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Guys, 

Thanks for the replies. And thanks for the prompt to update this thread gardenkirrie; I've had the car up in the air in the last few days and the news is good. 

The problem turned out to be the big bolt between the end of the tuning fork and the middle of the coffin arm. It was not as tight as it should be on the N/S/F and tightening it solved most of the problem. I therefore tightened up the other three corners and the problem has entirely gone away, which is very good news. How those bolts weren't as tight as they should have been I don't know; I fitted the new arms about 9 months ago and it's been in to an indie for a fitting and geo check twice since then. I'm glad that it is now OK and hope that this is the end of the story. 

The only downside is that the car seems to creak more than before, but that's probably due to having polybushed arms. Ho hum; it's a price I'm happy to pay as the handling is so precise. 

FWIW, while it was up I removed the heat shields from behind the rear brake disks, and I had removed the ones from behind the front disks about 18 months ago. What are these for? My 944 had them as well, and I removed them as they started to rattle and never suffered any ill-effects so I am curious as to why Porsche carried on fitting them to later models. Can anyone shed any light? 

Thanks for your help chaps. 

Update: I've swapped the near side ARB's, front to back and vice-versa. And tightened up the bolts on the saddle cover on the N/S/F ARB mount (they weren't loose, but weren't done up as tightly as they could have been). And now that I've taken it for a brief run 'round the block I can tell that the noise could be different but isn't gone. 

So .... any more ideas? The difference could be my imagination, of course! 

On 4/23/2022 at 7:58 PM, Paul676 said:

Have a look at the metal shield behind the brake disc... 

Now that is a GOOD idea, but there aren't any heat shields there any more as I've removed them. 

16 minutes ago, Boxer boy said:

Scuse my ignorance guys , what is this “ Bally bar “ ? 
 

 

I was wondering this as well. Looks like it's some kind of front lower strut brace. 

Can't comment on whether those need to be done or not but I'd be a little wary of anywhere which offers a fixed price on the work. You won't know until you have taken it apart how much needs to be replaced as some areas of rust can't be seen with the undertrays on and some pipes don't come off cleanly and are damaged in the process. 

Before I did the job I discussed it with my OPC (cheapest place for parts) and they said it was always a difficult job to sell to customers as the cost was so variable. Having done it I can see why. (For reference, I bought every part that could possibly have been needed on the basis that I could return anything I didn't use. As it was I needed the whole lot so was very glad that I had done this.)

Hardened ARB rubber .... I'd not thought about that. Let me have a look. Thanks for the suggestion. 

Good call but I don't quite think so. It's a bit too mechanical and happens regardless of speed. 

It's also front near side, and I don't think that there are many heat shields there. 

Thanks. The tuning forks are even more recent and from Spyder Performance. 

I think the answer will be to get underneath it and give the drop links a wobble and see what's what. 

Thanks for your help!

Chaps, 

Quickie. I have the usual musical suspension problems on my 987.1C. It rattles slightly over small road irregularities; typically the sort of slightly broken road surfaces that we see so often these days. It's a light rattle but the handling is otherwise very good. 

Am I right in thinking this is usually ARB drop links? (Annoying if so as I changed them 18 months ago for some Meyle ones.)

Thanks. 

Yes. Downside of that otherwise excellent plan is that it's already put a £300 dent in my wallet this month! Some new oil poured in once in a while will be the solution for the next couple of months in order to keep the Household Exchequer happy. 

IBorguk, 

Thanks again for your help, and for sending over the instructions on how to change the AOS. 

I've just started the old girl and the oil filler cap is easy to remove with the engine running; there appears to be little or no suction holding it on. Maybe the AOS is OK after all and the leak is coincidental. Either way, I'm in a bit of a quandary as to what to do ... investigate more I guess! 

Thanks again. 

Thanks again Iborg. 

Would a failing AOS explain the oil loss and the damp seen on the pipe? 

I'll try to remove the cap when it's running tomorrow. Does it make any difference whether it's done with the engine hot or cold? I presume not. 

iborguk, 

Thanks. I'm not aware that the AOS has ever been replaced (115,000 miles, late 2007 model) but I don't have quite as comprehensive a set of service history as I would like. 

White smoke at startup only after a short journey, which I am told is normal. Given that it only does infrequent but long journeys nowadays then I've not seen it smoke for a year or more. 

