Being the cheapskate I am, I'm OK with not having one-touch operation, but I
had to have the ability to move the roof without ratcheting the handbrake. It really bothered me to drag the parking brake shoes while the car was rolling. This way, I don't have to.
Many thanks to Guvs on this forum, and dominouk on Boxa.net for pointing me to this relay hack. Guvs had done this on his ride, and pointed me to the necessary info to pull it off.
I've had this mod for over a year now, with no issues.
Although I still have to chop when putting the roof down; this mod lets me put up the top while rolling along slowly, say in traffic as it starts to rain. Whirrrr, just put up the roof as the rain starts, no stopping or handbrake needed.
With this mod, you can operate the top at
any speed, so you've got to watch the speedo when the top is in motion. Yes, it is possible to lower or raise the roof at highway speeds, and do major damage to the top & actuating mechanisms.
All safeties are disabled by doing this hack.
If you have a 2000+ Boxster with this relay,
you can perform this hack.
Bend over pin 15 & pin 18 as shown. There is no contact with other relays doing this.
Open the relay by gently and evenly prying near the centre of the long sides with 2 small screwdrivers. You will have to tin both ends of a a wire and then solder it to the rear of the circuit board as shown.
The solder job must be as flat as possible, because there's not much room as the curcuit board slides in a channel as you close the relay back up.
This mod took under 20 minutes to do, including searcing for an appropriately small gauge wire.