andy340r

12 minutes ago, red rocket said:

With heart in mouth cracked on with attempt to remove seized coffin arm bolt. Decided hacksaw was not sufficient so, having ordered some Bosch blades per recommendation on here, set to with reciprocal saw. Put a piece of metal behind the arm to protect pipes and took it very carefully, so as not to risk damaging the subframe. And hey presto: 

Have to say it was alot less difficult or 'dangerous' than i had feared. I was aware of the 'lip' behind the arm but don't think i got close to it. Taking off the drop link on the other side allowed me to move the arb out of the way, which meant i could easily get the saw in position and, by moving the arm to different positions i could cut at various angles till the bolt/bush sheared. No worries now if the passenger side arm is similarly seized. 

Next, took the old damper/spring/ top mount apart so i can re-use a couple of washers amd prepped the new set up.

And, finally for today, cleaned up the hub carrier and brake disc backing plate with some Raceglaze Alubrite, wire wool and wire brushes.

Anyone know whether the sensor cable shown can be removed, to allow cleaning of that area, without being a pig to reconnect to whatever's on the other side?

May give the backing plate a coat of Hammerite Silver but i'm not overkeen on the colour which is very bright compared to standard aluminium. Anyone got any other suggestions?

Heart in mouth ... but good job!

The sensor cable should just be the speed sensor so it should just be a hole through so that it can "read" the speed of the rotating hub.  

If I remember correctly the ARB bar can come out with a bit of a wiggle without removing the bracing.  If the drop links are old then the bolts might be stuck in the hub ... also the hex insert in the ARB bolt end may also be rounded.  Before you take lots of stuff apart see if this is going to be a problem.

1 minute ago, ½cwt said:

Oh so true! The shame is that you free them all up to do a once in 5+ years job and they'll be corroded again in 5+ years time!

Yep ... still have nightmares about the drop link hub bolts on my old Boxster 

The roads around here have really deteriorated during lockdown ... had to organise someone to come a fix my Cayman screen after stone damage ☹️

Replaced an inner CV boot over the weekend, the job was much easier given the fact that I fitted Koni Special Active dampers recently so I knew everything would come apart.  Jobs are so much easier when there are no corroded bolts to deal with.

On 5/2/2021 at 1:04 PM, ½cwt said:

I now have a 100,000 miles 3.2 Boxster! Took a bit of planning.

 

@Davey P, that's how you do it! 😉

😃 Nice, I managed to get an old Mk1 Fiesta when it turned over to 00000 back in the day 

I just did an estimate on Motorway for my 2001 986 S.   They obviously have no idea of the history and condition and therefore have substantially under-estimated the value.  I would say if yours is in good condition with a good history and with lots of maintenance carried out then private will be the only way to achieve a value close to its worth.  

I have no record of the water pump being changed and I wanted to replace the thermostat with a low temp version, so while I was in there I decided that I may as well swap out the engine mount.  There were no particular signs but it just show s that these should be replaced every so often

Original on the left is certainly starting to break apart after 97K miles.  There were some vibrations on idle that you could feel through the car and steering wheel, nothing too extreme just a feint tremor ... now those are gone.  

3 hours ago, edc said:

You might as well do the throttle body relearn adaptation too at the same time. 

I was looking for that procedure earlier ... as I was searching MAF reset I couldn't find it.  Much quicker to find things if you know the correct expression.  Thanks!

Certainly is.  Just need to go for a decent run for the ECU to adjust and that will be another ticked off the to-do list

I have been thinking for some time that the car wasn't as urgent as it should be and the idle was a little lumpy ... I took out the MAF to clean it and noticed that it was the old style 124.00 version.  This didn't seem right to me as my car is a MY02 and everywhere suggested that I should be using the 125.0x version.   So took a chance and bought the newer version, just installed it ... went for a quick run and the urgency and throttle response has improved and the idle is a lot smoother.  

20 hours ago, Burt986S said:

After collecting the car 2/12 finally got round to going through the reams of paperwork that came with the car

Found this letter which is really nice to have. Original owner was a Doctor from Dorset!

Also decided at the weekend that I couldn't leave the car out in the rain so took the big decision to sell the Alfa so that the Boxster can go undercover!

I've said it before but this could be a keeper!

[

 

 

You do forget that they were certainly a lot of money new ... and the options really do start to add up!

20 minutes ago, Clivescoobydo said:

That looks lovely....what colour is she?

It is just plain old Guards Red.  I see you have Lapiz Blue, that's a great colour as well.  

Fitted newly refurbished wheels and new tyres ... 

Very much a classic look.

I had both my wheel sets Road Force balanced and it has completely resolved the vibration issues.  It's like driving a brand new car now!  Well worth the additional expense and the time taken to get to my nearest specialist.  

Hand made and clear varnished; not be me (although I would love to have a lathe a give it a go) bought from Stuttgart Classica.

During this lock down ... I have been messing about with the gear change.  I had fitted a short shift but I didn't get on with it.  So that came out and the 987 shifter mechanism went back in.  It was still not self-centring very well so I took the gearbox end connectors off, gave them a good clean, removed the slight rust and put some copaslip on.  This has improved things a lot.

 Also I really didn't like the standard shifter so 

Not to everyone's taste but it feels a lot better in the hand and it shortens the throw.

1 hour ago, kevs said:

MOT passed. Advisory for poor wipers which I knew already but haven’t yet changed as I never really use it in the rain.  

Always good to get the pass - your wipers must be really bad if that was an advisory.  If they turn on and move across the screen is usually enough for most MOT places.

