Pics of 996 Carerra cluster into Boxster - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Attached are pics of my 996 Carerra cluster installed in my Boxster S. Cluster came out of an 02 Carerra 2 and my car is an 02 Boxster S. Also included a pic of my nav install. Enjoy Patrick http://firstshotstudios.com/images/porsche/_DSC0072.jpg http://firstshotstudios.com/images/porsche/_DSC0080.jpg http://firstshotstudios.com/images/porsche/_DSC0081.jpg

Looks cool... but why did you install the cluster? Does everything work as it should.. speed calibration, temp and gas?

Very nice. Is it possible in an older car, like my '97?

Looks really nice. Good trimming job. Did you get it with the white faces or did you do that yourself? I'd miss the Boxster's font.

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=4593 If I read the renntech thread right, a 99-01 C2 gauge cluster will work for a 97.

Well.... I had thought that everything was all fine and dandy, except now I am slightly concerned about the fuel quantity indication. When I swapped clusters, I had 3/4 of a tank in according to the factory 986 cluster. When I woke the car back up with the 996 cluster, it read 3/4 of a tank, so I thought all was well, which it should be as a Carerra 2 and a Boxster are the same car from the firewall forward. However, last night I went out for a drive with a couple other cars, and was showing 1/4 (as you can see in the pictures from yesterday) and was planning to get fuel en route somewhere. Well, on a very twisty road while showing 1/8 of a tank, the car ran dry. No low fuel indicator, and showing 1/8 of a tank. Added one gallon from a portable to get it started and drove 5 miles to a station and added 16.2 more (I realize the pumps arent THAT accurate but you get my point). I had thought these cars held around 15 gallons, but my point is merely that it was EMPTY. So, the real question is: is this going to be a problem from here out, or did the sender and cluster need to establish the high and low points in the tank and from here out will be accurate? If anyone can shed some light on this I would really appreciate it. As to the question of doing this on an older car, Porsche has a "new" and an "old" cluster design (identified by the color of the plugs on the back) and as long as you match your cluster type to your car's vintage it should be fine. I wanted to update mine to gain the oil pressure guage, as well as have the more "professional" looking design without the Boxster's "pretty" font. Also worth noting, the newer clusters use the dot matrix display which is nice. Patrick

Don't worry.... we all gave him sufficient hell for running out of gas, even though it really was no fault of his own Silly Porsche owners think they don't even need gas!

Ya..that was a fun night. Next time the car gets low on fuel I'm going to grab my fuel jug and go for a drive and see if it reads correctly at the lower end of the spectrum now that it has had a full empty and full fill cycle. At least this time I wont be stranded waiting for friends, but I'm hoping it will read correctly now and give me a low fuel light and not run empty showing 1/8 of a tank as it did the other day. Patrick

Calibration is usually necessary after replacement of the fuel tank, fuel level sensor or instrument cluster. This requires removing and refilling with exactly12 liters of fuel. Then using a PST2 (or PIWIS tester) to re-calibrate the cluster. You might try just filling the tank and disconnecting the battery and then reconnecting the battery which should give you a minor recalibration as it resets everything.

Thumper- Exactly how do you get exactly 12 liters of fuel in the tank, short of draining it? Should I first try filling the tank completey and re-setting the DME and cluster by removing the battery lead for a minute first? This brings me to another question: is there a similar process to calibrate the oil level gauge? So far it appears accurate, as the previous readings from the 986 cluster and the 996 cluster agree, which also corresponds to the dipstick readings. Patrick

I would try filling the tank and then resetting by disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it. It's definitely worth a try. I filled my tank in preparation of swapping out the cluster. I'm doing mine over the next couple of nights. Worst case, I'll take it in to have it recalibrated. I can just imagine what that would cost. I don't think you can calibrate the oil pressure gauge. But I could be wrong and probably am.

Well, I'm going to fill it up and re-set the DME and cluster and see if its happy as the fuel level goes down... if all else fails, I suppose I'll have the stealership calibrate it. As to the oil, I only asked if it was possible/ should be calibrated since my seems to be accurate still. Patrick

If you have to have the stealership calibrate your fuel gauge, you might pose the question about the oil pressure gauge. They might be able to check to see if it accurate as well.

Nice looking gauges, Patrick. I also like your Eclipse unit. My top choices were that one (5510?) and the Pioneer I ended up going with.

the resistance values of the floats may be different causing incorrect readings.

Thanks for the compliments. The 5510 is great. I'm going to try topping off the tank tomorrow and pulling the negative terminal to reset and we'll see if that does the trick. If not its off to the stealership..... Patrick

Fuel topped up and DME/Cluster reset. We'll see if this fixes things.... Patrick

It will be great news if this works! Keep us posted.

The fuel gauge is calibrated via the PST as outlined in the factory manual. The oil level gauge isn't calibrated but there is a TSB about changing the sender on newer engines installed in older cars. Todd

I spoke to my dealer today, and their take on the calibration process was that its a real pain in the you know what and that the only adjustment is a +/- 5% adjustment. This does not sound at all correct to me, so if someone who knows can confirm or disconfirm this I would really appreciate it. Patrick