My Blue Boxster refurb.

[elgyqc]

This fall I bought two 2000 5-speed Boxsters one after the other. The first one, which is green, is being sold on to a friend after I got a lot of the basic maintenance up to date. That experience is described here:
https://rennlist.com/forums/boxster-and-boxster-s-986-forum/1099769-getting-the-maintenance-up-to-date-on-my-new-2000-boxster.html

The Blue Boxster supposedly had an overheating problem after the water pump was changed. It had been sitting for a couple of years. The coolant reservoir was empty so I put in about 6 liters of ionized water to fill it. I left the coolant bleeder valve open for the short drive home and it ran well with the temperature staying right in the middle of the gauge. On arriving I had to add another couple of liters of water. I figure the guy filled the reservoir after changing the water pump and drove off without bleeding or refilling. Supposedly the car wasn’t driven with the engine seriously overheated and I have not seen any indication that the engine was damaged.
The car has 185,000 km (115,000 miles). I continued driving with the bleeder open for a week, then closed it and it seems to fine.





The car has a salvage title, accident on the front left corner which may explain why the paint is in such good shape. It seems to have a few options... but the hood was replaced so the sticker is gone; it has electric seats and speakers in the rear. It also has nice BBS wheels and good tires.

Other than the problem described in this thread:
Noise like hitting a tin can with a stick?
it runs well.

Observations after driving for a little over a month and 300 km.

The starter seems a bit anemic but the engine starts quickly and runs smoothly, the clutch and transmission are acceptable but not as tight as the green boxster that I was driving at the same time.
There is maintenance that was not done, since I don’t have any documentation, I will be bringing everything up to date.
In exploring the car I found;
- the drains were relatively clean.
- the roof lowers and raises just fine, the rear window has a small tear but other than that is in good shape, I.e. transparent.
- the air and cabin filters were dirty, but not too bad, I cleaned them.
- brake pads and shoes are good and the rotor thicknesses are within limits.
- the rear speakers have a wire cut, don’t know whats happing there.
- the front trunk lid shocks were unable to hold the lid open (replaced).
- the tool kit was missing a few things, I have replaced them and added a wrench to allow me to remove the serpentine belt on the road.
- checked the serpentine belt – it was OK, but I have a new one that I will install and the old one will be in the trunk in case of an emergency. I think the idler pulley bearing is a bit loose, I will change it if necessary when I change the belt.
- gas filler lock is not working.
- the leather seats are on good shape, treating them with a protector is in the works.
- there was only one key and I discovered that it was missing the internal electronics for the disarming the alarm and unlocking the doors. I don’t know if the alarm works… with the doors locked the light on the dashboard double flashes. I will look into this sometime in the future. Meanwhile I found a place that made me a new key that opens the doors and starts the car.
- I found a puddle of water on the passenger side, so I assume the drip pan on that side is damaged. This is strange because the car had been stored outside and there was no water in it when I bought it and no indication of previous leaking.
- there is no play in the wheel bearings or suspension elements. The front shock bump stops are in bad shape.

The car is now my garage for the next steps in its refurbishing.
- have done a compression test which gives all cylinders (cold… around freezing) between 170 and 180 with a maximum difference of 6%, which is positive. The spark plugs are all very clean and in good shape. The coils look good, no cracks. I have ordered a borescope so I can inspect the cylinders before replacing the plugs. I will also replace the spark plug tube o-rings.
- at some point the front bumper cover will come off so I can clean and inspect the radiators.
- picked up a after market starter on Amazon for $85 CDN which was supposed to be used, with some scratches. When it arrived it looked new and no scratches. Hmmm. It will be installed soon to see if the cranking speed is improved.
- before the really cold weather arrives I have to drain the coolant because of the quantity of water I added. The garage is unheated so it ends up being quite chilly during the winter.
- I will drain the oil and inspect the filter and probably change the transaxle oil.
- The big project before it comes out of the garage next Spring is to drop the transaxle to inspect the clutch and change the IMSB. I hope to get the transaxle out before the temperature in the garage falls to the point where I can’t work, so I can inspect everything and order parts to be ready to reassemble everything when Spring arrives.

