zcacogp

Nothing helpful to add, but please make sure that you don't set those JSO protesters free. Hoover them up and put the hoover bag in a sealed bin. 

Chaps,

Thanks for the answers. I guess I need to find a friendly bodyshop who can do good work but not charge the earth for it.

Funds aren't that flush at the moment so I'll probably clean it all out behind the affected area as much as possible and coat it with some Bilt Hamber, and think about finding someone to fix it properly next spring. Bodywork is something that I always think shouldn't be that difficult but have never had a go at it.

Thanks for the input.

Guys,

While washing my 987.1 Cayman the other day I noticed these on the N/S rear arch.

Apologies for the lousy photos but they show three small paint blisters on the arch of the car. Which is annoying as the car is well looked after and garaged (although it has probably lived outside with previous owners.)

In short, what would you do? The car is not likely to be sold in the near future so I'd like a job that will last. I've not dug into it in detail but I don't think that the rear arches are lined in this place, but are double-skinned. This therefore means that cutting out the rusty metal and welding some more in will be tricker, I am guessing.

If anyone has some words of advice I'd love to hear them. Oh, and if anyone can recommend someone to do the job near Gloucester then I'd welcome any recommendations.

Thanks.

I've done similar to Phazed (indeed it could have been a post from him which inspired me to do the same). 

Shimming the white plastic block is easy; I did it with a bit of aluminium from a drinks can and it helped quite a lot. However I couldn't work out how to remove the centre pin without breaking the assembly so didn't do this. Neither did I install a SSK. 

End result? It's better .... but still not very good. The side-to-side is the problem area; forward-and-backward is quite good. 

I'll watch this thread to see if there are any other easy improvements. 

Guys, 

Thanks for the answers. 

BBB - thanks particularly for that video link; it has a better sequence for reassembling the handbrake shoes and springs which made things much easier. 

Fewtrees, thanks also for your comments. Looking at your other thread, I hope that you made your handbrake work OK too. 

FWIW mine is all back together now. I think that I may have installed the bottom fore-aft spring upside down which caused the pads to ride down a bit, hence the premature and unusual wear on the shoes. However that's a guess and I'm not 100% sure if it's correct. Suffice it to say that it seems to work (certainly better than before) and I'm hoping for the best. 

Thanks again!

Chaps, 

The handbrake on my 987.1 has been giving grief of late and I'm looking for some wisdom. 

I changed the brake shoes about 18 months ago as a preventative measure (I was doing a brake rebuild on the back of the car and it made sense to swap out all the original parts.) 

All was well, until the MOT about 2 months ago when it failed on a poor handbrake reading on the driver's side (offside). I took it home, adjusted it and presented it for a re-test and all was well again. Having said that, handbrake efficiency seemed to drop off pretty quickly again afterwards. 

Until yesterday, when I noticed there were some funny clunking noises from the rear of the car and a dragging noise related to road speed. I took things apart again and found that the front brake shoe on the driver's side handbrake was worn out at one end, and there was some slight scoring on the inside of the brake drum. The rest of that shoe and the other shoe still had lots of meat on them. Everything was loose and clearly the handbrake wouldn't really have been doing much on that side (the disk/drum came off easily even though the handbrake was supposedly on.)

Here's some photos of the worn shoe and disk. 

My question is whether anyone else has come across this peculiar wear pattern before; I'd expect more even wear along the whole of the shoe and the fact that it is only worn at the end suggests that it may have been mis-aligned or mis-assembled. However it seems that there is only one way of making everything fit together and I can't see how it could be assembled wrongly. 

This is a rough layout of how things were put together; can anyone eyeball this and confirm that the various springs and whatnot are in the right places? 

If anyone has any suggestions as to what could be wrong then I'd be grateful to hear then. (Or, for that matter, any bright hints to make the assembly of the handbrake shoe arrangement easier as I recall it as being a pig of a job involving stretching springs while pushing them into place and swearing copiously .... 😖)

Thanks. 

1 hour ago, BBB said:

Mine doesn’t have OEM sport mode or PASM, or even xenon headlights (but Bose, go figure) so its a great mod for an otherwise lower specced car

Interesting. Mine seems to have pretty much every option in the options catalogue other than BOSE. (Or climate control for that matter.) I dread to think how much over the list price the original owner paid .....

Can't help with an aftermarket one but (like others on here) I have a 987.1 2.7 with Sport Chrono. This has a 'Sport' button which increases the throttle sensitivity. 

Can I recommend it? Probably not. It does make the car seem more lively as you get more zing for the same amount of throttle pedal movement, but that's about it. It doesn't actually increase the amount of zing overall, just means you have to flex your right ankle a bit less to get to it. I used the button quite a lot when I bought the car but tired of it after a while and seldom use it now. I certainly wouldn't pay £200 for it. 

