2005 Boxster S
Discussion
Ok so Llandow was yesterday. The day was setup to run in groups based on ability/experience in the morning with 15 minute sessions for each and then moving to an open pitlane for the afternoon. I had signed up for the Novice group and got to ride with a friend in a highly modified E30 to get to know the track. For those that havn't been there its a very short track with only a few corners, which is great for novices because you get to really dial in a smaller number of corners.
Anyway, after two laps under yellow flag we were off. The group as I remember it had a bunch of MX5s and a focus ST170. The boxster immediately felt right at home. Any apprehension I had over setup (stock brake pads/fluid, fairly old road biased tyres) were quickly dispelled. The car felt poised and balanced in a way thats not always obvious when driving more slowly on the road. Grip levels felt high, and the power felt more than adequite. Overtaking the other cars in the class on the straights was drama free and the brakes never felt lacking. This I can only put down to the ability of the car, rather than the driver. There is one main braking area into the bus stop where I was coming in from the top of third (about 95mph) to around 25mph and the car did his about 15 times in the session with no signs of fade. The long gearing made sense, only needing second and third gear to cover the track at speed.
On the last lap before the cooldown the car started throwing an "alternator/battery" warning light intermittently. I did the cooldown lap and went back to the paddock, hoping that the alternator had just got hot and the issue would go away after cooling completely. To be honest, I hadn't realised how long we were out for and the car had done far more than I was expecting.
Anyway, long story short the fault didn't go away after cooldown. I took the bulkhead panel out to let the alternator properly cool and to inspect for obvious issues but no luck. None of our group had a multimeter to problem solve and I didn't want to risk running out of battery on the way home so ended the day after lunchtime.
Picture with roof down to get better access to the bulkhead area;
Annoying that it looks like I will have to put the car back into service position AGAIN to fix this. I suspect the alternator is cheesed but ill do some proper diagnosis over the next few days. It may have digested some fan belt fragments from the water pump bearing failure incident despite my efforts to vacuum them out. It also looks original, so may just be an age thing and the heat from the track just pushed it over the edge.
On the way home, the battery/alternator warning would go on and off seemingly at random. At one point on the M4 towards the end of the trip a brake distribution fault also came up, so I think/hope the car was running low on electricity and causing some other issues at this point. Thankfully that message was a one off and the car made the ~70 mile trip home with the roof down and the sun beaming so not a bad end to the day really. Overall I was happy that the car performed well and didn't leave me stranded afterwards.
Anyway, after two laps under yellow flag we were off. The group as I remember it had a bunch of MX5s and a focus ST170. The boxster immediately felt right at home. Any apprehension I had over setup (stock brake pads/fluid, fairly old road biased tyres) were quickly dispelled. The car felt poised and balanced in a way thats not always obvious when driving more slowly on the road. Grip levels felt high, and the power felt more than adequite. Overtaking the other cars in the class on the straights was drama free and the brakes never felt lacking. This I can only put down to the ability of the car, rather than the driver. There is one main braking area into the bus stop where I was coming in from the top of third (about 95mph) to around 25mph and the car did his about 15 times in the session with no signs of fade. The long gearing made sense, only needing second and third gear to cover the track at speed.
On the last lap before the cooldown the car started throwing an "alternator/battery" warning light intermittently. I did the cooldown lap and went back to the paddock, hoping that the alternator had just got hot and the issue would go away after cooling completely. To be honest, I hadn't realised how long we were out for and the car had done far more than I was expecting.
Anyway, long story short the fault didn't go away after cooldown. I took the bulkhead panel out to let the alternator properly cool and to inspect for obvious issues but no luck. None of our group had a multimeter to problem solve and I didn't want to risk running out of battery on the way home so ended the day after lunchtime.
Picture with roof down to get better access to the bulkhead area;
Annoying that it looks like I will have to put the car back into service position AGAIN to fix this. I suspect the alternator is cheesed but ill do some proper diagnosis over the next few days. It may have digested some fan belt fragments from the water pump bearing failure incident despite my efforts to vacuum them out. It also looks original, so may just be an age thing and the heat from the track just pushed it over the edge.
On the way home, the battery/alternator warning would go on and off seemingly at random. At one point on the M4 towards the end of the trip a brake distribution fault also came up, so I think/hope the car was running low on electricity and causing some other issues at this point. Thankfully that message was a one off and the car made the ~70 mile trip home with the roof down and the sun beaming so not a bad end to the day really. Overall I was happy that the car performed well and didn't leave me stranded afterwards.
That's an interesting bit of feedback on the cheaper units. I'm not sure if that gives me more or less confidence in them - it sounds like a easy fix but having such a simple issue with a unit that is quite complicated might not bode well for the long-term.
