My first Boxster!

[haz]

Hi all,
long time lurker, first time poster from Oslo Norway

Sold my 2004 BMW 1-Series + a 1975 VW Jeans and bought this 2000 Boxster last thursday, after researching how to by and what to look for -guides on these forums.
So, thanks all !!

It has 157.000 kilometres on the clock, has a complete service history and a full ppt.
Seems in great condition! Seller also showed me receipts for around $24500 for the last 7 years, so many wear-parts have been replaced.

Has a hard top + winter tires.

Wheel and tire spec:

Summer:
Rear, 18" Cup 3 Turbo, 18 X 10,5 rim, 265/35 Goodyear Eagle F1
Front 18" Cup 3 Turbo, 18 X 8 rim, 225/40 Goodyear Eagle F1

Winter:
Rear, 17" Cup 3 Turbo, 17 X 8 rim, 225/45 Michelin X-ice
Front, 17" Cup 3 Turbo, 17 X 7,5 rim, 225/45 Michelin X-ice)

Some questions:

What is the Boxster like to live with at winter time? We get a lot of snow in Norway, as you can imagine.. Any of you drive it during a snowy winter?

Any "must do" upgrades I should consider?

Any "must check" for on the car? Here I am thinking about problems areas such as RWM, IMS etc.

The car shakes/rattles above 120 km/h. What can this be caused by? Wheel alignement? A wheel that needs to be balanced? A drive shaft that is dying?

The AC is not working. Is refilling expensive? A DIY job?

It has an aftermarkt exhaust. How can I find out what type it is? Supposed to give another 10 brake hp, but I havent seen any documentation.

Some pictures from the ad:

[litespeedp]

Congrats on very nice clean Box.I would start reading this forum for mechanical needs info on the IMS/RMS etc.My Box is same year and approx mileage and I did the IMS/RMS just for peace of mind.
Fantastic that you have the receipts.You may want to use a good leather conditioner on your seats to protect them.Hard to tell about your exhaust brand.Sometimes the manufacturer claims to offer more HP with the exhaust but it may be hard to confirm.

If the sound is cool,then enjoy it!

Your hard top is good looking and unusual.I personally would be reluctant to drive it in the snow due to risk of corrosion from road salts if this is used in your country and of course,accidents.What brand hard top is it? Is it fiberglass or metal?

[hancock1701]

Congrats on the new Boxster. I just bought a Boxster a few weeks ago. Your Boxster looks like it has aftermarket LED tail lights.

I think refilling the AC system is an easy DIY. There's a writeup on pelicanparts.com. Hopefully that is the only cause of your AC not working.

[dbear61]

Welcome to the forum! Hope the first Boxster isn't your last. I have no experience with winter driving a Boxster, but others have posted no problems with winter tires unless you're driving through cover of 7 cm or more. Any depth greater, and you aren't driving; you're plowing.

Search the forum for DIY Do It Yourself on air filter, MAF and AOS for standard repairs.

And I have to comment that that is one sweeta$$ hardtop. Definitely not stock.

DBear

[PhilNZ]

Nice car & pics. I installed the IMS Guardian myself, not difficult but I combined the install with some basic maintenance, oil change, filters etc.
My Tiptronic selects 1st gear on hill starts but most of the time its starts in 2nd.
Good luck with the winter driving. I'm going skiing at the weekend but I have 4WD Nissan Elgrand with snow tyres for that. The Boxster stays in the garage when we go to the snow

[haz]

Thx for clearing up the gears for me. Any tip on a radio upgrade?

[Topdown986]

Congrats on the new Boxster I just purchased my first last month. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have mine so far and I love the hardtop!

[particlewave]

Welcome to the forums

That's a unique looking hardtop...I'd like to see more pictures of it.
Your vibration could be caused by any number of things, but a good place to start would be the wheels. Inspect tires and replace any that need replaced, then have the wheels balanced.
I'm not sure what an AC refill would cost in your area, but you should have the entire system inspected while you're at it.
FYI: It's not uncommon to have a leak(s) at the condenser coil or plumbing under the front bumper from curb scrapes.

