zcacogp

Guys,

Thanks for the answers. My 987.1 2.7 does occasionally hesitate slightly and I now that the coils and plugs haven't been done for a while (a while? Not since I bought the car and probably a couple of years before that) and I wonder whether there may be a bit more pep available if I was to replace some bits. I think that I have some plugs that I bought when I bought the car so fitting them goes on the list, the question is whether to splash out on some coils as well. 

Given the price of them I am inclined to just change the plugs and see what difference that makes. If it's still not quite 100% then I'll go for the coils as well. I take the point about it being easier to do them all at once but given that time is free but coil packs aren't then I'll probably just try the plugs in the first instance. 

sa Utah - you refer to BERU Cali packs. Are Cali packs a specific thing, or is this a typo of 'coil pack'? 

Thanks all. 

Quickie: 

- What's the change interval on spark plugs on a 987.1 2.7? 

- What's the change interval on coil packs on a 987.1 2.7? 

- If a coil pack is failing and there is a (very faint and occasional) misfire then will it always throw a fault code, or is it possible to mis-fire slightly without a fault code? 

Thanks!

As said, high lambda is usually a leak somewhere. It could be on the exhaust or (less likely) could be on the intake after the throttle and air flow meter. Exhaust joints are the most likely, and not too hard to sort out. 

For reference, I did a full suspension refresh on my 987 Cayman a couple of months ago. 'Full' with the exception of the shock absorbers as the £800 or so each corner for PASM items was a bit too rich for my wallet. 

Spyder Performance coffin arms and tuning forks were around £500 for everything. Drop links were about £20/corner. Strut tops were about £25 each from AutoDoc. Alignment was £200 or so from Cotswold Porsche. All other work was DIY, and it was quite an involved job mainly because the inboard bolts on the coffin arms were corroded into the arm ends and each corner needed to be cut off with a reciprocating saw. 

The work cured the clunks and rattles entirely and the end result is handling sharper than anything I've ever experienced before. The response to the slightest steering input is immediate and gratifying. Worth it? Yes; the last 110,000 miles was a good innings for the previous bits but replacing them has shown how worn they were. 

Erm, why would you want to do that? The mesh on the front bumpers covers air intakes and is to prevent stone damage and ingress of grot. One of the side vents (passenger side) is an air intake with a big filter behind it and the other side is a hot air exhaust. I don't know what the rear bumper vents are for but very much doubt they are intakes. 

If you are thinking of putting mesh on them for aesthetic reasons then it'll be simply a matter of making as tidy a job as you can of it. However I can't see any practical reason to do so. 

18 hours ago, Paul P said:

 Broken switch.  ?

Sounds like it. 

I take your point about diagnostics but would an old-fashioned multimeter attached to the switch contacts not be a cheaper and easier way to go about things? Admittedly this wouldn't address the problem of a broken wire in the loom, which is an alternative (but unlikely) alternative cause. 

6 hours ago, sa utah said:

Call me e old fashioned but I’d have swapped mine long before the warning lamp comes on.   
get them swapped 

That's not old-fashioned, it just sounds wasteful. Old-fashioned people always seem to be quite careful with their money and I can't imagine any of them throwing brake pads in the bin when they still have quite a lot of wear in them. 

7 hours ago, andygo said:

Pull the wheel off, throw away the sensor in the pad - you will need a new one anyway, and cut the wires a couple of inches 'downstream' from the connector that is attached to the strut. Connect both wires (I solder them) and you will never have the issue again.. You will be able to inspect the pad wear at the same time. You will prolly have 4mm of 10mm or so left.

This is a sensible option if you are the type of person who keeps a close eye on how the car is doing (and I have done the same). However the pad warning is there for a reason; many people simply don't attend to their car that closely and a warning light to tell them that something needs attention is a good idea, so this suggestion is not for everyone. 

6 minutes ago, Stuart21UK said:

I thought about suggesting a meet up with someone who's using Super and testing the 'better performance' theory but it would be unfair if they had PDK, it being faster more efficient etc etc 

I quite agree - that would be most unfair on the person with the PDK-equipped car. 

Perhaps a fairer drag race would be a manual model on normal against an otherwise identical model with PDK on super. 

<LightsBlueTouchpaperAndStandsBack>

😄

On 8/6/2021 at 9:43 PM, ½cwt said:

Thanks Richard. I guess it is just a case of how quickly or how far it gets to find the optimum again once fed with the good stuff after a dose is 95. As I noted the classic Impreza did not get all the way back and it's electronics origins are only about 3 years older than the Boxster.