Glad it's working well for you though, I'm not sure I can handle the risk. At the moment the charging issue is keeping me busy so I'm putting off making a decision even though I promised myself I would order the audio stuff this month.
It seems the voltage measured at the battery fluctuates in line with the fault on the dash (around 14v when light is off, around 12.5v when it's on). It took a few minutes of driving to start throwing the issue today, so it feels like a heat thing. Once it was having the issue, even sitting at idle the voltage wasn't holding constant. The revs drop slightly when the voltage increases.
Although it's feasible it's a poor contact somewhere, this really feels like an alternator problem. I am planning to pull the alternator tomorrow and either replace it or take the old one somewhere for test/repair. There is somewhere half an hour from the house that deals with these things and has good reviews. Cheap eBay versions are available from about £100 and I can't say I'm not tempted to give that a go if a repair would be more.
Glad it's working well for you though, I'm not sure I can handle the risk. At the moment the charging issue is keeping me busy so I'm putting off making a decision even though I promised myself I would order the audio stuff this month.
It seems the voltage measured at the battery fluctuates in line with the fault on the dash (around 14v when light is off, around 12.5v when it's on). It took a few minutes of driving to start throwing the issue today, so it feels like a heat thing. Once it was having the issue, even sitting at idle the voltage wasn't holding constant. The revs drop slightly when the voltage increases.
Although it's feasible it's a poor contact somewhere, this really feels like an alternator problem. I am planning to pull the alternator tomorrow and either replace it or take the old one somewhere for test/repair. There is somewhere half an hour from the house that deals with these things and has good reviews. Cheap eBay versions are available from about £100 and I can't say I'm not tempted to give that a go if a repair would be more.
Yes I did see that Sony unit. As you say, not the biggest screen etc but the volume knob is a great feature. Unfortunately I am using android at the moment and it doesn't support android auto, which basically rules it out 
Spent a few hours wrestling with the alternator. This job could either be the easiest (if the unit is new) or the worst (as it was). The job basically hinges on hammering a small bush out of the alternator to get clearance to remove it. The bush was corroded in place and wouldn't budge. I was close to cutting the alternator flange to get it out but with some brute force the thing did come out.
I've damaged the bush hammering it and the whole unit looks original (Bosch) so I've ordered a new unit. I did go for a cheaper pattern part. We shall see how good it is, I'll hang onto the original and if the cheaper replacement looks super shonky or packs up get repaired.
Spent a few hours wrestling with the alternator. This job could either be the easiest (if the unit is new) or the worst (as it was). The job basically hinges on hammering a small bush out of the alternator to get clearance to remove it. The bush was corroded in place and wouldn't budge. I was close to cutting the alternator flange to get it out but with some brute force the thing did come out.
I've damaged the bush hammering it and the whole unit looks original (Bosch) so I've ordered a new unit. I did go for a cheaper pattern part. We shall see how good it is, I'll hang onto the original and if the cheaper replacement looks super shonky or packs up get repaired.
Ok so new alternator fitted and car seems happy. I've not driven it far to be fair. Ended up taking a few hours to remove but about 10 minutes to fit. That bush being free makes all the difference!
Aso excitingly I made a decision on head unit. I ended up buying the incartec adaptor (so no need to run new wires from ignition live) and fitting kit. Bought a cheaper JVC unit (KW-M560BT) as it was heavily discounted from Halfords. Overall cost for kit and headunit was similar to the AliExpress unit. First impressions are that the sound quality is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the cdr24. I am very happy with the sound quality now and the android auto seems to work flawlessly and quickly.
The lack of volume knob is somewhat offset as the JVC units have gesture recognition, basically you rotate your finger vaguely on the screen and it turns the volume down. A big downside is that the feature doesn't work when the screen is showing android auto. If you click on the home screen at any time it will still play music and the feature will work. Not ideal but might be useful
Photo of setup, nothing that's not been done before
Aso excitingly I made a decision on head unit. I ended up buying the incartec adaptor (so no need to run new wires from ignition live) and fitting kit. Bought a cheaper JVC unit (KW-M560BT) as it was heavily discounted from Halfords. Overall cost for kit and headunit was similar to the AliExpress unit. First impressions are that the sound quality is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the cdr24. I am very happy with the sound quality now and the android auto seems to work flawlessly and quickly.
The lack of volume knob is somewhat offset as the JVC units have gesture recognition, basically you rotate your finger vaguely on the screen and it turns the volume down. A big downside is that the feature doesn't work when the screen is showing android auto. If you click on the home screen at any time it will still play music and the feature will work. Not ideal but might be useful
Photo of setup, nothing that's not been done before
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