½cwt

Folks, this could be all the more important with the expansion of the London ULEZ.

Straight swap mechanically, and I'm pretty sure for electrics too. A number of people have done the swap.

The M8 x 28 E12 Torx bolts to the floor are 65Nm and seat belt bottom anchor is 50Nm. Data from Porsche workshop manuals dating from 2001 and 2005.

Not quickly enough to hlep @CAZ though. Jam tomorrow may be? Even though the vaunted RDT system on the same link that they've had for 20 years couldn't help a Boxster with a water leak apparently and that should only need 2 wheels lifted to recover it!

I guess all the players want to chip their premiums down to be competitive. I've used the AA for a very long time (since '87) for me and added The Better ½ when we met and married. Any vehicle either of us is even travelling in (let alone owned by us) is covered as it is personal not vehicle based membership. Is it cheap, no. But as per @CAZ's recent experience there is a reason they also review as one of the best with Which? each year. There are another set of useful benefits, 10% off at Halfords, 20% off Greene King related restaurants (handy when taking the younger generations out or touring on holidays) and several other member benefits too which can quickly recoup the extra membership costs. I've recently upgraded my Nationwide current account to get Worldwide family travel insurance, UK & Europe breakdown cover (from the AA), worldwide mobile phone cover for £13 per month, but will still keep my personal higher spec'd UK AA membership running. Much the same as car accident insurance you only find out whether shaving a few quid off was really worth it and you get to find out where those few quid were saved by the provider, eh @CAZ? Are they fallible and I'm sure a few can post AA horror stories too prove a point, however I've not been let down by them yet, but then Linda or I have only been stuck at the roadside 5 times (2 accidents with vehicle undrivable - one was with Linda as a passenger in someone else's car - and 3 breakdowns, electrical, but not a failed battery, and all roadside fixes) in 35 years and each time the service has been satisfactory with the required solution.

If you only want the rear in the air I find the best place to jack, as long as you have a rubber puck, is accessing from under the rear bumper/exhaust to under the rear subframe where the diagonal ali braces bolt to it (Figure 2 in the Pelican link above), then place the stands under the rear jacking points . Depending on the lift of your jack you may need to do one side, then the other, if this, then make sure you check the side on the stand both going up and down when you are lifting the opposite side. Chock the front wheels too!!! Also bear in mind I have a nice flat drive.

