Funtoy
 

Earlier this fall the local used car dealer in our town had a somewhat sad looking 2002 Boxster S sitting in his lot for $8999. After driving by it for several weeks my wife and I decided to take it for a test drive. First time in a Porsche for both of us, but we weren't back at the dealer before my wife said "I want it".

Back home I checked out Boxsters on the Web and read all the scary stuff, but also a lot of enthusiasm for the car. So we decided to have a PPI done. Found a Porsche specialist right here in town and went down to schedule a PPI. Turns out he had a much nicer 2004 S with a DOF IMS retrofit, but for $14000. After a test drive I decided that this was a much better deal and called my wife to come over for a test drive. To make a long story short we decided to make the leap.

We have now had the car for 2 months and not regretted making the purchase for one moment.

It does have a few things that need to be done. The worst is that the rear trailing arm bushings are shot. They rattle badly when going over bumps. If I accelerate the rattle goes away so I'm confident its the trailing arms.

So what do we plan to do with it? Its the first toy car we have ever owned, so its not a daily driver. Driving on the back roads with the top down has been a delight and the occasional full throttle acceleration on highway on-ramps have been thrilling. I just can't get tired of the sound it makes and am amazed at how smooth it is all the way up to red-line.

So this is another thing for the two of us to enjoy together. My wife still isn't comfortable with the clutch and manual transmission, so I am doing most of the driving, but I am sure that will change.

I and a mechanic friend of mine will be doing autocrosses and I do want to do a track day or two, but most of the driving will be back roads with the top down.

Life is good and retirement is the best, especially with a Boxster S! Hopefully we will be able to enjoy it for a long time.

Anker

Purchases
 

My plan is to do as much maintenance as I can do myself, so my first purchases were the Bentley service manual and 101 Projects. I also purchased a CD with the Porsche service manuals and downloaded the Porsche original parts manuals. Have been through them by now and am really impressed with the amount of detail and fairly confident that I can handle most of the simpler tasks.

I also joined PCA as soon as I had a VIN in hand. SCCA was next.

I only have a two car garage and the Boxster is the third car, so where to store it in winter? The answer is a ShelterLogic garage in the back yard. It has been erected, but I still need to put a floor with a vapor barrier in it.

Finally a full tool set. I have a pretty comprehensive tool collection, but decided that the Boxster deserves its own dedicated tool box. Still not complete, but getting there.

Winter projects
 

Yesterday the brake pad wear warning came up, so I broke out the new tools to check all pads and disks. I am waiting for Harbor Freight's Black Friday sale to purchase a shop jack, so I had to use the puny jack in the frunk. Hopefully this will be the last time I have to use it. The front brake pads are worn down, but the disks still have about .5 mm left on them before they have to be replaced. The rears pads have lots of wear left. Rear disks also have about .5 mm before they have to be replaced. Placed my first Pelican order for brake pads, wear sensors and brake brake pad dampers for the front. They will be installed just before she goes into winter hibernation.

My spring project is replacing the rear trailing arms. Will be ordered in the late February time frame and installed as soon as its warm enough to work on the car in the garage.

Excellent choice with the '04 with IMS solution.
On your tools and books: half the fun is getting your hands dirty! :cheers:

Congratulations on your purchase.
Brake pads and trailing arms are grate first projects.
You will be surprised to see how relatively easy these cars are to work on.
a specially with the help of the forum. :cheers:

Welcome and congrats. Please post a picture of your car, when you get a chance.

Congratulations!

We'd all love to see your new car, post up a few pics!

Here she is:

https://photos.smugmug.com/All-Image...BS_2415-X3.jpg

Not having the mirror doors on the sun visors bugs me. Looking for a pair. The lights don't work either but that's less important.

Today's project - emergency brake
 

While reading the brake pad and disk replacement instructions I noticed that a properly adjusted hand brake should lock at 4 clicks. Mine goes up about 10 or 11, so if the weather cooperates today I'll adjust the shoes and the linkage in the console. If not, it will go on the list!

Sun visor R&R...
 

