Boxster's Winter Woes: Dead Heaters & Warning Lights

I had a similar issue with my 2007 Cayman S last winter. The symptoms were identical, heated windows and mirror heating stopped working simultaneously. Took it to my regular Porsche specialist and they found oxidized connections at the mirror plug, plus a damaged cable near the door hinge. The cable had worn down from repeated door movement over the years. The fix involved replacing the wiring harness section and cleaning/resealing the mirror connections. It wasn't a major repair, more of a maintenance item really. These issues are fairly common on that generation of Porsches due to the wiring layout. I'd suggest finding a reputable independent Porsche specialist rather than the dealer. They should be able to diagnose this pretty quickly since it's a known issue. The repair took about 3 hours at my shop.

Thanks for sharing your experience! That's really helpful. Do you remember roughly what they charged you for the repair? Also curious if you've had any other electrical gremlins pop up since they fixed it? I'm trying to figure out if I should brace myself for more issues down the line with my Boxster.

Hey again! Yeah, happy to help with those details. After my last post, I actually dug up the invoice, it cost me exactly 155€ to fix the mirror heating issue. The mechanic found a damaged cable connection and some oxidized plug connections on the mirror glass, but once they sorted that out, everything's been working perfectly. No more cold mirrors in winter! And to answer your other question, nope, haven't had any other electrical problems since then. The repair seems to have completely fixed the issue. I've been driving my Cayman S for over a year now with zero heating-related problems. These particular wiring issues are pretty common on our generation of Porsches, but once they're properly fixed, they tend to stay fixed. Don't stress too much about future problems, just make sure you find a good Porsche specialist who knows what they're doing. My mechanic actually said these are pretty straightforward fixes when you know what to look for.

I really appreciate the info! After getting all this advice, I decided to bite the bullet and took my Boxster to a different mechanic yesterday, a Porsche specialist that my recommended. Just like you said, it was a wiring issue. They found some worn cables near the door hinge and corroded connections in the mirror assembly. The total bill came to about 180€, which wasn't as bad as I feared. They had it fixed in about 4 hours, and now everything's working perfectly again. The heated windows and mirrors are working like new! The mechanic was really thorough and even showed me exactly what was causing the problem. Such a relief to have this sorted before winter really kicks in. And I've finally found a mechanic I can trust, they were super professional and didn't try to upsell me on anything else. Thanks again for sharing your experience, it really helped me know what to expect and gave me the confidence to get it sorted!