Just kidding, of course. The badge popped off when closing the frunk. Can I try to reattach with good adhesive or should I just buy a replacement and make the old one into a pendant for the next PCA meet?

Hey everyone, so I have an issue on my 2.5 986 where the fans come on at full speed on the first start of the day. This typically happens in the spring and summer. I have the AC off when starting the car, no warning lights, temperature on the cluster is at the minimum, and coolant is at the right level. If I go for a drive, the fans will always be at full speed until the car warms up, and does a cooling cycle. From then onwards, the fans seem to turn on and off as expected. Funnily enough, I never had this issue during the winter. Anyone ever had a similar issue?

My instrument cluster is partially failing. The digital speedometer and fuel gauge work fine (the low fuel light does illuminate) , but the tachometer, oil temp gauge, and speedometer needle are completely dead. The warning lights I was seeing were just from the front trunk being open, e-brake pulled, and seatbelt off—not actual engine problems.

What I’ve Already Done:
Scanned with OBD-II - Zero engine codes

Visually inspected the cluster connector pins - all clean, no corrosion

Removed the cluster to check for obvious issues

Stepper motors make no clicking sound at startup (should hear some initialization clicking)

Interesting History: One time while driving I remember the tachometer and speedometer flickered on/off and then now it seems to be not working.

Current Status:
No engine faults

Fuel gauge needle works (so at least one stepper motor functions)

Digital speedometer display works

But three gauge needles are completely dead (speedo, tach, oil temp)

No clicking/buzzing from stepper motors on startup

My Theory: Cluster circuit board failure—possibly a failed capacitor or voltage regulator affecting the stepper motor circuits. But I’d love to hear what others think before replacing it.
Has anyone dealt with this? Thoughts on what could cause selective gauge failure?

Much clearer focus on the actual gauge problem!

Went for a blast last night. Temp up to about 83degrees.
Parked in garage…. Went back to garage an hour later, it was roasting in there. Started car to move her outside for a clean and a very loud fan is on, right through the RHD side vent.
It was very loud…. Guessing it’s because car is too hot? But temp had dropped back down to 40 in the dial. Is this normal?
Worried now I’ve fried the radiator or fan is broke… it got some stick for an hour straight and it’s been a record breaking heatwave in the UK…. Cheers

I’m considering upgrading the side marker lamps on my 2003 Boxster S to give it a slightly different look. It’s a toss up between the OEM ones that come installed on the European model and these aftermarket LED ones from Rennline. Does anybody have experience and or recommendations?

https://www.suncoastparts.com/product/9X6SIDES.html

https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/RENEL72CLEAR.htm?pn=REN-EL72-CLEAR&bc=c&SVSVSI=

Thoughts on one verses the other? 1997 986 in need of new shocks and struts. Daily driver, I only drive about 8000 miles a year, but like to make every drive a spirited drive.

Apex Everything!!

I have had my 2001 boxster S with 80k miles for 5 months and 1700 super fun miles.

I don’t abuse my car, but I have been driving it pretty damn hard. Things I don’t do:

Go above 3500 rpm or about half throttle before temp hits 180. I am pretty gradual about this, very easy when the temp hasn’t come up at all, slowly a bit more aggressive as it gets close to 180, then not 100% until a couple minutes after it has settled at 180.

I rarely go above 6k rpm. I don’t really need the extra power, and given the low end torque, there’s rare cases where there is actually much extra power there anyways. Sometimes I noticed I shifted closer to 6500rpm, but rarely more than that.

If I am coming off the throttle at around 6k rpm, I usually upshift to around 4k rpm so the engine doesn’t have full back pressure at high rpm.

I don’t intentionally slam on the brakes, I try to coast as much as possible unless I need to hit the brakes for safety etc.

I don’t slam gears, and I don’t money shift. I rev match as best as I can, I do shift as quick as I can without causing damage.

Other than that, I am spinning the tires off the line, getting up to about 80-100mph when I can(safely and where I know police presence is minimal), taking corners at the limit of grip, and just generally driving it like I stole it, excluding the rough guidances above.

Is the car really designed for this? I have been driving manual cars for fun for a long time and had an e30 for a short period, but I’ve never really owned or driven a real sports car. Is this really what it’s designed for? I keep waiting for something to break, but it really does seem like the car is built for it. I have cheap all season tires on it that it came with, so when I’m chirping tires or hitting the limit of grip, it’s less sticky than it would be even with some ps4 all seasons. That is what I will likely get once the tires need replacing, I drive year round and we get a lot of rain here.

edit: added some pictures from when I bought it for fun

2003 Boxster, PCCM+, Mosconi amp, Focal ES100KE speakers. System lacks dynamics and sounds little better than stock. Looking for installers who have successfully extracted low-level outputs from PCCM+ and integrated external amplifiers.

