Fizzy Duck

21 hours ago, Simebaby said:

I've seen I can get the 111 point check done after I've had it 90 days, then get a Porsche warranty - anyone done that? I do like the peace of mind it would give over something going wrong with the PDK.

I’ve just done exactly that. 
 

8 year service and 3 year warranty was £3200 with 25% discount on the service. 

Fluid change has helped but I haven’t yet had the chance to test properly. 
 

On the road the pedal feels firmer under load. Will update once I get the chance to do a higher speed run 🙂

Philip raby didn’t spot anything out the ordinary and it passed the 111 check

Spoke to Philip Raby today about it. They’re going to take it out on Monday, do a few high speed stops and then check the brakes with an IR camera to see if there’s anything dodgy going on. 
 

Tuesday it’s going in for a brake fluid change anyway. 

35 minutes ago, ATM said:

Another possibility is the pads are just cheap rubbish, discs too. Do you know when they were last changed and by who?

Can’t remember when, off the top of my head, but everything has been done by Porsche. 
 

The car wasn’t driven on track, was just a high speed run. 
 

To the best of my knowledge, the car hasn’t ever been tracked before. 
 

I’ll report back any findings I have 🙂

Thanks both for your input, very much appreciated

Its going in to Philip Raby on Monday - I’ll take a look at the brakes and have a chat with them about it. 

Hi all

Recently had the opportunity to do some higher speeds in my Boxster than you can legally on the road, and noticed that when braking, the pedal is going soft very quickly.

After a single brake from 120 I had no braking performance until they had cooled (15-30 seconds). 
 

This is when braking from 120 MPH firmly, but certainly not an emergency stop. 

At the time of braking, there was a metallic squealing sound coming from (seemingly) front left. Stopped when stopped braking. Front left squeals when braking softly as well from any speed. 
 

Braking from 70 seems fine. Pads and discs aren’t old and aren’t near replacement. Brake fluid due soon (next week). 
 

Wondering if anyone has any pointers as to what it could be? I.e. any common issues on the 981 which could cause these symptoms?

Thanks in advance 🙂

13 hours ago, andygo said:

I thought if you had a current OPC warranty and the last service was carried out by an OPC you could just renew without paying for the 111 point check?

I don't have a warranty on the car at the moment 🙂

But yes, you're correct. If there is a warranty, you're able to renew without a 111 check, but only if the most recent service, and last major service, was carried out by an OPC.

E.g. if you'd had the major 8 done by an indie, but then the next 10 year done by Porsche, they'd still want to do the 8 year as well before warrantying it. I specifically asked about this with Porsche at all the garages I got quotes from.

I posted this over on PCGB, but may be useful here too:

Quote

 

Hi all,

I've been getting some quotes together for OPC 8 year major service on my 981 Boxster S and thought I'd post the results here for others to see.

Mid Sussex: 1450
Guildford/Reading: 1650
Portsmouth: 1300
Bournemouth: 1370

The above is excluding PCGB discounts (which aren't accepted at Guildford/Reading), for the following work:

8 Year Service (1 x SEALING RING, 1 x TOPUP/BAG, 1 x AIR FILTER AIR SUCTION, 1 x WINDOW CLEANER OUTER, 7.5 x ENGINE OIL, 1 x Odour and allergen filter, 1 x Oil filter insert, 1 x seal ring)
Brake fluid change
Spark Plugs
Check ancillary mounts and chassis inspection

111 check was coming up between £150 and £330.

 

On 12/17/2023 at 2:22 PM, andy_l said:

Sold it 

Hope you have as much fun with it as we did Cameron

Thanks 🙂

Im nearly at 30k already 

PASM is really quite great, but not necessary. Especially on 19s. 
 

PSE is very aggressive sounding, with lots of pops/crackles. I wouldn’t say it’s necessary, even though it does sound nice. 
 

I think sport chrono is excellent. The PADMs work wonders in Sport Plus and make the car feel notably more aggressive when pushing on hard. But not necessary. 
 

