Newbie with a Question
 

Hello all,

Been lurking here for a couple of months. Accidentally bought a 2003 Boxster on eBay this past July. Threw a low bid at the guy and he took it. The car is absolutely perfect with only 24k miles and checked out clean at the local dealership. This is my first Porsche after 40 years of drooling. I am a happy and proud owner.

The only problem I can find with the car is that the battery may be on it's last legs. It is not the original battery. Former owner put a Ford Motorcraft Group 48 battery in there. Don't trust it as far as I can throw it.

Anyhow, did my research through the forums and figured I will replace it this weekend. The only question I have is whether you can use one of these portable "Jump Start" batteries to hook into the system at the fuse box to keep the electrical going while you replace the battery? Will that work or do you need a full 12 Volt battery?

Looking forward to your thoughts and advice. Love the forum. Will post photos soon.

Cheers!

Congrats on your new ride and welcome! I'm sure you "could" use one of those portable jump start batteries while you swap the new one in but I wouldn't and I wonder why you'd want to?

With an '03 you don't have a radio code to worry about and the only thing needing reset when you're done (aside from radio presets and clock) are the windows (open all the way w/ switch, then close and hold switch for 3-5 seconds so car learns where 'stop', auto down and 'dip' are). Plus, doing so will reset the cars DME, O2 sensors, etc. and will learn your driving style. JM2C.

Congrats again and please post a pic of your new ride!

Thanks Burg.

How did I miss that fact in all the reading I've been doing? Oh well, typical newbie!

Carry on...

Seems a waste
 

to replace what may be a perfectly good battery. There must be a dozen batteries that fit the Boxster and a Group 48 is one of the sizes that fit.

There is a complete list at http://mike.focke.googlepages.com/ under the batteries page.

But before I replaced the battery, I'd load test it and be sure I wasn't wasting $$$$

And, as I recall from reading Mike Focke's excellent primer, if you plug a battery maintainer into your cigarette lighter while you're changing the battery, your car won't forget anything. You don't have a battery maintainer? If you're going to drive it regularly year-round, not a problem - but if you're planning on parking it during the winter, it's a good investment. And Mike's piece also talks about where you can get them fairly cheaply.