Anker,

These worked great for me.
Suncoast Porsche Parts & Accessories Sun Visor Mirror - Euro, No Lights

Great looking car!

Thank you, BoxsterSteve!

Congrats. Great choice with the 04 S.

Although it's Boxster, not 'boxter'.

Thanks! :-) That was embarrassing.

Funny how your brain wants to type one thing and your fingers type something else.

Edit all my posts and my signature.

I has 2 shelter logics in NY and the both collapsed under show. No, not Buffalo, the Poughkeepsie area. So be very careful of your Box.

I have a mechanic friend who has a lot of experience with them. It is a domed garage and I will put straps between the verticals to increase the strength. But thanks for the warning!

Ok. Now we need to teach you how to resize your picture :D

If you haven't replaced the shoes you should be able to do everything by adjusting the linkage behind the console under the cubby. The adjustment on the shoes themselves with the toothed gear adjuster is just for when you change shoes. (I believe :) ) Dealing with the shoes is a pain so I would start with the linkage first :)

Thanks for the advice, steved0x! Will do the linkage adjustment and skip the shoe adjustments!

Took my 10 year old grand daughter round the neighborhood and then gave the keys to my son in law so he and my daughter could catch the Boxster bug.

Top down, of course, even though the temps were around 40.

Next week she will be prepped for hibernation, sob!

https://scontent.fbos1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...f5&oe=58B2021D

https://scontent.fbos1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...e8&oe=58C814BE

What a good looking car! I'm a sucker for 03 and 04 cars in silver, I think they look very sporty and classy.

Thank you. We feel blessed to have found it and now to own it!

You beat me, I took mine out for a nice drive today before the rain started - but no top down! And I live in MA too. Nice car and nice family.


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So today I tackled the front brakes. I got Bosch pads, wear sendors and vibration dampers from Pelican and also read the various brake pad replacement threads thoroughly.

Everything went smoothly except for one issue. On the outer side of the right front caliper the old vibration dampers were thoroughly stuck in the caliper pistons. After prying on them for a while the backing plate broke away and left the dampers still in the pistons. I installed the new pads anyway and am a bit concerned that I will get squeals since there's nothing to pull and hold the pads away from the disk.

The same happened with the bigger damper thingy on the inside of the left caliper. Here I unscrewed the thingy from the new damper set and installed the damper with the pads. I did remember to remove the backing from all newly installed dampers.

So my questions whether I should buy some anti-squeal glue and bond the pads to the pistons? Any other suggestions?

I am going to rebuild or replace the calipers next time I do front brakes. By that time the disks will be down to the minimum thickness.

Thanks/Anker

A couple of things I learned:

You need a really low and long reach shop jack to put the front end on jack stands. The 3.5" clearance jack I just bought doesn't have enough reach to allow me to put the jack under the reinforced pad on the chassis and leave enough room to put the jack stands under the jack points. I was able to, but just barely, fit the jack stands under the reinforced members when I put the shop jack under the jack points. The 19.75" lift height is also at the low end for working under the car on jack stands. To get under the car from the side panels the height of the jack can't be more than 6" at its highest point.

Hmmmmm. I would swear I already posted this. After posting it saw that I did. Myapologies for the double post.

I changed the front brake pads on FunToy. Bosch pads, wear sensors and vibration dampers were ordered last weekend and arrived Friday.

The task went quite smoothly, thanks to all the threads describing how to do it. I did run into one problem. The vibration dampers were stuck on one side on the right front brake and one of the dampers was stuck on the left brake. I was unable to extract them from the holes in the pistons and eventually they broke away from the backing plates. I decided to install the pads anyway. They have a firm foam backing that I hope serves to dampen vibrations, and if that doesn't work I will use high temperature silicon glue to bond the pistons to the pads. Next time I change pads the disks will be worn down and then I'll plan to replace or refurbish the calipers.

Another issue was that the floor jack that I purchased Friday was barely low enough and long enough to put the car on jack stands. I gave up in placing the jack points. Instead I was able to jack the car up by the jack points and place the jack stands under the reinforced chassis member. It was really, really close. The jack is 6.26" high at the highest point and the ground clearance onm the side is only 6". Also, the lift height on 19.5" seemed good but is only just enough to clear the jack stands in their lowest position. So if you are shopping for a floor jack for a Boxster S make sure it is low enough and long enough to allow you to put it on jack stands. The jack points and the reinforced pad are pretty close, so careful placement of the jack is required.