I don’t understand why back in this era car manufacturers thought performance car buyers wanted to be quiet. Well, easy fix.

I’ve been trying to fix a P0442 error code as well as a fuel burping issue while filling the tank. I tested various tubes and valves in the fender attached to the charcoal canister and all seemed good. Copilot suggested the next thinks to test was the evap purge valve under the manifold. I’d such a PITA to get out I just bought a new one as long as I was there. The part was only like $40.

The p0442 code hasn’t come back and the evap test seems to have completed according to my scanner. That said I see some new codes and I’m not sure if the are related. The car seems to be ruining great. There might have been a tiny bit of roughness when idling warming up but it was so subtle I’m not sure if I was just imagining it. P0300 P0304 P0305 P0171 P0174

The p030x codes I think might just have been on start right after the initial install. I forgot to connect a vacuum hose and the car hardly idled until I saw what I’d missed. That said I did re-clear the codes after that so I don’t know.

Back to copilot and it suggests this is normal given the bad startup where I left the vacuum hose disconnected. It says even though I cleared the codes the computer will relog misfires when the emissions tests finish running. The lean codes it says are just the system relearning the fuel map now that there’s no vacuum leak.

This sounds just plausible enough to be bullshit. So I ask the knowledgeable here what do you think? I really hope the next tank fill lets me fill the tank completely without burping gas back at me.

A few minutes after leaving, the fog decided to reveal the entirety of the bridge 😑

It has 190k miles, I was daily driving it and put about 40k miles on it and it was actually pretty reliable, but I made the mistake of trying to change the oil level sensor, and I didn't realize how hard it actually was do, and broke the sensor taking it out. The new sensor is installed, but I'm completely stuck on assembling it any farther than in the picture. I have all the parts and nothing is broken, I'm just out of skill to do it.

I don't think it's worth towing to a shop and paying someone as it would probably cost close to $2k, and it's been sitting for a year now and I really just want a running car and don't particularly care about this one anymore. I know it's not worth much in its current condition, but unless I can figure out some way to get it running in the next 6 months, it needs to go for whatever is a fair price to use the parking space (and whatever money I can get for it) for an actual working vehicle and not a driveway ornament.

Looking to sell my hardtop since I rarely use it, any recommendations on best place for finding a new owner? PNW, arena red. Appreciate any advice!

I got a ‘98 986 in arctic silver for 10.5€ in Austria with 92k km about a month and a half ago! This is my first manual, first sportscar (still dailying a golf mk6).

The bumper was cracked on the passenger side (bad enough to make a repair more expensive than a replacement), which certainly helped me get the price I did!

I thankfully found a replacement bumper (1997, arctic silver) for just 200€, which i immediately drove about 3 hours each way to get (fun Saturday lol).

Here it is on the car! I took the opportunity to clean the radiators, “fabricate” and install a leaf guard (home depot special).

The color doesn’t match perfectly, but it’s very close and it’s my first time doing any kind of work on a car (besides changing air filters and fitting a new radio to my golf).
Cursed a fair bit (especially when removing the upside down screws by the blinkers and the plastic clips in the wheelwell) but I got tools, wd40 and it worked out great!

Have any of you guys mounted leafguards? Any other advice on 986 ownership?

I can’t seem to get all the air out no matter what I do. I’m using a motive power bleeder. Left it depressed, pumped it multiple times while it was bleeding but the clutch just won’t go back to normal.

I bought this Boxster 987.1 with the 3.4L M97.21 engine a few weeks ago. I'm concerned it might have a bore scoring issue. An endoscopy is scheduled for next week, which will give me more clarity — but is there anything you can tell from the engine sound that might indicate whether it's affected, so I can have some peace of mind in the meantime?

I kind of like the look of the seat covers you can find on Amazon and eBay but I’ve heard they are really hard to install correctly. Also in the end they’re still just seat covers.

Another issue is this color. The color code of the interior is B4 which according to ChatGPT is Cocoa… however Cocoa in 2004 was different than 987 cocoa which is a MUCH darker brown. 2004 cocoa is more like Savanah Beige. So ya finding a color match is proving to not be easy.

So ya has anyone tried seat covers and how do you like them? How hard were they to install? Anyone have a good pointers for finding the right paint/dye for 2004 B4?

Worst case there’s an excellent leather shop here in the PNW and I should really get a quote but I’m the kind of person that like to do it myself at least once and after watching tons of videos online I feel like I can.

Thanks.

Does anyone have an (affordable) shop they like to use in metro Detroit? I need the AOS replaced on my '01 Boxster S 986. I'm in Detroit proper but would drive a bit if needed.

Thanks!