It also backs off the PSM slightly, and puts the suspension into 'Sport' mode (if you have PASM). 'Sport' mode on the suspension is also known as 'break my spine' mode as it makes the car undrivable on UK roads. On the very occasional smooth road you may find this side of laa-laa-land it is very nice and keeps the car flatter and much more taut, but this comes to a crashing end when you crash into the next pothole/speedbump/road join/whatever. If you live in Europe with roads which don't resemble the cratered far side of the moon it's probably a great invention. 

Chaps, 

Update: I put the Falkens on the back of my 987C and am impressed with them. Probably less than 500 miles in but happy so far. 

Will they last well? How will they do in the winter? I don't know, but they seem to be easily the match for the Michelins which they replaced (which were 9 years old but not entirely worn out.) To anyone asking whether they are worth it, I'd say that yes they are. 

Thanks for your input. 

Guys, 

Thanks for the comments. I'm busily reading reviews a-plenty and the 2023 ADAC test (which tends to be pretty good) rates the Falken ZE310 highly. It does well on wear as well, FWIW. Interestingly, the ones that beat it on the test aren't so easy to get hold of; the Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance 2 wins, but no-one seems to sell it (although the Efficientgrip is readily available it is a different tyre.) Test is here: 

https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/2023-ADAC-Summer-Tyre-Test.htm

On that basis I'm quite tempted by the ZE310, and I've had good results from Falken tyres before.

Interesting point about the breakaway characteristics of mid-engined 987's compared to front-engined 944's. Both cars have a very similar front:rear balance, the big difference is the polar moment of inertia (very low for the 987, very high for the 944 - don't forget that the gearbox is between the rear wheels.) I'd have thought that the breakaway characteristics would be heavily influenced by the tyre choice (and chassis geometry), non? 

Chaps, 

I need some new tyres on the rear of my .1 Cayman. I understand that they are 235x50R17's but am a lazy hound so haven't been outside to check - someone please let me know if this is wrong. 

People often rave about quite expensive brands on here but I've had more satisfactory results with mid-range tyres on my 944. By 'more satisfactory' I mean that I prefer tyres which break away more progressively and allow the car to move about a bit more on the road, which mid-range ones seem to do more than expensive Conti's and Michelins. I've got on particularly well with Falkens, Kuhmos and Toyos. 

How do more mid-range tyres work on 987's? They seem to be 30-40% cheaper than the bigger name brands. Do people rate them or are they a waste of time (perhaps because they aren't suited to the 987 chassis, perhaps because their wear life is lower to the point that they are poor value for money). 

All observations welcome, thanks. 

Guys, 

The long-running saga of AOS grief on my 987.1C rumbles on. The car went for an MOT this week and while it was all up in the air I had a nosy underneath it (be rude not to, eh?) and it was clear that there is a big oil leak from around the AOS. Yes, that's the same AOS that was changed a few hundred miles ago and which didn't sit into it's hole properly, leading to some weird fault codes. 

So, back home, clutching my shiny new MOT certificate in my hand*, I took the engine hatch off AGAIN (I swear that the bolts on that do more RPM than the wheels do) and had a look at what was up. In short, the vent pipe from cylinders 4,5 and 6 to the AOS had cracked and was dribbling oil. Part number 987 107 246 01 and it looks like this: 

(Photo from t'interweb. I know it looks like a wiggly black worm). 

New part is £50 or so. Plus P&P. And I'm seriously wondering whether to replace it with the same, which will be made of the same brittle plastic and which will probably break at the drop of a hat, or whether to try and fit a general rubber hose instead, from one end to the other, on the basis that it will last longer. How I'd fit it at the end is a good question but some ingenuity would help. Does anyone know anyone who has done this? 

OR whether to bin the AOS altogether and run without it. Obviously I'd plug up all the ports on the engine (numbered in this picture) but what would be the consequences of this? Would it affect the running of the car? Would it cause fault codes a-plenty? Would it be bad news for the emissions at MOT time? 

All answers on a postcard .... thanks! 

* - Sadly I didn't have such a thing as the damned car failed the MOT on handbrake adjustment. Handbrake adjustment! Yes, really! I only put the handbrake on once a year and that's for the MOT, and the tester probably felt his own fingerprints on the lever from last year .... 

Fair cop. Should look good. Keep us posted with faux-toes!

3 hours ago, Davey P said:

I think we are missing the point here... the main thing to take away from all this is that the Cayman is 10 bhp better than the Boxster 

A tiny amount. 

But then it's a bit lighter as well, and a bit more aerodynamic, and a LOT stiffer. 

And all those little bits add up. 

11 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

Yep love the tobacco 👍

The tobacco is very lovely, for sure! 