3 hours ago, ½cwt said:

Buckled rim???

Yes it could be or the tyres may be the culprit as the PO didn't use it much over several years.  I've used a brake run-out gauge but the wheels (SportDesign two piece) seem to be all over the place so it is more likely that there are small imperfections to the paint finish which are affecting the readings or (more likely) operator error.  I may just bite the bullet and get another set with some new tyres then send the originals off for a strip and dip.

I've been trying to get to the bottom of steering wheel / car vibrations above 60mph ... after several unsuccessful wheel balancing I decided to swap the Cayman wheels over on to the Boxster,

looks a little over-wheeled with 19" turbos ... but it had the desired affect of proving the wheels / tyres are the culprit as all calm with these and the vibrations had moved onto the Cayman.  

On 11/8/2020 at 6:25 PM, ½cwt said:

Final Score - ½cwt 1, Suspension Project 0  It was a drawn out battle at times but we just dig in a chipped away at the opposition and finally eked out the victory.

All new parts now installed, torqued up and road tested.  Handbrake is now on one click.  No unwelcome knocks, graunching, scraping or other signs of an error, in fact the ride is near silent and all old squeaks, rattles vibration at speed and knocks are gone.  It is however in desperate need of a geo set up, definitely drifting right on a dual carriageway hands off when the camber or the road should take you left. I'm going to have to recalibrate my seat of the pants speedo or I'll be in 2 figures before I know it.  The ride for the Koni Special Active dampers is definitely different even detectable on a short test driver.  Smooth over high frequency small amplitude road imperfections but a bit stiffer on bigger deflections.  Hey ho, whether I like it or not I'm stuck with it now.  At the start I said (after Churchill) I have nothing to give but my blood toil sweat and tears.  Please to say it only required the toil and the sweat, not even one stripped knuckle which is very rare for me, I might be getting a bit better that this mechanicing lark.

A summary of new parts fitted:

4 Koni Special Active Dampers

4 coffin arms (Spyder performance)

4 bump stops (after market)

4 ARB drop links (after market)

2 front top mounts (Sachs - OE)

2 front tuning forks - found one was bent (Spyder Performance)

2 new front springs - one was broken (Porsche)

2 rear toe links (Spyder Performance)

4 eccentric (camber) bolts on rear (Porsche)

1 track rod (TRW - OE)

So the only original parts left in the suspension are the front top bearings (stripped, cleaned and re-greased), the rear top mounts and the rear tuning forks.

Tools purchased - Makita Impact wrench (£123), Hot Rod Magnetic Induction Heater (£169), Erbauer reciprocating saw (£49), Bosch sabre saw blades (2 @ £13 each), wide mouth pickle fork ball joint splitter (£5.99)

Thanks to all who shared information @Halfordwill @Lennym1984 @bally4563 @iborguk to name a few, @Freddie for the new crested wheel centre and those that encouraged @John2000 @the baron apologies to anyone I've missed.

Oh, and the final pictures as with out those it didn't happen as we all know.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking good ... there's nothing quite like shiny new suspension parts .  Those arches are very clean as well which reminds me I must do mine during lockdown.

12 hours ago, ½cwt said:

These are notorious.  Just done the front suspension on my 986 and one too a magnetic induction coil (£170) to get heat into the rod (after cutting off the ball joint so you have the hex to work with with a breaker bar and impact wrench) so that it broke down the corrosion enough to turn it.  Once out and the hole was cleaned out of residue, the new ones have gone in with lots of assembly paste!

To give you an idea when I got the strut off the car I wedged it against a concrete step and even an 14lb sledge swung pretty vigorously had no effect.  I left the nut on to protect the tread and give a bigger target.

I've got the rears to do next weekend...

I was thinking of trying an induction coil as it is much more localised heat.  Which one did you get?

While I do enjoy taking things apart, I think I'm going to leave them until they really need to come out.  Once you start cutting there's no going back.

1 minute ago, Tony Daniel said:

You were so very lucky, they don't often come apart then its drop the front sub-frame time.

At least that's one thing that was easy then.  I've still not managed to get the drop links out!  I replaced the front and rear tuning forks and tried to get the links out so that I could coppaslip them.  Not budging.  The nuts came off but the buggers are corroded in to the hubs.  Impact gun, breaker bar, hammer.  Nothing.  Not looking forward to needing to get them out in the future.

11 minutes ago, Def1 said:

Mine aren’t leaking yet but it’s only a matter of time . Was it hard to do with our dripping subframe ?? 

Surprising easy to do just those front pipes.  I jacked up the front of the car so that I didn't drain too much of the coolant.  Take out the wheel arch liner and the bumper support and then you can get to both ends of the pipe.  There are clips which hold the pipe in place.  I released the radiator end first and let the coolant drain into a bucket.  The cross-over pipe end put up a bit of a fight as it was rusted in but it came away.  I used fresh Porsche coolant to replenish the system and ran through the bled procedure set out in the 101 Projects book.  Took a couple of hours including bleeding the system.

I wondered why my coolant alarm suddenly went off the other day

Front lower left coolant pipe.  Always seems to be first to go.  All the others looked fine so just replaced that one £30 plus some coolant rather than the OPC method of lowering the front subframe and replacing all the front pipes.  

I also just got through fitting Koni Special Active dampers.  Thankfully the suspension had been apart recently and there was liberal coppaslip on all bolts and mating faces. 

That completes the suspension refresh for me.   I've got a few shiny and a few go faster bits waiting to be added.