How bad are these problems?

[blaZeZin]

I am currently looking to buy my first P-car. It is a 2001 Boxster S with 57k miles. The owner has had a PPI done to it at Porsche of Fremont and there are 2 things that were noted.

The first issue is that the CV boots have some tears. The car wasn't driven in he rain so he says there shouldn't be a problem. I will want to get them fixed and was wondering about how much this will run me from a dealership or and independent shop in the Sacramento area.

The second issue is that there is a very small oil seepage from the cam cover. He states that there isn't oil on his garage floor which means its a slow leak. The mechanic also told him that it's not coming from a critical area that will fail suddenly. So is it something that should just be watched at routine maintenance or is it something more serious.

I appreciate your time in reading my questions. As I said, this will be my first P-car and I just want to make sure I'm not getting in over my head. Thanks in advance.

[insite]

the cam covers wind up leaking a tiny bit on lots of these cars. no big deal

the CV boot thing needs to be fixed. not sure what the shop will say the labor hours are. i can do all four boots in about three hours. my guess is they'll charge you five hours labor, which is fair. the boot kits are around $18 each online, which means the OEM porsche boot kits are probably $60. if we consider $85 / hr for labor, you're looking at $240 for parts and $425 for labor for a total of $665.

if you wait and lose a CV joint, it can get expensive. if it's an inner joint, you can just replace the joint. if it's an outer joint, you have to replace the whole axle.

[Adam]

I'd have the owner pay to fix the CV joint boots at least...otherwise walk away and find another boxster. There are plenty to choose from and you don't need to settle. Unless of course he is giving you a smoking deal.

[JackG]

Originally Posted by insite

i can do all four boots in about three hours.

Wow. Three hours? I wouldn't be able to get the tools out, car up on jackstands, sheet metal brace and diagonal braces off, then re-assemble all that and get back on the ground in three hours.
Then the axles have to be pressed out and removed, the CV joints with the boot tears must be *completely* cleaned, all that re-greased and re-assembled.

My first time it was 10 hours, I could cut that to 7 or 8 now, but 3? Dang, I'm slow!

[insite]

Originally Posted by JackG

My first time it was 10 hours, I could cut that to 7 or 8 now, but 3? Dang, I'm slow!

ten hours?!?!? i can pull the tranny in one hour. i can have both axles out of the car in under thirty minutes. unfortunately, i've had too much practice at that......

[QUOTE=insite] if we consider $85 / hr for labor, you're looking at $240 for parts and $425 for labor for a total of $665.QUOTE]

$85.hour? Wow. Dealerships here are all over $150. Indies are $90-$120.

[JackG]

Originally Posted by insite

ten hours?!?!? i can pull the tranny in one hour. i can have both axles out of the car in under thirty minutes. unfortunately, i've had too much practice at that......

Well, my first time was without the lift I now have, and I did it the slow way without having the tool to press the tie rod end out of the wheel carrier. It was up on four jackstands, and was done like like I wrote up here:

http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?=4961&highlight=boot+replacement

But 3 hours? I bet I worked on each CV joint 30 minutes just to get them perfectly cleaned and greased back up. That's two hours right there.

I might be a bit obsessive...

[Sputter]

What Jack said.
I didn't time myself but 30mins just doing a cleaning seems right for me.
Lets see, breaking the axel nut/ wheels/jacking the car up and 4 stands (1 beer)
Removing the skid plate etc (1 beer)....

Cleaning the joints/putting on new boots was 2 beers. (really 1 1/2, greasy hands and I dropped a half)..

It all worked out in the end. Next time a proper balljoint sep will speed up the process.

[insite]

Originally Posted by bmussatti

$85.hour? Wow. Dealerships here are all over $150. Indies are $90-$120.

clearly i haven't paid anyone to work on my car in awhile! had no idea the dealers were $150 / hr. maybe i'll just start working on porsches.....

