2003 Porsche Boxster S
Discussion
Plate spinner said:
Could you not set the dash backlights to be permanently on?
Still isn't bright enough, you can't see the illumination in the daylight.Podie said:
Later dot matrix screen looks a lot nicer 
It absolutely is!By the way...
A perfect fit.
Cut it out
Removed the gauges
Placed the overlay onto the face
Tadaaah! All without removing the needle. You can't even see the slit.
Haven't got any photos inside the car yet as it was too dark. Will get some tomorrow!
With red, it's hard as the numbers are already black. The only thing I can do is add some sort of dropped stroke to that they ping out:
trails said:
Such a good thread, the ever evolving car is a credit to you...thanks for sharing
Yellow dial cover is pretty darn fine too!
Much appreciated! Thank you!Yellow dial cover is pretty darn fine too!
Tomorrow I thought "Ah, day off. I can get round to changing that sub frame and getting it aligned, so the car is back to normal". But no, snow is forecast. Damn it.
I've also booked in a steering wheel re-trim. Black perforated leather left and right, black plain leather top and bottom, grey stitch, padded underneath, normal grey airbag. Should look incredible as I've had this guy do it for me on my last car and he did a stellar job.
Hi Geraint,
I've stumbled across your posts from another website and have just spent the last couple of hours reading through your progress. I have screenshots, notes and lots of work planned.
I have a 2004 Boxster S, one of the last of the original Boxsters in Lapis Blue. It's fairly stock, but does have the same wheels as you! Maybe you inspired it's last owner.
Mine needs lots of body and interior TLC, but is mechanically sound.
So, I get through all of your posts and then realise you are local... I'm in Caerphilly.
Small world!
I've stumbled across your posts from another website and have just spent the last couple of hours reading through your progress. I have screenshots, notes and lots of work planned.
I have a 2004 Boxster S, one of the last of the original Boxsters in Lapis Blue. It's fairly stock, but does have the same wheels as you! Maybe you inspired it's last owner.
Mine needs lots of body and interior TLC, but is mechanically sound.
So, I get through all of your posts and then realise you are local... I'm in Caerphilly.
Small world!
leighlo said:
Hi Geraint,
I've stumbled across your posts from another website and have just spent the last couple of hours reading through your progress. I have screenshots, notes and lots of work planned.
I have a 2004 Boxster S, one of the last of the original Boxsters in Lapis Blue. It's fairly stock, but does have the same wheels as you! Maybe you inspired it's last owner.
Mine needs lots of body and interior TLC, but is mechanically sound.
So, I get through all of your posts and then realise you are local... I'm in Caerphilly.
Small world!
Ahh amazing! Thanks for reading through, I really appreciate it. How's it treating you?I've stumbled across your posts from another website and have just spent the last couple of hours reading through your progress. I have screenshots, notes and lots of work planned.
I have a 2004 Boxster S, one of the last of the original Boxsters in Lapis Blue. It's fairly stock, but does have the same wheels as you! Maybe you inspired it's last owner.
Mine needs lots of body and interior TLC, but is mechanically sound.
So, I get through all of your posts and then realise you are local... I'm in Caerphilly.
Small world!
Aifos said:
That's an amazing post. I registered to the Forum just for this. Near week I am gonna upgrade my 03 986 with a 05 987 Boxster S and I am planing to buy an Xtrons head unit like yours and I was wondering if I can buy from you the theme and the splash screen.
Thank you! No need to buy the theme and splash screen, I'll give them to you for free. The theme is easy (wallpaper and an app that changes the app icons to custom PNG's that I designed), but the splash screen is tricky as you need to make a custom ROM and inject the new splash screen into it before flashing your unit with it. It's easy, just you have to follow the guide perfectly as if it goes wrong you've had it.Podie said:
Any updates...?
Heaveho said:
Have a look on Boxanet.................
Right. Time for an update I think?Apologies for being so quiet, but I gave up on the car. It had been broken for such a long time (over a year now) that I'd just fallen out of love with it, and ended up buying a car cover, SORNing it and cancelling the insurance, and basically leaving it under a cover on the drive connected to a trickle charger so that I could forget about it until I could be bothered to think about it again. Which didn't turn out to be long.
Driving my little Fiesta TDCi around everywhere made me pine for the car. Not that the fiesta wasn't good (this thing cost me £500, does 75mpg and is bullet proof), but I completely took the Porsche for granted. It's one of those things which you don't realise how good it is until it's gone. There were a few things I needed to do to the car to get it back on the road but I decided to get Christmas out of the way first, as it'll cost around £800 to get it going again (with doing all of the work myself).
The whole engine problem was previously fixed, but it still needs:
- Service
- Subframe replacement & four wheel alignment
- 2x rear tyres
- Alloy wheel refurb
- New battery
- New roof tension cables (the short clip-on ones)
- Mileage correction (remember I replaced the dials?)
Everything I'll be doing myself as it's all easy, just takes time. But, once it's done, it'll be back on the road.
I'm hoping to get it back on the road this month or early February. I've been starting the engine now and again to let it turn over for a while, but I've got two sticking lifters. It's just lack of use - a good run will loosen these up, it's happened before.
Going back briefly to the fiesta - what an amazing car. Fiesta mk6, TDCi, as basic as you can get (wind up windows, too!). But it costs £30 annual tax, cheap insurance, 75mpg, comfy, quiet and easy to drive. This will be my daily car too and from work, while the Porsche will now be a weekend and fun car, rather than my daily. Didn't realise how much fuel I was spending before...