Interesting info there about the Impreza, although that sounds very primitive to me. Advancing ignition to the point of knock then backing off again is something that has been done by cars equipped with knock sensors (effectively small microphones strapped to the side of the block) for yonks, the usual question is how frequently the ECU makes adjustments - 10's of times a second or 100's of times a second. 

My old 944 does better on the high octane stuff and you can tell the difference when going from low to high octane by the time you're off the petrol station forecourt. I'd be amazed if the 987 models weren't substantially quicker still. 

Fanks RR! 🥰

Yeah, but I'm an idle hound. 

Anyone care to post some links to some of those recent threads? Please don't make me use the search function. Please ..... 

Chaps, 

I am sure this has been asked on here before and I am also sure that it is as contentious a question as the one about oil that comes up ALL THE TIME, but .... 

.... is ti worth forking out the extra on 98 octane fuel for a 987.1 non-S model? 

(I can see both sides of the argument and can definitely assure anyone that cares that paying the extra two bob a litre for 98 in a 944 S2 is worth the extra money as it is more than compensated for by extra MPG and the power and smoothness is a bonus, but that's a different car altogether. 😀 )

Thanks!

Lenny, 

Thanks. That furthers my thoughts that it's never stepped in. I'll find somewhere big and open and slippery and put it to the test! 

Another Q: does the light flicker only when the PSM cuts in or does it also flicker when the ABS is activated? 

Chaps, 

Thanks. Interesting comments. I've come from a 944 with a balanced transaxle layout and a load of mid-range oomph which I became very used to punting around sideways. That had no stability control at all so the whole PSM thing is new to me. I find the 987 a totally different prospect; far less torque, far lower polar moment of inertia and I am aware that if it goes then it will probably spin like a top, so I've been gentle. However I'm getting more confident with it and learning to give it more beans when necessary. 

I've been surprised by the lack of light on the dashboard, hence this thread. And I've not noticed any system cutting in to bring things back in line. It could be that driving with Sport Chrono on backs off the PSM to the point that it's yet to cut in. Maybe I just need to find a big, empty, wet roundabout and do some experimenting. 

Thanks for your help. 

Thanks for the answers. So no flash from the light = PSM not cutting in then. 

I clearly need to drive the thing harder! 😀

This should be an easy one but .... 

Does the PSM light on the dashboard flash when the PSM cuts in? What about the small orange LED on the PSM button? 

The reason I ask is that I do quite enjoy making my Cayman move around on the road but was under the impression that there was some kind of light that showed when the PSM cut in. I have Sport Chrono on my car and generally drive with it turned on which I understand backs off the PSM but doesn't turn it off entirely. I've not seen any indication that the PSM has activated but is this because there is no such a notification or just that I haven't yet done anything to cause it to step in?

On 7/24/2021 at 1:14 PM, Lennym1984 said:

Looks great. Was it hard to do? 

Surprisingly not that hard. Alcantara from Amazon and some carpet glue spray from Screwfix. It does take some time though; each piece took about an hour and that's without accounting for the time taken to remove and replace them. Proper faff, but not that hard. 

Thanks chaps. 

I bought the car for the red interior (OK, a slight exaggeration, but I DIDN'T want a car with a black interior or a black exterior, and certainly not one with both.) The stock all-red extended leather interior was eye-catching but quite a lot of red. I don't have many photos of it 'before' but here are a couple: 

Finally finished putting my interior back in after having reupholstered it with some black alcantara. I'm not a pro and it's not perfect (you can see imperfections if you look closely enough) but I'm pretty happy with the result. The interior was really quite red before and I did the work to cover up the slightly scruffy and worn plastics and to try and break up the redness. I think it's worked OK. 

Thanks for the Square Shares tip. Looks like it's done well but it's tech, and tech is frothy. If you'd sold your 987 three years ago and bought more Square Shares then perhaps you could have bought a GT3 (or perhaps not; if your 987 was worth £8k three years ago (which is a guess) and Square was worth about 61.6 then you'd be up to about £30k now, which wouldn't even get you halfway to the cheapest GT3 on Autotrader).

Alternatively you may have lost quite a lot of the value if the shares hadn't done as well as they have. And by buying a 987 you have had the use of a cracking little sports car for the last three years; you just should have used it more! 

