Oil leak 2000 Boxster S
 

I am the owner of a 2000 Boxster S with right at 50000 miles. Yesterday when pulling the car out of the garage, I noticed 5 or 6 small spots of what appeared to be dried oil. The spots were less than the size of a dime.

The oil level in the car is fine, but there is obviously a leak that has developed. I plan on taking the car to a Porsche dealer to have the car checked, but based on your experience how worried should I be?

I had few oil drops leak on my car too. It was the rear main seal. I was worried that it might came from IMS seal but it was the RMS that leaked on mine. It was an expensive repair (seal is under $20 but you have to remove the transmission to get to the seal). I replaced all the parts that was on the way too so my total bill was close to $3K (RMS, IMS, clutch, clutch/brake fluid, trans fluid and AOS).

Hopefully yours is coming from different spot (not RMS or IMS) so it should be cheaper to repair.

You can check under the car on where the wet spots are. Mine was from the area when engine connects to transmission.
You can see the wet spot from picture 1-4:
http://s1097.photobucket.com/albums/g344/laphan/Boxster/

me too....
 

My 2000 S had the same leaks you describe. They were both in front of the rear wheels. It was not the rms but the cam tower seals. They replaced the seals on both sides. If it's a rms leak it'll be in the center of where the trans meets the engine. Most likely anyway. I can't tell you what the cam tower seals cost to replace, as my car was under warranty at the time.

good luck
sean

Thanks for the input, I'm going to drop the car off at a local Porsche guy and hope for the best.

This is easy to check yourself. Get under the car and look to see where the oil is dripping. If its in the middle of the car where the engine and trans mate, then its likely RMS and take it in to have it verified.

If the drip is on the sides of the engine where the cam covers mate with the heads (just under the spark plugs), then its most likely the cam cover seals. Cam cover seals seep/drip/leak all of the time and its not a big deal unless its a lot.

Also, check to make sure that you don't have oil running down the side of the engine from one of the spark plug tubes. This will look at first like a cam cover leak but the oil is really coming from a leaking or cracked spark plug tube. If so, spark plug tubes are easily and cheaply replaced as a DIY project.

My '99 seeps (not leaks) oil from the cam covers and the dealer said to just let it be unless it gets a lot worse. They quoted $1,000 to re-seal the cam covers (they have to use a special sealant and its supposed to be quite a difficult job). My local indie shop quoted about $700 for the same work. So far, I've let it be and not touched it.

thstone, I believe there is a diy on one of the other forums or possibly Mike Focke's site for re-tightening the cam tower bolts to stop leaks. When it happened to my car they had it for quite awhile, citing that it was a labor intensive job. I think you can maybe slow it down a little by re-tightening the bolts. I don't know.. just an idea.

sean

Good info for those leaks ;) . The IMS and RMS sound like trouble and big $$ . I will be looking on a 2000S tomorrow. Would it drip after a 5-10 min test drive ?
The car has 68 k miles

Actually having oil leaks was not bad if you have not made the purchase. I managed negotiate for lower price by $2K because of the leak and the car still had the original clutch. You have more negotiation power especially if the leak comes from RMS/IMS. :D
With all the scare of IMS failure all over the internet and inability to check the actual source of leak without having to remove the transmission, the seller might just want to get rid of the car quick before the engine fails on him. That was what happened to me, the seller would not budge on the price until I told him about the IMS horror story and he immediately changed his mind and wanted to dump the car fast.
Spend that savings on IMS upgrade, RMS and clutch, I can guarantee that you are going to sleep better at night without have to worry about your engine failing.

Just got back from dropping the car off at the dealer, and they found small leaks coming from the vicinity of the spark plugs. Their advice was to fix this problem, ( $220 ) and after drying everything up drive the car for a week or two. After this they propose to check and see if the underside is dry, which would mean no RMS replacement!

I'm crossing my fingers.

Oil leaks from the spark plug tubes are not unusual, and a pretty easy fix.

$220 is reasonable price for those spark plug tubes. I replaced all 6 of them when I did the RMS. The mechanic found 2 of my tubes started to leak when he did the whole car inspection.

When we bought my wife's 2002 S four-years ago, it also had an oil leak. It was noticeable after it was parked. We would smell oil burning. It turns out it was a loose bolt on the valve cover that would leak onto the exhaust. One hour of labor took care of it.