Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Following the popularity of the thread I started in the 924/944/968 area with the similar title, I thought I would start a similar thread here to promote a bit more activity in this area.

So come on chaps, I know we have some Boxster and Cayman lurkers.. Get talking and don't be shy.

Just to kick off the thread, I thought I would mention my poor old 2.5 Boxster...

Bought a few years ago now, MOT'ed and serviced every year, however rarely used, if at all. My mind has turned to what to do with her.

When I bought her, the paint was less than good, several poor smart repairs to the paintwork over the years, and a previous owner who it seemed liked to clean it with a brillo pad (lots of minor scratches), and a few years of me giving it 100% mechanical attention, but nearly no detailing attention, has it looking rather sorry for itself...to sell it I would need to repaint it, but current values would make it uneconomical to repaint and be worth while.

So it looks like I will be repainting it and keeping it.

Besides, it will make for a good test bed for developing some more Boxster performance parts anyway.

Anything minor I will do to her, I might mention in this thread, along with of course all of you chaps mentioning in this thread what you have done to yours recently... For anything more major, where some members may find a more detailed description of the work, a little like a tutorial useful, I will put in its own thread.

What about you guys, anything minor or major to report?

Hiya Jon, I've got a quick one. There is a milky white paint like substance on the inside of one of my headlights (1998, 2.5 fried egg/horrible orange indicator style). Can I strip these down and remove the stuff? Also is there any way of replacing the indicator on it's own with a clear one without going down the £500 full headlight swap route? Thanks pal.
Andy Bruce.

Hey Brucey,

Can you take a picture of your problem with your headlights? Its just I have a feeling it might be UV damage, which can be sorted with just a little effort.

I wish there was a cheaper way of going for clear indicators.. My 2.5 Boxster has the orange indicators up front and I am not prepared to spend the £1000 for new ones with clear indicators, or the £500 on used ones!

I wish I liked the stick on vinyl covers that someone posted a pic of in the other another post, but I hate them and think it makes the car look like a supra!

The best thing to do is call or email loads of scrap yards looking for one with a boxster in, and asking them how much for the headlights, as most normal car scrap yards will not have an idea they are sought after, and will charge you £50 to £100 each for them and at the same time will think they did well as they had charged you a "Porsche tax"

I even took apart a headlight on a Boxster to see what could be done with the orange bit, it does start off as a separate bit of plastic, and some of the orange/yellow finish is applied to the outside, but unfortunately the seperate plastic section also has an orange tint and has be molded,glued into the rest of the headlight lense.

The silly thing is, you can get the turbo style headlights cheaper than the boxster/996 non turbo ones, but you need a bumper etc... But it still works out like more of a bargain than just buying headlights even if it is more expensive if you know what I mean.. I have been tempted to do this to my Boxster, certainly will give it a more agressive look, and the 996 turbo or standard GT3 front bumpers can be had for reasonable money on ebay at times, as less people want them, and in the case of the bumper, lots of people upgrade them to something else.

Thanks for the reply Jon, I also hate the "supra like headlights" but each to their own. I like the thought of changing the front end but at the same time I'd like to keep the car as close to standard as possible as that was the way it was designed. However some things are just crying out for change the indicators being one of them and also the black Boxster badge on the back of my Ocean Blue Metallic just had to be changed to a chrome effect one (like the "PORSCHE" recess in the rear rubber spoiler on the back of my old Alpine White 944S just had to be filled in with a white reflective decal" I'll post pics of the headlight problem when it finally stops raining and I learn how to load them up. Anyway off to bed now as I was on nights last night. cheers pal.
Andy Bruce.

Took the Boxster S into work this morning as it's the last chance I will get to drive her for a week or so. Great drive in with the top down and R.E.M. on the CD player. I then had a really cr@p day at work, argued with 2 colleagues and then had the most miserable drive home in very heavy rain not getting above 50mph all the way. Am not feeling particularly happy. Tomorrow is another day thankfully.

Hate it when that happens, the day starts so well and then turns to crap!

At least you had a chance to get the roof down.. Been peeing it down in Bournemouth and across Dorset today, got absolutely drenched going to the bank and could only dream of getting the roof down.

I managed to get a little bit of R&D done on my Boxster turbo engine project today, one of those things that bubbles on the back burner and inches towards completion, so it was nice to get some more work done on it.

Hiya Jon, Boxster Turbo? sounds interesting, do you think engine reliability will suffer?

I took mine for a spin around Bradford, haven't used her in over a week. Good times!

Hey Brucey..

This kit is probably not going to be a financially viable kit to buy, or for us to even be working on, but its a technical itch we wanted to scratch.

The turbo kits on the market tend to be where you strap a turbo to a standard boxster engine, shout "Yippee Ki eye MF" and hope for the best... typically these run low boost, normally under 5psi and nearly always under 10psi... Our kit will be a bullet proof engine designed to run 18psi of boost in a proper turbo engine configuration.

What we have decided is that the 2.5 and 2.7 engines (to begin with) are probably the most popular engine size, so we are making a kit where your standard 2.5 or 2.7 Boxster engine is exchanged for a completely rebuilt 2.5 or 2.7 engine, with completely modified internals, including forged H-section con-rods, forged low compression pistons, modified IMS bearing design and braced steel liners.

Its a long way off at the moment, and it depends how much time over the winter on when it will be ready, but I would like to have the first one done in the spring sometime.

We are hoping to get around 400bhp and 400 ft-lbs of torque, the torque being the important thing.

Probable cost of the conversion to a customers car would be prohibative, at about £22,000, complete with engine, exhaust, intercoolers and installation, but does include a new engine.

Once we have the 2.5 and 2.7 one done, we will probably work on a 3.2 version and maybe a 3.4, 3.6 and 3.8 version would be possible, as well as installing the kit into the 987, 981 and Cayman.

At the end of the day, it will be a crazy project for fun and not really a product to sell.

But imagine 400 bhp and 400 ft-lbs of torque in a mid engined car like the Boxster.. On the track or road, a 996 turbo or 996 GT3 (both heavier and less stable) would not stand a chance in a race on the straight or on the twisty bits.

Hiya Jon, I've had a thought mate. You probably want to keep your Boxster standard and seeing as your a really helpful bloke on this forum I'm willing to repay your kindness and offer up my 2.5 Boxster for the project. Now come on pal I won't take no for an answer and if you really feel you can't take advantage then I'll accept a 996 turbo as a courtesy car.
I know what your thinking Jon, "what a nice man".
I just like to give a little back from time to time

Ahh Brucey.. Thats really kind of you!

I could not take you up on this offer, I really do think that would be taking advantage of your good nature

Hiya Jon, any progress? I can't wait to find out the end result

Being a Porsche newbie (a mechanically ignorant one) I took her for a spin and then checked the oil - again (about the 7th time in 3 days) after losing, in the last week of two, a lot of oil - maximum down to minimum in just 900 miles! No leaks it seems (phew) and it seems to be successfully climbing towards max again after tentatively adding oil and check, check, check. I've heard that the gauges themselves can be iffy so I didn't want to over fill it. Anyway, starting to relax a bit hehe.

This does sound like it could be a faulty gauge, sender or even a problematic air oil separator.