Maytag's '03 S thread
 

Hey y'all:
so, some of my projects around the house are getting completed, and I find I'm finally able to spend a little time on my Boxster.
Inspired (in part) by another thread that talked about cars with a lack of service histroy / documentation, I thought I'd catalog the things I'm doing to this car here. Then if I ever need to refer back to it, it'a all in one place. Of course, I'm notoriously sporatic at social media as well... so I'm not sure ho this'll go yet. haha.

But the real reason I'm doing this is because I suspect there are many others like me, who (like many others on this site) enjoy the tinkering as much as the driving.... and this can be a place to share some of that with y'all.

So: the car is a new-to-me 2003 Boxster S. I bought it in March this year. It was actually a ittle bit of a "Consolation prize" for me, as I had placed an offer on a Ferrari that I really wanted. But when that car didn't materialize... I was in full-on "Car-Buying" mode, and needed to scratch the itch. So I jumped online and looked for something cheap, that wouldn't touch the budget, in case the F-car still came-through, but that would be fun.

When I found this car, it was all the way across the country from me, in PA. (I'm in Utah). I've never been a "Porsche-Guy", so I wasn't sure... but it ticked alot of the right boxes for me. I looked aroun dlocally, and finally found an '02 S that I could go drive. Frankly, I giggled the whole test drive. what a silly-fun car! It made the right noises, and was extremely tractable sideways (to the dismay of the salesman, ha ha).

Having decided I liked the car, I looked around locally for about 10 days, hoping to find one that I liked. But I'm picky. There are colors I WON'T do (Black, for instance) and there are Interior colors I WON'T do (again, Black, or grey, or any other on that spectrum). So I finally pulled the trigger on a site-unseen car with 140k miles on it. Yup. I'm that guy, hahaha. But at $7500, I figured it'd be hard to get hurt too badly.

5 days later, it was in my driveway. Of course, I've bought cars this way before, and I know that I shouldn't expect to find zero surprises. and I wasn't disappointed: there were plenty of things the seller didn't tell me about. But all-in-all, the car is a solid base to start with.

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nice car, even with 140k miles on it $7,500 for a decent running "S" is a pretty good price...pending the issues of course ; )

I really like that color

So now that I'm finally into the car, and able to work on it, here's where I'm at.

It seems someone has maintained the car pretty well, and at the very least done a recent relatively comprehensive service. for instance:

- I've found the car has NEW brake-fluid in it, as well as new brake pads. I bought some new fluid from Pelican, but I've decided to hold onto that until this winter when I'll change pads, add braided lines and swap the fluid.
- It looks like the coolant has also been changed-out recently, and I suspect that's a new expansion tank.
- There's a new MAF installed. Based on its appearance, it can't be older than a couple thousand miles.

What've I done then?
It's on stands now, and I'm going through it to make it spring-ready. I've decided to keep it relatively simple for now; make sure I like the car enough to sink more money and time into it this winter.

- Replaced engine oil filter (Hengst) and oil (Mobil 1 - 5W-40)
- Cleaned the Throttle body
- Replaced the engine mount (front)
- cleaned/lubed the risers for the rear spoiler (I had one sticking)
- De-Snorked and added a K&N air filter
- Replaced the exhaust with Beluga muffler & SpeedWerks intermediate pipes.
- replaced the trunk & frunk struts

Last night I hooked-up my Durametric for the first time and explored abit. I need to find the application where I can read cam variance, etc. But I'm not going to run the car again until I've completed all of the maintenance on the motor.

I'm waiting on things like Porsche transaxle fluid, spark plugs, serpentine belt, Air/Oil seperator, etc etc etc. And I'll continue working my way from rear to front on the car.

Today I'll start the wheel refurbishment. It's got brand new Michelin Pilot Sports on it already, so just a repair and refurb on the wheels, we'll be golden.

I appreciate all the information that's available here. Many of you have been a huge help already. I'll try to help as well, as I get to know the car better.

Thanks Y'all!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZV38X95iu4aSQMfp9

Good luck with that.

Looks great. Some more basic things to check: look for leaky struts, perished cv joint boots, coolant condition.

I Like the wheels, what are you planning to do to them?

thanks Brian. Struts are new-ish bilsteins. CV boots look good, but I cleaned and conditioned them. (I honestly think "rubber conditioner" is snake oil.... but it won't hurt). And as I mentioned below: coolant looks recent, probably related to the new - looking expansion tank.

I've got curb rash on one of the wheels, and the others show minor oxidization. Clean and assess. And then I need to decide what to do with the center caps. They're horrible, and I think cleaning will make them worse. Haha

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I decided that, rather than start a new thread, I'd pick up where I left off here.

so, since the last post, below;

This has become a mostly-track-use car. DE's only, as I've promised myself no racing. (I spent waay too much money racing Superbikes for 20 years..... I won't do that again)

Around June of '18 I had a catastrophic clutch-failure at the racetrack. Holes in the bellhousing, etc.
In true-racer-form, I looked at repairs as a time to upgrade, so in went the AASCO LightWeight FlyWheel and new SACHS clutch. While I was int here I did a RMS and replaced a PERFECTLY-GOOD IMS.

I followed-up with a Underdrive Pulley so the Power Steering would get a break at the track.