(And 987's have probably appreciated in the last three years, so there's other reasons to be happy as well!) 

This is a bit of a summary of a job that I have now finished and thought that I would write-up for the sake of other forum users; the replacement of the coffin arms and tuning forks on my 987.1 Cayman, as well as ARB drop links and front suspension top mounts. The work will almost certainly be the same for 987.2 cars and Boxsters (and probably for 981's as well). 

My 987 has ticked over 110k miles and the suspension was a bit klunky; it knocked and I had changed a few parts over the last couple of years, but now was time to bite the bullet and fully overhaul the thing. I have always been more into delicacy of handling in my cars rather than outright power so gaining some extra precision appealed. I'll not write the whole job up here as it's not technically that difficult and someone who is able to do it doesn't need to have the detail spelt out. However some things that I wished I knew before I started are as follows; 

- You will need a good collection of 18mm, 19mm, 20mm and 21mm spanners and sockets to do the job. Yes, 21mm. No, I know it's not a common size and you may need to buy some specially if they aren't in your socket set. You will also need some large hammers, pry bars, a Dremel (or similar) and a reciprocating saw with some metal blades. 

- ARB drop links are worth replacing if knocking starts. These are steel pins in an alloy casting and often seize due to electrolytic corrosion. As has been stated on here many times, the best bet to get them out is to cut off the ball joint from the head of the pin with an angle grinder with a thin blade, then apply a 19mm socket to the hex head that remains. Turn this with a long breaker bar (it will be very stiff at first) until it is loose-ish and hit hard on the other end of the pin with a large hammer while twisting it. It will eventually yield and reluctantly come out but it is a fight. If it is really stiff then applying heat helps as does drilling a hole axially along the pin, but make sure that you don't wander with the drill and end up in the alloy casting of the upright. Apply lots of copper grease to the new pin before inserting it. 

- Coffin arms are a pig to get off as the hinge bolt at their base corrodes in the same way as the pin in the ARB drop links (when will Porsche learn that steel fasteners through alloy castings WILL cause problems?) A reciprocating saw is an essential tool; I ended up cutting all four arms to get access to the hinge bolts and then using the reciprocating saw to cut each hinge holt, once at each side of the coffin arm. Access to do this is difficult but not impossible. It is possible to get an angle grinder in for the front coffin arms but not for the rears; the angle grinder cuts more quickly than the reciprocating saw but you need to take care not to cut into the subframe below the coffin arm, which would be bad news. 

- The rear coffin arms are held on with special bolts with eccentric washers that allow adjusting the rear camber. Buy new bolts and replace them - it's not worth the grief of trying to get them out. (Note that you can salvage the eccentric washers and re-use them and save some pennies. Those bolts and washers are indecently expensive to replace). This aside, the rears are a little easier than the fronts as there is better access around the bits that need cutting. 

- If you aren't replacing the rear dampers then you won't need to remove the interior trim around the top of them, but dropping the struts does make access a lot easier. Getting this trim out is far more involved on the Cayman than it should be and there are various YouTube videos about it. Here's one: 

It may be easier on the Boxster. 

- When cutting through the hinge bolts for the front coffin arms then beware of the coolant pipes that run right behind them; your reciprocating saw will quite quickly punch a hole in those pipes (don't ask me how I know this. I patched the hole with some high-modulus sealant, a bit of inner tube rubber and a jubilee clip and am keeping my fingers crossed.) 

- You will need to cut some other nuts off in the process; the nut on the top of the lower ball joint at each corner, most likely. A Dremel is your friend here. Have some good cutting disks to hand as you will need them. 

- Same goes for the top nuts on the front dampers. It is quite possible to cut the top nut off a damper with a Dremel without damaging the damper if you are careful. You will need spring compressors (for obvious reasons). You will need to replace these nuts but your friendly local fasteners merchant will supply them for pennies. 

- You DO need to take the front damper assemblies out as you DO want to remove the top bearings and clean them up. They are supposedly sealed but one of mine had clearly leaked and rusted slightly. I didn't have a spare so cleaned it out as best I could and rubbed down the bearing faces and re-assembled with a lot of grease. When I had finished then it wasn't quite as smooth-running as the one that hadn't leaked but there wasn't much in it. (Interestingly, the components on the near side of the car were noticeably more corroded than those on the off side. I guess it makes sense when you think about it.)

