found a boxster but needs TLC...help
 

I spoke to somebody out of my area w/ a 00 Boxster w/ 44 293 miles FS. The car has even compression and passed a leakdown test. However, there are 2 issues w/ the car which sound like common problems:
1) The catallitic converter(s) need to be replaced (seller said that it might be a recall)
2) There is an oil leak from the valve cover

My question is; are these things easily fixable by a DIYer who has vast experience on hondas and has access to air tools?

PS: it also needs new brake pads all around along w/ rear rotors (that is a 2hr job for me).

The cats going out that early doesn't sound common to me. And those are gonna be expensive! Call Sunset in Oregon to find out what replacements cost so you'll know up front.

The cam covers do leak... my driver's side drips now and then. If this is what you're talking about, it's not a big deal IMO. Now if the rear main seal is leaking, that's a completely different issue, and an expensive one to fix.

There are other things to check on the car... pull up the carpet and piece of wood in the trunk and see if you can find coolant, wet or dried. If so, it as a resovoir leak and the overflow tank should be replaced or deducted from your final negotiated price.

There's other stuff that wears out or breaks prematurely too... this car needs a proper PPI from a Porsche dealer to catch them all. It's the best $250 you will ever spend on that car, I assure you.

Check to make sure the oil leak is not from the spark plug O rings. The Boxster uses a long pipe which the spark plug resides in to get the plug deeper in the head. This pipe has two o rings on it, sometimes the o rings leak, if this is what you are seeing the fix should be relatively simple and not a cause for alarm. If the leak is somewhere else, that's another story. As far as the Cats, I don't know about a recall, my car is a 98..

Peace..

what would cause the cats to go so prematurely? As mentioned in my prev posts, I am a honda guy who is switching to porsche...Cat's in Hondas seem to last forever unless the car is consistently run w/ less than a 1/4 of a tank of gas in it.

And what is the name of the scan which reads how the car was driven (aka how many times it has been red lined)?

Not sure what would cause a premature failure of your cats....I know on my '98 something was done to modify them to California state law, as that was where the car was originally sold....Look into your countries laws and Porsche to see if you qualify on that....

A leak in the valve cover usually isn't a major thing, but labor costs can be bigger than expected....Cam covers are a different thing, and not so cheap to repair as one might think, I had mine done via my extended warranty, thank God it covered it, as it was almost $1700 to fix both seals. Labor costs were the biggie, as the engine had to be taken off its mounts to get to it....

I'd look into where exactly the leak is coming from, and the cause....

Hi,

Why do you think the cats are going? The owner may be pulling a code which refers to the cats, but other things like O² Sensors, MAF and such can mask as Cat problems and throw the same codes. Is there a CEL on? Cats can fail prematurely from a number of issues such as running Gas additives, wrong plugs, but the greatest cause would be overfilling the Oil consistently and this may have been the case especially if the owner was trying to compensate for a leak. The Boxsters Cats are no more prone to failure than any other car, so this causes some suspicion on my part.

As mentioned, get a PPI done and if possible have it hooked up to a PST2 (Porsche diagnostic tool/computer) this will give a better picture of what's happening.

The one thing the World is not short of is Used Boxsters. There's real truth to the addage "the most expensive Porsche to own is usually the one which was cheapest to buy". Unless you have a lot of time, knowledge and $$, the are no bargains in Porsche Fixer-uppers. Don't fixate on this one necessarily, look at several - a choice of one is no choice. The more Homework/Legwork you do up front will yield the greatest reward later...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

this boxster is not throwing any codes...this is just what the gentleman was told when he took the car for a PPI @ his local dealership...I am getting the print out by sat so I should know what the exact pt # is. B4 I purchase any boxster, I will get the black box scanned so that I know how it was driven by the prev owner(s).

Cheers fr the responses btw!