Now that the maintenance was done it was time to fix the few things that were wrong with the Porsche.The most obvious problem with the Boxster was an exhaust rattle. The culprit is below. This clip is missing a tooth that should hold the locking bolt in place. Without the bolt, the heat shield over the catalytic converter is only held at one end and bounces about.
I replaced both bolt and clip as the design has changed in the last 8 years. The total cost was a bit under $20. Rattle fixed.
Next, the wind blocker has extraordinarily tatty parts to hold it in place. Parts that are pretty much guaranteed to break every few years, especially with the sun beating down on them constantly. I’ve had a look at the clips used on the new Boxsters and they’ve been greatly improved. Never mind.
The most badly-broken part is below. This clip has a piece of plastic that bends back when you pull the release lever. After a few years the plastic gives up and snaps. Porsche redesigned the clip to use a slimmer piece of plastic and these are the clips I’ve installed. Only time will tell as to whether they’re actually better or not.
This was the priciest fix as I needed to not only buy the clips but also replacement brackets on the roll bars for the clips to attach to. Yep, they’d broken as well. As an aside, doing this bit involved taking a drill to the car; arse-clenchy but fortunately successful. Total cost was around $50 to get rid of the loudest rattle in the car next to that exhaust!
Also, a purely cosmetic issue – the carpet on the rear speaker kit was starting to peel back from the plastic. $3 worth of carpet glue and it’s fine again.
The next problem to tackle will be the seats – making sure the heating elements aren’t making contact with the foam inserts and working out why the driver’s seat seems a little flat in the back. This will have to wait for my finances to catch up.