What colour interior would you do with it? dark tan? 

Guys, 

Thanks for the replies. They are all very much appreciated. 

I took it all apart today and it turned out that the AOS wasn't fully sat down in it's hole. Nice simple solution, but annoying as I did the AOS swap job myself a few months back and hence it's entirely my fault. And I'm cross with myself that I didn't do it right. 

I also discovered that the pipe that runs from the side of the AOS to the nearside bank (LHS bank) had cracked apart entirely, so I re-joined it with some oil-resistant hose and will make a better job next time I have it apart. 

A test drive didn't throw up any codes but they sometimes took a while to appear before, so it's not conclusive. However the idle is MUCH more stable and it's smoother to drive, suggesting that I may have solved the problem. 

Thanks again for the assistance. I do find myself thinking that the AOS's on these cars cause quite a lot of grief and whether life would just be easier to disconnect them, plug off the hoses running to the inlet manifold and run the crank breathers to catch cans. Would it cause any harm? Would anyone notice? I could be quite tempted. 

Hi, 

Another weird code post. My 2.7 987.1 Cayman has started throwing these codes. It started with P2189 (Bank 1) which popped up, I cleared it and it popped up again a couple of weeks later. I cleared it a second time and it's come back, but this time invited its friend P2187 along for the ride too. It seems that the common explanation for these is a loose oil cap, but mine is tight. 

Before I take the engine cover off and dive on in, can anyone suggest where I should start looking? I understand that these aren't common codes on 987's (a search for them shows that they are dead common on Cayenne's though), so if anyone has any first-hand experience then I'd be very grateful. 

(Logical thinking: running lean could be either an air leak into the inlet manifold after the AFM, or possibly an air leak around the lamba sensor. I have had the inlet manifolds off recently as I had to change the fuel rail on one side, which ended up meaning that both were changed and you need to get the inlet manifolds off to swap the fuel rails. This is therefore a good place to start looking, but if there is a code for both sides then I wonder if there is a single point of failure which would account for the two of them.) 

Thanks. 

Erm, if they are rubbish then are you sure that they are working correctly? 

The xenon lights on my 987.1 are simply excellent.

2 hours ago, timbobalobox said:

Being honest it's the final little finishing details I'm most nervous about getting right; for example the front bonnet latch has to be turned through 180deg so it fits around the new clam. This means the handle to unlatch it completely needs fabricating and a neat slot creating. 

To me it's all those bits that if not done nicely, will make it look like what it ultimately is...  If done well however I think it's got the opportunity to look quite special - time will tell!

Absolutely agree; details matter. I've seen any number of project cars which look great at 10 paces but up close the builder has done the easiest job rather than the best one. It's worth the effort to do things well IMHO. 

I know it doesn't help but I am always intrigued by the posts on here (and elsewhere) about the standard lights being so poor. The optional HID's are excellent, and I'm lucky enough to have them fitted. 

FWIW, 944's have very poor headlights and it's very easy to swap the bulbs for more powerful ones (120/100 or 100/55) and run them through a small bank of switched relays. That improved things massively on my S2. Would such a thing be possible on a 987? 

22 hours ago, skoosh1970 said:

2006 Silver Porsche Boxster 24V 2.7 2dr for sale for £59,991 in Redditch, Worcestershire (autotrader.co.uk)

£60k! Whoosh! 

Interesting trimming job done on the seats. I think I quite like it, although it looks pretty poor (lots of creasing). 

Well I don't have the welded plates on my front shock towers to make them fit to my car so I'm choosing to believe that they don't do anything anyway! 

>SticksFingersInEarsAndWhistlesLoudly<

😆

987.1 2.7 (i.e non-S) Cayman owner here and I don't have the brackets on the shock absorber towers, so I guess I won't be buying one of these then. 

However there is a guy selling a set even cheaper here if you want some: 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265932701322?hash=item3dead2fe8a:g:iZsAAOSwpnxjRwcA&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsMi5yhJHdyABVDQvvaVcNB50V3mejFRBWcPotdeobg3Y99nLrNTwFeyGWvz5nLs5kXIQ3Ozduz1nWS8asdG6ZixSi9QNqr26Sso0xc27LdNiScNbYslp4ay6FrBuqbCDfVRrp%2FRKDFYJIZLTIOp23jN40eDUhf82U%2FCLQb463wGBYVB29XkvzCQidOjZyjAkdtyAuNeCxrV5%2FLSS9pt4wIRv9FQoWFL0Dr76CKmH0ftw|tkp%3ABk9SR86u3ZKvYQ

Rusted ARB? Sounds rum - they are usually pretty reasonable spring steel so shouldn't rust that much. 

Do you have any pics perchance? 

I don't like ducktails on 987's but am VERY happy to make an exception for that! 😀