Leather sport seats plus I would say is a required option. They are great. 
 

Extended leather is nice but can live without it. 
 

PDLS is phenomenal this time of year - you can drive the car much harder as it gets dark, as the lights are always pointing where you’re looking. Must have for me. 
 

Bose is a must have for me. It’s decent enough.

Auto dimming mirrors would be a must for me. The car is quite low and I frequently find myself being blinded by others - never had this issue before. But if you don’t find this a problem on yours I wouldn’t bother. 
 

I’ve always been team manual. My other car is a 135i manual and it’s great. But the 981 will do crazy speeds in 2nd, so I’m not convinced I’d have ever made use of it. PDK is blooming great in manual mode with paddles. Hence sports design wheel is a must. 

 

Not sure I could live without reversing camera - the visibility isn’t great when reversing  

My two cents after a week of new ownership. 

12 minutes ago, alank said:

cant you tell by the lights moving turning on and when steering . Mine  do a little dance before settling down. Perhaps it has them but they are not working.?

It’s not my car, and I haven’t driven it yet

But as an update - it looks like the VIN given to me is incorrect. It just happens to have the exact same spec, bar PDLS and colour (which only shows as colour code on the spec report I have, so I didn’t easily spot it)
 

I’ve asked the owner to send over the updated on and will see what comes back for it 🙂 

Porsche have been great at helping me get to the bottom of this. 

1 hour ago, daz05 said:

Even the basic xenon's have a leveling function it's integral to the unit rather than the sensors the pasm system uses on the suspension arms.

A chap on here showed me that the regular xenon's on the 981 has an electro magnet which pulls the shield at the front up and down as the suspension moves.

Since upgrading mine and the bulbs to Osram they are really good far better than the ones on my Golf R with the pdls equivalent.

Ah interesting, I thought it was a manual levelling system, since I think with a PDLS retrofit you need the sensors on the rear suspension? Or is that only if you're coming from halogen?

1 minute ago, daz05 said:

 

This thread is not a source to confirm it was not fitted, we can clearly see that it is fitted 'now', washers, gloss black inners and you confirmed the presence of the button. At this point do you care? It has xenon's.

I do, as it's important for me to understand with complete certainty that it has PDLS, not "it had PDLS headlights fitted" - the system needs to actually function.

Bright headlights are irrelevant if they don't have auto levelling. The difference when driving is unbelievable.

My current car has the equivalent of PDLS+ with auto high beam, cornering lights and speed-based levelling. My previous car was an S5 with Matrix LED lights. What I'm getting at is lighting is a REALLY important factor for me on a car

This thread has helped me deduce that it probably has PDLS - this is a great help because at the start I would have written it off as just a bumper replacement. So while it isn't a source to confirm, it has given me a LOT of knowledge I didn't previously possess 😁 Which of course is the entire value of a forum! 😃

1 minute ago, daz05 said:

Retrofitting pdls is a big job and probably best part of £3-4k of parts and labour, new headlights (£1k each), new modules x 2 , new stalk for the manual cleaner button (which is apparently fitted), different clock spring, new washer bottle, additional pump, running wiring not to mention hooking up the data lines for steering inputs. New bumper or drill out, all the hoses and electrical connections on the bumper.

Even I wouldn't bother, you just add the 35w bulbs for an easier life. Highly unlikely it's been retrofitted. Get the vin and run a check again, someone is lying to you.

My thought exactly, but why would someone go through the hassle of adding water jets/new stalk just for a ballast upgrade?

I've had two separate sources tell me that it doesn't have PDLS (Porsche and the thread on here), so while it could still be incorrect, I'm more inclined to believe it didn't have it at factory.

I've spoken to a few dealerships locally, and they have said that they have seen cars with PDLS fitted after the fact, as they haven't wanted to change car just to add the option.

I'll keep investigating and I will do my best to keep the thread updated.

2 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

So why the query....?  

IIRC, It has also been known for people to repaint some of the light internals for aesthetic reasons.

