Boxster 2012 Fall Maintenance Prep

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While cooler weather is fast approaching, there are still plenty of top-down days left in the year. To ensure that our ride is always performing up to its potential, we like to do periodic maintenance at the beginning of Spring and Fall. The two preps are similar:

• Hardtop: Off in the Spring (as early as possible), on in the Fall (as late as possible)
• Tire swap: Summer tires on (typically by mid-May), Winter snow tires on (definitely before Thanksgiving)
• Brakes: pad check (Spring), rotor check (Fall)
• Filters: air, cabin (Fall)
• Wipers: check/replace (Fall)

When we swapped out the Winter tires last Spring, we checked the rear rotors and realized that they were getting close to the minimum acceptable thickness. While they would likely last at least through the Winter, changing the rotors now would be easier than next Spring, since we have to do all of our “work” outside and like to do it when the weather is nice. Typically, there are more nice days in the Fall than early Spring…at least, less wet 🙂

The air and cabin filters are easily accessible in the Boxster and we check them twice a year. As the pollen count this Spring was off the charts, it was not surprising that both filters were a bit dark. Pelican Parts is our first stop for our Boxster needs. We check them first because after years of doing our own work on the car, we have found that it is very rare that they don’t have the parts we need (filters, rotors) or at a price that is not competitive. Nine times out of ten, we end up getting our parts from Pelican Parts. So now we just avoid the hassle and don’t even bother going any where else. OK, we still occassionally check just to satisfy ourselves that we are still getting a good deal, and we are satisfied 🙂

Not every vehicle we have gets used when the weather gets cold. The one which we put into “sleep mode” during the Winter months is the Vespa scooter. We remove the battery, put on the cover, and let it sit until things starts blooming again. The four months of non-use is kind of tough on the scooter’s battery. There are a two ways to limit the drain on the battery during that time. One way is to hook the battery to a trickle-charger/battery maintainer; another is to let it sit and only bring the battery back up to full charge when needed. We have tried both and have found that the second way (battery resuscitation) works just fine for the Vespa battery. The charger we use is the Pro-Logix charger from Clore. We have had it since 2007 and it has brought back to life some pretty dead batteries. Recently, we got a new charger from them, and they clearly have done some major rework on the unit. We’ll give it a go with the Vespa battery next Spring and let you know how it works out. The few pics here are only meant to give readers a quick glimpse of the unit. We will have a closer FirstLook at the new Clore Pro-Logix charger before the end of Fall.

Those looking for more Boxster Fall project ideas should definitely check out Wayne Dempsey’s book,  101 Projects for Your Porsche Boxster. Both it and Bentley Publisher’s Boxster Service Manual are our go to references for anything related to the car. They are clear sources of info even for folks who don’t work on their Boxster. We recommend both books without reservations. Happy Boxstering!!! [Permalink] –