Ger's 2003 Porsche Boxster S

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Not harsh at all, I've never touched the bolt so must have been a previous owner/mechanic I've got two torque wrenches that I use when working on the car.

And thank you!

You have two more wrench than I have, lucky. Things are so much different here, don't need a torque wrench at all, for the car anyway. Authorities/insurers scrutinize your vehicle repairs when accident occur so everything has to be done at the dealer (period), genuine this and that. Brutal stuff I tell ya :/

Indy here are good for old oil and pink flushes, windshield fluid refill and paint cleaning/detailing. Can't "legally" torque anything on privately own cars anymore. Funny stuff lolll

Keep the thread's pics coming, tc bud

[alynch]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Not harsh at all, I've never touched the bolt so must have been a previous owner/mechanic I've got two torque wrenches that I use when working on the car.

And thank you!

Maybe an idea to check the track arm on the other side especially if both are of the same vintage and if both were replaced by the same previous owner/mechanic?

[Dubaday]

glad you and the car is ok man, some scary stuff there.

[TrumpyAl]

Speaking of not having touched that bolt - how has the driveshaft boot worked out for you Ger?

I recall that you used one which didn't required the shaft to be removed, which I'd have avoided but I'm curious to know how that's panned out for you so far as it's quite a time saver...

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by TrumpyAl

Speaking of not having touched that bolt - how has the driveshaft boot worked out for you Ger?

I recall that you used one which didn't required the shaft to be removed, which I'd have avoided but I'm curious to know how that's panned out for you so far as it's quite a time saver...

Absolutely fine it's exactly how it was when I fitted it!

[TrumpyAl]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Absolutely fine it's exactly how it was when I fitted it!

Brilliant. I'm glad to hear that.

[Nine8Six]

and oh, even the M1 oil is all fake man. Got to go to the dealer if you want to oil up decently in China

ok, done now. Let's see more of your car's pics please!

[TrumpyAl]

Have you considered starting with the seats? In the past I've been amazed at the difference that grippy seats makes to how capable and connected a car feels.

Is it worth considering switching to 19" wheels to take some refinement out of the car?

+1 for more pictures :-P

[oldskool73]

Sounds like you need to get a '97 model like mine, cable throttle and none of that luxury leather crap, it's light weight plastic all the way buddy! haha, if you want to swap just let me know...

[Dave80GTSi]

I have a chance to pick up a set of 18" wheels which look like yours - see picture.

How do you like yours? Did you need to use spacers?

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by TrumpyAl

Have you considered starting with the seats? In the past I've been amazed at the difference that grippy seats makes to how capable and connected a car feels.

Is it worth considering switching to 19" wheels to take some refinement out of the car?

+1 for more pictures :-P

I'm looking into the more sport version of the Boxsters seats but that won't be for a while yet. I'm happy with the seats, but unhappy with other areas, so I'll start with the areas I'm un happy with!

Originally Posted by oldskool73

Sounds like you need to get a '97 model like mine, cable throttle and none of that luxury leather crap, it's light weight plastic all the way buddy! haha, if you want to swap just let me know...

Hah you're alright I' think I'll stick to mine!

Originally Posted by Dave80GTSi

I have a chance to pick up a set of 18" wheels which look like yours - see picture.

How do you like yours? Did you need to use spacers?

Nice! No need for spacers, just a straight swap. Unless you have a 2.5 Base, in which it's recommended you don't put 18's on at all.

I think they're okay. The anthracite colour helps, but I don't like the style much I don't think. I bought them as they were an 18" upgrade and original Porsche, but I'd rather have the GT3 wheels, or better still the lobster claws or Carrera Sports (my favourite).


Had a productive evening. So I've removed the DRL's for now as one of them has failed (again) due to water getting inside of it. They're sending a replacement, but I may try some different ones. For the meantime I've put the sidelight bulbs back in which are seated behind the projector lenses, but I've put very bright ones in to make up for the fact that they're hidden.





Only temporary until I can find a good set of DRL's.

I got a little fed up of the car intermittently not cancelling the left indicator, so decided to open everything up to have a nose.







Then I noticed this tab which pushes the indicator mechanism back into place when it comes into contact. It's worn down on one side, so like a door latch, it skips one way and works the other way.




Decided to file down the curve so it was a perfect right angle:




And voila! Nice free fix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=wVLagCp6my0

[geraintthomas]

Had a very, very busy weekend.

The car now has new:

- Front control arms
- Water pump
- Coolant
- Drivebelt
- Oil
- Oil filter
- Air filter
- Pollen filter
- Spark plugs
- Wipers
- Parking sensor speaker

So Friday was spent servicing the car. I originally thought "Ah it'll only take an hour or two", and ended up finishing at midnight.





Was never a great fan of working on the gravel driveway, so my brother in law offered his driveway for the weekend. The beauty of his driveway is that it's on a slight slope, which means when I jack the back of the car up, it ends up being level. Perfect for draining coolant where the nose needs to be higher too, as I just lower the car again.