Clean Air or Ultra Low Emission zones have recently been introduced in the UK. The largest is London' Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) which encompasses all road inside the North Circular (A406) and South Circular (A205) and in addition Clean Air Zones (CAZ) are now running in Birmingham, Portsmouth and Bath with future zones planned for Bristol, Oxford, Liverpool. Manchester, Bradford, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Glasgow and Edinburgh. LONDON (the easy one) This zone is set and administered by Transport for London (TfL) and non-compliant vehicles are subject to £12-50 per day charge. A complaint vehicle is as follows - Petrol EURO 4 (NOx only) compliant or diesel, EURO6 compliant. The 986 was built and sold before EURO 4 was an official standard and to further complicate things in the late 90's and early 00's not all first registration documentation had the emissions section completed. However the 986 (2.5, 2.7 and 3.2) versions is actually compliant in nitrogen oxide emissions to comply with EURO 4 but the documents do not show this to get compliance by default on the TfL database. What you need to do: Contact Porsche Cars Great Britain on 03457 911911 option 4 and ask them for a Certificate of Conformity (CoC) and they will email you application form. Complete this along with a copy of your V5C and they will apply to Porsche in Stuttgart for a duplicate for the certificate for your specific car based on the VIN, this service is free. They say allow 28 days, but mine came in about 2 weeks. Now contact TfL via the 'Make an enquiry' button on this web page: Contact ULEZ - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk) From this you will get an enquiry number and an initial enquiry letter response linked to your vehicle on an email. Reply to this email using the enquiry number an attach your CoC and V5C scans and in the text draw their attention to section 46.1 of your CoC that shows the NOx level is below the EURO 4 level. In about 2 or 3 days you'll get a reply hopefully stating you vehicle will be added to the database but it can take a few days. I checked mine after they confirmed it was compliant and it was there, I checked about 3 weeks later and it had gone so contacted them again (same email trail) and it is now there every time I check. Each time they replied under 3 working days and once it was same day. Clean Air Zones The CAZ are administered by a section of DVLA so is accessed via the gov.uk website here Enter the vehicle registration (number plate) (drive-clean-air-zone.service.gov.uk) Run your car through the system and if it is non compliant you need to contact them via GOV.UK - Clean Air Zone Support (dvla.gov.uk) . This is the bit that takes time as their responses are well outside teh 15 days they claim tog et back to you in. Explain you have a vehicle (give the reg and VIN) that has NOx emissions that are below teh EURO 4 NOx level but that is older then teh EURO 4 standard. Where you can upload a document, add your CoC and in the text of the query also note section 46.1 as giving a compliant figure. Hopefully in about 3 - 4wweks they will come back and say you are registered as compliant, but as ever, check! The CAZ application for mine took about 14 weeks as I didn't know what they needed as they never said it was NOx only that counted which London clearly and helpfully does so there was a bit of back and forth which took time with the slow replies. Hopefully is you follow teh above it might only take 3 to 4 weeks or up to 8 if you ahve to go back to them. Emissions Data on V5C (when they are blank) This bit I have yet to do as I want to keep hold of my V5C for the moment as I have a couple of trips to Europe planned this summer, however according to the DVAL information on the gov.uk website if you need to change any part of a V5C that is not covered by the standard tear off or online sections, you should hand write the information in the appropriate place on the V5C and along with it any supporting documentation (CoC in this case) and send it to them for review and hopefully issue of an updated document. I'll report back in due course....

The ignition switch can fail in two general ways, either dodgy electrical thing happening, or you ignition key starts to get stuck when you try to take the key out. Most videos and how to guides on this are for LHD cars, however in the RHD cars where the ignition, key barrel and steering log assembly is effectively inverted the access is different and is in fact harder to do from underneath the dash as is show for LHD cars. The ignition switch up to model year 2003 is a VAG part 4A0 905 849B and for 2004 is 4B0 905 849 which are listed as these numbers in the Porsche parts catalogue. For my fix I sourced an aftermarket item for about £38 form ECP as they had one and it was urgent. They can be had from about £15 upwards. Tools required - Torx T15 driver, PH2/crosshead screw driver, flat blade screwdriver, small 3mm tip flat blade screw driver like a spectacle marker's screwdriver or small electrical screwdriver. For a RHD car the switch can be access easily through the top of the dash by removing the driver's side air vent section and a section of the vent ducting. First put teh vent into the closed position, this stops the mechanism that controls the flap in the vent fouling on the dash as you remove and re-fit it. The duct section of dash is held in by three screws (Torx T15), one in the recess of the headlamp switch and two down the door shut by the A pillar and fix to the pink captive nuts in the picture. Remove the two in the A pillar then the headlamp switch removes by pulling, (mine did not have this screw in place which was good as I found pulling the switch out damned difficult, so I left it in place in the vent section. Once this vent section is removed, using a cross head screwdriver remover the section of ducting that the vent attaches to (blue arrow), the section across the bottom of the dash will probably fall out too when you do this. From here you can see the two retaining screws (red arrows) for the switch which will have some red paint or thread lock on them as shows better below. This is where accessing from above works for RHD, not going underneath as in LHD, although you will be working by touch and feel to line up the screw driver blade in the slot of the grub screw. Remove the large round pink loom plug on the back of the switch, you can reach under the dash to access this whilst looking down from above, it takes a bit of waggling to start but eventually comes easily once it starts moving. Loosen the two grub screws once the loom is unplugged, don't take them out fully unless you fancy spending more time getting them threaded back in... then slide the switch assembly out of the metal casting. Once removed, take a note that the two ribs on the sides of the switch, these slot into place between two pairs of lugs that the grub screws are in. Using a flat blade screw driver make sure the new switch is turned the the 0 position, fully anti-clockwise when looking at the slot in the top of the switch. Connect the loom to the new switch, it is much easier to align correctly before refitting the switch (I know I tried the other way first and had to take the switch out again), then offer the switch and loom back into place ensuring the two plastic lugs slot between the two pairs of metal lugs. Tighten up the two grub screws. Test that the new switch starts the car and ejects the key correctly when you take it out. Replace the horizontal ducting and screw the duct that feeds the back of the vent back into place. Re-fit the vent section into the dash taking care to ensure the screws line up correctly with the pink captive nuts (these can move when removing or refitting the vent section). Job Done. If the key still does not eject properly when you switch off, your next move is a replacement key barrel/steering lock assembly 996 347 017 07 which is an up issue used from 2004 onwards but is backward compatible on all Boxsters. Frustratingly this also come with an ignition switch but at £250 or so is 10 times the possible basic fix parts cost....