Query because PDLS is a must have on the car for me, and I'm trying to work out if it has been retrofitted

3 minutes ago, Patt said:

PDLS are bright than standard , plus do the swivel with steering. 

A few on here have upgraded their S with more powerful bulbs and ballasts.

IIRC Daz even did a youtube video of his.  

I can't remember what was standard or not - too long ago.

Yeah I've seen some people have done this, but I'm not looking to change out the ballast, as having auto levelling with Xenons is one of the main benefits.

1 minute ago, Patt said:

exactly, and the PDLS+ the larger rings are not silver

Ah that's really interesting.

The only conclusion I can come to is that it's been retrofitted.

I think the best way forward is for it to be looked at by Porsche.

1 minute ago, ½cwt said:

Ask him to register on BoXa.net and send £5 to @T911UK for a full factory build listing. 

I've already got it - I've even spoken to Porsche and they've said that it 100% doesn't have PDLS from factory.

It has option code 601 and that's it 🙂 I believe the owner is already on here, and has posted in the thread you mentioned.

3 minutes ago, daz05 said:

It literally tells you in the advert spec sheet that it's fitted you've just wasted everyone's time 😂 we did enjoy showing off our knowledge though.

Where does it say? I spoke to the owner and he mentioned he created that list of options based on the fact he thought the Bi Xenon were an extra on the S as well, so he's under the impression it doesn't have PDLS.

4 minutes ago, Patt said:

literally the amount of silver plastic.

I found when I was looking to buy many options were not always listed, even by the OPCs. So i would look at the pictures.

Mine has PDLS and they look identical.

The PDLS+ doesn't have silver on the outer bezels or the bit that joins the two outers together.

The standard has almost silver on everything inside the lens.

 

If you look at pictures of GT4/Spyder 981s they had PDLS+ as standard.

I see, so you're talking about the silver part inside of the top light unit.

This one being black on the inside, indicating PDLS:

This one being chrome in the inside, indicating standard Bi Xenon:

2 hours ago, Patt said:

This picture has the PDSL units

How can you tell?

6 minutes ago, Patt said:

The headlights in the picture are the PDLS items.

In which picture?

8 hours ago, Jon61 said:

But just to confuse the issue further, I was under the impression that 'bi-xenon' meant that both full & dipped beam uses xenon bulbs.

I think they use Bi Xenon to imply there are two Xenon bulbs making up the headlight unit. 
 

My current BMW uses xenon for full beam too, but I think Porsche use halogen

12 minutes ago, daz05 said:

Prepare yourselves for some ultimate 981 geekery in what follows 😂

 

Said car. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202310293440180

The spec list states it has bi xenon's as an option in one of the pictures which likely means pdls were specified as xenon's were standard on the S and so wouldn't have a corresponding price otherwise.

But interestingly the bumper has a short plate holder which adds to the theory that it might not be original.

If pdls is definitely not showing you could perhaps check if the car is UK specification and not a grey import from Cyprus or Australia. The reason I suggest this is because option code 288 covers headlamp washers and was potentially available in other markets with the standard xenons.

But I think it's most likely that you read the spec wrong!

 

 

Good spot about the spec list. 
 

I’ve actually seen the car in person, and it did have the button on the stalk from memory .

I called Porsche, however, and they confirmed that according to their build list, it doesn’t have PDLS, nor does it have washers specced at factory. 
 

Regarding the front plate - this is just due to replacing the standard reg plate holder with an EU spec one. It still has the original plate holder holes. 

Just now, Menoporsche said:

Is it that the S came from the factory with high power xenons, but not swivelling? Compared to the non-S with low power? There have been such subtle distinctions in other specs. If factory it wouldn't show on the build sheet?

Here’s the thing though, not all of the S I’ve seen have the washer, so I can’t figure out a pattern. Usually washer = PDLS/(+)

There was at least one other car which didn’t state PDLS but had washer. Was a 2015 car. This is 14. 

Here’s a picture of the headlight. Clearly has a washer, but definitely doesn’t have PDLS according to build sheet 🙂

Has option code 601.