Did the control arms in about half hour, they were an absolute doddle. There's a slight knocking after I've changed the arms, so this will either be a loose bolt or a drop link. I'll have a check on the weekend, either way it won't be anything serious.

Started the water pump then. The job was easy enough, the coolant was drained, water pump changed, but the jubilee clips on the hoses were a pig as I didn't have the right pliers so I couldn't finish the job on Saturday due to this.****Also, it didn't help that it rained, so I called it a day and waited for the next day to borrow a pliers off their neighbour.



The next day had gorgeous weather in store, and as I had the right pliers I finished attaching the hoses within minutes. Filled the car with coolant, bled the system, and away we go!



Car runs fantastic. It's amazing how loud that water pump was, it's lovely and smooth now.

Also, the ebay parking sensors are still working brilliantly and look completely OEM, but they don't sound OEM. The speaker that came with them is a rubbish piezo speaker, so I decided to change it to more of an original sounding beep.

I bought a gong from a BMW 3 series for £9. You can wire this thing to make different sounds - triple beeps, echoing beeps, etc - but I settled for a straight beep that didn't echo. It works by wiring the positive and negative to the + and - terminals, then you split the negative terminal and wire it to one of the other pins depending on the sound you want.



Once I was happy, I taped it so that it was permanent, and resulted in a positive and negative wire to directly replace the old speaker.



This is the sound after testing it on a 9V battery:

https://youtu.be/ikNpddVeYXc

I've also ran wires from the sensor box all the way to the dashboard (nicely hidden away), so the sound now comes from the dash. It's now totally OEM feeling!

I'll get a better video of it soon Not bad for £15 ebay sensors.

[BruceH]

Nice work

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by BruceH

Nice work

Thanking you

[Dualist]

While you where changing the coffin arms you should have fitted polybushes, I did mine a couple of months ago and it completely transformed it. Handles like nothing before, but girlfriend says she needs to wear a sports bra when she's in my car now

[geraintthomas]

I'm quite skeptical about stiffening it too much as I'll be getting adjustable coilovers anyway. It's still a daily so I don't want it annoying or uncomfortable to drive - with coilovers, I can stiffen it up or soften it as I please after that I can always consider it if I'd like it even harder.

So I've bought a load of stuff to get the car into a perfect condition the way it is before I go upgrading it.

In the next few weeks it'll have:

- Refurbished alloys (same colour but silver barrel)
- New heater blower (current has a small whine)
- Windscreen machine polished to eliminate wiper marks
- Windscreen scuttle resprayed matt black
- Stone chips repaired with Chipex
- Headlights machine sanded & polished
- Re-fit DRL's from behind the vents (with the bumper off)
- Clean starter motor (has a donkey sound sometimes on start-up. Very common)

I've got genuine 'PORSCHE' lettering for the rear boot which I'm going to spray matt black, but I'm toying whether or not to put it on. If I do put it on, I'd want a smaller 'Boxster S' badge as the 986 & 987's badge is quite large. I could always 3D print one though...

[That986]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

with coilovers, I can stiffen it up or soften it as I please

Common misconception about coilovers there. You can adjust height and maybe damping but the spring rate will always be the same.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by That986

Common misconception about coilovers there. You can adjust height and maybe damping but the spring rate will always be the same.

Dampening adjustments are on most coilovers which stiffens or softens the ride though the damping of the shocks hence the dials on top of the struts of most coilovers

[That986]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Dampening adjustments are on most coilovers which stiffens or softens the ride though the damping of the shocks hence the dials on top of the struts of most coilovers

That only controls the movement of either the compression or rebound of the shock through the valve in the shock body itself. You can slow or speed the movement but it won't change the ride quality.
It's the spring rates and how they're wound which affect the ride. Too stiff a spring and you'll bounce everywhere, too soft and you'll wallow everywhere and no amount of damping adjustment will get that back. Think of the damping as fine adjustment.

For daily driving I wouldn't be putting coilovers on.

Good explanation here: How A Coilover Works - Super Street Magazine

[geraintthomas]

Had another productive day. The Boxster S badge started to suffer from paint peel, and the 'Compound' side stickers were getting a bit old. Took them both off and machined the paint underneath so that it was debadged and ready for what I planned to do next.

A friendly forum member offered me genuine 'P O R S C H E' lettering badges in exchange for some headlamp seals. I took them, resprayed them matte black, and put them on the rear. They look AWESOME.

Measuring up with fishing wire



And voila!









Instead of the Compound stickers on the side, I decided to go down the 981 style route and have the model designation on the sides.

These were bought from ebay, and while the 'Boxster' is perfect, the 'S' isn't the style of the original 'S'. It's almost there, but not quite right. I've got a friend who will print the actual one, but in the mean time these will do just fine!





They make up for the fact there's no 'Boxster S' badge on the rear.

Muchos better going to put the DRL's back into the bumper in the next few days.