Idle at start - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Rekogniz1 · 05-04-2009, 11:35 AM

I am a new boxster owner and have a few questions: It is a 2002 Boster Base model. When it is first started it seems to idle a little rough for about 10 seconds and then idles just fine after a while. Next thing is when AC is activated the idle drops also and it will run rough for a bit and then goes away. Is this normal for a Boxster? the second thing is when first started it sounds like I have a small exhaust manifold leak that goes away after it gets to temp. Should either of these be a concern or are these normal?

jjanari · 05-05-2009, 04:50 AM

A rough idle is not normal, though that doesn't necessarily mean there's anything significantly wrong. I would start by cleaning the MAF and your throttle body. Did you get a PPI (pre-purchase inspection)? how many miles on the car? the more details you give, the more responses you're likely to get.

btw, if you didn't get a PPI, it would not be a bad idea to get a post-purchase inspection to determine what you need to do maintenance/repair-wise.

-jimmy

Rekogniz1 · 05-06-2009, 08:30 AM

I should not have said rough idle but more or less fluctuates when cold started. I did have a PPI done and all that was mentioned where air filter, regular maintenence items etc.. The car was well warmed up so dont figure this would have been a issue during the PPI. The car has 98k on it and I purchased the car in CA and drove it back to Denver, CO with absolutly no problems, drove very nice.

jjanari · 05-06-2009, 04:11 PM

I would still try the easy stuff first, i.e. clean the maf (CRC makes a MAF cleaner avail at most autoparts stores) and clean the throttle body. I had a significant fluctuation issue when I bought my '02 base with a tick under 90K. after cleaning the throttle body, it was basically cured.

yimmy149 · 05-06-2009, 09:53 PM

Related question: On some of my previous cars the throttle body had a teflon coating, so only certain cleaners could be used - and you were supposed to be very gentle, no brushing. Does Porsche do the same?

-james

jjanari · 05-07-2009, 07:09 AM

I'm not sure about any particular coating on our throttle bodies, but I left my TB on the car and simply cleaned it in situ with a toothbrush and throttle body cleaner. I don't see the need to scrub hard as the TB cleaner is primarily doing the cleaning. Some folks remove the TB from the car, but I just removed the intake hose to clean and that seemed to work fine.

Steve Tinker · 05-08-2009, 01:15 AM

My 2001 Boxster S does not have a teflon coating on the throttle body butterfly or body. I removed & cleaned it only last week. The earlier non e-gas models may be different though.