Back out and had fun. Near the end of the year (October?) I took a spin and perhaps didn't get both feet in before it rolled backwards. I popped a plug outta the heads and the resulting inability to create vacuum meant the AOS was ingesting liquid oil straight into the motor. I shut down, but nt before the exhaust was saturated enough that it caught on fire. fun story. haha. Anyway.... back to the garage. I dug into the motor enough to discover I had what I think was a recent motor. it showed ZERO signs of being a 147k mile engine. And thankfully it wasn't broken.

Over the next winter, (2018-2019) I went through the car again, doing water-pump and thermostat, coolant, etc. I cleaned-out the debris between the radiators. I changed-out the oil in the trans and added the 2nd-gear detent fix. I also installed the 987 airbox and 78mm TB. To this I added the SOUL Muffler ByPass valves. Then I installed some FVD adjustable LCA's in the front and took it to have a proper track alignment done (with lots of camber).

The 2019 season was a fun one.... I had a lot of fun passing other "faster" cars. People say nobody wins practice, but I did. haha.
Middle of the year (July / August?) I was railing hard, when I noticed a little "rattle" at maintenance throttle, or right at pickup. I couldn't get it to duplicate it in the pits, so I went back out. It was ever so faint; enough that it was possible I was imagining it. But I had had enough fun for the day, so I picked-up and started the 30-minute drive home. 10 minutes into that drive it was over. The motor was done. Rod-bearing failure. I'm very certain it happened at what we call the "BlackRock Hairpin" at UMC. It's at the end of a VERY fast set of left-hand kinks (where I pull the most lateral g's of anywhere on the track) and then a short straight-away, then a hard-braking zone to a 1st gear left-hander. So the oil is all pushed-away from the pickup, then I'm zinging the down-shifts, way up in the RPM range, then pulling HARD through and out of the turn. Yeah.... poor guy... (the motor, I mean).

So I bought a crashed car with 80k miles and took the motor out of it. Parted the rest.
Over that winter (2019 - 2020) I installed the motor and did the following upgrades:

Replacement Transmission
Ohlins R&T "Track Package" Coilovers
Tarret GT3 sway bar & end links in front
Tarret sway bar and SPL PRO end links in rear
Adjustable thrust arms in front
Adjustable toe-links in rear
Remote-fob-controlled switches to manually turn on the engine-bay purge fan and the radiator hi-speed fans. (the same fob now controls the SOUL Bypass valves, as well)
Headers and Mid-Pipes

Cosmetically;
Replaced the door micro-switches so the windows would drop correctly when the doors opened.
Fixed the Foam on the doors in the A/C - Heater.
Wrapped the exterior with vinyl.
Added Joe Toth spoiler
Added SideSkirts
Added GT3 Front lip
Enlarged the center-hole of the bumper to increase air-flow.
18" wheels with Fred's center caps.

and Dozens of other little things.

So the Mod list looks like this:

Used Replacement 3.2L motor with:
UnderDrive Pulley
AASCO LightWeight FlyWheel
987 Airbox and 78mm TB & Plenum
LN deep sump & windage plate.
X51 Baffles.
Headers with no-cats.
MidPipes with Hi-Flow cats.
SOUL Exhaust ByPass valves (controlled by remote-fob)
Beluga-(ish) muffler. Yes, it now drones.

Suspension mods:
FVD adjsutable LCA's in front
Adjustable Thrust arms, front
Adjustable Toe-Links, rear
Ohlins R&T "Track Package" Coilovers
4-corner-balance
Track alignment

Cooling:
Remote-fob controlled engine-bay purge-fan and radiator High-Speed fans
Enlarged center-radiator opening



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Wow, you turned it into an eye-catcher 2.0! I like it! :cheers:

wow, just wow...

Is that a paint job or a wrap? And did you decide on the color based on the center cap color ?

I dig the gold details on the emblem and pinstripe, looks like it matches the wheels perfectly. well done sir! :cheers:

Wow! What a sweet looking car! :cheers:

So what about a deep sump and X51 type oil baffle to potentially help with the oiling issue? I did that for my '99 that I DE. It helps me sleep better at night and I'm a little less worried on the sweepers.

HA! I forgot to add that to my "done" list. That's the problem with trying to document AFTER, Haha.
Yes, installed the LN deep sump & windage plate, plus the x51 baffles, plus the skid plate. (I'll edit the list below)

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Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful!

Has your wife seen that list? ;)

HA.. I don't think she has :-)

damnit.... :troll:

Saw this on FB. Love the color.

Any hard spots to wrap? The body is so smooth an can't imagine any snag areas.

Oh I learned a ton about wrapping.
1. NOT a one-person job. you really need two people.
2. DON'T attempt this when the ambient temperature is below about 60d f.

There are plenty of compound curves, recesses, etc. on this car, which require a good understanding of how and where to stretch. And then how MUCH to stretch, before it tears.

The wrap is a 50/50. FRom 50-feet or at 50mph, it looks very exotic and badass. :-):cheers:

Wow. Your S kicks ass, if you don’t mind me saying so.

Subaru sti homage??

Looks great!

Dood..... KILLIN' me with that.

Hahaha.

Don't all gotta love it. ;-)

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Impressive work, Maytag! :cool: