What Goofs have you done in/with your boxster lately (Good Laugh/Cry)
 

We are all fallible humans, except for JD of course :p, and even in a Boxster its possible to make mistakes.

People can learn a lot from others mistakes and hopefully we do not take our selves too seriously and can share some of those mistakes, failures, goofs etc.

This thread can also be quite entertaining and make for some good reading.

So contribute what you can so we can all learn a thing or two.

Pictures and videos would be great if you have them.

I'll start with my first Autocross event at the Porsche Performance driving school.

Picture me on the coned course using my new skills and driving each lap faster...
until the dreaded slalom around the 5 cones.

First Lap...Synced my turns perfectly so that I hit every cone....how is that even possible...

Next lap..started my swerving a bit late and hit every cone after the first one...more instructor advise.

Next Lap...slowed to granny speed and did not hit one cone...

Next Lap...hit most of the cones again....dammmmmm.

Next Lap... I hate these cones so after hitting the first one I know its out of sync again so i just aim down the middle of the cones and run them all down.....:eek:

next Lap ... Cone tenders give me a hand gesture :mad:, so I slow slightly and start the swerves perfectly and make it through without knocking a cone...finally I'm starting to get the hang of this.

My turn as cone tender had me running around continuously...payback's a B*tch!!!

No first example???!!!
 

Because I am the self deprecating type I will start...

A couple of weeks after getting my S, I was curious how much the PSM really did. So while at a stop I turned it off. Then gave it good throttle and made a 90 degree left turn at an intersection. I have never had a problem doing that in the past, and knew that I would lose some traction.

OOOPPPSSS.....She can get sideways quick....LOL

I am sure the other drivers at the red light were shaking their heads "stupid Porsche driver thinks he is all that and can't even drive".:D

I can do that now with no problems, but wasn't ready the first time

edit***Well you hadn't posted that when I started.***

Ok, not a Boxster so apologies but it was at least a Porsche, a lovely 944 Turbo Cabriolet I used own.

I had led a week long Porsche Club Ireland tour around the Scottish Highlands a few years ago and as we got very close to the Ferry port at Stranraer in Southern Scotland on the way home, my engine started to boil, small crack in a rad hose... No biggie! Pulled into the ferry port and checked in, got sent to our loading line and que'd up... Jumped out of the car with a 2 litre bottle of mineral water I was drinking from and took a look under the bonnet. Due to some dodgy electrical wiring on the car previously the doors were set to lock about 3 seconds after the doors were closed while the engine was running.... The Boat was about to load so while under the front of the car assessing the leak I decided to let it cool and load with water when on board (it would last another few mins I reckoned.) then I heard the dreaded clunk of my drivers door being shut by a big hairy biker trying to walk past to get a cup of tea... Yep! you guessed it... ferry starts to board, I'm standing outside a locked but running Porsche.... Thankfully the same biker who had closed my door had a small penknife.... In through the rear plastic window! Worst and most expensive knife swipe ever! Felt pretty stupid too....

All within the same week:
-Got a ticket doing all of 45 miles an hour
-Backed it into my truck, causing minor damage to the paint that required a trip to the body shop
-Backed my truck into it ( driveway is too #^%$*$%ing small)

Trying to keep maintenance up to date on my 98 Box, I was changing the fuel filter and for whatever reason was having a difficult time getting the fuel line reconnected to the output of the fuel filter.

Knowing its always a good idea to use excessive force on nylon and plastic parts I tried my best to gorilla the line in place, only to break the connector on the line.
I am my own idiot.

Did anybody ever drop something, like on your car..?

Me, snow shovel no less. Minor dent which was fixed but still.......

Dropped wrench on my 944.
 

About 10 years ago, I dropped a torque wrench on my bronze 944, just in front of where the hood closes. Flaked a big hunk of paint off and a nice dent. I just had it detailed earlier too, so I had to go spend a bunch of money for them to touch it up and fix it. Felt really stupid for weeks.

My shining moment was last fall when I was doing an oil change. From some reason I had a major brain fart and poured the fresh oil into the coolant tank. I have no idea why I did this - it's not like it was my first oil change or anything. I made the best of a bad situation and pre-emptively changed out the 13 year old coolant tank as it no doubt was due to crack soon anyway. I felt lucky that I had this forum as a resource. Thanks again to all the excellent, supportive people that helped me out and provided advice and encouragement (except for one guy that, for whatever reason, decided to be a total jerk about it. Still haven't figured that one out).

I cracked two hoses while trying to replace the AOS.

This one is much worse than the coolant tank debacle ... last summer I was spray painting some white patio furniture in the back yard, well away from the garage. Unfortunately, I had left the side man door open and I guess the wind was from the wrong direction and a cloud of overspray managed find a home down the side of my black car which was parked inside the garage. How bad does a person's luck have to be for this to happen? A few hours of hard rubbing with Nu Finish Scratch Doctor set the world right again, but geez I was upset at the time.

I was playing with my new 3000psi pressure washer, washing everything in sight really, and thought I could use it to was the cars as well. Did my black 99 Jeep Wrangler and noticed how well it peeled off bumper stickers....cool.

Then on to the Girl friends white 2004 Wrangler, before moving on the the Boxster.

I noticed her Wrangler has some stone chips and some bug goo, so I got in nice and close 6" to really get it clean.....whoa, paint flakes are lifting off right down to the primer...she's going to kill me...crap!

After that debacle I only use the sprayer on the Boxsters non-painted stuff. Works fantastic on the wheels and tires, no more brush scrubbing required...hooray!

I let the girl friend use it for cleaning the deck, and she promptly blew all the ceramic nic-nacs and a flower pot off the table, sneding them crashing to the ground.
Hehehe, I hated all those stupid looking nic-nacs and am happy to see them go. Now I ought to show here the high power setting...[Evil Grin]

A couple of weeks ago I was replacing the shift boot and e-brake cover on my car since they were original and looking rather worn. After reading how to pull the shift knob off the car with lots of warning on how it will give and wack you in the head upon release - I carefully pulled, and pulled, and pulled - finally it came free and I managed to not wack myself in the head.......unfortunately upon release my body shot up and my shoulder hit the rearview mirror causing it to fall to the ground with a large chunk of the windshield still attached.........nice :mad:.

So for those looking to change the shift boot, don't wack your head AND don't break with windshield.

Ok this involves a plastic round oil drain thing from auto zone with a pourer on the side and a screw in cap in the center. First oil change: the force of the very hot oil coming out shut the cap in the center and the oil drained all over my friends' garage floor. What a mess! One year later: not to let that happen again, I pulled the center cap out of the oil drain thing and cast it aside. This time the oil drain plug from the car fell perfectly into the hole in the drain pan thing and stopped it up. Once again, oil all over the garage floor. This next time I'm going to take further precautions, e.g. a screen over the oil drain thing, maybe?? Why does this have to be so difficult?

The other week I replaced my front motor mount. After 4-5 hours of all the sit ups, crunches and contortions necessary working under this car on stands, I finished buttoning the bottom panels and lowered down for a test drive.

As I walk through the garage to get cleaned up I see sitting in the corner the Foam insert that fits up in the center tunnel that goes around all the coolant lines.

I seem to be at 100% for that one stupid thing that requires undoing your work to make it 100% right.

After debating and cursing myself out (my poor neighbors), I jacked the car back up, crawled under, removed the center pan and made it right

A clay bar will save you lots of rubbing! The bar will remove overspray without much of a wimper.

For the next time!

I have to go back to when I was 17 & bought my 1st car just for the engine. Gas prices had recently shot up from $0.40 per gal to $0.59. My parts car was 1/2 full of gas so I began siphoning the gas into gas cans. Soon discovered I didn't like the taste of gasoline (maybe because of the lead). So I had the bright idea that I could use my mom's vacum cleaner to start the siphon, never thinking about the fumes getting into the vacum. Soon the vacum died with a small explosion! :dance: :chicken:

Left the top down overnight and it rained, everything was soaked. Dried the interior as best I could, but the seat foam was still pretty damp. I decided it might a good idea to just leave the top down and park the car in direct sunlight on a hot day to dry it. Absolutely cooked the seat leather to bits! They looked like they were cooked in a frying pan. :eek:

The new seat upholstery looks pretty...!

I don't think I've ever seen gas prices that low. :eek:

At least not in my lifetime. . . :D

When I got my first car (67 Pontiac with a 20+ gallon tank) I went and filled it from about empty. It cost 12 bucks and I thought, OMG, I don't think I can afford to run this thing!

LOL! :D:D

I laughed out loud at that . . .

Okay, I'll own up... Just because this story makes my sister laugh to tears and the title of this post included "good laughs"... Sorry for the length.

Purchased my Box late last August, and in September moved from Dallas (where I'd spent the last 13 years) back to OK (where I'm from and where my family still lives). I had not yet found a job and was still settling in so in the meantime I was living with my parents, which is the same house they've lived in since I was 5. Mind you I'm in my mid-30...

It was a drizzly Sunday and I was going to visit one of my closest friends who had just moved his wife and daughter from Houston back to OK as well. They were also living with his parents in the same house that he grew up in too. So driving to his house felt hilarious. Now 20 years later, we're both back in Oklahoma and both living in our childhood homes and once again I was driving over to his house to hang out.

I arrived at his house after "feeling my way" there since I'd made the trip so many times before but not in such a long time. We were hanging out, laughing, grilling (though again it was a little chilly and drizzly on this October Sunday) and his family was getting ready to host a bunch of his brother's friends for his 30th birthday that afternoon and watch football. After a few hours, Brad says "so let's see the Porsche". So we walked around to the front and got in. "Let's take this on the tollway!" Brad said. "No man, I saw a few highway patrolmen on my way here and it's wet. We'll just go a few miles and make a square and come back." So we started it up, and just slowly drove out of his parent's neighborhood as we talked about the car.

We pulled up to the stop sign, and took a right. I didn't get on the gas but just a little bit and drove to the first stop sign, which was about 1/4 mile away and was where the road ended due to a big country club and golf course being in the way. So we took a right and I stepped on the gas... 1st gear... tires broke loose in the rain a little... shifted to 2nd, tires still loose but I just figured they'd grab. Wrong. Wet oily road, bald tires (after post-incident inspection), and slightly bumpy pavement. This all happened in a matter of seconds. Car was loose, couldn't stop or steer and we crossed the oncoming lane (thank God no cars or peds) and blasted "BOOM" my (new to me) car through a tiny decorative wooden fence that was next to the beautiful country club entrance, into their manicured lawn, and finally came to a stop. Again, happened in seconds.

I looked over at Brad... His hands planted on the dash. "Jesus, you ok?" "No way that just happened"... No one was hurt. Great. My next thought... What the eff do I do?! I thought I was for sure stuck in the soggy lawn. Put the car in reverse and to my amazement, backed out onto the road. Still no cars were really around. Put it into 1st and slowly drove the direction we were originally headed and to the first right turn I could make back to his parent's house. We had been in the car not 4 minutes. Unbelievable.

I got out, and surveyed the damage because everything "felt" ok. No weird sounds, no misalignment... I'd hit one of the 2 foot tall wooden posts almost dead on. Splintered wood was all over my hood, top and there were dents even over the rear tire where wood flew up and landed. The worst of the damage was that the front bumper was bashed as well as my center radiator, but thankfully no fluid leaking.

Brad could not stop laughing and I couldn't remember the last time I'd been so embarrassed... We still had to limp our way BACK to his parent's house where his whole famn damily was and a birthday party was starting... OMG if I could have pushed rewind on my life right then.