[insite]

Originally Posted by JackG

Well, my first time was without the lift I now have, and I did it the slow way without having the tool to press the tie rod end out of the wheel carrier. It was up on four jackstands, and was done like like I wrote up here:

http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?=4961&highlight=boot+replacement

But 3 hours? I bet I worked on each CV joint 30 minutes just to get them perfectly cleaned and greased back up. That's two hours right there.

you pressed out the tie rod ends? what else did you do? agreed that you can spend a lot of time obsessing over cleanliness best not to use any cleaning agents inside the joint unless you clean everything w/ alcohol afterward. simply wipe out the excess grease w/ shop towels & re-grease on reassembly.

FYI, i DO have air tools, which help, but i DO use hand tools much of the time.

[JackG]

Originally Posted by insite

you pressed out the tie rod ends? what else did you do? agreed that you can spend a lot of time obsessing over cleanliness best not to use any cleaning agents inside the joint unless you clean everything w/ alcohol afterward. simply wipe out the excess grease w/ shop towels & re-grease on reassembly.

FYI, i DO have air tools, which help, but i DO use hand tools much of the time.

No, read my how-to in the link. I didn't do it the way the shop manual says to, instead the axle comes out from underneath the car towards the center and down. That's the opposite of the manual's procedure. It has you press out those tie rod ends (track arms, radius arms, whatever?) using a special tool, then swing the wheel carrier assembly out of the way and pull the axle straight out.

If the boot has been split for a while, I think it's a mistake not to clean the joint completely. If you just wipe away the exterior grease, you're pushing contaminated grease down into the joint... not a good thing. Wiping, using a parts cleaner, then final cleaning with brake parts cleaner from a can does the trick. Dries fast, no residue, and ready for clean, fresh grease.

I use air tools as well, but they don't save that much time it seems. I am counting time from when I twisted the key to pull it into the shop, until I drove it out and had everything cleaned up and put away. The whole job. But as I said, I'm slow and methodical. I enjoyed doing the work almost as much as driving afterwards. For me it's a sense of accomplishment... I love working on stuff.

[turbo23dog]

I just had inner boots on both sides done due to tears which were found during 30K miles service on a 2000 S. Cost was $600 which was $75 for parts and $525 labor. The joints were cleaned and repacked too.

[insite]

Originally Posted by JackG

If the boot has been split for a while, I think it's a mistake not to clean the joint completely. If you just wipe away the exterior grease, you're pushing contaminated grease down into the joint... not a good thing. Wiping, using a parts cleaner, then final cleaning with brake parts cleaner from a can does the trick. Dries fast, no residue, and ready for clean, fresh grease.

I use air tools as well, but they don't save that much time it seems. I am counting time from when I twisted the key to pull it into the shop, until I drove it out and had everything cleaned up and put away. The whole job. But as I said, I'm slow and methodical. I enjoyed doing the work almost as much as driving afterwards. For me it's a sense of accomplishment... I love working on stuff.

link not working; sounds like you did it the faster way. agreed that if the boot has been completely torn that careful cleaning is important. some cleaners have enzymes and such that continue to break down the new grease after reassembly, so it's important to follow up any degreasers with rubbing alcohol or other water based evaporative solvent (brake cleaner should be fine).

definitely enjoyable to work on these cars.

[JackG]

Originally Posted by insite

link not working; sounds like you did it the faster way.
definitely enjoyable to work on these cars.

Hmmm... I searched for my old post, then pasted the results into the response. I'm not sure why it doesn't work, but it doesn't! In any case, searching on "CV boot replacement" will give some results, and the second one titled "Replacing CV joint boots" is the one I was referring to.

My shop is occupied with an old muscle car right now, and the Boxster lives in the garage. It does take a while to move things around to work on something else, but it's all just fun to me. I'm learning to weld right now, and I'm just half-bad at it, but that's just another thing to have fun with. I hope I never grow up.

Make sure the cam cover leak isn't really a spark plug tube, which is fairly easy to replace.

[insite]

Originally Posted by EE3racing

Make sure the cam cover leak isn't really a spark plug tube, which is fairly easy to replace.

also in that general area are the oil return pumps. there's a TSB that replaces the four bolts in each return pump w/ microencapsulated bolts. apparently oil can leak past the OEM bolts.