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Tuesday 24 November 2009

Checking Boxster Drainage Holes

There are two drainage holes in the space where the roof retracts to. When up the water from the roof will run down into this area, and in theory down the holes and out the bottom of the car. If these holes get blocked up the water backs up and enters the cabin. The first place it heads is under the seats where the cars brains are. So its a good idea to check these and the two holes in the front by the battery.

Open the roof into 'service' mode. Which means just open it 30cm which causes the rear cover to open. The holes are in each corner, check they are clear and pour some water down to confirm.

There are also two holes for the front, each side of the battery. Looking at the car the left hand hole is pretty easy to spot and there's what looks like a mirror on the right, its not, that's some kind of grommet.  The actual hole is about another 5-6 cm to the right.

Installing Anti Bot Question Mod to PhpBB Forum

Each and everytime I do this it takes me at least an hour .. unlike the instructions which say 5-10 mins. Mostly because I forget all the lessons previously learned so here are my notes for next time.


Open the xml instructions and read carefully !! note that some lines are inserted after and some before.

In the 1.2.0 Mod instructions the following are wrong ..

'S_CONFIRM_CODE' which you are asked to search for has been replaced with 'S_CONFIRM_REFRESH'

Edit the text against language/en/common.php to reflect where the question text appears. This will vary depending on the theme being used.

'AB_QUESTION_EXPLAIN' => 'For protection against spam, Answer the above question.',

Finally don't use CoreFTP to edit the files. It must add some hidden characters and screws the files up. Download BlueFish or Notepad++ and edit the files locally.  When you upload dont forget to check permissions - 644.

Saturday 7 November 2009

Treating Boxtster Roof

As the winter approaches and theres a chance, a slim one, but a chance the car might get caught in the rain I thought I'd treat the roof with some waterproofing. The roof sucked up water, I don't know if it leaked as its not been in the rain since we bought it but better safe than sorry. I guess it all helps.

I pretty much got the instructions from www.boxta.net and then did some follow up reading in the TVR and Lotus forums.

Theres a couple of options which all start with a good clean and then apply a product, spray, bottles, tins .. theres a few to choose from. I went with Fabisil liquid. All the other treatments required you (for a good job) to mask off the windows etc. I wasn't comfortable doing this, worried about sticky glue left around and using a liquid meant you could apply with a paintbrush which I was more confident with.


  1. Give the roof a really good clean. I heavily diluted some baby shampoo in a bucket and used a stiff brush in circles to work the shampoo in.
  2. Soak the roof with water and using the same brush scrub until you get no more soap suds.
  3. Sit back and wait for the roof to dry.
  4. Grab a clean 2" brush and poor some of the Fabisil in a clean container. This was the part the heart starts. Its an expensive car and worried this could wreck the roof. I started my first coat front to back. Keep a cloth handy to mop up any spills on the paintwork or windows. It goes on really easy, keep overlapping the previous part so you keep a 'wet edge' and you should get good coverage.
  5. Sit back and wait for the roof to dry. The tin says 6 hours, but mine was dry enough, outside on a sunny autumn day about 12 degrees, in a couple of hours.
  6. I applied a second coat, which is optional, some apply up to 4. My second coat was side to side. Others then go on the diagonal both ways for coats 3 & 4.

 



Sunday 1 November 2009

Suunto Vyper Battery Replacement

Tools : Small flat head screwdriver, tweezers or small cross head screwdriver
Parts : Battery replacement kit

Simply ScubaMikes #1 Dive Shop eBay

  • REMOVE THE STRAPS !! all the other documentation I found neglected to mention this when they simply state - Remove the computer from the boot.
Use the small flat head screw driver and remove the straps like any other watch. The straps are held in place by a bar with a spring on each end. Use the screw driver to push the spring in and the strap will come out. Now spend 10 mins trying to find the bar as it pinged off.


  • There are two holes holding the batter cover in place. I had a handy pair of tweezers or a small cross head will do. Rotate the cover clockwise and it will lift out.



  • Use the flat head or tweezers to ease the cover off. This should be tight as its where the o-ring is. If you plan to re-use the o-ring (not recommended) then be very carful not to ruin it.


  • Lift of the black retaining bar and switch the battery. Don't touch the front or back. Again, tweezers useful, don't forget to put the black bar back on.



  • I used the replacement o-ring and applied some silicon grease. Same stuff used to lubricate camera o-rings.


  • Now this part was tricky. I don't know if the o-ring was slightly bigger or just a better fit but it needed a fair amount of force to push it down and hold it there while also trying to get the cover back on. You'll work it out.


  • Complete


I dropped it into a bucket of water, not a great test but better than nothing. No dive trips planned for a while so I wont find out if its 100% OK either.

Some useful links ..

Battery replacement video
Manual