98 Boxster 2.5 - Clutch repair time
 

Hi,

I've just bought a Boxster with a slipping clutch. My usual garage doesn't have the repair times for this car, so can not give me a cost to repair it.

Would anyone know how many hours the official time is so that I can get my mechanic to give me a quote?

Thanks.

Six hours and some change. The axles have to be disconnected and the tranny must be dropped to get to it.

You can save some money by buying a new clutch kit from Sunset Porsche in Oregon and supplying the parts to you mechanic if he'll install customer-supplied parts. You should buy some tranny fluid as well and give him that too as it will save you some bucks and insure he puts in the right thing.

Clutch replacements ain't cheap on our cars.

While he's doing the work, ask him to inspect the rear main seal very carefully for tears or wear. Since you're right there, it's worth him looking it over and possibly replacing it if necessary.

6-8 hours max.

If your ride has over 50k on it I'd just change the flywheel out at as well. It's right there,so they should only add 1 unit of labor to it.

why change the flywheel? curious.

You can pay to replace it then or down the line. If you wait to replace it down the line it will only cost you $500+ to take everything apart again.

At 52k my original flywheel had a blue burn marks on it,about a 1/2" wide. Plus every shop that I called for a clutch job advised me to just change out the flywheel as well. A mechanic told me that when the clutch disc is worn that's when the flywheel gets damaged,as to what happens when the clutch is worn I'm not sure.

You sure you want your "regular garage" to base an estimate on the "shop time" rather than the actual time? Sounds like this is their first Boxster clutch time. Could take more than the "book time".. will they charge for this? How much would a Porsche dealer charge you? (at least they should have the correct tools, parts and knowledge). Not saying it is rocket science but...

Why not just tell him its a "4 hour job" and you won't pay more if it takes longer. ;)

I just spoke to a shop owner today. He told me $1600 for the clutch job, parts and labor. I think it includes the rear main seal and the intermediate shaft seal.

it's best to have the flywheel change due to it being a duel mass flywheel, they have a rubber bushing between where the clutch engages on the flywheel and the mount point to absorb the jolt of the clutch engaging, the rubber bushing tears and wears out and makes it a harsh clutch, have your rear main seal changed while your there anyway due to the whole thing has to come out again if it leaks 10,000 K's from now, same with your counter shaft seal, also just a little inside tip, have a 997 rear main seal installed, it fits the same but has a little lip on the seal stopping it leaking in future, fixes a commen problem on 986 and 996.
should only take 7 hours max, you'll need a flywheel, 9 flywheel bolts, rear main seal, counter shaft seal, pressure plate, cluch plate. AND GET SOMEONE WHO ONLY WORKS ON PORSCHES, its easy to stuff up a counter shaft seal. i don't see why you would gear box fluid as RandallNeighbour said. maybe a litre of oil due to the oil has to be drained to do a counter shaft seal

Keep us up to date on the repairs. I'm going to replace RMS in near future and I am thinking of replacing clutch and associated parts as well. I'm very interested in your progress.

Thanks in advance!

Counter shaft seal
 

Not sure what you mean by the comment about changing the counter shaft seal. It is my understanding the counter shaft should be keep in the center of the hole by a special tool when reinstalling the shaft cover? Is this correct?