- Controversially I didn't replace the dampers or springs on mine. Springs don't lose much functionality with age and I reckon that tales of them going soft by 100,000 miles are hype. The dampers are a different matter; my 987 has PASM and the price of four new PASM dampers was simply stupid (around £800/corner. Yes, bonkers.) I took my car apart and closely inspected the existing dampers and they seemed OK; they were still very stiff to compress and showed no sign of wear, so I re-used them. How much performance have I lost by doing this? I don't know, but I suspect very little. For reference, the PASM dampers are made by Bilstein and the standard ones are NOT re-buildable (despite what you may read on the internet) as they are single tube models with crimped ends. However Bilstein make excellent quality kit which lasts very well for many thousands of miles so I'm happy to keep the existing ones on my car and over £3000 in my pocket. 

- I hit a major snag with the bolt that holds the front bush on one of the rear tuning forks in place. This runs vertically up just behind the side vent, though the tuning fork bush and into a captive nut deep in the bodywork. The captive nut is held captive with a mild steel clip, which failed on the offside and allowed the nut to turn and thus prevented the bolt from coming out. Access to the bolt head is extremely limited and is in the middle of a nest of air con pipes. If this happens to you then don't panic; you can remove the engine bay cooling fan from above and drop it out downwards, which gives you access to the offending nut and clip. I imagine it's the same on the nearside although you will have to remove the intake box in that case. The fronts probably work in a similar way. However this is a MAJOR headache and best avoided if you can (some release spray on the nut to help it come loose would be a good thing to do. You can access this from underneath but it's a fiddle and you need to be right under the car to do so.) 

- I replaced my arms with the polybushed ones from Spyder Performance. These seemed to be well enough made and were well-priced, although they were notably lighter in design than the original ones (compare how the clip-on air ducts are the front fit for reference.) I had slight reservations about fitting polybushed items to a daily driver but it doesn't seem to have affected NVH much, if at all. 

- You NEED to have an alignment done after the work is complete and I had my car aligned yesterday by Cotswold Porsche, who I notice sponsor this site. They were extremely helpful and very well priced indeed. I met Chris and Lee, both of whom were excellent and whom I would happily recommend. They both seemed to know their Porsches very well, particularly Lee who has had some dalliance in the world of transaxles - as have I! Thanks to the pair of them for their help. 

- For reference, the job took me about 3 days working fairly full-on. I have a garage and air tools but was working on stands as I don't have a pit or a hoist. This isn't a job to be attempted in a rush but wasn't particularly difficult. A lot of the time was spent cutting and grinding things, which is tiresome; if you had a car that came apart easily then you could halve this time pretty readily. 

4 hours ago, Mike1960 said:

Sounds like a good job, done well. Mine is 11years old and I know at some point I will need to do the coolant pipes and possibly suspension.

If anyone in the midlands is planning to do this over the summer and would appreciate a labourer then drop me a line.

I wouldn’t be able to offer much advise, but can handle spanners, and be a second pair of hands if it would help.

I find online tutorials invaluable, but to watch something being done is priceless when it comes to being able to then do it yourself.

Hope I don’t regret this offer later. Have overalls and own transport?

That's a kind offer. FWIW I'm in Cheltenham and will be having a bash at the suspension on mine later on this week. You're more than welcome to come along for a giggle and a lesson in how not to do it. (If you have a reciprocating saw then please bring it along!)

15 minutes ago, Sword said:

now for the next journey up the back end 😉

 

 

Did you REALLY just type that?!

Yes, welcome to the rabbit hole. It's the same with any older car that costs a lot in maintenance; people put it off either through ignorance (gradual deterioration means it won't really be noticeable when driving) or fear of the cost. I have a box of Spyder Performance coffin arms and tuning forks that I'm going to start to fit to mine later on this week (what is it about the coffin arms that seizes?) and have done the drop links and crossover pipes in the last 18 months or so. 

The good news is that the car will be brilliant once all that is done (and you've completed the journey up the back end, of course 😀) Just make sure that you keep her for a lot of years to come so you get the benefit of it all. 

On 6/30/2021 at 8:15 AM, petemac said:

Any good garage should be able to do this it's not that difficult for them to do as long as they have the kit to press the old one out ask them first when you get in touch with one.

Exactly this. Wheel bearings are not specialist and it's not worth paying specialist prices to have them changed. 

(An aside: driving on a noisy wheel bearing is unlikely to be a problem. Unless the bearing entirely collapses then you won't do any further damage to anything other than the old bearing, which is being replaced.)