geoff

I was in a hurry (and pissed off) because my Amazon order came with the wrong lighter adapter and ordered another one off the CTEK web site. CTEK sent my order to Woody's for fulfillment - I ordered it on a Friday and it arrived the next day (Saturday) in the mail. Outstanding service :D The lighter socket should be hot whether the alarm is set or not. You can test it by plugging something in, like a cell phone charger, then locking your car and checking if it's still on, or plugging in the battery maintainer and checking if it's still charging with the doors locked and alarm set. My car is in the garage, so I don't lock it

I've bought replacement tires for my Boxster and Carrera (and other cars) at America's Tire, and have been very happy with them each time. Just get comparable prices from Costco, Tire Rack, the America's Tire web site, and Tires Buy Mark in Woodland Hills, and they should beat everyone's price. Plus they will do free tire checks and rebalancing every 5K miles. I took my new Cayenne in and they rotated my tires for free at 5K miles, and offered to sell me their complete replacement certificate, even though the tires came with the car when new. It usually takes them a few days to order and receive the right tires for Porsches. You can also make an appointment in advance so you don't have to wait. There's an America's Tire store on Colorado in Pasadena. I was in there a few times with a previous car for rotations and they were fine. If you find one close to high-end car car dealers, they will know exactly how to deal with low profile tires on alloy wheels, based on my experience. But you should always check your rims carefully before they start doing anything

I bought a CTEK 7000 to maintain the battery on my Boxster, along with the cigarette lighter adapter with the correct plug. It's just like your 3300 except it does a few more things. I just plug it in to the cigarette lighter socket, which I think is fused properly for battery maintainers. The only thing I had to do was push the button for gel batteries, which is supposed to work better with the Optima battery I have. I also noticed once when the power went out at my house, I had to power cycle the charger to wake it up. I'm not sure the Porsche instructions will say more than to plug the maintainer into the cigarette lighter and it's fully charged when the light turns green. That's about all my original Porsche Charge-O-Mat said If you bought a new CTEK maintainer, you will need to buy the "comfort connect" cigarette lighter adapter, which costs around $10. It just snaps right on to the charger connector. If you don't have one, you can buy it through the renntech Amazon link. The Porsche charger comes with the cigarette lighter plug hard wired on. I mounted mine on the garage wall right next to where my door opens to keep it off the ground and avoid running it over

Cleaning the MAF doesn't ALWAYS solve the problem from what everyone here and elsewhere has reported. If the MAF does really go bad, no amount of cleaning is going to fix the problem and it will need to be replaced

Try cleaning your Mass Air Flow sensor. After about 35K to 50K miles, it is a very common problem and will often trigger a CEL with codes 1128 and/or 1130. If cleaning it solves the problem, just replace the MAF (don't buy it through eBay).

Did you try contacting Becker to see if they can just repair the face plate (since they are the radio manufacturer)? Try http://www.beckerautosound.com/

See 996 TSB 4/03 6110, Rattling Noises From The Cabriolet Top, dated 5/23/03. The parts are about $60 from Sunset. I just helped a friend do this with his '99 cab and he said his rattles are gone. My post was here.

Are you going to use Color Plus Surflex leather dyes or something else? I've used their black to match where my seats were slightly scuffed and their color was a perfect match with the OEM color

They work fine with my '01 Boxster (slightly lowered with ROW 030 suspension). I've heard others have had success with them as well. They are not overly wide for the rear tires, so you need to have your tires straight on the ramp I bought mine at AutoZone, then saw them a bit cheaper at WalMart - try there first

If I understand your question correctly, you are looking for someone qualified to perform a PPI in Malibu. I don't think you will find anybody other than gas station mechanics that might know how to check the tire pressure here. The closest dealers are Rusnak in Westlake Village, Auto Gallery in Woodland Hills, or Beverly Hills Porsche. There are probably some competent independents in the Santa Monica/Venice, Thousand Oaks or San Fernando Valley areas. You might try Mike Schatz at Schatz Motorsport for starters. I have not personally used him, but he is one of the head mechanics at Rusnak

I hate it when you never find out what happened, so here's the wrap-up to the parts story. Sunset quickly sent me another order (great service, as always), and they checked the part numbers on the plastic envelopes for correctness before shipping. Same story are before - plastic envelope part numbers matched, but parts inside didn't. After calling them up, I learned that Porsche doesn't always change the part number on the castings (in the case of the 986 parts, Sunset said the 01 rev might have the 00 part number) and I need to go by what the plastic bag part number from the distribution center says. The 997 stamped part (in the bag with a 996 part number label) fit the '99 996 cab perfectly, so the 997 parts do seem to be interchangeable with the 996 cab pieces, and the TSB didn't get updated to reflect newer part numbers.

