logray

IMHO, the mechs that do spend time and participate on the forums are "smarter for it" than the rest...

It's not terribly difficult, but I recommend having plenty of towels to protect your dash and trim. It also helped to move the seat forward while you are working. There is a great write up here, the removal and reinstall is summarized in Wayne's procedure: http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/90-ELEC-996_Cluster/90-ELEC-996_Cluster.htm

I found a dealer who activated my OBC for free! Believe it or not... of course this was after spending 20 minutes of my time explaining to them how it could be done and it wouldn't cost the "thousands" that they quoted me to retrofit. HAH. And don't forget IIRC version 6 of Durametric can now activate the OBC...

They do take quite a bit of hand and finger strength but they do pull straight off. Another alternative is to just pry the swtich out of the bezel and leave the plug connected to it. A thin flat bladed screwdriver above or below the switch itself (not the plug), then gently pry up or down and the switch will come out of the holder away from the front of the bezel.

I noticed! And have been purchasing a lot of parts lately. :-) Thanks BTW. :)

At what ambient and material temperature are these properties observed, kind sir? From my observations, even the extracted stock ball bearing and it's center support simply did not exhibit the "loose fitting" qualities you describe. Does your after-market bearing exhibit the qualities you extrapolate henceforth?

This is getting more interesting by the hour. I have found the center support on the LNE bearing to be slight interference, requiring some force to insert into the bearing (although they ship already pressed in). Yet the flange to outer race seems to not be as tight a fit, but still very tight - able to be pressed in by hand - probably less than 0.001" for both my guess. To expand on the role of the center support and "draw in" comment I made. As I'm assembling my engine after a Nikies rebore, the IMS tube literally FLOATS around both bores, axially and radially, especially if the oil pump console is removed, and of course certainly without any chain tensioners installed. Once the oil pump console is installed, it floats considerably less radially on the flywheel side (and just a few thousanths on the pulley side), but still floats axially until the flange is installed.

I have actually noticed the prices have eeked ever so slightly up (not just based on MSRP), but not enough to worry about. Still great guys to deal with.

Not exactly, there is the retail price tool, which does have a search feature, but you really need to know what you are looking for. But I prefer to look at the parts diagrams, such as this one avialalbe from Porsche in PDF: http://www.porsche.com/all/media/pdf/originalparts/en/E_997_KATALOG.pdf Or autoatlanta.com with a pont an click interface to the same diagrams.

Interesting. So then your not recommending flange sealant around the perimeter of the flange seal, flange sealant on the base of the bolts or nut, or use of factory ordained micro-encapsulated bolts from Porsche?

$20k and $11k both sound pretty unreasonable to me. Unless the $20k car is mint/showroom and the $11k has been to hell and back.

The tool I made was a 12 point deep socket, hollowed out to accept a slotted screwdriver. Then ground two sides down flat to fit a crows foot so I could use the "# square drive torque wrench. I'm pretty convinced the nut was so terribly difficult to remove from the use of the green loctite. I think during re-assembly, I will either use a very tiny dab of this or none at all, since it sounds like the entire point of the nut is just to draw the tube into the flange (real support) at the correct depth. LNE did not disassemble the bearing, the inner race was found to have a small amount of play outside of tolerance, perhaps damaged during extraction or insertion. Once they got that far in the analysis I don't think they went any futher.

Hah, try not many at all, if any... I can't remember the last time (at all) where I've read about the Porsche revised single row being replaced just for the sake of the bearing... without other engine work already being done, since you have to remove the bearing carrier in order to get to the tube. p.s. you might want to fix the font size and remove italics in your post, very hard to read without manipulation.

This is interesting. When I recently tore my engine down, I ran into a snag with the LNE bearing while removing the center nut. During bearing installation I followed the suggested 25 ft lbs (IIRC), which didn't seem like much. I am always a "good german" and follow directions when provided, especially because I have a habit of over tightening if I don't get torque specs. Perhaps the difficulty removing the center nut was from the recommended use of green loctite, but I could not for the life of me get the nut to turn off the stud. It was "frozen" for a lack of better terms. I continued with engine disassembly, and once the tube was on the bench I was able to get a better hold on the center stud and turn the nut with a deep box end wrench. But in the process it ruined the threads and nut. So I had to extract the bearing in order to put on a new stud (which only had about 10k miles on it) and had it sent off to LNE for examination. Unfortunately the advice was given to replace the bearing, perhaps in relation to the issues with the stud, or perhaps I damaged it during extraction - which I was very careful to use the LNE bearing puller with modified threads for the LNE stud. So long story to ask a question but... On your kit, what is the recommendation for use of sealants and thread lockers during installation? And do you also recommend a specific torque value for the center stud nut? Also, it seems like this area could be designed better, I had to fabribate a special tool in order to place the recommended torque on the nut. If the center nut is supposed to be just "good n' tight" or "25 ft lbs", how about putting a wing nut on there or some other type of fastener that is easier to turn with perhaps a cotter pin to hold correct position and anti-rotation?

