hints on replacing parking brake switch?

hey, i've got this great opportunity to work on the boxster tomorrow with my wife's blessing. she just called and is stuck with the top down...the parking brake switch isn't activating.

i've got a spare (planning ahead). is this a semi-simple job? this may sound scary, but where does it go? in the tunnel just under the p.brake? tips, diagrams, anything would be appreciated.

may be a good time to change the battery in the garage door opener i stuffed in there a coupla years ago too.

thanks!

thanks, doug

for those annoying days when the switch won't activate, you can hold a button to override it, and be able to operate the top.

When this happened to mine a couple of months ago, a freind advised me to actuate the parking brake firmly 10 or 15 times (translation-pull the crap out of it) to see if the switch would "un-stick". On the 5th or 6th pull, I heard a click, but I gave it the full 15 just to be safe. Sure enough, the top then worked and has ever since.

thanks jay. that's how i've been "fixing" the intermittant problem for the past year. i think i'm ready for that hack!

If you ground pin #15 on the relay, it thinks that the parking brake is on. I soldered a short wire with a quick connector on it to pin #15, and then connected this to a convenient ground. This way I can easily remove this hack and return the stock unmodified relay if necessary.

If you want a dash mounted switch, just put it in series on this wire to ground.

And while you're there, remove pin #18 to allow the top to operate while the car is moving. 8)

You bend over pin #18 for the top relay. (Several Babblers have already done this). Then you ground pin 15 of the relay.

You can put the top up or down while driving the car and without pulling up the hand brake a notch. The TechArt relay without the $, but without the 25mph limit.

Just be careful Babblers and do not work the top switch at 100mph.

Jeff

[Leonardo111]

Also if you don't want to replace the switch you can just bypass it so you can use the top

Here's a good video how to do it:
https://youtu.be/eoI6o1TQE3c

[penguinpete]

Since it has been a while since this has been posted I thought I would see if this has caused anyone problems, other than driving too fast while putting up the top . It seems straightforward.

[penguinpete]

I wanted to add, I took out the coin tray section of the console (just two screws) and hit the switch with a little WD40 and it is working fine. Hope it will last until the new switch arrives.

[mikefocke]

The hacks are well known and tried on thousands of cars.