scrowner

Very nice thread. It is funny that other forums redirect you to renntech for How-To instructions. I replaced my rear bumper and in the process change my rear tail lights to OE smoked tail lights, made very professionally by a guy on EBay. I have a black 2000 Boxster S, and the smoked tail lights in the rear look spectacular on the car - IMO much better than the OE tail lights. So I worked the day installing everything and my last step was to test all the bulbs in the tail lights. So, I get my wife's help to watch as I cycle through all the lights in the tail and the brake lights did NOT work, not even the brake light bar above the trunk lid. Odd, because they were all working fine prior to the replacement. 1. I unsnapped the black bulb holder on each of the tail lights, (I write this as I have read people indicating to remove the whole tail light housing which you do not need to do), and removed to inspect the bulbs. Looked fine. 2. I removed the fuse holder cover, down by the floor on the driver side, by putting a finger in the hole at the top of the cover and removing the cover by pulling away. After much internet searching, my car brake light fuse is B7. It is hard to see the labeling on the fuse housing but it is there. I ohmed out the fuse and it was fine. The fuse holder in the Boxster has a plastic fuse puller that can be used to easily remove any fuse. The bottom row of the fuse box has spare fuses of various AMP sizes and if you are lucky you can use one of those. If you do not have a voltmeter to check fuse resistance, visually you can inspect this fuse as it is 15A and it should be obviously blackened if blown. 3. HUH? I should not be at step three as everything was working fine. I did an internet search and found this cool little thread. And cleaned the switch and VOILA - brakes back working. Very odd that the built up gunk on the switch failed after replacing the rear bumper and tail lights. A couple more hints on the switch cleaning process: a. You can remove the contacts in the bottom part of the switch housing by pushing them out. I recommend doing these one at a time so to have them back in place as before. b. How do you clean? I use cue tips and rubbing alcohol to clean the dark gunk off. Then I use a little sand paper to make the contacts shinny. If you do not have any sand paper use one of your wife emery boards. You sand lightly till you see a brightness reform. c. Before removing the brown bottom mark the switch so to put it back together correctly. d. For testing, just leave the switch dangling in the car but connected to the power. Turn the car ignition on to activate the lights. You do not need to start the car. With the switch dangling, the brake lights will be on to easily check. e. Quarter turn of the switch is really quarter turn in either direction. If you apply pressure to the front of the car while turning the switch will turn in the metal bracket. Thanks, renntech!

2000 986 Boxster S, fuse B7 is good, all three brake tail lights not working. I am testing in a parking lot with emergency brake on. Rear running lights, turn signals and reverse lights all work. Just both rear tail and the center brake lights not working. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

It was stated earlier in the thread that maybe the 1024 could be fixed with inverting the battery in the key. There is a timing sequence to follow. The above site has a link with a story about getting a cheap key creation. Cheap being relative. http://www.ppbb.com/boards/ppbbphp/showfla...;o=&fpart=1 Well, I tested my keys and they both are transmitting in the wireless world - emitting when the buttons are pressed. Which means, for whatever reason my car, the receiver, is no longer happy with the key's transmission. The keys are working for me. Since I have done all the steps to try to re-synchronize the keys to the car and the keys work fine manually, I guess it is off the the dealer to try to reprogram the keys to the immobilizer as Loren has stated. I will let everyone know what this ends up costing me to get two keys working again.

We are amassing more weird problems an not getting to solutions. Need to cut the snake, so to speak. Is it the key or the car? How do we determine this? I have two keys, both work fine manually but do not work remotely. (This is true for at least 2 more persons here.) Tomorrow I will take the keys to work and see if there is any emissions from them when pushing the button. I have some equipment to look at this as I work with wireless communication equipment. I will report back what I find. I am sure all have seen this: http://boxster.wikia.com/wiki/Alarm,_Keys,_Remote but I am placing this here for picture purposes. What I gather from this wiki is that the transponder is separate from the electronics. Can we assume we can buy new electronics, replace our potentially defective boards, leaving the "unique" transponder in place and bingo have working remotes? Are there no Porsche service persons on this site who know what this issue is? There are at least 3 of us interested in reading what has happened to our remotes and knowing for sure the correct action to take. If you work in Porsche service...please chime in! :unsure:

I am right there with you on the silly $300. I was quoted $325 just to figure it out by my dealer. We will get an answer. :huh:

1-3. Posted previously. 4. Interior button to lock/unlock doors works fine. So Alarm box fuse must be OK. Besides, when manually locking the doors, I can see the alarm flash on the dash near the windshield momentarily or double flash if I leave the boot open. The keys seem just fine and the LEDs seem to blink as expected with a push of the button. This must be something simple.... What next?

2000 Boxster S, bought used, from non-Porsche dealer. Keys both properly blink when buttons are pressed but I get no lock/unlock operation. The things I have done: 1. Replaced both batteries and got out my Multi-meter and did a check on battery performance. Both keys look good and are >3.0V when pressing a button on the key. Using the key near the A pillar of the car or near the car has no effect on the locks. Leds on both keys function as expected. 2. The user manual indicates to manually unlock the car door and with the key still in the door, press the button #1, lock/unlock button, this is supposed to re-synch the electronics IF the car had been sitting for more than 5 days. I did this, still no operation of the key remotes. 3. The internet indicates that if the button has been pressed more than 256 times and less than 1024 times, the system needs to be zeroed, as there is some rolling counter that is used between the keys and the car electronics. This zeroing is done by placing the key into the ignition, turning the key on but not starting, then turning the key off and removing, then pressing the lock button on the key WITHIN 6 seconds. I did this with both keys, and still no remote lock operation. What is my next step?