Wishlist and problems

What I'd like:

A three litre version with the five speed box retained would be wonderful.

A six speed box on this car would help you get more sexy noises for your money.

A lighter flywheel (or deletion of the double mass thing).

Rubber grips under the door handles (my hand slips away when opening the door when it's wet). I notice that recent cars (delivered June 97 onwards) have a larger lip, thus eliminating this problem.

Protectors on the extremities of the doors so you don't chip them if you open the doors too far.

Hard paint that doesn't chip or scratch so easily.

The rear window doesn't fold very well, leaving areas of wobbly vision that can take days or weeks to smooth out (though the roof is excellent as a whole).

Reliability

As yet unfixed faults, specific to my vehicle:

• Clunking steering (and rattle from front suspension) at 12,000 miles tracked down to a missing dowel locating the steering rack. This was fixed by replacing the rack, but it meant the car was off the road for 10 days (Porsche didn't have the dowels in stock.) However a day after I picked the car up, the fault was back, and worse. I travelled 3,000 miles round Europe with it, but as I came home and the outside temperature dropped (it was really loud on very hot days) the fault lessened. It went back to the dealer (for 4 more days) and they declared "no fault found". I would be happier if I'd had a reasonable courtesy car, but it was a VW Golf (Rabbit) diesel and then an awful 1.4 Astra. Whilst at the dealer, they forgot to do a job on the door (the window wasn't dropping when you pulled the inside door release lever). When I then took it back a week or so later (Astra again), the steering was really bad. As you turned the wheel, you got banging you could feel in the pedals, and there was a lot of play. This was at last fixed by replacing the UJ and female splines that attaches the rack to the steering column. But it still leaves the rattle over bumps, which they cannot trace, and I guess will become a "feature" of my car. It sounds like the anti roll bar, damper, or brake parts, but it only happens on bumps and not when you bounce the car. At the 24,000 mile service the front pads were replaced and the rattle was noticed by the mechanic, who now feels that it is the pads possibly in an oversized calliper. The car went back in (on a re-paint visit) for the calliper to be changed, but the car they were going to swap it with wasn't there. So two days later I had to collect my car with only the paint done and book it in again. The next visit saw the callipers swapped with another Boxster. The dealer principal took my car home and pronounced it as fixed. I used his demo car and realised how poor mine was. I took my car away, it was fine for 20 miles and then the rattling returned. Also, when steering at low speed there is occasionally a loud bang.
• The damping control of the car has deteriorated, when the car is pushed hard. On high speed bends the car "Volvo"s, pitching diagonally. If you lose traction at the rear under power, the car now bounces its wheels uncontrollably like a front wheel drive hatchback (it used to stay level and you just slithered away).
• After 15,000 miles the dash now rattles in two places, the roof creaks when you go round bends and rattles over bumps and there is an odd rattle in the engine bay at low revs.
• The central air vents don't stay where you point them (they are so loose they droop with gravity).
• The rear window folded very badly once and is now permanently wobbly in one small area (it did this in early Feb 97, temp was +8C, and it hasn't gone yet). This has happened again, but this time it was done by the dealer when the seat was being repaired. I have spent ages folding the rear window properly - it's annoying when it's permanently damaged by someone else.
• The seat base has collapsed. The inner foam and some parts that had broken have been replaced, which sorted it for a few days, but it very quickly sank back down again. I still get bruising on my coccyx from a bar at the bottom of the seat back (because the seat base is now too low relative to the back). For the time being I can alleviate the pain by putting a small cushion in the hole.
• The plastic in the front of the door aperture came loose and caught on the leading edge of the door, causing a paint chip. This caused the 24,000 mile service to take 8 days. Unfortunately the paint job that was done was a large patch on the door. Where they have blended the paint (all along the middle of the door), there is a huge area of circular scratching. There are also scratches around the door handle, on the rear edge of the front wing and where the wing and A pillar meet. There was brown staining on the top of the door trim on the inside of the car. It looks like a real dogs dinner. I took the car back, they let the body shop have it for a day. I picked it up again and it was exactly the same. A real mess. I booked it in for another visit but when I arrived they were too busy doing PDIs and turned me away. It went back again and they managed to polish out the scratches so that you can only just see them if you look hard with the light in the right direction. Unfortunately the car pick up an area of overspray on the rear PU and the door window drop mechanism didn't work. So when it was in for a brake calliper swap they fixed the window drop mechanism and got rid of most of the overspray. I have accepted that an area of barely visible circular scratching is the kind of finish to be expected on a 25,000 mile car.
• One of the tones of the two-tone horn has failed intermittently. It always comes back to life at the dealer though. I've had a few tricky moments where I've needed the horn and only got a feeble parp, so I think I'll pay for the replacement just to get it done, for safety reasons.
• There was some rattling (a high pitched "zinging" noise) as you worked the engine hard at high revs. This was fixed by re-attaching the hydraulic lines in the engine bay, but has come back again.
• The passenger door leaks around the bottom seal. You set off in the morning and it sounds like a tap is switched on as a sill-full of water empties into the car. I took it to the dealer, but "no fault found". I mentioned it on another trip in, when the whole passenger side floor was soaked, and they blamed it on a non-Porsche speaker fitment. The fault continues.
• Where my leg hits the centre console, the soft plastic cover has worn down leaving a sharp edge. There is also a corresponding indent in my leg! For the moment, I have removed the centre console.
• I had the wipers changes at 20,000 miles. The dealer fitted them the wrong way round and one upside down. I got them to rectify this. Very soon afterwards the car went in for paint and came back with the n/s wiper damaged (it streaked very badly and was covered in buffing compound). The dealer replaced it, but the wiper didn't touch the screen in the centre. I asked them to replace it and the new wiper misses the screen in exactly the same way.

