Your most expensive Boxster lesson?
 

I liked fatmike's comment on my MAF post, where I learnt the lesson not to buy K&N filters. So that cost me $50 wasted on a K&N filter, and then maybe $240 if I'm unlucky and have to replace the MAF sensor.

What was your most expensive Boxster mistake?

Mine was when I replaced had a suspension arm replaced by the garage, thought it was faulty so bought another (the garage was closed for vacation) and then found out that they just hadn't secured it properly. $200 wasted.

I'm partially after a bit of Sunday humor, and well partially I'd also like avoid future expensive mistakes ;-)

John

:ah:

For me it was messing around with the coolant bleeder. I replaced the gasket, but made the condensation worse. Now need to spend $500 to have the coolant tank replaced.

Mine was buying a Boxster 2 years back with a flashing CEL thinking it would be a minor fault, maybe a sensor or something.
Ended up being a spun bearing so I had a shop replace the motor, clutch, flywheel and do the LNE Bearing upgrade. The bill was nearly $10k, needless to say I learnt the value of a PPI.

Now, it's just had buying it :p

Was backed into. Broke headlight. They put a factory light in drivers, and the pass side will never look as nice.

$2800 for the SE lights (each) was the invoice price. now I have to demand they cover both. :mad:

Not leaving the car in gear and helplessly watching it roll out of my supposedly level garage, down my driveway, cross the street and into a tree. Cost me about $400 for a paint-less dent repair guy and $200 for a taillight but you can still tell.

@Ckrikos - that's a great deal at least. My coolant tank needed replacing due to a crack and it cost me about $1000 including parts and labor. It's what comes from being in a cold climate.

@Gforrest2 - reminds me of a former colleague that this happened to in a TVR. It cost him the car, his job and his marriage - the car rolled into the MD's car and his wife didn't want him to have a TVR in the first place. Reckon you got off lightly ;-)

@juicepro - moral of the story, take every CEL seriously and invest in a $12 BlueTooth OBD-II adapter?

@timco - that sucks. Someone hit my GF's Boxster and caused similar damage. It's never been the same since.

John

My biggest mistake was buying a boxster that had a slipping clutch..once it's apart it needs a lot of work-I learned a lot of people trade them in at clutch replacement time.

Buying a very expen$$ive Hamann body kit, and assuming that the overall fit would be spot on right out of the box. :(

Putting the top down in cold weather. The plastic window split. Replaced the top and now have a glass window. I was quoted $2400 to $5000 to replace the top. Fortunately I did it myself and now don't worry so much about going topless in cold weather.

Total re-paint (my tab minus fender). Paint rims. New wheel well assy to fix skirt, pass side. Windshield. New headlight. Will sue to have both match like they did before.

Very low speed bump. It will be like new!

My most expensive lesson? Buying my first Boxster, a silver/gray 2002S.

It's so pristine I don't drive it like I want to because I don't want to put the miles on it. So I had to buy a second Boxster, a 1999, triple black, to drive. Problem is, it's cleaner and lower miles than the '02S.

So I bought a third Boxster, a silver/red 2000 w/ 78k miles as a driver. So what am I doing now? Dumping thousands of dollars into her in upgrades to performance, suspension, interior and exterior as I make it my "Boy Racer GT3 clone".

Now I'm seriously thinking about a DE/track car. Yup. Another Boxster... :D

Driving in cooler weather (mid-40s) with summer performance tires, a short run to pick up take out for dinner. At one point it started to drizzle and, as I accelerated up a slight incline, ended up doing a complete 360, smacking a mailbox with my passenger side mirror, at which point the mailbox, suddenly airborne, proceeded to bounce off the rear quarter panel, damaging it. Also scrapped along the curbing, badly scuffing the right rear wheel and trashing the tire.

Don't drive summer performance tires in cold weather! In my experience, if it's wet and cold, when the back end cuts loose it's not particularly responsive to counter-steering correction.

I second that. Was told that was a spark plug and ignition coil, and it was a worn chain pad. 4K repair.

Nope, the moral of the story is - no matter how well preserved the car is (I had every little paperwork the car had, almost since new, every invoice, every mot), no matter how many miles it has (mine had 25K miles) you should **always** make a **good** PPI. Even if you think there's absolutely nothing wrong with the car.

Most expensive lesson. Save the fatty for after the work is done, otherwise you might do something very regrettable like, say for instance, pouring oil into the coolant reservoir, resulting in a couple of hundred dollars and several hours of remedial work.

Partaking in contraband are you ?

Not to put off the water pump, or ANYTHING involving engine cooling. Once its starts making it noises, drive directly to the mechanic or have it towed.

Case in point, I scheduled an appointment to have the pump replaced because I was hearing a sound that went up with the revs. Had a busy week and decided to bring it in first thing Monday morning the following week instead. Well after 90k miles the thing lets go on the way home Sunday night. I pull over, shut down, call a tow truck. $200. Tow truck arrives and we head over to the indy's lot to leave the car overnight. I throw the keys into the drop box. Get home...house key is still on the key ring that I threw into the drop box...oh boy.
Reach in my back pocket to call my....oops phone is still in the car....oh boy #2.
No keys, no phone, no car and its Sunday night in a small suburban town. What would you do?

Well I get on my bicycle and head to the nearest drugstore for a $50 burner phone. I get there just in time as they are closing. hold on...you can't activate the phone without a landline! Have to bike it over to the nearest supermarket that closes at midnight and beg to use their phone. But now I realize the phone has no internet and I can't remember a single person's cell phone number who lives nearby...oh boy (nor do I want to get anyone out of bed on account of my stupidity). I call my company's 24 hour customer service and they do the Google searching for me. Locksmith $200. $50 in cab rides just to get my phone out of the car from the Indy' slot. Just added $500 to a $1,000 water pump job which all could have been avoided if I simply prioritized my earlier appointment.

replacing my wheel bearings all the way around. Oddly, it opened up a can of worms that cost me dearly! All new suspension parts went in "while you're in there"... Ugh!

Most expensive lesson? Don't allow the red mist to fog your brain. We were exploring a historic sports car track in Pomona and the original configuration had two wide sweepers with some rollers in the pavement in a very fast section. The result was getting your car at or near airborne at 100mph and the torque spikes from 100mph wheel spin and ground contact damaged the rear wheel bearings and transaxle pinion bearing. Cha-ching $$$!

No 911 envy here! :D