porsche...back in a 987.2 S now.

Keith

I had one fitted to my 987 cayman years ago, it was certainly shorter but not really an improvement, just different.

Keith

Guys, those of you who are looking at adding the sport function have you tried getting a price from Ray Northway - pretty sure it will be cheaper and will be done as well or better than if it was done by an OPC

Keith

20 hours ago, Finbox said:

That sounds nice! Mine is a base PDK without sport mode and it's not the most sporty feeling combination. Should this work well for my PDK car as well? I've also been considering adding the Sport Mode by Porsche, but that is quite expensive.

I dont see any reason why it wont work with PDK - they may produce a variant for that application, worth checking the website. I also had a PDK in the past and the Sport option was necessary IMO due to the box wanting to change up to the highest gear all the time - the SB wont sort that issue out you will need to factory fit for that (or maybe a remap could do it).

Keith

I picked one of these up during the winter and last week fitted it to my 987S Gen2. Fitting is relatively easy but like other have found the plug release tab on my throttle sensor was broken so the pedal had to come out to make removal easier - takes around 20 mins all in to do so very straightforward.

The system has three different acceleration modes, standard i.e. normal as though the car is standard, sport and race - the latter two come from the factory pre-set to level 5 (0-10 with 10 being the most responsive).

Ive done a fair few miles with the car since fitting and yes, the car feels very different to standard when either sport or race is selected. The pre-set level of 5 is the one that I have come back to after fiddling around and sport seems more than adequate on the road.

In Sport level 5 acceleration occurs much more swiftly than standard and it takes a bit of practise to regulate the pedal to avoid wheel spin (sounds counter intuitive doing this regulation but it still results in much faster pick up) - in fact the car now accelerates in a similar fashion to my old F10 M5 which also demanded a gentle right foot to avoid spinning the wheels.

I have been keeping the car in standard mode as it warms up and then once up to temperature and if the road benefits from the change have selected Sport. Oddly the exhaust note also seems to benefit (PSE on my car) which makes things feel overall much quicker. Beware though that unlike my M5 with its big twin turbo V8, the rapidity of acceleration does tail off with the 987 - its not linear. The other thing I notice is a more noticeable step in acceleration not unlike an S2000 that I once owned and that adds to the overall impression.

I paid about £160 for the unit and in terms of smiles/£ it feels like a bit of a bargain.

By the way the little remote control doesn't need to stay in the car; if you settle on asetting that you aren't likely to change then you can select the one that you want, remove the control unit and the last setting becomes the default and is retained by the Booster memory. Not for me as I still want to adopt standard in towns etc and when warming up the engine.

Keith

I would shop around for the PSE, admittedly its 4 years since I had mine retrofitted by an OPC but it was closer to £1300. I did get a variety of quotes for the work, well worth it though.

Keith

Neil, something that small can be handled fairly easily with touch up paint, a bit of care and patience is whats needed. Will it be as good as a respray, not a chance but it will suffice and with these cars stone chips are a way of life so something to live with IMO but stopping the corrosion impact with a local repair always makes sense.

Keith

On 3/31/2021 at 8:23 PM, entdgc said:

A related question so hope the OP wont mind the slight thread creep.

I have a set of 7mm/15mm spacers ready to go on mine. Do people fit longer bolts when fitting these spacers? If so what length? My gut feel is that the 7mm spacer would be fine with the standard bolts but I am wary that the 15mm spacer might be a thread (or two) too far for standard bolts.

yes, mine came with a set of longer bolts for both front and rear spacers.

Keith

Here is a photo of my car on 15mm and 7mm

Keith

Draper professional states 70mm height but for some illogical reason I associate draper with rubbish kit from experience in the 70's..probably very unfair of me!

