Ouch!!!
 

Took my car into the local Porsche dealer for a look at a couple of problems and was hit with an $15,000 estimate to fix everything. Please take a look at the attached action plans.
As I see it, I have 2 options, try to fix the "FAIL" items or sell the vehicle as a project car.

Which "FAIL" tasks can I accomplish at home and which will I have to take in? If this will be too large a task, what would the fair market value be for this car to be sold as is?

Wow, I guess it's not April 1st....

Every one of these tasks looks to be at least 5x or more than it should be. I hate the throw parts at a problem and hope for the best.

Do you want breakdown of each repair?? How are your wrenching skills??

You should find a local independant shop as well to estimate this work.

Did you just buy this car, or have had it a while?

The serp belt and window regulator are easy DIY

If you are mechanically inclined, you can fix a lot of those problems yourself. Replacing the AOS and spark plugs will probably solve most of your misfiring problems. Those parts will set you back a whopping $230 and take you a Saturday to do.

15 000$ for that !
Where is that dealership I want to work there ^^

Everything is way overpriced and none of these thing are really hard to do nor take really long time.

They say the car is not drivable due to the clutch not realesing ?

First, I would go somewhere else.
Then consider do most of the thing yourself.
No need to sell it as a project car.

Well, KBB says a '99 base in fair condition is worth about $5700... Since it needs $15,300 worth of work according to the dealer, you should pay the next owner $9,600 to drive it away. I'll drive it away for 1/2 that!

Seriously, go see and Indy and get a realistic assessment. I'm honestly shocked that dealership didn't try to sell you $4000 in tires and $200 worth of air to fill them up.

You can buy another, newer, Boxster for that and use yours for spare parts.:eek:

Thanks for the feedback. FYI, I took this to Brumos in Jacksonville, FL. My wrenching skills are ok, plus I have the "Projects" book. I paid $5k for the car knowing I would put a few grand into it. Regarding the clutch, it releases just fine. Some difficulty getting into 1st and reverse. I suspected the Master Cylinder had a leak and that doesn't look like a difficult task.
Will probably start with plugs first and go from there.
Again, thanks for the advise. Time to start getting pieces and parts together.

It's a big elephant and I'll have to eat it one bite at a time...

Try to rent a lift, it can makes a lot of things easier !
If the clutch releases, there is no problem with the master or slave cylinder.
Does it go in any other gear at a stop ?

BEN 006
It is sometimes difficult to get into first gear is static (idling). Reverse is more difficult. There are other times when it goes in smoothly, no resistance. When it is impossible to get it into 1st or reverse, I shut the car down, shift it then start it back up and continue on. Happens more with reverse. Occasionally, there is some resistance going into 2nd.

At those prices you should be getting a sponsor logo on one of Brumos' race cars.
These cars hate vacuum leaks. Sort out the vacuum leak first: AOS & oil filler hose. The reverse/first problem may just be a shifter adjustment issue.

try Omega motorsports or technical dimensions in Jax. Omega owner and 1st Mechanic worked at Brumos for a combined 28 yrs? The stories they told me were scary. T. D prices are close to Brumos. If you enjoy wrenching and have time and money go down the road you are on as far as diy. If you are planning on paying someone else consider another car.Please feel free to P.M. for more lengthy conversation by phone if you like. I am at the beach in Jax.

Better hurry, estimate only valid for 30 days :matchup:

And when it's hard to go in first or reserve, is hard to go into the other gear ?

I'm asking that to locate the problem, if it's a clutch/clutch hydraulics problem, or a gearbox/shifter mechanism problem.

If it's a clutch problem, it will prevent you from going into any gear.
If the problem is only for some gear, it comes from the gearbox.
Of course... it can be both...

It's always hard to exactly point the problem without seeing the car !
You might just running low on old gearbox oil, mine shifts way better since I changed it.

That's crazy, I would definitely get another estimate or do the work yourself. It sounds like most of it probably doesn't need to be done or at least not right away. The headlights are any easy swap if they really need to be replaced, although they are a bit pricey. I would just fix what's has to be done for now.

Get the order of things in line so you don't have a failure while changing wiper blades....

Haha! Another stupid ass dealer quote.

And then dealers wonder why no one likes them?

Things you can do yourself:
Window regulator
Air oil seperator
Clutch adjustment (Check slave cylinder for leaks, Adjust cable accordingly)
Ignition switch (you just need the manual, it's easier than it sounds)
Replace coolant tank - Pain in the rear, but after doing the AOS and clutch adjustment you will see exactly what you need to do to remove the coolant tank.
Right and left headlights - Get them used on Ebay or Woody from this forum ($500 or less for both)
Lastly: Set fire to that shop

You can do all of the "Fail" items yourself. It takes time and commitment, but you can do them all. This forum will help make that happen.

I inherited my grandmothers car. It had every dealer receipt in the glovebox rolled up in about a solid one inch scroll. One was "remove and clean intake manifold". The PDFs you have provided bring that to mind.