[haz]

Thanks for alle replies. I have a feeling I will be spending some quality time hanging around here

I have had many German cars and mostly VW (old bugs but also newer ones) and BMW, and I always find my self a great forum to both contribute and for research

In regards to the hard top, I am quite sure this is the producer Porsche Boxster Hardtop : Porsche 986 - Prosche 987
The guy I bought the car from told me he ordered it and drove over to UK to collect and fit it to the car. It is supposed to have a Cayman look to it. I dont know if I prefer this to the standard hard top but.. Its a taste thing I guess.

Originally Posted by particlewave

Welcome to the forums

That's a unique looking hardtop...I'd like to see more pictures of it.
Your vibration could be caused by any number of things, but a good place to start would be the wheels. Inspect tires and replace any that need replaced, then have the wheels balanced.
I'm not sure what an AC refill would cost in your area, but you should have the entire system inspected while you're at it.
FYI: It's not uncommon to have a leak(s) at the condenser coil or plumbing under the front bumper from curb scrapes.

I appreciate your input. I think starting with the wheels and balacing sounds smart.
The previous owner had a sharp angle from the front of his garage coming up to the garagedoor going over to the garage floor, so I know for sure it has plastic cover scrapes underneith. So I think you have a good point there! (The AC was refilled last summer so it must have some sort of a leak somewhere..)

Originally Posted by Topdown986

Congrats on the new Boxster I just purchased my first last month. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have mine so far and I love the hardtop!

Hey, thanks!! Much obliged.

Originally Posted by dbear61

Welcome to the forum! Hope the first Boxster isn't your last. I have no experience with winter driving a Boxster, but others have posted no problems with winter tires unless you're driving through cover of 7 cm or more. Any depth greater, and you aren't driving; you're plowing.

Search the forum for DIY Do It Yourself on air filter, MAF and AOS for standard repairs.

And I have to comment that that is one sweeta$$ hardtop. Definitely not stock.

DBear

Thanks, feels good to be welcomed

We DO get at least 7cms snow, and more. But we will see.. I live downtown Oslo and I walk to work, and dont really neeed a car. This is purely out of interest that I prefer special cars.

Good input on the DIYs, I always appreciate people making them.

And I didnt expect such interest in my hardtop he he..

Originally Posted by hancock1701

Congrats on the new Boxster. I just bought a Boxster a few weeks ago. Your Boxster looks like it has aftermarket LED tail lights.

I think refilling the AC system is an easy DIY. There's a writeup on pelicanparts.com. Hopefully that is the only cause of your AC not working.

Great! Congrats yourself

The previous owner bought the lights from Design911UK:
Light Upgrade Kit II. Porsche Boxster 986 *LHD Cars - LIGHTKIT17 | Design 911

Originally Posted by litespeedp

Congrats on very nice clean Box.I would start reading this forum for mechanical needs info on the IMS/RMS etc.My Box is same year and approx mileage and I did the IMS/RMS just for peace of mind.
Fantastic that you have the receipts.You may want to use a good leather conditioner on your seats to protect them.Hard to tell about your exhaust brand.Sometimes the manufacturer claims to offer more HP with the exhaust but it may be hard to confirm.

If the sound is cool,then enjoy it!

Your hard top is good looking and unusual.I personally would be reluctant to drive it in the snow due to risk of corrosion from road salts if this is used in your country and of course,accidents.What brand hard top is it? Is it fiberglass or metal?

Thanks! I did a lot of research before I ended up with this one. Thats one of the reasons I got a 2,7 and not a 2,5 and also it had a recent PPT and full service documentation.

Can I ask: how much did you have to spend on a IMS replacement / kit upgrade or whatever its called?

He did do a full leather treatment last sumer. So I will do one later also.

