Boxster Spring Prep 2018

That hardtop is finally coming off

Posted on April 23, 2018 by Wan Chi Lau in RainyDayGarage, RainyDayProjects // 0 Comments

The month of March was absolutely insane, whether-wise. While we didn’t get a ton of snow, we had to endure three and a half Nor’easters in four weeks.

We could not be happier that Spring has finally decided to make its presence felt.

With the temperature reaching into the 60’s during the day, we felt comfortable enough to take off the hardtop, but were not sufficiently confident in the New England weather to swap out the snow tires, as night time temps can still drop down to the mid-low 40’s.

However, with a forecast of high 80’s-low 90’s for the days ahead, we thought it was time to change the tires or risk them melting onto the pavement…seriously.

Taking advantage of the still cool mornings, we brought the Summer tires out from storage, checked and topped off the air, and made the switch. After 18 years, we are good enough at this biannual task to get it done in less than 90 minutes, start to finish.

Having to switch the tires ourselves twice a year gives us the chance to inspect the tires, check the conditions of the brake pads/rotors, and do a few other routine once-overs. This last inspection revealed that we’ll probably have to replace the rear rotors before the Fall. The records show that it has been six years since the last replacement…so it is not surprising that it is time.

While the rear-rotor work cannot be put off much longer, the front ones still appear to be in pretty good shape. Our estimate is that the job—along with the pad change—can be put off until next year.

For readers interested in doing their own Summer/Winter tire maintenance work, we recommend the following tools as they have thoroughly proven themselves after almost two decades of service:

BTW, having the Summer tires on the Boxster made a huge different in how the car felt and handled. There was a lot more get-up-and-go.

Also, it looked like we did the Spring Prep just in time, as the temperature did go over 90º the next day! The snow tires would definitely have melted…