It's been a while since I've been on the World, I took a break to focus on finishing my MBA and moving into our new house. With both of these done, I'm back to my 914 obsession! I sold my blue 1974 that needed a lot of rust attention and should have my red 1973 flared 2.0, that still needs rust attention just not as much, delivered this Friday. I also sold my 1970 VW Beetle and picked up a 1999 Boxster. I know my post "didn't actually happen" because I don't have any pics posted, but I'm at work right now and won't be able to post pics until this evening.


So here's my issue with the Boxster:

-Was letting my family member drive the car, she is just learning to drive a stick
-Car died while trying to leave a stop sign, re-started the car to try again.
-Car died again, but when trying to re-start this time: starter turned about 3 times, all gauge lights came on, flickered then went off
-Now none of the electronics are working: no radio, no horn, won't crank, etc.
-Gauges are all stuck where they were when the car died, even with the battery disconnected
-First thought was the battery had died from all the re-starts, so we try to jump it. BIG sparks when trying to connect to the other car.
-Pulled out the ignition switch (replacement will be here tomorrow). Just to test it, reconnected the battery and now have just very minor sparks when connecting the wires. But, still sparking nonetheless.

I'm going to check out the starter solenoid tonight, as it seems like a logical culprit to me.

Any suggestions?

Whoa - wait for an expert here . . . I don't know the Boxter, but if it only quit cranking but then everything went dead, you've got more going on than a dead battery.

Disconnect the batter and test that, I'll bet it's got something in it which should be enough to light up the electronics.

On some cars putting jumpers on the battery is not a good thing to do.

Good luck . . .

starter solenoid stuck?
Bad ground from battery?
Bad positive lead connection at starter.
Fuseable link burned out.

Lots of spark could be the starter was stuck pulling a load...
Little spark, just a small one, is typical of stereo memory, dome lights etc..

Rich

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Here's a few pics of my new friends.

Fortunately, I now own 2 Porsches

Unfortunately, I now own 0 driveable Porsches


My dilemma with the Boxster with this point is I'm struggling with deciding if I should attempt to fix this mystery electrical problem myself, or swallow my pride, whip out my wallet and save myself lots of and just take it to the shop.

Any suggestions?