Page 30 - KCRPCA Sept Oct 2018

MEMBER UPDATE
Well, I’m now about 15 months into ownership of the car, and while the experience is still an overall positive one, there have been some bumps in the road.
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Sep / Oct 2018
JIM CUMMINGS
question of what I (might) do differently.
As a reminder of last year’s events, I purchased a 1997 Boxster to make my extended time in Washington, DC, a bit more bearable. I described the process of finding and buying it based on Craig’s List postings and my overall approach. I followed those articles up about six months later detailing a road trip from DC to Savannah, GA and some starting problems that were associated with a very loose connection to the positive battery terminal.
Well, I’m now about 15 months into ownership of the car, and while the experience is still an overall positive one, there have been some bumps in the road.
On the positive side, I discovered how very easy it is to change brake pads. While a bit daunting to the mechanically disinclined, under the tutelage of my cousin, I’m now confident that I can do that particular job myself. This is good because my ‘01 could probably use some new pads by now. . . . .
I also discovered how simple it was
On the down side, 21 year old cars often have 21 year old key fobs and batteries. I re-placed the battery in my weakest fob, but either I wasn’t quick enough or there wasn’t enough residual charge to maintain the association with the car. Now the remote lock/unlock/trunk access is totally unavailable with one of my keys. I haven’t gone to the dealer yet to get that remedied, but I will sooner than later.
Next, I ran into another starting issue. This time, it was a malfunctioning neutral safety switch. Basically, even though the car was in PARK, the switch didn’t recognize it. The switch itself runs $500 and labor here is another $800 or so for the Tiptronic version. Of course, this happened right after a 60k service, which would have reduced the labor cost a bit. So, for now I try to start the car in PARK, but if that fails, I start it in NEUTRAL.
Recently, I started having an issue getting the car into PARK and removing the key. Again, the transmission is definitely in PARK, but the key cannot be removed without playing around with it. I’m not sure what I will do to address this yet.
Finally, I’ve run into the situation where I lock the car and it immediately unlocks. This happens regardless of which key I use or whether I lock it manually
An Affordable Adventure Pt 3
CTRAIGSLIST PORSCHE
his is a follow-up to a couple of to upgrade the base headlights to LEDs. articles that I wrote last year about While they are still not as bright as the purchasing an entry-level Porsche, ones on my ’01, they are much better than
giving a status of the car and answering the they used to be.