Twenty Year Old 986 Owners How's It Going?
 

I'm interested to know how the 20 year old '97 Boxsters are faring as my '99 with 120K is approaching the 20 year mark. At 20 did you/your mechanic/dealer find any major items that needed/recommended replacing such as radiator/AC hoses, axle boots, bearings, power steering hoses, chain tensioners and etc. or have you done replacement over the years so nothing typical is required at the 20 year mark? I've done all the major services and kept up maintenance and replacement and am curious to know if there is anything in particular that needs to be done at 20.

Everything rubber and plastic that was supposed to be flexible is suspect as a vehicle ages, hoses, seals, bushings, engine mounts...etc.

Yeah, I have a 2001 and a lot of the plastic just crumbles when flexed even mildly. I'm slowly going through and replacing bits and pieces here and there.

20 years has virtually nothing to do with it...

Mileage, care (maintenance) and environment (garaged?) do.

So on your '97 you had to replace all the rubber and plastic parts?

Doesn't hurt to ask though does it.

I only had to replace my driver's seat belt and starter. However, the previous owner had to replace the engine after it cratered at 37k miles

all of my plastic has been fine. No brittleness or drying up of soft rubber.

I am coming up on a year of ownership for my 97'. I have put +/- 7,000 miles on the car in that time. But, the mileage is still only at 23,000+. I have spent $1,100+ on fixing things and servicing and $850+ on wants. $550 of that was the wind deflector and non-smokers shelf. German plastic sure is expensive. All of my rubber and plastic still seems to be in good shape.

Those in the know, understand. This car is therapeutic for the soul. :dance:

Fair review
 

20 years old:

• 1997(late 96)
• 2.5l Tiptronic - 100,000 km
• Kept indoor most of its life (PO kept it indoor also, never really drove it much, women)
• Porsche genuine/recommended fluids only (Pink coolant, M1 0-40, ATF).

General condition 8/10:

• ALL plastic clips are toasted. If you don’t know where they hook and blindly pull, they’ll most likely snap off.
• Exterior’s original trims and seals are in medium-good shape but guessing this is because it was stored properly (UV free).
• Interior is in excellent shape, leather looks like day one with the exception of the driver seat buttock area. Slight disturbance there.

Mechanically 9/10:

• Engine and gearbox never dismantled. All original torque spec from factory.
• All original with the exception of suspension & controls, headers, cats and mufflers, O2s and coil pack.
• Original hoses, rms, ims – zero leaks anywhere. Fans and all sensors works.
• Cam dev spec well within min/max

Cost 5/10:

• Although never anything major (yet) this Boxster car is not exactly the cheapest vehicle I had to maintain.

Needs:

• Windshield and rear plastic window replacement, although the rear window is an easy polish. Just tied to do it.

In all, the car drives and sound like new – I’ll certainly buy again :cheers:

Believe me the plastic is much more brittle than it was new. Rubber components are less compliant and more likely to crack, split or leak. If the engine was replaced you might have got lucky and had less compliant hoses replaced at that time.

For example my engine's foam heat shield/mat had shrunk and cracked and the backing was brittle sheet that fell apart as I manipulated it. The top edge of it was laying against, and being eaten by a serpentine belt pulley (which itself was dry and full of micro cracks.) I cut a third of the heat shield away and replaced it with sound deadener that attaches directly to the body panels.

Some other known possible aging failures are the coolant tank, coolant hoses, spark plug tube seals, AOS, mirror visor covers, speakers, and the rear window.

Thanks everyone I appreciate your candid answers. The main word I'm reading here is "plastic." My '99 Tip has always been garaged by me (and it appears that the prior owners also garaged it) and I also use a cover on it as I moved next to the ocean a couple of years ago.
Last year I had the car inspected and was told it is in remarkably good condition for a 17 year old car. Over the six years I've owned it I've replaced the top, front seats (wish Porsche had used thicker bolsters on the driver's side), suspension (M030 Sport), Big Red brake upgrade, intake and exhaust upgrade, IMS (LN ceramic) and RMS, respray and new windshield (insurance paid for both), 18" wheels and several other minor mods to interior.
Although I rarely drive it with the top up I'm not experiencing the plastic deterioration I'm reading about here but thanks to your inputs I now know what to keep a check on. :cheers:

Luv2Box,

I have a 99 Boxster I purchased in 2009 with about 104,000 miles. It currently has 283,000 miles.

Yes all the plastic and rubber parts do tend to deteriorate.

Mine is running just fine, but my passenger side low beam headlight when out three days ago. I am toying with the idea of having the dealer replace the bulb. This is because when my driver's side low beam went out about two years ago I broke the plastic clip that holds the clip the headlight unit plugs into. After spending hours taking off my front tire and wheel well liner, I still found no joy. My independent mechanic was able to repair it and also repair the very brittle wires in the headlight unit that had lost all their insulation.

I've replace the factory seats with sport seats (thanks Woody), replaced a passenger side axle (thanks woody), replaced the CDR220 and put on later model 17 inch wheels.

I've had only one oil leak and that was a bad oil sending unit.
The light on my odometer goes out, but comes back on every so often. I can live with that.

MNC-I

The cluster lights are really easy to replace. You have to pop off the left cover and right emergency flasher and remove 2 star screws. Then the cluster lifts right up and you gain access to what you need. The lights are cheap.

My driver's side headlight has the same clip broken and I'm dreading the bulb burning out because it will have to be replaced. Thanks for the heads up I'll have my indy do it.
I'd love to have sport seats in mine but Boxster Red Sport seats are a needle in a haystack to find and super expensive when they rarely come up, or they are in such poor condition they'd have to be recovered.

That's right...my passenger speaker cover was cracked so I applied some super glue to stabilize it. Also, yes the visor mirror covers do suck with brittleness.

Pretty solid. 105k and garaged 99% of the time.

I replaced all the suspension last year or maybe the year before that.
Was told the plastic window was replaced by PO, but it's in need again. With the top being manual, it mostly just sits folded down during the summer months anyway which I'm sure doesn't help, but if I can't see it, it isn't happening.