IroningMan

Passed MOT, no advisories. Required a retest, though, as the N/S/F indicator bulb decided that the test was the perfect opportunity to throw in the towel.

3 hours ago, ½cwt said:

Yes, but an uncared for older 986...?

Depends if you want to come back…

987.2S PDK feels like pretty good value as a toy car - as much performance as I'm likely to want to use, open top, more than four cylinders and not stupid money - it's quite capable enough to be our last ICE toy and I certainly won't have a problem it that's how things work out.

To really substantially better the Boxster on planet Porsche would take a 991C2S Cab, and they're over £55k - if I had that kind of money I'd rather replace our ageing 5 series diesel with a Taycan ST and keep the Boxster.

My 987.2 has halogens. I didn’t get as far as asking Richard, but I couldn’t find anything online that suggested there was any way to use the LED sidelights as DRLs (i.e. having the front sidelights on without also dimming the instruments and switching the PCM to night mode) so I did the ‘Fog Light as DRL’ hack on mine - there’s a how to thread on here somewhere - with low output LED bulbs fitted to the fog lights. Easy to do, cheap, works well and seemed like a good compromise.

You could well be right. I’ll get round to looking at that eventually.

Minor upgrade performed:

I wasn’t entirely sure the black rim would work visually with the blue airbag, but now it’s in I think it’s alright. Wheel feels nice, paddles work, but ‘SPORT PLUS’ & ‘LAUNCH CONTROL’ lights don’t - it’s a 2009 car, so maybe isn’t wired for them.

11 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

His 'My Ride' might give you a clue... 😉

Yes, sorry, 987.2 and PCM 3.0.

(Sunday) Having had a hire car with CarPlay in the states for a couple of weeks I took a deep breath and fitted Mr12Volt CarPlay interface to the Boxster - and it works absolutely brilliantly.

All as per the installation video on the Mr12Volt site, except the 9x7 PCM needs to have its screen/faceplate assembly removed in order to open up the unit, unlike the Macan (Cayenne?) example in the vid. Not at all easy to get the harness and connecting plug to sit in a place that would enable the PCM to sit fully home in the dash, but got there eventually. Mr12Volt box fits neatly on top of the knee pad trim to the left of the steering column, secured with a couple of sticky pads.

I’m not interested in making/taking calls, so haven’t bothered with the microphone, but the rest is golden: Spotify sound quality is so much better than using the AUX lead and when I get in the phone connects to the PCM in the time it takes to start the car.

For my next trick I’ve ordered a wireless reversing camera to go with it.

14 hours ago, ½cwt said:

Ideally refuse to insure him in future.

Only useful if it stops him driving…

8 hours ago, fewtrees said:

I use polytrol oil and a small brush to apply around the wipers and cloth for the rest of it, so you don’t need to take the trim out but I guess that’s cheating 🙄

 

That’s what I’ll do if one more go won’t shift the wiper arms - I don’t have any other reason to remove them.

2 hours ago, ½cwt said:

Have you soaked the spline in penetrating oil?

No, I didn’t do that. I’ll see if we’ve got some somewhere.

19 minutes ago, BBB said:

These are very useful for the wiper arms @IroningMan

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AllRight-Battery-Terminal-Puller-Remover/

 

Unfortunately that’s what I was using - albeit it was more expensive and came in a Facom box. Maybe I just need to try a bit harder!

Tried and failed to get the wiper arms off so I can remove the trim at the base of the screen and make it black again. Will just have to wait until I can get the car under cover and do it in situ.

in the process I found a random plastic part floating around under the trim; it’s number 25 in this diagram, but I can’t figure out where/how it should be attached and I guess the last person who changed the cabin filter couldn’t either.

1 hour ago, JonSta said:

I've never got 36 mpg. Even when I really tried. Might be time for plugs and points. And maybe a new distributor cap.

98RON + PDK + Cruise Control + it’s France, so virtually deserted autoroutes and literally hundreds of kms at a stretch without speeding up or slowing down. Hard, if not impossible, to do a similar trip in the UK.

N.B. You might also consider replacing the coil and cleaning the jets in the carbs.

14 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

Now that's why you need the RTS... but is there one for the 987? 🤔

Not that I know of, but some cargoes are too precious to go on the roof.

The real challenge, of course, will be fitting in three cases of beer for the trip back…

3 hours ago, Cocky said:

I managed to get my street trials bike in the 986 previously but don't think I have any photos. It was 24" so I left the rear wheel on but dropped the left crank arm off. Roof up I just had to loosen the stem. 

I managed for a Scotland trip to get it into the boot & frunk without anything in the front of the car to try avoid anyone pinching it. Although it was a bit of a ball ache. 

 

Fair play to you for getting that in!  

 

I think the frame would have gone in the boot if I pulled the forks, but that was more dismantling than I wanted to do. 

3 hours ago, phazed said:

I am more impressed by the mpg!

Me too - and there was an hour of nose-to-tail crawl through Paris involved. 

In the Pyrenees for three weeks; I’m generally pretty good at travelling light, so I’ve just brought the essentials:

Not quite 1,500km to get down here from Somerset, in a single hit with two stops for fuel - and not a word of complaint from the passenger’s seat the whole way.

36mpg with cruise at 75mph, which seems ok, too.

I dislike threads about problems that don’t ever get updated with the solution - and in this case the OPC in question corrected the duff coding when I was able to get the car back to them two weeks later.

The updated Nav successfully delivered me to the (very) South of France the next day, although I did get sunburned stuck in the traffic on the Peripherique.

Cheers all - @Araf: that explanation makes sense to me, certainly. I've called the OPC and should hear back from them later this afternoon. The bill for the update was £380.

Hi all; yesterday I had an OPC update my PCM 3.0 maps and software to the latest available version - so full postcodes etc. and also had cruise coded-in having retro-fitted the hardware myself.

I now appear to have lost some functionality, in the the onboard computer centre display - in the rev counter - no longer shows me 'NAVI' or 'AUDIO'. The 'SET' menu just gives me:

RESET

UNITS

DISPLAY

BASIC SETTING

LANGAUGE

CLOCK

LIGHT

in turn the 'DISPLAY' menu gives just one option: 'Centr. displ.' which then provides two more:

Remain. range

Empty

No sign anywhere that I can see of anything that would enable 'NAVI' or 'AUDIO'. Is this all normal, or has something been lost in the update? OPC is a couple of hours away, so it's not practical to just pop back in.

9 hours ago, Patt said:

I run 5mm spacers all round as that's what Porsche use on their limited edition models.

I bought from https://freakyparts.co.uk/collections/porsche-boxster-987-wheel-spacers

I've just changed over to wheel studs, so have a full set of OEM longer bolts in black available. Carriage would cost due to their weight - I'm in Bracknell if it helps you any ?

Thanks and that’s very kind - I think I’m going to stick with silver bolts, though.

5mm makes sense, and I did spot the OEM ones: also quite like the DesignTek ones with the three prongs. 

Yesterday. Established that my screen wash leak is from the pump body; new one ordered. Also established that the wheel bolts are tired, with the collars beginning to break up.

I suppose if I’m going to fork out for a fresh set it would be sensible to consider longer ones and spacers - is there a consensus on spacer size for a 987.2S with the standard 18” rims?

Hacked the fog light DRL hack and fitted some low power (750 lumen) H8 LEDs in the fog lights. Works a treat and I managed to get it right with the first diode I tried - go me.

Discovered that I have a screenwash leak. Filled it up last Sunday and it’s almost empty again today. Presumably investigating this is a wheel off, arch liner out job?