Hello,

Firstly I’m Jacques, based in the UK in East Sussex & new to the world of Porsche.

I own a 2002 Porsche Boxster 2.7 986 in black which was purchased completely stock 2 months ago now. 45k miles – FPSH etc. Since then the only modification I have done is to de-snorkel and have just progressed onto the idea of an exhaust system – mainly for the noise & very minimal power gains.

I have spent a lot of time reading the web, mainly US Boxster forum’s and I came across the FabSpeed Race Exhaust for the 986 – Great I thought, exactly the product I want – Sounds good, reasonably priced and feedback on the company and product has been top class.

I went ahead and purchased the product from Vivid Racing who drop shipped it directly from FS to me here in the UK and it turned up on Friday 4 days after leaving the states – Very happy!

Now, here’s where things go wrong…. After watching many videos, FabSpeed own video included (Quote: “Factory OEM Porsche complete exhaust featured on every 2000-2004 Boxster USA and worldwide”) I was under the impression that my UK spec car would have 4 cats – 2 pre (combined with headers/manifolds) and 2 cats in the pipe between headers & mufflers. Or my car would simply have 2 cats as part of the headers as I know there was a change over years where the cats were reduced.

In hindsight I should have looked under my car sooner, but I was convinced by what people had said and what I’d seen from Fabspeed that I should have been ok… But after jacking my car up I am surprised to find that I don’t have cats located in my headers, but simply 1 pair located in the pipe between muffler to header with an o2 sensor before and after on both sides.

So now I have this lovely race exhaust that I cannot fit because I would be left with no cats – no cats means I won’t pass emissions laws at my next annual check and also my car will through up the CEL light – Which can be disabled but the engine doesn’t behave as it should if I’ve read correctly?

So this is what I thought I had:


This is what I actually have:


I didn’t want to change my headers just yet, mainly for monetary reasons but now I have been put into a position where if I return the exhaust I can attempt to fight my case that the description is incorrect and try and get them to waiver the 25% restocking fee, but then I also lose out as I have to pay for shipping and I’ve lost money on import.

So ideally I’d like to keep the system and find a way around it… Here are my suggestions so please feel free to make comments!

1) Modify the FS system to have cats – There are two locations I believe it might be possible to put in cats – these I would purchase from eBay (200 Cell I think?) and I would also get the company putting them in to make holes for the O2 sensors – See the picture for locations I believe cats could be installed. Questions – Is this possible? Will it completely ruin the sound of the exhaust?


2) Purchase used headers with cats from eBay – Hard to find and often expensive – But this keeps OEM & conforms to emissions laws. Only issue – Will 02 sensors that are currently connected reach to cats located in the headers? I can’t see why Porsche would make the wires longer then they need to be, so I suspect I might have to buy new o2 sensors as well? (This point is important so if someone can confirm that would be great)

3) Purchase aftermarket headers with cats. A company in the UK produces headers with cats for the Boxster at £600 a set… Which is cheap, which worries me a little but they have the appropriate o2 senor locations so they should do the job – correct? LINK

I can’t think of any other real options but I am open to suggestions please.

I haven’t yet approached VR but I have had contact with FS, unfortunately they haven’t been of very much help and have simply dismissed my email and stated that I most likely have aftermarket headers.
*
If anyone does have a set of headers with cats - wants to sell them to the UK and is happy to declare them a minimal value I'd be very much interested

Really I’m rather stuck and I am open to all advice and ideas, the more the better!

Kind Regards

Jacques

 

I would not hack Fabspeed's exhaust to add in cats. Your laws are different where you are located and honestly, I wish USA had the same stock setup as you guys do across the pond.

I'd go ahead and install the race exhaust with the stock manifolds, but to get around the CEL's, you will need to spend some more money at this point. You can purchase a reflash through softronic or some other aftermarket DME company. Actually, you would reap benefits of doing this because they raise the bar on performance, but the reflash will cost you about 900 USD and can be done with a laptop and wireless network from your garage.

This will NOT get you around the emissions testing though. I don't know how restrictive emissions testing is where you are located, but if they put the car up on a lift and examine the exhaust setup, they will surely notice the lack of cats, therefore you may need to do what you say and purchase stock USA type manifolds that contain cats (these are crap by the way and reduce performance) or purchase Fabspeed sport headers that contain 200 cell cats in them. Those would be well matched for the race exhaust and give you a good emissions checkup, but they cost about 2300 USD.

The ulitmate setup for you right now would be a softronic reflash, FS sport headers coupled to your already purchased FS race exhaust. The plus side would be more power, better sound and no emissions issues. Downside is you will spend an additional 3300 USD above and beyond what you have spent on the race exhaust.

I know this is expensive, but if you have to have some sort of cat setup, this is one of the only ways you can get by emissions. Or you just install the race exhaust to your original stock euro headers and take your chances with emissions checkup.

The CEL can be cleared via a Durametric code fault reader, but the CEL will return over and over. Only way to permantely delete it is a DME reflash with either softronic or another aftermarket tuner. I like softronic personally. Can you tell?

Sorry you are just now experiencing this delimma. In the future, do your research into these cars before you start to purchase any aftermarket equipment. Regardless of age, the 986 is still an expensive car to obtain extra HP from. Take it from someone who has owned one and done it. Any questions, please don't hesitate to PM me. Jon

 

Thanks Jwade for your response, had a few others from other forums which have been greatly negatives so this is a refreshing difference!

I have gone with the set of headers with cats I listed in the previous post, they will arrive tomorrow and the setup is going onto the car on Monday, very excited for this!

I haven't heard of softronic before, but these maps they offer is it not better to have the vehicle taken to somewhere with a rolling road and have a map created for that specific vehicle?

Hopefully the CATS i've purchased will avoid the CEL and also as listed pass MOT rules! Lets hope!

And yes, extracting HP from an NA is never going to be easy or cheap... I'm not looking for gains to be honest, more for that sound.. that the boxster misses!

 

As long as you have atleast 2 cats, you should pass emissions without a problem. You are going the correct route to purchase headers with integral cats.

Softronic reflash doesn't work that way. It will take into account the new setup you have and work well with it. It raises the rev limiter and changes some other DME coding to allow more power. It's quite nice and considering what you have done, it would compliment your mods.

No doubt you will get better sound. My setup back when I owned my '01 S was Turbowerx headers (catless), Fabspeed bypass pipes and an original Eisenmann version 1 porsche sport exhaust with the buterfly valves locked into the open position. OMG the sounds was intoxicating! Under hard accelleration it sounded like a gt cup car...

Good luck!