981 Boxster S - PSE upgrade - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

Afternoon all, Fancying a wee treat to myself for a birthday and asked my OPC for the costs to upgrade my 981 Boxster S with the switchable exhaust. It already has the twin exhaust tips and as far as I understood the installation of the switchable component of this would be 'relatively' inexpensive compared to a whole new exhaust system. The sports exhaust quote is £3,327.68 inc parts, labour and VAT. Which I'm assuming is a full system from headers back to tips? Can anyone shed some light on the upgrade path perhaps? Thanks, Rich.

This is from the Porsche UK Techquipment page. I think they've quoted for the full system, but still seems like they are taking the proverbial?

are you sure you really want it? i had mine on for the first few weeks, maybe even months, but the last few years it's nearly always off - sounds purer that's on a 981GTS but would think they all sound similar?

That seems very expensive. Might be worth phone a few more OPCs for a quote and Indys for quotes, I'd expect to reduce that price by at least 1k if not more.

Aberdeen OPC is the one in question. Would have to be Perth, Edin. or Glasgow and I doubt they would be cheaper in the end once you factor in travel and the obligatory meal / hotel once the missus gets wind.

anonymous said: [redacted] Let's just assume that I'm a cack handed bodger who doesn't trust himself to DIY it. On to the next questions. Did the Boxster S come with the twin sports tailpipes as standard? As specced (I have the original order sheet) it doesn't mention sports tailpipes but I clearly have 2 x and not the single outlet. I've also emailed the previous owner to see if they can shed any light before I email the OPC back.

Well, this was a short lived story. "The one on the car is the original one from new." - previous owner

RichTT said: anonymous said: [redacted] Let's just assume that I'm a cack handed bodger who doesn't trust himself to DIY it. On to the next questions. Did the Boxster S come with the twin sports tailpipes as standard? Yes they did. The 2.7 came with a single pipe which you could pay to upgrade to twin pipes or full PSE. We optioned PSE when we bought ours in 2015 and from memory is was around £1400. I had a 987 Boxster before that and had PSE retrofitted. That cost just over £2K but could have knocked around £500 off that with an Indy if the car hadn't still been under warranty.

RichTT said: Well, this was a short lived story. "The one on the car is the original one from new." - previous owner They do last, ours has the original exhaust as well so is nearly 8 years old. We had to have the gaskets replaced in 2021 as it was leaking and would have failed the MOT but according to our local OPC the exhaust was still fine. Pleased with their honesty.

Porsche newcastle quoted me £2500 or £1500 if i bought the car they had. I did neither

Oh, and the lassie at the OPC quoted the fully fitted price as per the technician and then she added labor + vat on top by mistake so it's in line with the website price.

When I had a 981 I bought the whole PSE kit from Porsche and fitted it myself, cost about £1500, only the kit which included the sports tailpipe was available so I bought that, even though my car aleady had that part fitted as an option from new. Any decent indy place could fit it if you can't, pretty sure I will have the full fitting instructions on pdf somewhere, you do have to have the exhaust coded in once it's fitted by somebody with a PWIS type tool

If the OP is looking for the PSE sound but can’t stomach those costs then you could make a nice birthday trip to Belgium and get the Carnewal back box fitted for a total cost about 560 euro. Or gat it posted to the UK and fitted here (likely need to pay some import tax). It is the same backbox opened up and fettled to sound like the PSE with valves open, love mine!

Appreciate all the comments. Price came down by about 1k once they corrected the mistake in pricing so I'm going for it. Of course the parts are on backorder and might not arrive by the time the car is due in for the MOT as I was getting it all done at once. Seeing as it was the only item missing off the original spec that I wanted I figured best to get it done properly the first time.

Great that you're enjoying the car so much Rich!

Grundo hack, at PCW EXHAUST in Steppingley Bedfordshire Porsche Cayman £300 ​ They don't come much more iconic than the Porsche Caman but without the sports exhaust they lack the sound you would expect from a Porsche, I suspect those crafty marketeers at Porsche thought everyone would tick the PSE (Porsche Sports Exhaust) option when they spec'd the car up after being underwhelmed by the non PSE system.. well I've done enough 911s to know not many people ticked that box ​ This mod is known by a couple of names mainly the PSE hack or the Gundo Hack (named after a forum username) the mod is pretty simple, its basically a pipe between the inlet and outlet pipe meaning you can partially bypass the silencer, the PSE system acts in the same way just with a valve, though everyone with a PSE has the valve open constantly anyway making it pretty pointless

anonymous said: [redacted] I already have a PSE on mine but interesting way to go, I wouldn’t even have thought of doing it that way. So just out of curiosity what exactly did you need to buy/replace? I presume no actuators or any vacuum related stuff if it isn’t switched.

anonymous said: [redacted] Makes sense and no seized actuators to worry about

Well, it seems the system is on back order so not sure if I'll manage to get it fitted when the car goes in for its MOT. Will have to wait and see. In the meantime I'm looking at the GTS rear diffuser as a little visual upgrade.

From what I’ve read elsewhere these have been on back order for some time - have you asked when they last had one?

elisered said: From what I’ve read elsewhere these have been on back order for some time - have you asked when they last had one? No, I've just left it in their hands for the time being. If it takes a while, so be it.

When i purchased one they wouldn't order unless i paid in full for it.

I'll see what they say on the 13th when I drop the car off.

If it helps, The 981 I recently bought had PSE retrofitted in 2021 at a cost of £1100 from a Porsche dealer from the receipts I have. I'm sure prices have gone up since then though.

stabilio said: If it helps, The 981 I recently bought had PSE retrofitted in 2021 at a cost of £1100 from a Porsche dealer from the receipts I have. I'm sure prices have gone up since then though. Sounds too cheap, was it done as part of the deal buying the car?

anonymous said: [redacted] My bad, it was early morning as looked at wrong invoice. Exhaust itself shows £1511. Labour was £997 (although they were a couple of other minor things included in that price too). Exhaust on/off button was £108. Prices above don't include VAT either so yeah, was a pricey retrofit. Still surprised how few had PSE when I was looking for my car. I still have Autotrader alerts set up and almost none have PSE despite there being some very well specced cars. I can say that having had the V8 C63 AMG, 4.0 V8 C63, an Audi RS3 (before OPF) with the sports exhaust, my base 2.7 Cayman with PSE turned on sounds absolutely epic when higher in the revs. All the above cars sounds really nice and all very different but the way the Cayman barks and crackles on downshifts and almost howls at higher revs is really very impressive and far, far better than I was expecting.