CV half shaft bolt failure
 

My wife took the Boxster to work last week (a rare treat for her as I am quite selfish with the car) and I get a call from her that the car "broke" and is parked on the side of the road. She was stopped at a light and when shifting from first to second heard a bang and coasted off the road. Upon inspection, the car started fine but when the clutch was let out there was nothing. At first I thought a cable broke and the car was just stuck in neutral but the local shop correctly diagnosed it as broken CV half shaft bolts. There are six 10mm bolts that hold it on and four had come loose and the other two sheared off. It was amazing to me that the clutch was engaging but was so quite you could not tell. While not a common mishap it would be a good idea to at some point inspect those bolts so as not to be stranded somewhere.

Interesting. Did the car ever have the CV bolts removed? Reason I ask is because the stealership did some wheel bearing work and forgot to reconnect a few things which revealed themselves later on. Now you have me wondering :confused:

The bolts have not been removed since I have owned the car which is about three years. I also thought it was interesting that there was no drive from the other shaft. Makes me rethink a limited slip differential.

I thought only the 911s had limited slip diffs and the box and cayman, as the "lesser" cars, did not. ??

i'm not sure what the complication is with those bolts as i've never removed them, but i have a friend who had MAJOR issues with them coming lose after doing some work on his car. if the bolts are removed, they're supposed to be replaced with new ones. he did this & torqued them to spec. they backed out and he suffered the issue you describe.

he again bought new bolts, torqued to spec. same thing. eventually, he had the dealer do it and it's been ok. strange problem.

The car does not have a LSD. I am rethinking about now getting one. I have always noticed a definite sideways torque on very hard acceleration.

Don't forget the Lok-tite when you put those new bolts in!

-David

that's probably what the dealer does. i think the factory manual says that the new bolts have loctite on them. i don't think it works very well...