Check the link above for more specs on it. It is made out of fibreglass. It cost the previous owner 1200 UK pounds which equals around $1800

[haz]

Also, is installing a IMS Guardian something that is recommended and how common is it that owners do this? Are there other options? Im just wondering how easy it will be for me to order one and have my Porsche mechanic install it..
IMS Guardian

[ilikeching]

Hi, congrat with Boxster, i'm from Oslo too, maybe we could have a meetup one day, that would be cool, sharing some tips and experience.
Theres no problem with winter driving as long you have antispinn or PSM on your vehicle, but i would og for 16" wheels for winter driving, more comfy.

[haz]

Originally Posted by ilikeching

Hi, congrat with Boxster, i'm from Oslo too, maybe we could have a meetup one day, that would be cool, sharing some tips and experience.
Theres no problem with winter driving as long you have antispinn or PSM on your vehicle, but i would og for 16" wheels for winter driving, more comfy.

Thanks! Yes, that would be helpful

It came with 17 inch winterwheels, hopefully they work.

Which model is your Boxster? I clicked through some facebook pics from your profile, it seems we have some mutual friends.

[haz]

By the way, I posted an answer to all replies below earlier today. When posting, a message appeared saying the post would not appear before a moderator had approved the post. But replying to the last post a couple of moments ago, my post appeared right away. Weird..?

[haz]

Originally Posted by haz

By the way, I posted an answer to all replies below earlier today. When posting, a message appeared saying the post would not appear before a moderator had approved the post. But replying to the last post a couple of moments ago, my post appeared right away. Weird..?

Anyone have an idea on why the mods havent approved my post yet? It was a long one..

Ill try and make a brief summary on my post.

I just wanted to thank eveyone for a great response

The hardtop was custom orderer by the previous owner and picked up by him in UK http://www.boxster-hardtop.co.uk/

The lights are from 911 Design and are these http://www.design911.co.uk/fu/prod6315/Light-Upgrade-Kit-Porsche-Boxster-986--RHD-Cars_2_2/

[ilikeching]

its 97 mod.
did a DIY soft top install with great result....

Originally Posted by haz

Thanks! Yes, that would be helpful

It came with 17 inch winterwheels, hopefully they work.

Which model is your Boxster? I clicked through some facebook pics from your profile, it seems we have some mutual friends.

[haz]

Wow.. you basically saved NOK 11000 which is what Hurtigruta Carglass charged the previous owner for innstalling his new cab top last year..

Originally Posted by ilikeching

its 97 mod.
did a DIY soft top install with great result....

[Fintro11]

The cheapest option for the iPhone is a fm transmitter.

There are a few threads on here about iPhones and the radio you can either go aftermarket or there is a box called a gateway? $500 and it connects and replaces the cd changer option it has blue tooth and USB outlets also displays the song name on the stock radio

I have also just got my boxster about 3 months ago, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do !

[haz]

I had a FM transmitter in my 97 C Class (seems the Germans sleep during audio tech news class) and even though I had the best one out there (2 yrs ago), it didn't provide a good enough sound - nor was it stable enough.

I'm not necessarily looking for the cheapest option here. I searched for that gateway solution you mentioned, but couldn't find anything on it. Could you maybe provide a link? I do have a standard Porsche cd changer in the front boot that could be replaced..

EDIT* Did a Googlesearch for FM Transmitters.. looks like the Belkin TuneBase FM LIVE is best in test.. too bad it isn't compatible with my iPhone5...

So; what iPhone 5 FM transmitter should I get? Surely I can't be the only onbe with this issue. I don't want to replace my stock Porsche radio I think.. a new fancy radio with bright colours just looks.. wrong..

[Fintro11]

Gateway 500 | iPod car, iPhone car, USB car, Bluetooth car kit, Video car adapter

For now I use a cheap fm transmitter I'm not sure if I want to go this way or go aftermarket

[haz]

Thanks, will check a local dealer