That's pretty much where I'm at. The car is now back in the middle of my drive with the cover off so I can work on it. It's currently jacked up with no front wheels (I'm Nitromorsing the wheels at the moment). Another beauty of having another daily - I can spend time on this and not rush.
But yeah, I'll update you as I go. I'll be back on here now!
Sorry to hear that and I feel for you. Being there (and not only once). Keep going and never give up. Thanks for the the splash screen. Hope I can mange to do it. I bought this unit for my Boxster https://www.navi4all.com/en/product/8-android-8-0-... so not sure if it's the same splash screen.
Podie said:
We’ve all been there with cars... hang in there, and hope to see it back on the road soon.
Aifos said:
Sorry to hear that and I feel for you. Being there (and not only once). Keep going and never give up. Thanks for the the splash screen. Hope I can mange to do it. I bought this unit for my Boxster https://www.navi4all.com/en/product/8-android-8-0-... so not sure if it's the same splash screen.
Appreciate it guys. I got put off by a lot, by the on-going issue with the car, by other things happening in life, and so on. Whilst everyone else on other forums took time to help get to the bottom of my issue, I made a thread on here asking for help with the same engine issue and was greeted by several pretentious keyboard warriors who essentially took joy in shooting down someone who wanted to troubleshoot an issue themselves, with comments such as "you've wasted so much money by doing this yourself because you were too tight to visit a mechanic". Also due to the fact that I didn't know how to check if an ECU is going into closed loop or not, and that I didn't know how to test the O2 heater circuits, I was apparently incompetent as these are the most basic tests a dummy could do. That's right, apparently they're the most basic tests. My jaw literally hit the floor with the audacity, pretentiousness, and the judgemental attitude of some people on here, so I decided to avoid this place. So much for a sense of community.So if you wondered why I was gone for a bit, it's due to that. No need to have such negativity in my life.
Anyway - back to it.
Had a load of things delivered a few days ago, including this wee little thing:
I've got the black and red ones of these, but the yellows were discontinued years ago. Managed to get it still in its box/packet off someone for £15! The normal colours are £25 new, and the yellows are seriously rare. So yeah, quite happy with that. Goes with my dials too:
At the moment though, I'm stuck with a little problem.
I need to get this nut off:
Trouble is, the socket on the bolt has rounded and I can no longer stop it from spinning while I attempt to undo the bolt. I've bought another arm to go on so I'm happy to butcher this one.
Initial thought was a nut splitter, but would it split the nut this thick?
Another idea is to cut a groove in the top to place a flat head screwdriver (or socket) into it, but the nut rising may close this gap.
I've tried forcing a bigger head into this but he aftermarket part has such soft metal that it didn't work.
Bit skeptical of dremelling the nut off due to how close it is to the hub, but it may be an option.
Thoughts?
geraintthomas said:
Thoughts?
Tried one of these? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gator-ETC-125-11-32mm-Mul...
Podie said:
Very good shout. I've not tried one but my brother in law has one - may borrow it off him. It's such a small hole though for the allen key that I'm not sure that would work, but I'll try his.In the meantime I've bought a nut splitter, so hopefully that'll do the trick.
If that's a track rod end then with the wheel off (and the other wheels on the car) jack it up by putting the jack directly under the ball joint. this will press the taper into the hub with the weight of the car and will normally stop it spinning. you should then be able to undo the nut.
The next problem will be getting the taper out. This time support the hub with the jack and wind the nut upside down onto the thread so the top of the thread is just below the surface of the nut, and give it a big hit with a hammer. the nut will protect the threads and stop it peening over.
One big hit is better than lots of little ones.
Also hit the hub casting next to the taper if it's really stuck.
Now just wind off the nut - or cut it off if necessary.
The next problem will be getting the taper out. This time support the hub with the jack and wind the nut upside down onto the thread so the top of the thread is just below the surface of the nut, and give it a big hit with a hammer. the nut will protect the threads and stop it peening over.
One big hit is better than lots of little ones.
Also hit the hub casting next to the taper if it's really stuck.
Now just wind off the nut - or cut it off if necessary.
shalmaneser said:
If that's a track rod end then with the wheel off (and the other wheels on the car) jack it up by putting the jack directly under the ball joint. this will press the taper into the hub with the weight of the car and will normally stop it spinning. you should then be able to undo the nut.
The next problem will be getting the taper out. This time support the hub with the jack and wind the nut upside down onto the thread so the top of the thread is just below the surface of the nut, and give it a big hit with a hammer. the nut will protect the threads and stop it peening over.
One big hit is better than lots of little ones.
Also hit the hub casting next to the taper if it's really stuck.
Now just wind off the nut - or cut it off if necessary.
I've tried the jack under the ball joint, literally didn't do anything - I'm not sure if my arm is a little different? It's an aftermarket part (hence how it's rounded so easily, lesson learnt), but it didn't stop it turning in the slightest.The next problem will be getting the taper out. This time support the hub with the jack and wind the nut upside down onto the thread so the top of the thread is just below the surface of the nut, and give it a big hit with a hammer. the nut will protect the threads and stop it peening over.
One big hit is better than lots of little ones.
Also hit the hub casting next to the taper if it's really stuck.
Now just wind off the nut - or cut it off if necessary.
The nut isn't frozen to the bolt so as soon as I can get a few turns it'll be absolutely fine - the arm will drop out easily as it's not that old.
I'll give it another go with the jack though, thanks!
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