The story
 

So how did we end up with a Boxster?

I have always ended up purchasing "practical" vehicles, with my better half getting the sportier ones. A Firebird in 1985 and a Buick Reatta (remember those) in the 80's. The latter one was a surprise gift to her, much appreciated.

The Porsche part of the story goes back to my younger brother. He lived in Sweden and worked in Denmark. My family is from Denmark, but he lived in Sweden for tax reasons. One is that in Denmark you buy 3 cars, give two to the government and they graciously let you keep the third. Yes, this really is true. Anyway, he bought a rare 944 Turbo Cabriolet in Germany and put a 6 speed transmission in it. 10 years ago he tragically died in a diving accident and I tried to get the 944 to the US as a memento. Unfortunately the advice I got was that it would cost a fortune to make it comply with US regulations, so that didn't work. But it did put the Porsche bug into my head.

Wind forward 10 years and we saw a sad looking Boxster at our local used car dealership. We test drove it and were hooked. To make a long story short we didn't buy that one (thank God), but purchased Funtoy which has an IMSB retrofit and a service record. We had no idea purchase prices could be so reasonable, otherwise we would have done it years ago.

Every time I take a spin in Funtoy send a thought to my brother, and hope he receives it. All of which makes it the more precious to us.

Back in the 60s and 70s I did all of my car maintenance myself, but once I could afford it I always paid other people for it. With Funtoy I am back to doing maintenance. No pressure, because it is a toy car and not a daily driver, and I can do the work in an attached garage, which is much better than lying under the car in the snow. New brake pads a few days ago and new trailing arms and probably new front disks before she gets unpacked next spring.

Here's a picture of my brother's 944.

https://photos.smugmug.com/All-Image...DSC_0005-L.jpg

Nice looking Boxster

My sister lives in Hardwick and nephew in Stowe, so I know you have some nice twisty roads to drive.
If you like bagels, stop by their restaurant, the Bagel

As far as using anti squeal stuff on the dampers, you don't need it.
An easy way to split them from the pads is to use a small putty knife and slide it between the dampers and the pad backing. Many people don't bother with the dampers as well. YMMV

If your looking for some used parts, try Woody, itsnotanova on this forum. He is about as straight a shooter as you will find

Here's to your brother, his beautiful 944 cab, and to you keeping Porsche ownership going in the family.


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2nd gear
 

When I drove FunToy down to my indie for winterization it was right around the freezing point and second gear gave me some issues until the transmission oil warmed up. The problem seemed to be that it didn't properly engage and slipped out of gear as soon as I released the clutch. All other gears were fine. I did a search and most of the comments about this issue indicated that a transmission oil change would cure the problem. I also wonder whether there is a bit of slop in the linkages - she has 104000 miles on the clock, so it wouldn't be a wonder if it was. My biggest fear is that it is something inside the transmission. Crossing my fingers!

Now its official
 

Plates came in today!

https://photos.smugmug.com/All-Image...IMG_0457-L.jpg

New daily driver
 

Traded in the Subaru Forester for a 2009 Mercedes CLK 350 cabriolet as my daily driver. If I had the money it would be another Porsche. But its a convertible and in fantastic shape. It also has 4 seats, so I can take the grand kids around and also friends in a pinch.

Would have preferred a SLK, but there's no way to attach a tow bar to that and now that we don't have a SUV or van I need a trailer to transport my bigger stuff.

It is interested how much more active the 984 community is than the CLK one. Very little DIY and modding going on.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/CLK1481902947.jpg

Anker

I'm on a Benz forum for our ML350, and there's like one post a month. LOL. I'm also on an Audi forum which are REALLY active because people like to ECU tune their Turbos and mod just about everything. On the Benz forum, some sneer at you for wanting to even update the pedal covers to aluminum (that are factory upgrades even)!