el 3.2S

Oh dear, I am detecting some possible budget creep here. The youtube videos I initially watched, did not mention shock absorbers or alignment!

4 hours ago, DaveyP said:

I recently did a suspension refresh on mine. Makes a huge difference. 

I used the same Spyder arms you posted. They're good quality, and the guys are helpful if you've got any questions too.

Might be worth checking their website to compare prices to the eBay ads.

Most important thing is to get it set up properly afterwards. 

Thanks for the info, I will check out their website.

Yes, seems a good deal for a decent brand.

I have deleted several messages, maybe the pm works now?

1 hour ago, ½cwt said:

A set of coffin arms and tuning forks for the front will certainly sharpen it up and quieten it down a bit.  Fairly straight forward DIY.  PM me if you want a table of torque settings.

Many thanks, yes please send me the torque settings. 

Have just ordered these drop links, only one set left now.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151186152936?fits=Plat_Gen%3A986|Model%3ABoxster&epid=1180216008&hash=item2333659de8%3Ag%3AHfIAAOSwDXFcYtMN&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8OifY0odZT1cUMZZUFA2xX9juHijZ207mboGOa6nJkt%2FrIJJIWroSiXabNnAXk8mvvhjP6n0xoEzgGr7RAzoOUtOuwIQSJVigAqUZdpVYlkjcpOdu4LupSZvLAl8WGcF94hBjz%2FOjlkCdzK1ElaeDra4kKT8tVb81toSWP%2BTyIvEDU%2FYg5YG5ebD9v%2BUDqKBhg%2FcLM1Wucf8rDfu%2FQdtB7Borcg62u5l2yHHK7F%2B4Iuz3n%2FMS0gc695a1vA4ULb1KLBldB478tSQmun2hlZ%2FNOruOANlBnmWGyzQrmYIdcNkbC7Hh481aExIwg4t%2FBGyEQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9KC2trnYQ&LH_ItemCondition=3

3 hours ago, Menoporsche said:

You will get lots of support here for replacing suspension at 90k, and you’ll notice it after. 

Yes, I guess 23 years of bumping around the roads is quite some punishment for all the joints etc.

1 hour ago, ½cwt said:

+1 

@el 3.2S You mention the front, but little knocks rattles and shakes are all pretty much down to all the suspension being worn joints or tired/failing rubber bushes.  I though my rear tuning forks were OK but the final knocks didn't go until they were renewed as well a few months after all the rest was done.  If you get top mounts done and even inner and outer tack rods, it really transforms and tightened up the car way more than you'd believe.

Spyder Performance are used by a lot of people on here.  If you need shocks too, Koni Special Active go with standard and M030 springs.

Are you thinking DIY or getting it done for you.  Either way Autodoc are a good source for parts.  Keep an eye on their discount rate.  The problem is to do it all properly in one go, you are looking at £1500 in parts alone!

Thanks for that, I would plan to just do the front tuning forks and lower arms in the first instance and see what difference that makes. I think I can do these myself. Can have a look at the track rods too. Will then assess and see if more needs to be done.

1 hour ago, jonogt6 said:

That's inflation for ya!

Worst I have seen!

I am pretty sure my 2000 S model with about 90,000 miles is still using all its original M030 suspension parts. It seems to mostly be all working fine, except for some noises from the front when going over speed bumps and the front end kind of not feeling very planted, or wandering a bit, at motorway speeds.

I wonder if these symptoms may improve with fitting new front lower control arms and tuning forks? From looking at videos, the fitment looks easy enough for diy at home?

I found these Spyder Performance parts on ebay for a fairly decent price. I will likely buy this, or something similar, if there is a chance of it improving things? Just wondered what other people's thoughts were?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333598921955?fits=Car+Make%3APorsche|Model%3ABoxster&hash=item4dac0b94e3%3Ag%3ARv0AAOSwfxRevaRf&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4MxtTYwjKLPBNolsUOpNXNPrBVG9l3NclE5olePd0WAWL9V1vLhfO%2Bk97hBSW3UC9oiWyu9UKA6Gw%2BuGpZjBjuLil4syVvhKlM8Q5xcNORzXIPzMpyecloKfxaj1dNiwhTBu20Z9tZqALXCj6byLastCHngQdSUEXKl6enYbN6UrhSnEny%2BKYjtIHS%2BVO4Y1QJ3JeeCi25FzoNsy3i9G1Bf2ZMek%2FLN0ArOIjV0t0d8zNAuA4rRsg50ZOXjlXBYetQZFXTuxvQr02qEQLSguQ%2BzFarvfrPYgcbQp5xcSWepZ|tkp%3ABk9SR_bE98TnYQ&LH_ItemCondition=3

Strange, that link shows £297 but they were £247 when I looked before?