[elgyqc]

The new starter has been installed, I don't notice a difference in cranking speed but the proof will be next Spring when the car is started again.
I pulled and inspected the oil filter and it was super clean: no metal, no plastic bits. I also strained the oil in the filter housing through a piece of cloth and nothing there either. The engine would seem to be better than I hoped.
Next on to the clutch and IMSB inspections.

[barkinfool]

Nice car & posts! In your first post you mentioned puddle on passenger side. You also mentioned the drains were clear which is great. One problem I had was the drain panel had a tear behind / under passenger side roof, so it leaked into the passenger footwell. Another point of ingress is through the passenger door if the seal under the door panel has been removed. You didn't mention it in post #2, so maybe you fixed / found that already, but wanted to chime in just in case.

[elgyqc]

Originally Posted by barkinfool

Nice car & posts! In your first post you mentioned puddle on passenger side. You also mentioned the drains were clear which is great. One problem I had was the drain panel had a tear behind / under passenger side roof, so it leaked into the passenger footwell. Another point of ingress is through the passenger door if the seal under the door panel has been removed. You didn't mention it in post #2, so maybe you fixed / found that already, but wanted to chime in just in case.

Thanks for the compliment. I have to take the top off to see if there is a tear in the foam drip pan, I think you are right about that. Sometime before the Spring that will be done.

[elgyqc]

The outside temperature is finally to the point where I can open the garage door and start to let the garage and car warm up... and do some work without freezing my fingers off!
The borescope didn't reveal any anomalies so I installed the new spark plugs and and tubes. Getting the tubes in with ambient temperatures of around freezing was a challenge till I tried heating them with hot water, they then slid in without difficulty.
I was overly optimistic when I said there were no cracks in the coils, there were no BIG cracks in the coils. Closer examination revealed that all six had mini-cracks. Since they seem to work perfectly I resealed them using JB Weld on 2 and grey high temperature gasket material on the 4 others, then sprayed them with ignition sealant. Hopefully this will work and I will have saved close to C$500.
The plan today is to install a support for the rear of the engine and then to get to work on removing the transmission to inspect the clutch and IMSB. Yesterday I sprayed penetrating oil on all the nuts and bolts that I will have to access but I am really not looking forward to removing the exhaust...

[elgyqc]

I have advanced in a forward direction... I am ready to drop the transmission.
The exhaust was not as bad as I thought it would be. My advice is to get out your ratchet and sockets... then leave them on the work bench and take you Sawzall or equivalent and Dremel or equivalent and cut the bolts off on the header to cat converter joint and the U pipe clamps. The nuts on the top of the muffler bracket came off without a hitch. I haven't yet maneuvered the muffler out (it was a bit colder in the garage today so I quit early).

[elgyqc]

My last post was a little optimistic when I said I was ready to drop the transmission...
First was the detail of getting the muffler out. After removing the 2 nuts on top of the bracket no matter how I wiggled, pushed or pulled it I could not clear the bumper to get it to come out. Laying on my crawler studying the situation I realised that with the muffler push back as far as possible towards the bumper I could get at the bolts that hold the muffler mounting bracket to the tail end of the transmission, with those 3 bolts out the bracket came out and the muffler followed. A lot easier than removing the bumper.

Second challenge was the drive shafts. Eleven of the drive shaft to transmission flange bolts came out without problems. For the final one no matter what I tried it would not budge. I ended up cutting the head off the offending bolt, but of course the shaft of the bolt prevented the drive shaft from pulling away from the flange... but there was enough free play to pull the shaft and CV jount away from the flange, towards the wheel, giving access to the bolt's shaft. With my skinny vice-grips I was able to turn the shaft (slowly) out of the flange.

The transmission is now on the jack and all the bolts are out and the transmission mounts are off. My initial attempts to pull the transmission back have not been successful and it was getting late and cold so I quit for the day. Tomorrow I will fiddle with the engine and transmission heights and angles to try to get it separated.

[elgyqc]

Here is a picture of removing the drive shaft bolt mentioned above.