It all ended fine. I immediately called the country club from his house and told them what had happened. They were so nice and just said they would fix it, no problem and thanks for calling and owning up. I was able to drive the car home that night. I found a replacement bumper, had it painted, bought a new center rad and checked everything else out. Oh, and I got new tires. I fixed it all myself and was able to get paintless dent repair on the other body panels, so it looks perfect now.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my own story...

I had a closed top oil pan. I would just leave the top plug open all the time.

Except for once.

Didn't realize until the 3rd quart was out and I needed to reach in and open it up. Thank god I had some speedy dry on hand.

I pulled the wet vac closer to the floorboard by the hose. The wet vac rolled closer, and slammed into the car, busting a front corner lamp. Dang! That was stupid....

Too Cool for School
 

Working at Lee Barracks in Mainz, Germany and I had just picked up my 944 at the factory. Outside the PX I was putting stuff in the hatchback and enjoying watching a group of GIs admiring the car. I was so cool I couldn't stand myself. I then realized I had just dumped a giant soda into the brand new carpet, along with a bunch of ice. I calmly closed the hatch and raced for home and the shop vac. Traded the car a year later for an AC 911 -- no hatch to dump stuff in!

WhIle oh so carefully wheeling a band saw on a dolly out of my garage between my BMW and my Boxster, the access door on the saw popped open and put two very deep and long scratches in the driver's door of the box... A self-inflicted wound I get to look at every single day now.

I'm still pissed off.

I'm having that issue now, I hate sharing the "working garage" space with parking space. Last week the swaybar from my race car fell off a shelf right next to the front fender, and bounced AWAY from the car! Dodged a bullet there :o

Before buying my house, I used to have to park the car in the driveway. Usually it was always parked farthest in since it saw the least use, but this time I felt lazy and didn't want to juggle all the cars around, so I parked behind my sister's Crapali---er, Cavalier.

For whatever reason at that particular moment, instead of putting the car in neutral and pulling the e-brake as soon as I parked like I always do, I left it in gear and just lifted my foot off the clutch...like I always do when I put the car in neutral and pull the brake. Instant lurch and realization of what was happening, tried to get the clutch in and foot on the brake, but it was too late and my car's recently detailed nose ended up in the rear of a (thankfully also silver) Chevy. The point of my nose was aligned with the ridge on the Cavalier's bumper cover that surrounds the license plate, so it was a good shot for travelling only a few inches. The Cavalier looked untouched. I now have a very small dimple on the bumper from the impact and plenty of spiderwebbed paint in about a 6-inch radius.

You can bet I was m-fing myself for a while after that, and I notice it every time I am anywhere near the front of the car.:mad:

Some how the Painted part of my spoiler flew off while punching it on the I-85. I glad there where no motorcyclist behind me. BTW I am having finding a replacement part any ideas? http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1369488101.jpg

Is that some kind of high speed tailgate defense feature of 986s?

Completely annihilated that piece of crap front headlight tower connector, so now the entire front wheel liner has to come out so I can push the back of the connector into the headlight assembly every time I need to remove the front headlight for bulb replacement etc

Here is a good one for you guys. Was cleaning out my radiators. Just about done and was about to put the wheel liners back on. Something tells me to test out the emergency hood release. It works but after that, I spend the next 30 mins trying to figure out why the frunk wouldn't close. At one point I had put the wheel liners back on and was about to put the wheels back on the car. Decided that it would be a pain in da... if I had to go back in there so I took the wheel liners off trying to fix the problem. Finally I thought to go hit the hood release in the car. Problem solved. Frunk closed after that. Had a good laugh 30minutes later!!!!!

Wow..........this is an informative post, seeing as I just bought one of these a few months ago, and was planning on using it next oil change.

TO

p.s. Do you think your friend will let me change my oil in his garage? :)

I HATE when that happens!

TO