TEF

Purchased yesterday a 2008 Boxster S in Meteor Gray (w/gray interior) from Porsche dealer in Rochester NY. Car looks and drives well, but have two questions from the experienced owners on this forum:

1) Prior to my purchasing the car, the dealer installed new pads and rotors on all wheels. Judging from pad thickness and smooth and shiny rotors, the dealer appears to be creditable. Is the friction material on OE Porsche brake pads typically ceramic or semi metallic? Hopefully, its the former as semi metallic's are hard on rotors and that seems to be the expensive component with brakes. From the BMW forums, I recognize that semi-metallic's offer better initial bite, but I am a little old to worry about track days.

2) Again, not a performance question, but I am having difficulty programming the car's Homelink feature. I've followed the guidance of the Owners Manual and even Youtube without success. While I know that door remotes vary and mine old, it was recognized by previous German, Korean and Japanese cars.

3) The CDR24 radio, is really sad for a car cost over $60K new. I've found this listing on the internet "Bluetooth A2DP USB MP3 adapter for Porsche CDR23 CDR24 Boxster" selling for about $150 that accesses the radio through the factory CD deck. The installation instructions require that a Porsche dealer activate the radio's CD deck port when installing a car without a CD deck. Has anyone used this adapter? If so, does it work as claimed? Also, how much does it cost for dealer activation?

While I recognize these questions are of little interest to those owning a Porsche for competition reasons, but these little things make me crazy.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dave in Chicago

Welcome and congrats on the car. Nice color combo too. These cars look great in Meteor Gray with the Gray interior.

I'll take a whack at the questions:

1) I can't say for certain, but i believe the OEM Textar pads are semi-metallic in nature. That said, they will last a pretty long time in street use, the rotors even longer. I recently replaced rotors front and rear as well as rear pads. These may have been original rotors at about 77k miles, as all caliper bolts where the original (non-updated) part. The rears were for sure.

2) With the HomeLink, I had to invest in a compatibility bridge https://homelink.com/compatibility-bridge I believe the issue is that newer openers may need this to work with the older HomeLink in these particular models. It was not fun to get the bloody thing working, but it works fine now and has done so for years.

3) Yes, pretty sad radio. Porsche's choice is really beyond me. Mine came with a Dension Gateway 500 Lite https://www.dension.com/automotive/p...teway-500-lite already installed (thankfully). It also uses the fiber optic lead for the CD Changer. Highjacking the CD Changer input seems to be the common approach to integrating to these older Porsche sound systems. It sounds very good and charges too, but it ain't BlueTooth. Perhaps someone can chime in on the option you are looking at.

Good luck and enjoy!

TEF

Thanks for your helpful response. I'll look into that compatibility bridge thing. I tend to fixate on small things like the homelink and radio until they're working. Secondly, you're a lucky guy to get that Denison unit with the car. It seems to be almost as expensive as an aftermarket head unit, but it still maintains the car's stock look. An important detail..

daylorb

I wouldn't spend a minute worrying about the brakes. Replacing pads is easy if you don't have the performance you want, you want to go with stock-ish setup unless you start to heavily track it.

On the homelink, surprised, although it is really finicky. I've always had trouble with mine, but have always gotten them to work.

On the radio - welcome to Porsche. I've installed this into two Porsche's... . Works really well, easy install, no dealer required.

TEF

Thanks. Didn't know about the Simple Tranzit device. My only issue is that I require an audio input into the cars audio system for a compact Sirius radio receiver. I transfer this small unit from one vehicle to another and needs a mini phone jack into a car's system. I need only one Sirius subscription for several cars. The unit is quite an antique but needs only plug-in mini phone jack, antenna and power connector installed in each car. The antenna and power cable cost virtually nothing and are easily installed. .

professsorz

I happen to own a 2008 Boxster S! (RS 60). And thus have some info. Your number 2 query - I purchased the LiftMaster remote: https://www.liftmaster.com/1-button-...ntrol/p/G371LM
This was after trying lots of song and dance. With this remote it was trivial. Very inexpensive. Buy it and be done.

Item 3 - I'm just using my old CDs (doh!). I like the sound of the car so much I'm not bothered by the primitiveness. And for calls, I use this: It's massively better than an in-car bluetooth connection in terms of audio quality. The sound cancellation is amazing.

Item 1: Dunno

TEF

As I mentioned earlier, my primary goal is a audio input for my Sirius receiver. I am not wedded to a phone or the attendant itunes or mp3 files. Like you, I still prefer cds (and a few records) on a decent home stereo system. On longer drives, I prefer the variety of music and news content of Sirius. Its madding to know that my 350z that is four-years older and half the price of a new Boxster has a more flexible Bose system.

professsorz

Hmm, realizing I may not have been clear. With this remote you can get your car's Homelink operational and then not need to use the remote on its own again. So it's $20 to get the car's Homelink working (plus you then have a spare remote).

TEF

I looked up the link you provided in your initial posting and realized you were suggesting a separate remote door opener. In truth, I have two of them in my junk drawer that were freed up by Homelink in my other vehicles. While getting it to function in the Boxster is hardy essential, I am probably more bothered by this option not working than not having Homelink at all.

saabin

I also had trouble getting my 07 Cayman's Homelink working when I first got it years ago.. I finally read the owners manual very carefully and went step-by-step.. Erased all the old codes. Finally got it working.. Agree it was not an easy thing but I finally got it working with my Genie rolling-codes opener.

TEF

My opener is not a Genie. It's a no-name transmitter that was retrofitted to a Sears opener in 1989 (probably before rolling codes). As old as it is, it has linked up with many cars over the years without problems. Even my '16 BMW recognized it without issue. I am pretty sure the Porsche Homelink is functional as it light blinks at all the right times during installation. However the fog lights never blink three times as they should with a successful installation. Also the designated button never opens the door as it should.

professsorz

I wanted Homelink to work in the Boxster and couldn't find my opener's original remote. (Of course, I found it later - just as I knew would happen). In any case, the Porsche manual didn't produce results and the external, mounted on the garage remote didn't do the trick. But by ordering this little remote, and then getting it linked with the garage opener, I was THEN able to get the Porsche's homelink working by following the manual's directions. I first initialized the Porsche's Homelink (I think those instructions were on the left page of the manual) and I did whatever was indicated. Then I did the "if you have a remote" operation of holding it in front of the car and holding the button down. That got the Porsche's homelink to link up with the garage door opener.

TEF

Thanks for a great explanation of the second remote.

saabin

May not be applicable for you because of your openers age, but in a separate house with a different opener, I had to erase all of the "known remotes" from my opener as it had reached it's capacity. It would not accept any more.. it was full of known remotes from the PO of the house, etc.

So I erased all the remotes, and then re-programmed all my standard handheld remotes, and THEN it allowed the new "remote" from my Homelink.

professsorz

Hope it's of help. My garage opener is a Craftsman - over a decade old for sure.