Just looked at cover for a trip to Zone 1 (France in this case) and with AA membership 10% discount works out at £101 for 8 days for a 22 year old 986. A shorter 4 day trip to Zone 1 (France, Belgium and Netherlands in this case) an was £62. I need to call them to get the Gold benefit applied to those prices.

On a serious note, if you are a Gold AA member (over 5 years??) you get 2 day's Euro cover free on policies up to 3 times in a year. Silver members get 1 day free. That said it isn't the cheapest cover but as reported above when you need it, that's when it needs to be good like all insurance.

And if you try it they'll hang you out to dry. (If you get convicted of any financial related crime/proceeds of crime and Nationwide will expel you as a member and close down all your accounts, so not kidding!)

The heat in LEDs is created in the electronics driving them so many come with an additional heatsink on the back as shown in the link Ash has provided. In halogens all the heat is in the filament which is glowing white hot and is then reflected and focussed on to the front lens causing the heat damage!

@Araf move to How To section??

@Araf ??

Mine dropped in perfectly on my 986 at the weekend. To confirm you cannot get the brace past the ARB on a 986 without undoing the ARB mounts. Nicely made product Mick. 👍

Like the 'Bally Brace' name 👍 Torque to 65Nm or 48 lbft if you use the same torque as the original stud in this position. Nice write up, hoping to fit mine tomorrow and I ahve done all new suspension in the last 9 months. @Araf any way to modify this thread into a How To and copy it to that section of the forum?

The iCarsoft POR v1.0 and V2.0 will NOT do a handover or 'wake up' modules. As someone mentioned it above, the service reset does just that but asked whether miles or KM which I guess just takes out rounding errors between the metric and imperial unit of measure systems. I've just done one for the first time for some one on a 987.

@Araf, @Menoporsche should this be put in How To???

👍👍 Book marked! Welcome, good entrance! Add your location to your profile it will help other offer relevant help.

I have the v1 of this as after correspondence with the company I didn't feel the need to pay the extra for tools that are not required on earlier cars like electric hand brake back off. It is a passive device that can rest and is therefore very helpful for a DIY mechanic, it CANNOT do programming/coding like cruise control or a handover. For more in depth work you with need a higher level tools such as Durametric, PWIS etc. I have used it to rest ABS after changing a sensor and reset engine fault codes after a MAF sensor failure and change. If you have 986/996 or 987/987 then v1 at just under £100 is a very useful tool to have and will cover the read and reset functions for those models as well as give live data if you want it. Mine has already saved me that in fault code reads. It will work as a general OBD2 reader for compliant Makes and models for engine related codes only though. Per the offer above from @TV8 I am willing to help people in around South Mids.