Well at least they fixed the parts list and removed the stuff that didn't make sense.... but I guess you have to pay the Porsche tax sometimes... $1500 labor sounds very reasonable to me for dropping the engine and replacing both variocam actuators. If you were to have walked in the parts and saved a couple grand, I'm sure they would have jacked up the labor. I'm sure the car is running great!

Yes one end snaps into place in the cluster and the other end into your stalk or switch.

You can remove the wheel liner to see the back of the head light and make sure the plug is fully seated, perhaps the plastic housing has broken and so the light isn't fully seating into the connector..

The harbor freight A/C manifold test kit works well for the fuel fittings.

A good battery thread, I like the costco one myself

Your replcement engine, assuming it has the larger bearing, is only replaceable if the engine is torn almost completely down (aside from the bearing carrier). In other words, BIG bux in labor, more than the cost of a used engine in fact. The good news is, Porsche "responded" to the IMS bearing issue indirectly by "upgrading" the bearing to a much larger one in your replacement engine which is about as strong as the original dual row, which are less susceptible to failure apparently. Will your bearing fail? Maybe, experts estimate 10% of cars in 90,000 miles. But there is a lack of publicly available real world data on those estimates, so your guess is as good as ours. You might benefit from the IMS Guardian, which will/can warn you in the event your engine is about to go boom so you can shut it off. A rebuildable core is worth A LOT more than an engine that is not rebuildable and has already exploded. Anyhow, don't let all this stuff scare you, as pointed out earlier you certinaly read more about the "bad stuff" on the Internet than the success stories.

The sweating might be due to orings, the fittings, or perhaps the tubes are not completey sealed. To be sure your AOS is good or bad, you can meausre the crank case vacuum, detailed here:

Wayne has a good write up of the entire process here: http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/91-ELEC-turn_signal_switch_-_OBC_upgrade/91-ELEC-turn_signal_switch_-_OBC_upgrade.htm That should clear up your questions.

Key fobs have to be programmed by the dealer, sorry.

I've been thinking about your product over the past several days and can't seem to make out how anyone could enter this product space at this point in the game. I'm even wondering if Pelican's offering will ever become viable and the reason why they are delaying it is because as JFP pointed out it just sorta doesn't make sense. You do have a ceramic hybrid bearing and are probably using similar extraction and insertion methods (which BTW have you run into any patent issues?), so that is a plus. Do you have any estimates on how many units you need to sell before you become profitable? Your guess of 4000 units at $600 per LNE has sold is nothing to laugh about. But at your price of $323, plus the cost of overhead and R&D... is this not too steep hill to climb at this point? I'm wondering if it would make more sense to supply a reputable name (in the Porsche world) such as Pelican.

Bob, sorry to hear about the trouble. I would take this in steps... a.) Check the condition of the coolant carefully once more. If it looks like coffee colored milkshake, that is a sign of intermix. Post some pictures if you are unsure. b.) Contact PCNA 1-800-PORSCHE customer serivce about the exorbanent charges if you cannot resolve directly with the dealer. I'm surprised they would pass on the freight charges to you. That is very unusual and unreasonable. I won't mention names but I have worked with a few dealers who also charge LIST (RETAIL) PLUS MARGIN. It should be the other way around and I have called them out many times by quoting the retail price which they then honor. I don't mind paying retail, but over retail is robbery. Obviously it pays to shop around because other dealers charge COST PLUS MARGIN, which as you've found provides a substantial savings over retail. c.) if the car continues to overheat it could be due to the intermix condition, a failed water pump, thermostat, or something more benign such as a temp sensor (or two). The car should not be operated until the source of the problem repaired, overheating is very bad for the engine. I would start with the coolant inspection, followed by perhaps pulling the tstat (test on bench) and/or water pump to inspect for impeller damage. edit: addition to c... it could also be the leak is introducing air into the system which is causing localized hot spots, certainly find the source of the leak and repair it and properly refill the system with porsche coolant + distilled water using a vacuum system.