You didn't say what your price range is. There's a lot you can do if you spend gobs of money. I did the Porsche ROW M030 suspension on my 2001, which included front and rear sway bars, springs and shocks. I think the shocks are similar to the Bilstein HDs. Price was around $1K for the parts from Sunset plus $600 for installation and realignment. The car handles noticeably better without any real adverse impact on ride. It also lowered the car about 20mm in the front and 10mm in the rear.I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, the only difference is I would have installed it sooner. If you're not looking to lower your car, the regular Porsche 030 suspension will do that. Try a search on M030 or PSS and you will find lots of information. I'm not sure if just changing your shocks to the Bilstein HDs will have as big of an improvement on handling as you want. You could also try the Boxster Racing Board for lots of suspension advice

I used one of these in my garage, as well as other areas of my house, and have much fewer mice around. Most hardware stores sell them in packages of one to a dozen. The thing just plugs into a 120v outlet (assuming your 90 year old garage has electricity). Sealing all the cracks and openings with chicken wire or snake wire will also help keep rodents out. Hungry outdoor cats are good - just keep them out of the garage or they will scratch the paint on your car

Jake - thanks for the comments Now I'm wondering - if somebody has, say, a 2001 2.7 engine that's running fine, and the IMS is replaced with your new and improved version. Does that provide the greatest potential for avoiding catastrophic engine failure? Or just shifting the likelihood to another part that's nearly as likely to fail? In other words, if my engine has a 50/50 chance of disintegrating before 100K miles (and I'm just pulling odds out of thin air), how much does upgrading the IMS improve my odds (based on your expertise, engines you've seen, etc.)?

I bought one from Sunset (board sponsor) earlier this year for my Boxster. Probably not the absolute cheapest price, but brand new genuine Porsche part from a real dealer and much less expensive than just walking in to the local dealer parts counter. A lot of people buy MAFs from Autohauz because they are supposedly the cheapest. Everyone says don't buy one from eBay because chances are they won't work You should pull your old one out and make sure you have the part number of what's in your car before you order. You will need the right size security torx to get it out. Harbor Freight has a decent set that's inexpensive if you don't have the right tools to remove

I went up to Ventura yesterday for the German Auto Fest, which prior to this year was an annual local get together for showing off cars and vendors to hawk their wares to everyone who drinks the Porsche Kool-Aid. This year's show was poorly advertised and very few vendors in attendance, but LN Engineering was there. Since the event was so sparsely attended, I had a chance to talk with the woman at the booth for about 20 minutes without interruption. Here's a summary of the interesting points and my observations of their parts Her comments, based on my memory of the discussion (caveat - I don't know much about engines or engine technologies, and they are magical contraptions as far as I'm concerned): There are a lot of plastic parts inside the M96 engines, much more than anyone would expect, and many are potential failure points It doesn't seem to matter if the cars are driven hard or babied. There's a high correlation between not driving the cars and engine failures. If the cars sit, the engines are much more likely to fail The stock oil filter elements do a poor job. They sell an adapter that lets you use spin-on oil filters that do are much more effective. She specifically mentioned the Mobil-1 spin on filter as working well (don't remember the other brand) They have a part to increase the oil capacity of the engine The quality of cast parts in the engines is pretty poor.Their machined billet replacement parts are significantly stronger than the OEM cast ones they replace. There are many failure points for the IMS, starting with the bolt on the end. Their replacement IMS has much more bearing surfaces than the OEM part and shouldn't fail. Their IMS bolts are more than twice as strong as the OEM ones Replacement IMS are available on a replacement basis now They are working on more replacement parts and tools, and are planning training programs for engine rebuilders Once an engine disintegrates, it's usually too late to upgrade to their improved parts. Their parts are intended to rebuild functioning engines Not sure if the bored-out 2.7 to 2.9 engine will pass smog inspections. Not something they have to worry about where they are located. During their remanufacturing process, the cylinders are bored out and the Nickie liners are put into place. This is the same technology and materials used successfully on air cooled Porsche engines Even though the stock thermostats are rated to 180°, they have found they run hotter than rated. They sell a lower temperature thermostat option They have adapters for external oil coolers Porsche is out of remanufactured 2.5 engines If you don't like any of these comments, or disagree, don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger. Here are my observations: They are in the business of selling parts, so no way for me to judge relative quality of oil filter technologies. I didn't correlate against expertise on BITOG The bolt on the end of the IMS looks really small for something in an engine under a lot of load (or even a little load) The end of the IMS is a cast component. The surface finish on the casting looks like something you would expect to see in a low quality Chinese knockoff. I don't know if this is what cast engine parts look like, but theirs looked like a piece of art by comparison Fit and finish of their parts were vastly better than the OEM ones. They can clearly manufacture high quality items (these were display items, so don't know what the production items for sale will look like for sure) I thought I read somewhere Porsche has more 2.5 available They were also showing replacement pistons and connecting rods, which also looked very well made. We didn't really talk about them They had part of a Boxster engine on display, and while it looked nice with their Nickie cylinder liners, I have no idea if it really was a Boxster engine

