Broken brace at the rear near the exhaust
 

My new to me boxster adventures continue. 🙂 While removing the belly pan to change the the transmission fluid ( see my other post for that escapade ) I noticed that the brace at the rear by the exhaust that has 2 bolts attached to the rear of the belly pan, was half missing, only the driver side was attached to the car.

​​​​​​​When removing the remaining piece, it broke in half ( it must have been busted already ). So now that entire brace is kaput. I haven't been able to locate the part number yet, but my more immediate question, is the car driveable without this until I can replace it? It honestly doesn't appear to be doing anything mission critical, but at the same time it must have some purpose ...

Is this the brace you are talking about?

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1731188332.jpg

Part number 98633109303
... and as far as I know it is structural or at least part of the suspension support structure.

That's exactly it, thanks so much! It looks like there are some on eBay that won't break the bank too which is a nice surprise.

Could I ask where you found this diagram please? I also need a bolt for the top passenger side of the brace that was originally missing.

It is from the document 986_USA_KATALOG which you can find online. I think it is on the Porsche site. Every 986 owner should have this. I keep it open permanently on my computer :)

Oh this is great! I've already spent a lot of time reading it like a magazine since downloading it last night. 🤣

I've still been unable to locale the bolts and brackets that go at the top right and left of the brace...

You can download the classic cars parts catalogues from the official Porsche website as a pdf.

https://www.porsche.com/usa/accessoriesandservices/classic/genuineparts/originalpartscatalogue/

Take a look at the part number on the drawing and search it on the same pdf page or the followings.

This is super helpful! I'm still really struggling to find the bolts and brackets that go where I drew the 2 black arrows on the picture below though...can anyone help me with that? I'm at a bit of a loss with it...I have one that was still on the car, but the passenger side is completely missing...

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1731351131.jpg

The broken support bolts directly into the frame of your car, it does Not have any brackets, it uses two large bolts, you can use the one bolt that you removed as a sample to buy the missing bolt, any hardware place will have it, I am not 100% sure but the bolt size could be a metric (M10x1.5 with a 1.25 pitch..?), if I remember correctly the bolts that attach the diagonal braces to the suspension are the same size as your missing bolt

78F350 may have the support that was broken on your car, he has several disassembled cars :p

The brace is No 7 in the catalogue. So go to the parts numbers of No 7. There you find the parts related to No 7. So it's a M 10x75 mm bolt.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1731397221.jpg

Yes and the bolts are M10x75mm with a 1.5 thread and a thick captive washer. If you buy a similar bolt, be sure to get a similar thickness washer.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1731425702.jpg

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1731425721.jpg

These are exactly the bolts, thanks so much for your help!

I now have the new brace, and bolts, and was ready to put it back on the car. I'm really struggling though, there doesn't seem to be enough room vertically above the passenger side exhaust to get the brace in the right position. I'm not sure how tight this is all supposed to be so I'm reluctant to force the brace, and the exhaust down too much for fear of breaking something.

I might be figuring out why there was no brace there in the first place...

Any ideas, or tips and tricks to getting this new brace in?

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1731796111.jpg

It fits perfectly with the factory exhaust.

Yes your problem is that aftermarket exhaust. Someone must have figured if the brace don't fit break it... and install half of it. Can't tell from the photos but could you remove the exhaust, install the brace then reinstall the exhaust with some ajustements? The joints around the muffler can be twisted to reposition it to some degree. Otherwise I would fabricate a brace the fits around the exhaust. Use the brace you bought as a jig to properly place the attachement points.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions, you totally called it and that's exactly what someone has done.

I think my best bet would be to figure out how to make a new brace that fits, the current one is far enough off that I don't think there's any way to reinstall the exhaust to a point where it would fit.

Thanks again for your help, so far this car is the gift that keeps on giving, a surprise on every single "simple" job I try to do on it. 🤣

I’ve seen, in the past, references to The Previous Owner From Hell…

Like my 2000 Boxster S project, I got to the point where I thought that I had fixed almost everything... I checked the non-functioning spoiler and found that someone had done a motor delete.