New owner of 2001 986 S - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hello, Looking for some advice. I just bought the car yesterday. Has a few things that needs to be looked at, but overall a great car with a great owner I bought it from. Took it for a drive today and drove around normal except one time took it to 6k or little over and it was great. Than coming to a light and it’s wouldn’t go into any of the upper gears (R,1st,3rd,5th) it started to work a little bit only a few times. Got home and the prior was nice enough to to come to my house and think the issue was found. Question is, is there a easy way to put the cables back into the channels? And don’t know how they popped out in the first place. Also, it happened only once while this was going on but one tome the clutch pedal didn’t fully lift back up. The car was in gear doing fine but I had to put my foot behind the pedal and pull it out about 1/2”. Also, I could smell something like a burning smell. When I got home in the garage and he came about 20 minutes later and it still smelt. Any clue what it could be. He thinks maybe something happened with the throughout bearing or something around there. Any advice would be great. Photos will not upload from my phone, will all later. Basically both thrift cables have a mount that fit into a U channel and they both popped out of that channel.

Welcome to the forum! Congrats on getting your Boxster S but I'm sorry you've already ran into a setback. And I'm sorry I don't have any advice regarding the issues you're experiencing. Hopefully someone here can chime in.

I was able to push the cable mounts back into the channels and I banged the gears around a bunch of times in the garage and then checked and they’re seated in to the channels. I do not know how they came out of the channels, hopefully they stay seated. Took it for a quick test drive and everything worked well even the clutch and I don’t smell that smell anymore so hopefully everything is OK.

Welcome to the forum. Great that you got the cables back in. One thing to check if the burning smell comes back is some grease coming out of the Axle boot and burning on the exhaust.

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Thank You, I don't think it was that because it right after the cables popped out and couldn't use the top gears. I drove it for 5 minutes and it drove great and didn't smell when I pulled back into the garage.

On to the next item and seeing if anyone has a solution. The passenger window when you open the door I can hear the actuator but the window doesn't lower that small amount to clear the roof. If I push it down it moves down about 1/2". Going up is fine as the door closes it moves the window up. When opening the roof the window comes down like it should. The prior owner was thinking maybe a loose bolt of something holding the window into the regulator. And finally the brake lights do not work, they'll flicker then go off but that's it. He said maybe a dirty switch on the brake pedal. Since they flicker that means the lights work, just won't stay on when pushing the pedal. And both left/right and center lights all flicker the same. Any ideas? Thank You

There's a little plastic grommet that was brittle and broke. I circled it in red. Anyone know if it is ok without it, and if not I don't think it can be replaced without a whole new cable.