8,400 hours comes out to 350 days in your Boxster. Not a bad way to spend a year *NM*

Have the Boxster in for brake/clutch fluid flush/bleed and asked the DME overrev counts be read. Didn't expect anything scary and there's not. Tech told me no range 2's (the only range above range 1 in this MY) and the range 1 numbers were not bad.

Unfortunately there was a miscommunication and the tech didn't print out the report so I don't have the exact numbers.

What I was mainly interested in was the engine run time and he remembered the run time as being in the 8400 hour range. Assuming 244K miles and 8499 hours that works out to an average speed of 28.7mph. Using the same 244K miles and 8400 the average speed 'jumps' to 29mph.

Anyhow, I hope to get a print out of the report today.

BTW, there was an oil temp reading available but no oil pressure reading, at least not a psi or bar reading. Essentially as soon as oil pressure climbs above some pressure this closes a switch (or opens a switch) and the oil pressure warning light goes dark.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

... is exactly within the average for cars over 10,000 miles.
That's one of the parameters I check when doing a PPI to determine if there has been tampering with the odometer.
A quarter of a million miles is rapidly approaching, Marc!
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

have an average mph from so many miles and runtime hours.

I think the car will get to 250K miles, though I'm seeing more and more Caymans that catch my eye. Local dealer just brought several from some dealers in the southern CA area and is in the process of CPO'ing the cars before putting them on the lot.

Spotted two of the Caymans on lifts today. One's a white one, base. The other is a black car, S, with a Tip. Both cars looked real good from underneath.

BTW, I asked at what auction the cars came from and was told there's an internal auction link up to all Porsche dealers in which they can put cars up for auction and any other Porsche dealers can bid on the cars.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

It's amazing how, on a long highway trip, you can see an average of 60 - 70 mph. Get into a bit of a traffic jam and that average starts to drop pretty quickly. Then figure in city stop and go and the average speed drops a lot more. Straight city driving (and we don't have much in the way of traffic jams here - just stop signs and lights) average speed can sit around 15 - 18 mph range.

It's always funny to watch the guys with the jack rabbit starts and you keep catching them at the next light. Average speed? Same as the guy who times the lights. The jack rabbit just gets to sit and wait at the next light longer.

I'd watch the lights progressively turning green blocks ahead. There was one uptown intersection that you could travel from at a certain steady speed, like 18 mph or something and it would work.

One other anecdote; a circa 1972 news story actually: There was a guy in a 911 who led police on a chase all over Manhattan going the wrong way sometimes, going on sidewalks, and ramming two police cars. (Think less overhang and greater ground clearance in those days.) He supposedly went well over a hundred, too. When he was finally aprehended, he said, "What's all the fuss, officers?"



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2011 06:42PM by Laz. (view changes)

Back in the 60's, I remember coming into the city and a sign posted that lights were timed for 25 mph. I hit the first light green, kept it at 25 mph and never had to stop until I turned off that road.

Hamilton, Ontario does the same thing. They don't post it, but I've discovered that you can drive right through the city on Main St at a steady 55 kph and never have to stop for a red light. I wish more cities would do that. It would save time, fuel and frustration.

I don't know how accurate the display is on my 987 - but even when I reset it, it eventually ends up at 39 mph average.
mike

[en.wikipedia.org]

I like to help pass the time see how close I can get the average speed of my car between fuel stops to approach that of the posted speed limit.

It is very very hard to get the average speed to the limit without and you'll pardon me if I don't go into details.

Anyhow, I follow the same procedure everytime. After filling up the tank I get in the car turn on the engine and write down the on-board computer stuff: odometer, trip odometer, mpg, average speed, and range.

Then I clear the data and take off driving normally.

Even being this prompt on getting out of the gas station and back on the highway it still takes some time on the highway to get the average speed up but if I have for some reason run about in town before hitting the highway it takes even more time on the highway to get the average speed up. Sometimes miles and miles.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

It is fun to see how high you can get the mpg computer to go. I often drive down a very steep road and am able to register over 100 mpg if I reset it at the top of the hill - unless I hit traffic. Now if I could just figure a way to do that on level ground, I would be rich!

mike

of coasting for various reasons -- but someone posted a comment that got me to thinking about the difference between coasting with the tranny in neutral and the engine running at idle vs. coasting with the tranny in say 6th gear and the engine on closed throttle.