Fixed faults, specific to my vehicle:

• A significant oil leak (broken plastic oil return pipe) causing small puddles. This was fixed, but I was without my car for a desperate 14 days while we waited for parts.
• The clutch juddered when setting off. This appeared at about 5,000 miles and gradually became worse. The clutch was replaced under warranty at 12,000 miles. The clutch cover was very rusty and the friction material showed signs of overheating. The replacement one is really nice to use. Sadly, at 21,000 miles, I can feel the juddering again. Admittedly it is very mild and intermittent, so I'll wait and see if it gets any worse before taking issue with the dealer.
• The steering wheel was not on straight. This was fixed when the rack was fettled (see above), but is now adrift again after the UJ was changed. Unfortunately the dealer found that the front tyre wear was very odd at 24,000 miles, and so had the tracking set at my expense (I guess the incorrect tracking had something to do with the fact that the dealer had not had it checked after the last time steering components were replaced). So I had to buy new tyres, but they took six weeks to arrive. The car drove pretty strangely for that period.
• The roof fabric sometimes pops outside the framework. You have to lower the roof and have someone feed it in manually while the roof goes up. To fix this just tie a simple knot in the middle of the elastic band (the one with pointed peg at the end) on the side of the car that has the problem - in my case it was both sides. The reduced length of the elastic band pulls the fabric in a touch more, which stop the problem. Unfortunately this mod only applies to the early cars with this design of roof.
• The electrical switch operating the roof pushed into the dash and sticks (fixed by re-fitting). This has now broken again. And has now been fixed.
• The clutch groans when the cabin is warm (fixed with a dab of carefully positioned grease). This has now come back. And was fixed at the 24,000 mile service.
• When cold, the v-belt makes a loud whining noise when under load (turning the steering, for example). After 20,000 miles this just vanished.
• The bonnet rubs on the plastic beneath it, down to the metal in a couple of small places. The dealer has put felt over some of the relevant areas.
• The rubber gasket on one of the headlights popped out. This was fixed by replacing the headlight unit.
• The doors rub against the door jams, causing paint loss. This has been re-painted and little bits of clear protective plastic stuck on to make sure it doesn't happen again.
• One of the front indicator lenses suffered from excessive condensation trapped behind it. A new lens was fitted.
• The spring holding the flap over the mirror on the passenger side sun visor has failed. This was fixed by the dealer but the parts took weeks to arrive.

What's changed in newer cars (subjective):

I recently drove a dealer demonstrator (don't know what age, but it had only 6,000 miles on) and made the following notes about the difference between it and my car:

• No suspension rattles, front nor rear. All feels very nice and taut.
• Much less road, wind and tyre noise. Less noise from aircon fan.
• No strange clonks in steering when turning at low speed.
• No brake clonk between forwards and reverse.
• Gearchange very smooth and fast (not notchy at all), fifth easy to engage, and the stick doesn't bang in your hand when you come on & off the throttle.
• Much less slack in the drivetrain, making town driving easier.
• Power at high revs slightly greater, engine smoother and quieter with faster throttle response on double de-clutch down changes. This could be a lighter flywheel, or different software.
• Seat back doesn't dig in to base of spine, and supports you under your thighs.
• No wobbly vision through rear window.
• Seat belt neatly retained to stop latch rattling.
• Roof doesn't creek nor rattle (at rear).
• Side parts of dash don't rattle.
• Air vents stay where you point them (not rattling into a downwards position),
• Centre console much less intrusive on left leg.
• Nice door lights!
• Door handles with grips.
• The ride was a tiny bit firmer (it had the sports suspension) and it tramlined more (Continentals).