I did the original install of a 997 OEM short shifter into my '01 seal grey Boxster (5 speed) and documented it here. At first, it felt like the shift throw was extremely short compared to stock. After about a week or so it felt normal. It is smooth and not notchy and I have been very happy with it. For the first few months I didn't think it was worth it. Now I do, which shows you get used to almost anything and notice the benefits over time. The Porsche short shifter (blue plastic one) I used is easy to shift with one finger most of the time. If you're installing it yourself, I recommend getting the DVD. I did the install using the B&M instructions, but am sure watching the DVD first would have made the job much easier

It's a friend's car, so not here until we try to do the swap. I have to call Sunset about the wrong Boxster parts anyway (they sent me the older version that the TSB says to replace), so they might know whether they're a replacement or not. I'm just hoping to have some info when I talk to them. Any idea whether Porsche is going to start updating their online PET at some point, or whether it will remain stuck in 2006?

I was gone last week on a business trip when my parts arrived, and went through my goodies from Sunset this weekend planning to replace parts. Unfortunately, the part numbers didn't match the numbers on the plastic envelopes (plastic envelopes were correct) - I suspect it's a problem with the PCNA distribution system and not Sunset. Before pulling things apart, maybe somebody knows whether the parts have been superseded from the TSB, online PET and renntech parts list, but not documented anywhere available to me. I ordered one each of 996-561-605-02 and 996-561-606-02, but received 997-561-605-00 and 997-561-606-00. Anyone know for certain whether the 997 cab parts are interchangeable with the 996 ones? My Boxster parts were also wrong - just the old ones the TSB said make the rattling noise! So some parts have to go back no matter what :angry:

Kirk - if your speaker brackets are as good as your rear lower stress bars they should be fantastic! I didn't have any problem getting the replacement speakers to fit into the dash when mounted on the dummy covers, even though they are a bit deeper than the stock ones. If I remember correctly, depth of the dummy covers isn't as deep as the original speaker setup, so you automatically gain some mounting depth that way. If there's a lot of interest, I can pull one of the speakers out of my dash and take a picture from the side so everyone can get an idea of depth If you have lots of time, patience and manual dexterity, it's might be possible to grind out the backing for the dummy speaker covers and glue it on top of a custom speaker bracket to give a completely stock appearance

How exactly do those brackets work? There just the speaker template with a removeable plastic piece? It sounded like you took them to a shop after you got the template and had them cut the plastic piece to your speaker. Is that what you did? Also is that part # you reference 996-645-049-02-01C both the Grille AND the Blank Template insert? If you look at my first picture in the referenced topic, you can see the top and bottom side by side (I took 2 and placed them next to one another, with the white mesh behind). The part is basically a "dummy" dash speaker cover, with the foam behind the grill and then solid plastic on the bottom. The stereo shop took a dremel and cut out the area for the main speaker grill, then mounted the coax speaker using 2 screws directly on the bottom of the dummy cover, as you can see when you click on the last picture. The whole dummy cover is one piece (actually a top and bottom glued together, but I couldn't get it apart with a heat gun, so essentially one solid piece). I think the covers are used to cover the speaker holes for cars without any dash speakers. The part they cut out has the round green part number sticker on it in the first picture and is about 4" diameter. You can also see the stereo shop cut part of the metal speaker frame to get it to fit I did not have to use any other mounting brackets. The reason I went with this approach instead of buying a speaker and cutting it up was because the dummy covers were pretty cheap (about $28 at the time). The mounting brackets that vfxbox had would have probably made it easier and I would not have bothered to use the stereo shop for anything except selling me some speakers. But I was too lazy to try mounting the speakers myself Note that if you are looking at separate tweeters instead of a coax speaker, the covers have a left and right side orientation so the tweeter is aimed toward the passenger compartment. Hope this helps. If I didn't explain right, let me know and I'll try to clarify.

The alignment tool is for setting threads on the two cable connectors into the shifter. The trick is to get the cables adjusted correctly with the stock shifter before installing a short shifter. I think one of the cables does the forward/back movement and the other does the side to side movement. Definitely need to check the adjustment on the side to side one first. Loren and Tool Pants probably have as much expertise as any Porsche mechanic and will hopefully chime in and provide you with some tips on getting the cable adjusted properly.

I'll ask the obvious question - are you sure the shifter cables are properly adjusted? Straightforward to do if you put a stock shifter back in and adjust the cable lengths with the alignment tool in place. If you find the 2 shifter cables are not properly set in terms of length, you should be able to get them set and then determine whether there's a problem in your transmission or not. If you search through some of Tool Pants' posts on shifter alignment tool, you can find the part number, and it's only a few bucks from the dealer or Sunset. It's not clear from your post if you have a short shifter installed or not.

If you want the stock look for your dash, here's what I did for brackets, with the option for reverting back to the stock ones. Still no complaints from me with this approach

When I met with vfxbox a few years ago, I think he had some baffles for the dash speakers. Haven't heard from him for a while. I know he bought some items from Crutchfield, and looking on their site they have baffles listed for sale, starting under $10. crutchfield.com