On-board computer (OBC) and Cruise Control (CC) Computer Recoding
 

I have a 2003 Boxster S which does not have either the OBC or CC. I want to have a shop perform the upgrades for both items as described in the Pelican How To Articles for Boxsters. I asked my local Porsche dealership if they could do the upgrades and they said they could except they could not recode the computer as they do not have a PST-2 tool anymore. I forwarded the How To article to them which I believe states that they can use either the PST-2 OR the PIWIS to no avail. Does anyone know if the upgrades can definitely be recoded with the current version of the PIWIS, which do they do have in their shop? Also, can the recoding be done with a Durametric which is at another indie shop?

Durametric or PIWIS can do it, but I would stay away from dealers on this as the factory wants them to charge you full boat option price to activate the systems.

I'm still trying to go over this, but I'm stuck on another place :
By the way, the coding is quite easy using Durametric.
(Going into "Cluster" and "Activations"), you could enable or disable the OBD.

In my case, I'm stuck on another "place" : the connector !!

I just posted this question on the Pelican topic about the OBC topic of the "101 project list" :

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Comments: I recently did the 996 Cluster upgrade.
Everything was fine, connection to cluster connector nice an easy, no problem.
Then, being visiting the back of the Cluster, I decided to do the "OBC upgrade", using dashboard "windows" switches.
..And faced a tough problem : going to pin 21, 22, 23 and 24 of the cluster connector : first question : Which connector ?? I understood that it is the "Light Gray" one.
Looking at it, I had a strange vision : in my car, that gray connector has ONLY one (1) original connection !! Yes, only a single wire is attached to this connector.

On all the photos I saw about the 101 Boxster projects, we can see connectors, but no color of the Cover !! and these connectors have all a lot of wire connections !!
Is my car "special" having only one wire on the gray connector ??
It is a 2001 Boxster S, and has the "latest" type of cluster : with the set of colors gray-blue-green.
It is true that it was equipped by factory with the option 454 : Automatic speed control, ..or one more reason why I'm surprised to do not have more wires on the gray connector as the "speed control should be on that one if I understand well !!
Nevertheless,
Trying the connection with 21, 22, 23 and 24 on this gray connector and having the "2 switches center" connected to the ground, do not give me any control on the OBC.

Note : for sure, OBC enable, coded using Durametric.

Anybody with an idea on such situation ??

For the 2001-04 Boxster, you can use any non-Turbo 996 cluster from the years 2002-04. This can be from a C2 or a C4: the clusters were modified in these later years to eliminate the problems that were inherent with the earlier C4 clusters. Ideally, you should try to find a cluster from a cabriolet car, so that you won't have to recode the cluster to enable the convertible top lamp (coupe clusters can be recoded to make the convertible top lamp operational). As with the earlier cars, be sure to match the cluster with your transmission type (manual vs. Tiptronic).

Thank JFP,
…pas d'inquiétude, je m'accroche bien! (3 points sur la route et 5 points sur la piste :))

The Cluster seems to be all right ! It came from a 2003 Coupé. (Before copying in my vin, I read the “previous” vin, to know who was the donnor !

Btw, oil pressure now reads all fine. After 30 years of 911, it is great to have 5 gauges again !
(For sure 3 gauges and the engine at the right place was already a great move :)

Yes, because donnor was a coupé, I do not have roof moving red lights, but as my car do not have its OEM roof anymore (coz 6 pts roll bar !), in the winter, I'm using an 2010 Spyder roof.
OK, I had to change the side windows, but this was not a big deal.
May be one day, I will recode, ..to have the light when opening the tonneau cover for maintenance ! No urgency on that one, and I cannot do that with Durametric, so, till I get something else this recode will have to wait.

But:
My current problem is that as I was having my hands in the back of the cluster, I decided to do the OBC mod.
All wiring ok, when I wired the oil pressure from the engine to the dash board, going underneath the windows control switches, I added two switches, and runned 4 additional wires so, the oil pressure one was not alone on his travel to the cluster.

I connected those 4 wires (two pairs) to the pin 21, 22, 23 and 24 of the gray connector, but the OBC do NOT responds to any command !
The OBC has been enabled on the cluster (Durametric), I know this was fine, as I can read the outside temp, but no up-down, no select, no nothing in OBC commands!
Quite strange,

I have to go back in the cluster connectors, as I found that all my 3 gray-blue-green connectors have the plastic completely cooked, they just fall apart. I ordered them (at Pelican Parts) and when I will be back there to change the plastic covers, I will triple check the connections.
My big surprise was the fact that in the gray connector, before adding the 4 wires of the OBC, this connector had ONLY ONE (1) wire attached to it !
When I look at all the photos from people holding the “C” connector, I always see a lot of wires on that connector. (Like in the Blue one, where the oil pressure goes, i.e.: in the slot #5).
So, is my car “special” having only 1 wire in the gray connector before that mod ??????

No, I have seen others that were that way.

Thanks JFP, happy to read this.
So it looks like I have either a connection problem or my "new" cluster has a problem. It become simpler to be fixed.
I will check using my old 3 gauge cluster and see if the OBC will show up (after enabling it !)
I suppose that the oil pressure connection will not be a problem for this cluster.
Then I should be able to understand what is the source of this problem !

I have a 2003 Boxster S and can confirm from experience that a 2003 grey blue green connector instrument cluster may not have OBC.