I'm heading to the dealer this afternoon to pick the car up and pay them $342 for the $15K estimate. Will start ordering parts and get moving on it. Looking forward to this. In 97, I did a ground up restoration to my 66 912. Looked forward to going out to the garage and working on it. A labor of love.
Thanks for the encouragement, I'm sure you'll see a ton of newbie questions in the very near future.

Put a dry-erase board in the garage. List projects. (A war board)

Car up on stands, start wrenching. You'll be done faster than you know.

I would ask for a discount on the 342!! That is a joke.

I guess you can do all this stuff if you've done the 912. I also have a 8'66 912 3 gauge car and love it. So simple in comparison...

Our Box is also Arena Red, is that you color too?? We just bought it for less than you and have been doing a mechanical refresh before getting it on the road as my daughters DD.

http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/59015-1st-boxster-7th-porsche-we-now-have-4-family.html

OMFG, That is F#&^ing RIDICULOUS.

Make sure you kick 'em in the balls before you leave.

What did they actually fix? Phone won't open attachments.

Pay for just an estimate?

Bad english
 

All you guys that used the word "Dealer" is using very bad English. The word is Stealer not Dealer LOL. :cheers:

Timco,

I paid for the privilege of bringing it to the dealer "Stealer" so they can tell me what needs to be repaired. I priced out the parts on the "failed" items and it comes to less than $700. If you add up their cost to repair the "failed" items it comes to about $6,700. $6K in labor in my opinion is a wee bit high!

I wouldn't be too hard on the dealer. For what it's worth a full diagnostic by a trained Porsche tech is not a bad value. Although I definitely did not pay $350. I think it was no more than $150. When my car hit ~60K miles (if memory serves) I brought it to the top dealer perhaps in the whole North East (Ray Catena Porsche, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Lexus, Jaguar, bla bla). I made the appointment to wait on site while the young tech went through the car top to bottom. Meanwhile I sat in what has to be the nicest lounge of any hotel or car dealer within 30 miles. Free lunch, internet kiosks, pool table, giant plasma on the wall. After a couple of hours the service manager dressed very professionally came out with a report that included the expected longevity of all the major gear, a true 50 point inspection. It even said which of my coil packs needed to be replaced. He of course did not try to sell me on doing a single repair because Jay Leno's or Dave Letterman's new McLaren SLR was sitting 20 feet away and they don't need my stinkin money. :D I think the estimate was also about equal to the car's value at the time...which translates to about 30% of what my indy ended up charging for most of those repairs. But my indy is way too busy restoring old air-cooled cars (the ultimate recession proof business) to be doing these kinds of inspections. But at least I had a heads up on things my Indy would eventually be informing of later and played a role in deciding whether to keep the car or switch over to a newer car. I thanked the dealer receptionist lady for the free buffet lunch and went on my way. I think they even washed my car.

Dude,
They're including a free car wash? What's your probem?

It is a $25 value!

The saga continues. I drove the car in and had to have it towed home. The car started right up, but died seconds later. The quote from the service tech for the car quitting was "Idle stabilizer is sticking in different positions. Found no gasket on Idle air stabilizer. Found idle stabilizer stuck in closed position and plastic housing is cracked".

Not sure where the idle stabilizer is located, to pissed off to look it up in the projects book. Is this a DIY project to replace this part? Planning on starting to eat away at the issues this weekend...

BTW, the dealer did refund my diagnostic fee since I had to have the car towed out of their parking lot.

It's right on the side of the throttle body, held with 2 screws. Not certain this is the cause of a non running condition tho. Have to see what others say and give it a think.

Is this the same as the MAF?

No. TPS is on side of throttle body. You can disconnect MAF to see if it changes anything. Clean it if needed.

Is this what I need?http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1446424287.jpg

The thing with the label on the right side. That's the whole throttle body assembly.

Possibly need to establish correct terminology before proceeding. It appears you have a 99 with the cable throttle. This style throttle body has an IACV (idle air control valve) I believe this is what the tech is calling idle stabilizer?? JFP might confirm. If this is cracked and installed with no gasket it may be the problem and is easily replaced. It is the black device on the right side of your throttle body picture. No need to replace TB. Hope this helps.

The MAF is on the drivers side more towards the air box. It lives in the pipe that goes to the throttle body and has a few wires going to it. That pic is of a throttle body. I would not buy a MAF used, but I would clean the one you have.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...s_med/Pic2.jpg

This is where the MAF is located.

http://www.gospecracing.com/images/maflocation.jpg

Mine was held in by special security torx screws.

Can anyone provide a picture or diagram of how the clutch hydraulic fluid line runs from the master to slave cylinder? Apparently, IAW the dealer, mine is routed incorrectly (see attached PDF in first post) and rubbing against the suspension. replacing the master and slave cylinders this weekend and want to route the line correctly.

Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks

The flex line? That goes from the body to the slave?

What requires re-routing is the length of pipe from the union under the car near the drivers side door to the slave cylinder to include the "flex pipe".