High Mileage Boxster

[JMP]

Hello Everyone, I recently decided to purchase a used Boxster to re-build and put a custom body kit on it that a friend of mine makes for a hobby. I have re-built many, many sports cars in my life as it has been a lifelong passion of mine. My question is: I wanted to buy the cheapest Boxster I could find and din't really care what the cosmetic condition of the car was like. I found a very nice 99 Regular Boxster with the Triptronic nearby with about 117,000 miles on it. It came with all the maintenance manuals and it appears that it was regularly maintained by different Porsche Dealers. I paid less than $8,000 for it. It runs and drives absolutely perfectly!! It needs some cosmetic work of course, like a new top and seat upholstery along with a paint job but even the old paint is outstanding but has small scratches and rock chips in it plus I will need to paint the body kit so this is no big deal. But I have read many stories about engine failures in these cars and now I am worried. It seems like from what I have read that my engine WILL fail at some point so I wan't to know that with the high mileage, NO leaks (I use Amsoil), and NO problems at all, will this likely happen? I would like to hear from some people who have high milage Boxsters without any engine problems as there are enough posts concerning engine failures - I want to know how many there are still running good that have not had any real problems or if I am just really lucky or am sitting on a "Time Bomb" so to speak. Thank you all very much, Jerry

[Lucky]

While some engines have failed, many more have not. You read about the failures on forums like this. But there aren't any scientific surveys on rate of failure, so it is really hard to say if there is a good statistical chance your engine will fail and when.

I think that if your 117k mile engine is running fine, then with proper maintenance and use it should go to 200k without major issue.

I think you should stop worrying and enjoy the car!!!

I plan on driving my 99k mile 00 S until the wheels fall off (or 997S'es are cheap enough for me to buy one)... whichever comes first.

[cas951]

Here's a link to a recent discussion that should answer your question.

http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19325

[deliriousga]

I'm with Lucky. We have a 2000 2.7L w/ 107K miles and no problems. Just got an oil report after the 106K oil change that says the engine is in excellent shape with no unusual wear at all.

[Brucelee]

Could go tomorrow or not. You just can't tell.

Drive and enjoy and keep the oil clean.

[Brucelee]

Keep in mind, this site has a paying sponsor who sells expensive preventive
mods to your engine. "He who pays the piper calls the the tune."


I will try to address this without becoming too testy!

LONG before we took on the sponsor that you reference, the issue of the Boxe's engine foibles has been a hot topic. This is because folks wrote in to tell us about their engines imploding. This is clearly not the only site where this issue comes up; you can do a Google and fine this all over the internet.

If you were around long enough, you would know that my neighbors brand new box lost an engine at 12K miles, sitting at a traffic light.

That Box engines implode or explode is not at issue. The real issue is that no one has any real data on the subject except MAYBE Porsche and they simply deny the problem is extraordinary. Yet, I have seen the problem first hand and talked to the local SM at length about it. It was real (maybe be fixed now) and it was/is expensive.

Personally, as I have said, I don't know if the problem is statistically signfiicant. What we ALL know is that the repair is very expensive and makes many leary of an out of warranty Boxster.

In the future, if you want to state that we here at the forum are "on the take" then I suggest that you check out your facts. Believe me, to buy my integrity would cost a lot more than any sponsor pays on this site, or any other for that matter.

In fact, I am not sure how much it would cost as no one has ever tried to do it!