Guys, 

Small but annoying one here. 

My 987.1 2.7 Cayman had a note of 'slight oil leak' at a recent MOT. It was annoying, in part simply because I hadn't noticed it as I haven't used the car much. 

So I jacked it up and had a look. Firstly, the oil filter housing wasn't screwed all the way home which explained some of the leak. But there was also a noticeably oily pipe in the top of the engine bay. Here's a photo viewed from underneath. 

When viewed from above it seems to be this pipe. 

For reference, this is stamped with part number "987 107 064 01" and a brief google search suggests that it may be part of the AOS. 

Having tightened up the oil filter the oil level is still dropping slightly (a recent 350-mile trip caused one bar drop on the dashboard gauge) so I presume that the problem is still there. 

Has anyone any experience with this? Is this pipe a regular candidate for causing problems? Or is it likely to be something else? 

All advice welcomed, thanks. 

1 hour ago, Downsey said:

Was it 1st April when he was telling you this nonsense?

No .... but he had a number of other large-sized stories which I wasn't sure whether to believe or not. 

I think that this thread has put the kibosh firmly on the notion that his 986 was 4x4! 😄

4 hours ago, bagss2 said:

But folk who don't / haven't had Sport buttons in their Pork don't typically pipe up saying that Sport buttons are useless / inffective. Indeed some folk actually pay £big-bucks to have them retrofitted.

Not quite. It is from using Sports Chrono and the 'Sport' button on my car that I can say it's not worth it. It's a nice little toy and I think I probably used it every time I drove the car in the first six months of ownership but I honestly can't remember the last time I pressed it.

Maybe I should try it again sometime soon. 

Guys, 

Odd question this. I met a guy the other day who claimed to have a 4x4 986 Boxster. I saw it, but didn't look in detail; it looked from the outside like a perfectly ordinary 986. Stupidly I didn't note down the registration number so can't check the details. 

His story was that Audi made some development cars with a 4x4 system in it and this was one of them. I was sceptical but wasn't going to disagree with him to his face. FWIW he seemed to have a good story about a lot of things but that's by the by. 

Hence this post. Did Porsche ever make 4x4 986's or was I having my leg pulled (as I slightly suspect)? If so then does anyone have any more details? 

29 minutes ago, Codfanglers said:

 

One interesting feature is the selection for use with manual or auto gearbox. Presumably if you run it in manual mode response input/output is totally linear, giving 100% output at partial pedal travel. If you select manual mode with an auto box, does it trigger kick-down at part pedal travel? In auto mode, linear i/o to 90% then delay the last 10% until the pedal is near fully depressed so kick-down is delayed until the pedal is fully depressed? Has anyone tried this?

It could do other fancy things like momentarily producing say 80% output on any increasing pedal travel to make response feel more peppy. Who knows? There must be a website somewhere that has analysed exactly what this does. 

There would have been R&D costs involved, presumably an ASIC but £180?

 

Interesting questions. And some good thinking about the auto/manual switch. The fact that they have one suggests that there is behaviour for one that is not desirable for the other and that could well be it. 

The idea of a momentary 80% output on increasing pedal travel is an interesting one but I'd doubt it. It sounds like a recipe for getting into trouble quite quickly on slippery surfaces and could end up with ABS/Traction Control kicking in unnecessarily, cutting power and spoiling the party (and defeating the point of it all.) 

I agree - the price is very high for a bit of R&D, some connectors, a plastic box and a small logic controller. However their market will be small and profit isn't a dirty word (as my accountant tells me.) My choice would be to keep the £180 in my pocket and simply push the pedal a bit harder, but then I always was old-fashioned. 

On 2/26/2022 at 9:52 AM, Codfanglers said:

Yes

There is no more to it than shortening the accelerator pedal travel. It can adjust the gain to give 100% throttle output over 30%, 40%, 50% etc of pedal travel in a vast range of "performance enhancing modes" (or giving 30% output @ 100% throttle in valet mode, 0% in lock mode etc etc). but that's ALL it can do. 

If you like this effect then go for it but it doesn't "sharpen" throttle response and the ECU will process the throttle signal in exactly the same way as it does without this device.  

 

Given that it sits in the signal path from the accelerator pedal to the ECU then this is all it can do. It can't modify any other aspect of the car's behaviour. 