[elgyqc]

After a few more false starts and strategical retreats the disassembly is completed.
My clutch disk is toast but the flywheel and pressure plate are useable. I have prepared my parts list with a new release bearing, new F/W bolts and a clutch disk as well as all the other necessary bits and pieces. I am planning to change the drive-shaft boots since they are really hard even though they are still intact.
With the F/W off I locked the cams and inspected the IMSB without removing it. First, it is a dual row bearing and it looks perfect, turns smoothly and there is no looseness. I pulled the rear bearing seal and oil came out... I was surprised that it didn't smell burned and it looked relatively clean. The grease was totally gone.
At this point the plan is to change the seal on the IMS flange and put it back together. I watched the PCA videos with Jake Raby again and he explained the logic behind removing the seals to help lubricate the bearing. I feel confident with this procedure on this car at this time.

IMS bearing with the seal in place



With the seal removed



I have posted another thread with some lessons I learned while removing the transmission.
Clutch removal notes from my current project.

[pahanorlando]

Great project, good job. I am also working on a similar project, recently passed inspection and my vehicle now is rebuilt title.

I have the same issue as you are having with the keys. How did you get by the problem where the key does not have circuit board inside? Did you go to dealership? Or how did you get the key to wirelessly unlock and lock the vehicle? Thanks

[elgyqc]

Originally Posted by pahanorlando

Great project, good job. I am also working on a similar project, recently passed inspection and my vehicle now is rebuilt title.

I have the same issue as you are having with the keys. How did you get by the problem where the key does not have circuit board inside? Did you go to dealership? Or how did you get the key to wirelessly unlock and lock the vehicle? Thanks

My replacement key does not work wirelessly, my immediate goal was to have a second key in case I lost the original. I suspect that there is a problem with the immobiliser in this car and that possibly the wireless function doesn't work, but I will look at that some time in the future. The place that made my new key was an independent which is why it cost "only" C$150. From what I have heard Porsche is at least twice that.

Good luck with your project.

[Boxstard]

Originally Posted by elgyqc

After a few more false starts and strategical retreats the disassembly is completed.
My clutch disk is toast but the flywheel and pressure plate are useable. I have prepared my parts list with a new release bearing, new F/W bolts and a clutch disk as well as all the other necessary bits and pieces. I am planning to change the drive-shaft boots since they are really hard even though they are still intact.
With the F/W off I locked the cams and inspected the IMSB without removing it. First, it is a dual row bearing and it looks perfect, turns smoothly and there is no looseness. I pulled the rear bearing seal and oil came out... I was surprised that it didn't smell burned and it looked relatively clean. The grease was totally gone.
At this point the plan is to change the seal on the IMS flange and put it back together. I watched the PCA videos with Jake Raby again and he explained the logic behind removing the seals to help lubricate the bearing. I feel confident with this procedure on this car at this time.

IMS bearing with the seal in place


With the seal removed


I have posted another thread with some lessons I learned while removing the transmission.
Clutch removal notes from my current project.

What's the harm to repack grease in the bearing and replace the seal? Especially when you found that oil can get past the seal and keep bearing lubed reasonably well after grease got washed?

They talk about oil ingress past the seal and trapped there are all bad yet removing the seal that may not retain lube there all the time is OK? How do we know that oil is always splashing over the bearing under all operational conditions? I'd rather have old trapped oil inside the bearing all the time than no oil to there even for seconds.

My 97 with original double-row at almost 90K miles, I'm more encouraged with your data point, still lots more life left with IMSB and not gonna lose sleep over it.

[elgyqc]

Just an update. I ended up selling this car to my buddy and keeping the green one mentioned in the first post.
He drove it all summer, didn't put a lot of miles on it and had no problems. The problem is the cam variations are well over spec so I am trying to convince him to get the tensioners attended to.

On the question of IMSB oiling... reread post #9 above and watch the PCA videos on the IMS with Jake Raby and his take on removing the bearing seal.

[NewArt]

Hey Grant, we need to film some of these interventions for my YouTube channel! Great write-up!

[Zzorro]

I've got a blue Boxster with 187k kms (116k miles) I'm bringing back to life after some years of neglect. There are a number of items you note that I also have experienced.

I'll be swapping out my plugs and tube orings next. At the same time I'll have a look at the coils for cracks. Yours is the first post I read that mentioned to inspect the coils for cracks. Thanks for the tip!

Your posts are excellent. Thanks for posting.