3 hours ago, Rev Ken said:

I always give my Boxster an 'Italian Tune-up' on my way to the MOT garage - so far it has never failed on emissions.🤞

I always do this too, but in recent years my car has struggled with the emissions. The tester informed me last time that there was a small hole in the exhaust manifold. This was welded before the test this year and my car sailed through.

2 hours ago, Daboy3000 said:

Can you claim it like you can in the UK?

 

Love your phone.

I do not know what the rules are here, maybe the authorities would be glad for it to disappear?
My retro styleee phone, still has a credit card sim card thing in the slot in the dash!

2 hours ago, Menoporsche said:

Make sure when you're tired you don't drive off in the wrong one.

Haha, hopefully my eyes are not that bad yet!

I recently moved to this area and spotted this rather sorry looking abandoned 986. It has been there quite some time. Wonder what happened, someone’s luck ran out or maybe it was his ims? First rain today in many many months, so with that rear window damage, it will now be filling up with water too. Has same interior colour as mine. The missing wing mirror seems to be acting as a chalk for one of the front wheels!😄 Appears to have been left by the rubbish bins, wonder if that was coincidence?

It is making my car look pretty good by comparison.

1 hour ago, map said:

These are the lightest OE 18" wheel for the 986.

3.1kg and 3.3kg is static weight - the reduced weight in terms of rotating weight is greater.  For me it's most noticeable through the steering (more responsive, less effort needed) and then improved ride comfort (springs and dampers having less work to do controlling unsprung mass). 

Good to know thanks. I look forward to a fuller assessment of them in the coming days.

Well I loaded my Carrera Classics into the ML a couple of days ago and had them shod with the new PS5 tyres. I fitted them onto the car this afternoon. Firstly, very happy with the look of the new alloys, and a brief test drive this evening indicated vastly improved grip and braking (no more locking up on dry smooth tarmac) and much improved ride due to softer rubber. The old tyres were like 4 blocks of concrete, with similar grip lol.

Since I had the used tyres on the turbo twist alloys and new tyres on the classics, the nerd in me decided to do some weight checks, as I had heard the classics referred to as “lightweight”. 

Front / Rear turbo twist & old tyre = 21,5kg / 25,0kg

Front / Rear classic & new tyre = 18,4kg / 21,7kg

So the front classics are 3,1kg lighter than the twists and the rears are 3,3kg lighter. So 12,8 kg lighter overall.

And how it was:

13 hours ago, Menoporsche said:

Mine worked according to Goodyear and Michelin quotes at the time. Since then I know someone else, and when I asked for my family Toyota the Michelins were maybe 50 quid more than Goodyears for all four, so I went for them. And I'm not sure if the Goodyear 5 available now is as loved as the Goodyear 3. Anyway - you've ordered now. Hope it all works out  

Thanks, will be nice to have a matching set of new quality tyres for first time in my 8 years of ownership.

39 minutes ago, Menoporsche said:

Yes I think we're 1-1 on the procrastination scoring  

When I got mine the PS4 were available (or was it PS4S? Difference is important but I've forgotten by now) but I learned from the last set that I didn't need to pay for Michelin's fantastic durability, as I do so few miles per year. My PS2s were 10 years old and still had 3-4mm on them, clearly I drive like a grandad. So I saved 200 quid and bought Goodyears. Immediate difference is that I could no longer provoke it around certain corners, and much less Ackermann judder - I got the latter heavily every time turning hard right out of my drive, now it's barely there.

PS2s were awesome, PS4S were awesome, I wouldn't worry if these are not a giant step forward.

Isn't your suspension 20 years old anyway  

It would be nice to be able to push the car a bit further round corners. Do you already know where you can provoke it, to test if the new ones are different, do you have a "baseline"?

Perhaps I should have done similar as the Michelin is likely more than I need based on my usage etc. Would likely have been better off with Goodyear or something similar. With 8 year old Sunny tyres at the rear, it did not take much, even on dry roads, to provoke the rear. Any new tyre will be a vast improvement there.. Will just have to use the car a bit more to get my money's worth out of the Michelins! But you are correct, the suspension is ancient - it is actually 22 years old!

38 minutes ago, map said:

Reading between the lines I wonder if you’d be better off with a trackday type tyre 🤔

Yes I think you could be right there based on my very low usage. Maybe a Toyo or something similar would have been a better choice?

Haha, yes things do move a bit glacially at times on the car front - at least the rims were only sitting about 3 years in my garage 😉.

Thanks for the review, not sure the PS5 looks a giant step forward from the PS4? Not many have reviewed the newer one yet though. Alarmingly I see it has excellent wear characteristics🤣 - this is something I most definitely do not care about, along with wet weather performance. My 8 & 10 year old tyres on the car now all look like new tread wise!

Will give them a try anyway.

Just wondered if anyone has experience of Michelin PS5 tyres fitted to a 986? I have just ordered a full set 225 & 265 width for 18" rims. This fitting place is not now listing the PS4 rear tyre for the Boxster. Price was for all 4 was E732 fitted, balanced, nitrogen filled and with a guarantee. I will get them fitted to the spare set of Carrera lightweight alloys I have had sitting in my garage for about 3 years. Hoping the new tyres will be an improvement over my 10 year old front Hancooks and my 8 year old rear Sunny tyres!🤣

On 10/28/2021 at 7:26 PM, fewtrees said:

So it looks like (according to the last 4 digits of the DOT number) my Pirelli Zero Asimetrico tyres are marked '3503' - which means they are 18 years old! They have 4mm of tread left on them so I'm thinking..... How the hell could that happen?

My next question is I have Hankook V12 Ventus Evo 2's on the front and are they any good the Boxster? I can't see the date right now as it's on the inside of the tyre and it's raining + dark..

Just wondering if the best thing to do is replace them all and eBay the Hankooks or buy Hankooks for the rear?

Whadya think?

I bought my car 7 years ago and it still has the same tyres fitted. They are 18”, the fronts being Hankook V12 and the rears are the ditch finder Sunny variant (no sniggering please). Hankooks are now 10,5 years old and the Sunnys are 8 years old. I am planning to get 4 new PS4 fitted, but never quite get round to it. Tread wise, all tyres have very little sign of wear.
What I have noticed is that the rubber in the Hankooks (especially) has become very hard and almost polished and, rather alarmingly can lock up with light to moderate braking on very smooth asphalt.
Guess what I am saying is the Hankooks were ok some years ago, on my car but are very off now! I think the Sunnys have been very off since new but are worse now! Car sails through the “mot” every year though.

1 minute ago, Terryg said:

I hadn't consider someone from outside the UK buying it even though I saw the nature of the seller. However surely the importation, customs and VAT costs will make that too expensive anyway?

Do not know how things are now post Brexit but all costs associated with getting my Boxster to Malaga from Hampshire in 2014 (petrol, ferry, 1st “MOT”, Spanish plates taxes and a chap to do all paperwork etc) was about £1000 all in. 

27 minutes ago, Terryg said:

I think that looks really tidy, well worth jumping on quick, the bonnet looks fine on my laptop. This one is the most optimistic pricing I have ever seen on the other hand.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/porsche/lovely-porsche-boxster-very-original-lhd-uk-plates-fsh-auto-tiptronic-e-hood/1401731936

For those who can't be arsed looking, its a LHD 2.5 tip with 112k miles and they are looking for £11950.. GLWTS

Not wishing to derail the thread but the LHD factor affects Boxster values very much. Compared to Spanish prices that one looks about right. I would hope to get at least that for my LHD 2000S even though I paid less that 50% of that 7 years ago due to seller offloading it in UK at RHD prices. 
Link to some LHD models for sale:

https://www.coches.net/segunda-mano/?MakeId=34&MaxYear=2001&MinYear=1999&ModelId=290

Yes, very true. As with many things round these parts, there are two prices. Strangely the cash price is always 21% less than the one when paying with a card 🤣.

Just to complete the thread, I bought a clutch pedal from Porsche and for the first time in my 7 years of ownership, put the car into a garage. I got the garage to fit the clutch pedal and spring and while it was there he supplied and fitted inner and outer drive shaft boots at rear right side and cut out corroded parts of the exhaust on each side and fitted what looks like new sleeve parts. The car was at the garage about 5 weeks as he did not finish before I went away for nearly 4 weeks. He was fine with this and kept it up on one of his lifts the whole time. All the parts an labour came to €400 cash, which I thought was not too bad.  Hopefully it will not struggle with the emissions as much in future as it did on last two tests. 
One thing, the clutch is definitely lighter and feels much better now with the new assister spring fitted. 

Thanks for the info. My car is from 2000. The new price you quote looks pretty good really and at least then I know what I am getting. Will visit the dealers when I return home.

Whilst attempting to remove the clutch pedal spring, I *cough* somehow managed to destroy the part of the clutch pedal which holds the spring in place. I am now unable to fit the new spring due to this. No idea what a new clutch pedal costs from the dealers, and am currently unable to find out. I have seen a few on e bay UK for RHD models and would imagine them to be cheaper (about £35 posted) than the dealers charge for a new one? 

I have used the car with no spring fitted and the clutch is even heavier than it was before!

Anyone know if the clutch pedals are the same on RHD & LHD models?

I definitely felt a difference in the way the car cornered after fitting them and, to me, it seemed a positive improvement.

Never had a problem with mine either in the 4 years they have been fitted. Wheels have been off and on a few times too.