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It doesn't take much to fill the floorboards an inch deep in water and short out the immobilizer box; that happened to one of my Boxsters the first time it came a heavy rain. The drain holes in the 'aprons' that catch the runoff from the convertible top are small to begin with and the slightest clogging will reduce their flow capacity significantly, and the overflow goes right into the rear floorboard area.
It costs about $750 to get the immobilizer repaired so you can put it back in your Boxster with now-sodden carpet so you can enjoy the smell of mildew, just as if it were an MGB or Lotus Elan.
The factory picked the worst possible location for this device. It would best be located on the rear trunk firewall near the engine control unit.
My solution(s): a) drill holes about 3/8" in the floor under the immobilizer location and rear floorboards--God forbid, drilling holes in a Porsche! Take care to avoid structures on the underside!
b) have an extra floor carpet in your car's color clean, dry, ready to install;
c) watch the weather forecast carefully;
d) fit the waterproof plastic box kit that replaces the factory box , so as to protect the circuit board better.
By now I have become very practiced at changing the carpet out of Boxsters, and can do it in about four hours, not including the time to clean the wet carpet and put it away to dry. The dense foam on the back of the carpet that damps sound so well holds water equally well. A wet carpet in a Boxster will stay wet for many months.
The labor costs for a stealership to do this would be quite a few hundred bucks, and far more if they insisted 'must replace carpet', so I can easily understand why an insuror would write off the car even though it may be otherwise unharmed, hence the salvage title.
If the car had the carpet removed, cleaned and dried while the immobilizer was off for repair I would not have any reservation about buying the car.
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Mine is more sun & dry rot inflicted than water infliltrated. Sonoran desert, you know.
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