Because the car maintains speed while in neutral fuel consumption drops considerably and it is nice to watch the mpg display climb from say 21.2 to 21.3, 21.4. I've never seen it jump up much more than that but my longest convenient coastable grade is just a few miles long at best.

On a related note a co-worker (who not too long ago bought a nice white BMW 330xi coupe (sweet looking car!)) and I were talking about our cars' on-board computer and the miles range. Both of us get a kick out of after filling up driving our cars in such a way (when possible) that this miles range value climbs. It is quite a pleasurable experience to see the miles range number increment over a distance of some miles of some admittedly sedate driving or with less sedate driving to at least stay unchanged over a distance of some miles.

On a not very related note this last road trip I was coming down a very long grade driving west on 58 from tehachapi heading into a very strong headwind of cool air and not paying much attention when I looked down and noticed (with a bit of alarm) the coolant temp gage needle had dropped several needle widths below the '180' mark. This was so out of character of the car that for a moment I was thinking some coolant leak or water pump failure or something. In the Turbo the coolant gage needle stays on this '180' mark moving at best maybe a needle width above it like when sitting in a drive through line with the engine idling. Once to this mark I've never -- save this one time -- seen the needle drop below the mark.

But a quick scan, several scans in fact, of the dash and finding nothing suggesting anything was really wrong I calmed myself and when I was down the grade on flatter ground and the engine had to work to keep the car's speed up the temp gage needle moved back up to its normal position.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

with the car moving and engaged. Near idle speed it would deliver fuel again. I used to adjust the solenoid to give a slight exhaust burble with the throttle ever so slightly open... I know: kid stuff. What a PIA that system (mechanical) was, though.

I'd think any modern electronic injection has this feature.

speed drops even though the car is going down the grade and to avoid becoming a road hazard I have to use the throttle to increase the car's speed to keep up with traffic.

This is a grade, actually two grades, I encounter daily on my work commute.

In the case of both grades, if I slip the tranny into neutral then the car actually picks up speed as it goes down the grade.

Now I have been on steeper grades that even with the transmission in 6th gear the car picks up speed, but those steep grades are not on my usual routes around/about this area.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Pretty easy to ahieve high mpg on it!

with brief bursts over 100 and still my average would be 56 mph. Once though, and only once, I did that distance with an average speed of 83mph. It was late one weeknight, a near ideal time to drive.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2011 06:44PM by Laz. (view changes)

Distance from Earth to the center of the moon: 238,857 miles. Quite an accomplishment! At 102k, I'm not even half way there.

Plus, I think the Boxster gets considerably better fuel efficiency than the Saturn V...

Fuel consumption is high in the first few miles but once it's out of Earth's atmosphere, it can go an arbitrary distance at 6k+ mph using minimal fuel.

The Saturn's first stage alone carries 4.7 million pounds of fuel/oxidizer, and I think it burns pretty much all of it in relatively few miles. That's a lot of Porsche fuel tanks' worth of gasoline. Of course, the car's fuel/air mixture gets very, very rich once past the ionosphere.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2011 11:34AM by Laz. (view changes)

I was comparing the *actual* MPG of the Saturn V's passenger cabin/booster combo, not the theoretical...

Have you ever had to replace/maintain the shocks or CV boots in 243k miles?

I love reading about it.

29 mph is actually not so bad given the reality of local driving.

Happy 4th.

Grant

interested in it privately maybe I'd be doing others a favor by posting it publicly.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

... quite useful.
In this case, for instance.
Knowing that the average speed of a used Boxster should be 29 mph, if you're in the market for one in the future, and you hook it up to a PST-II or PIWIS and it says average speed 49 mph , that's a big CAVEAT EMPTOR!
The cluster was probably tampered with or replaced.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

I think that I would rather know someething about driving style. I have no idea what my average rpms is, but I'm pretty sure I would not want to buy a car which shows (if it is possible) that a car's average rpms is very low. I don't know what a "low" average rpm would be, but I'd be surprised if something like an average of 1,800 wouldn't imply a lot of lugging.

The car doesn't store that info (average rpm).
It tells you how many hours the engine has been running.
It tells you how many miles it's been driven, and also does the math and shows you the average speed.
It shows how many cycles the engine has run at the rev limiter and how many cycles over the rev limiter (such as with a missed downshift).
The last tow can tell you a lot about driving style.
When PPI a car for a customer, I'd rather see a car that's hit the rev limiter for thousands of cycles (but not over the limiter) than a car that's never been there.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

in which case their car is more desirable than average as highway miles are much easier on a car than stop-and-go.

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?