I'm not the first guy to do this of course, but I thought I'd create a thread documenting my tear down and rebuild of my '00 Boxster S.
Snapshot of the car:
I purchased the car two months ago for a very good price (relative to the going rate for similar S model Boxsters). The car is straight, runs great, has great tires, the top and interior are both in great condition, etc.
During my initial introduction to the car I read as much as possible about it and of course stumbled across the dreaded IMS failure. From what I could read it was definitely something I should be concerned about, but that paranoia was tempered with the other argument - that it would have happened already, that it was relatively low risk, etc.
My tear down decision:
Last weekend I did an oil change and found metal in the stock filter. That was a sad moment for me :ah:
Obviously I need to stop driving the car until I've determined what the source of the metal is, what damage has been done and fix it if possible. If I were well off I would simply write a check to a well known Porsche shop. I'm not poor, but I'm also not in a position to write checks for $18K. Nor am I particularly stoked to pay $4-9K for a used engine of unknown origin, even if it does come with a 12 month "warranty".
I also bought the car as a hobby. So, I decided to take the plunge and get to know this car completely. This journey may take until early next year to complete but I'm going to drive this car again, and have a blast doing it. So come along if you'd like, and see if a mere mortal can pull it off.
I commute about 80 miles per day via motorcycle and, this will make some people laugh, I bought the car to drive in crappy weather and to make my girlfriend happy (I've had worse problems). So basically I don't
need this car to be running any time soon.
Snapshot of me:
I'm 50. I've been working on my own cars my entire life. In fact my dad used to drag me outside to help work on our various busted vehicles since I was 10 years old, while all my friends watched cartoons or played games in the street. I actually resented it and it wasn't until I was in my 30s that I realized what a gift he had given me. The thought of paying someone to do work I'm quite capable of doing myself is akin to paying someone to do my laundry or grocery shop.
I've left a long trail of cars and motorcycles behind me. Mostly German cars but some Japanese and only a few US built cars. One French, one British, no Italians.
Some I loved more than others, a couple I still kick myself for selling. Some I built engines for and some I never did anything but pour gas in the hole and drive the #@*& out of. In short, outside of tire changes no one touches my car with a wrench but me (okay I did have some hop up parts installed on my Subaru after I had ruptured a disc, but otherwise it's been all me).
The only thing I've totally steered clear on is opening an automatic transmission, and I'm going to break that rule tonight when I swap the valve body in our VW Touareg (minor surgery compared to actually splitting the case). In short, I loathe automatics for their cost, complexity and well, if I have to tell you then you won't understand.
So that's it in a nut shell. Wrench turning starts in the next post.