It's like wearing lead wellies when you drive the car. It magnifies small throttle inputs so they become big ones. This will take delicacy out of the driving, particularly noticeable when manoeuvring or driving in traffic, but will make the power more accessible when only pushing the pedal gently. It's very like the throttle cams that people used to fit on their 944's; people would fit them and report huge improvements in the way the car responds, as if it suddenly has gained a lot more power. However many people decided over a period of time that the pedal calibration from the factory was indeed better in the real world and took the cam off, replacing it with the standard one (if they had the good sense to keep it.) 

As with all things in life, you pays your money and you takes your choice. 

Guys, 

I have peculiar behaviour with the clutch on my 987.1 Cayman non-S with a 5-sp box. In brief; the pedal won't return fully to the top position and it has very recently become a lot worse, with hardly any pedal movement at all. The gears are hard to change (they need force on the lever) and there seems to be fluid spilled out of the top of the clutch fluid reservoir. I'm not trying to diagnose it yet but do have a new master and slave cylinder to fit to the car. 

My question is how to do this. I have struggled to find on-line guides to the work, other than a few forum posts suggesting that the slave cylinder is a pig of a job to do. Does anyone have any information they can share about either job? Suggestions? How-to's? Photos? Videos? All would be welcome, particularly if you can offer first-hand experience! 

(I'm happy to write the job up afterwards if it helps.) 

Thanks, 

Oli. 

On 12/28/2021 at 3:15 PM, 944GS said:

Not in the Boxster but my 944 managed it fine!

 

944's are obscenely practical, particularly when you consider they are not billed as 'practical' cars! 

Chaps, 

I have a question about clutches on 987, or more specifically the movement of clutch pedals. The car is a 987.1 2.7 Cayman with 112,000 miles. It's on the original clutch as far as I am aware. 

The car isn't used much but two weeks ago when I started driving it the clutch pedal felt odd. Clutch worked fine but the pedal return was lumpy and not as it should be. 
When it was next driven (Friday) the clutch pedal stuck most of the way down when it was first used. The clutch worked fine; you could use the remaining 20% of the pedal to engage and disengage it but it wouldn't return to the top position. After about 30 minutes / 20 miles of driving then it did return to the top position but felt 'odd' as it did two weeks ago. 
I've not done anything to it since then but google tells me that it could be any one of a number of things.

This post is to ask whether anyone else has direct, first-hand experience of this happening to their 987 and what the problem was? And also, given the symptoms, what should I be looking to do in order to troubleshoot it? I understand that the clutch and brake fluids are common and they share a reservoir. What I don't understand is how to bleed the clutch hydraulics. 

I'm hoping that this will simply be a problem with the hydraulics in some form but am aware that it may be the first stages of a failing clutch. 

Thanks for your help.

As long as they give me one of those new Taycan Cross Turismo's before they talk to me then I'll be quite happy! 

(Although I'd settle for a Cayman with a GT3 engine, whatever it's badged.) 

FWIW I've had Koni adjustables on a 944 and replaced them with Bilstein B6's. 1980's car so no PASM option. 

The Bilstein B6's were better in every way than the Koni's. I can't describe the difference other than to say that they were more plush. They managed to somehow be firmer than the Koni's but more compliant; they held the car in place better without transmitting the lumps and bumps of the road through to the passengers. It made the car tighter and more controlled to drive while also more comfortable to ride in. It sounds like witchcraft (and it really could be witchcraft for all I know!) but the Bilsteins were better by a country mile than the Koni's. 

When I change the shocks on my 987 Cayman then I'll save long and hard for the Bilstein dampers. My car does have PASM so they will be expensive, but I suspect they they will be eye-poppingly good. 

£12K !!!

Strewth. I wonder how much it would cost to have 5 or 10 of these made and then shipped to the UK. I bet it's less than £1k. 

At £11k profit per sign, selling five would make over £50k. 

I think I have a new business idea .... 😄

I too have Sport Chrono on my 987.1 and the needles on the chrono clock didn't line up properly. 

I took it apart (much much easier than it sounds like it should be) and re-aligned them. However one of them broke (I think it was the hour hand) so I reassembled it without that hand. 

Of course I used it once to make sure that the hands do now align properly but haven't do so since but that's part of the point of Sport Chrono; it's something to look at but never to use.