The Costco tip is a good one heard good things about that US brand, Halfords too

Thanks Keith

Gents for years Ive made do with a heavy duty trolley jack bought when I owned a discovery so hardly suitable for a low slung chassis like on the Boxster and now want to get the real thing so a low profile jack. This one from Sealey looks reasonable and gets good reviews https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sealey-Trolley-Jack-2-tonne-LOW-ENTRY-Rocket-Lift-Hi-Vis-Viz-Green-2001LEHV/352309515938

Has anybody got one of these or alternative suggestions in a similar price range? I've bought some 15mm and 7mm spacers (one of the other topics) and thats the trigger for this upgrade.

Thanks Keith

good to hear, time to order a set

 Cheers Keith

Gents, is there any relationship with wheel diameter and fitting the 7mm and 15mm spacers in terms of wheel arch clearance? I have 19" and don't believe there would be a problem but confirmation would be appreciated

Thanks Keith

My gen2s has a red interior and the steering wheel has a red rim. After 10 years it was shiny and a bit manky and no amount of scrubbing and leather treatment would sort it. I considered a retrim but found an alcantara wheel in Ebay in the Autumn for less than a retrim would cost, only problem it was the bare wheel with no front trim or gubbings. Today I removed the old wheel and after a fair amount of sweat and a bit of cursing managed to remove the trim, fitted it to the new wheel and then refitted that to the car. Around 2 hours with the wait for the airbag to discharge after disconnecting the battery. Have to say it looks much better and feels so much nicer that the old shiny thing. Now do i get the old one retrimmed or just stick it onto Ebay as is? The none PDK wheels seem rarely to crop up for sale.

btw if anybody is considering a similar move I can add a few pics to the thread.

Keith

Fitted a TyrePal Solar TPMS. Took about 20 minutes to fit and requires no tools. I looked at various after market systems, some can be had for £20 on Amazon but have middling reviews and as the point is to enhance safety and hopefully reduce damage due to a leak there seemed little point in trying to do it on the cheap, this system cost ~£100. Unlike others that I have seen the external sensors have replaceble batteries so no need to junk them once the batteries die (assuming the sensors last long enough). The colour display unit is both solar charged and takes a power lead, which for me was a selling point; I didnt want wires hanging around, its also legible with the roof down and has a good level of audio alarm. 

Once the sensors are fitted, the display unit recognises the pre-registered sensors (all done before shipment) and after a short drive the tyre pressure in Bar or PSI and temperature is displayed for each tyre. Low and high pressure thresholds and temperature can be easily set for each axle and the readings match perfectly to my Ring digital pressure gauge.

The Tyrepal website has a bunch of videos and advice on it and the unit comes with a good selection of accesories and some spare rubber seals for the sensors.

Overall, Im very pleased with the results and would recommend it to other members.

Keith

Fitted a Dansk exhaust system, fortunately Ray Northway had fitted new rear cats prior to sellng to the previous owner less than 1k miles back so all the screws were nice and clean,  not so the clamps for the back box that I had to chop off in the end, removal took about three and a half hours inc taking the bumper and spoiler off, refitting about two hours including a trip to buy some new M8 nuts and bolts to replace all those that sheered off...I wont be taking this lot off for a while (i hope). Also did an oil change this week using the recently certified by Porsche, Millers synthetic, it was last done around 700 miles and 20 months ago but it had a new ims fitted at the same time so clean oil and a new filter seemed a sensible thing to do in case there was any rsidual debris knocking around in the block.

BTW the Dansk, OEM lookalike, is VERY subtle, adds a very mild timbre to the sound with no booming etc, if your oem exhaust is shot i would give it a try as a replacament, fitted perfectly too and on offer at Design911. My insurer chargd me zero to make the change which was nice.

Keith

Finalised the fitment of OBC and cruise, a lesson learned about buying used from the States, the switch that was sold as tested and working wasnt, the indicator wouldnt cancel and its too long ago to do anything about it now. Fortunately I found a brand new set on Ebay at a healthy discount and that had a twist to it, when it turned up the part wasnt the one printed on the box (three stalk instead of four) but a nice discount offered in the way of compensation so all good there.

Next job is to bypass the crummy 4 channel MOST amp to allow me to install a decent head unit, then thats it until the new exhaust arrives!