Boxster Resurrection: 2001 Boxster S back from the Dead

[bwdz]

Nice and low miles, wonder why it needed a clutch a few years ago from your earlier findings.

[P_Carfahrer]

Originally Posted by bwdz

Nice and low miles, wonder why it needed a clutch a few years ago from your earlier findings.

I think the PO was advised to do the clutch while an RMS was done. There were multiple service events where she was charged large amounts of money for random items where I think she was taken advantage of. The clutch not being one of them.


When I arrived at the dealership, the service manager gave me a line about how programming the immobilizer sometimes doesn’t work, something else might be wrong, etc., and that he has seen it take up to two days to get it working. While this is true it is most likely a rarity. He wanted me to leave the car with them but I told him it is on my trailer as it doesn’t run without the immobilizer working and that wasn’t possible.

I ended up backing the trailer into a service bay after some discussion as it was raining (water is no longer entering) and immediately opened the Boxster driver door and removed the seat (previously unbolted) and placed it on the fender of the trailer. The old immobilizer was also already removed and I had the new immobilizer and keys sitting in the seat well.

Shortly after the service technician brought out his PST-2 and plugged in the new unit and completed the programming the car fired right up!! It ran pretty rough and died twice but stayed running after that but was still running pretty rough. The gas gauge was pretty low and I thought the rough running was a result of sitting for a period of time and having old gas. I mentioned it to the tech and he thought that could likely be the issue. The service manager only charged me for 15 minutes of labor to complete the programming as maybe he realized, based on my preparation, that I knew he was trying to snow job me in our initial conversation to be able to pad the labor for the job a little.

On the way home I filled the car up completely to dilute the old gas and I also added Sea Foam to the tank. After unloading the car I drove it for about 10 minutes and by the time I brought it back home it was running pretty well. The brakes feel awful and sound terrible though.

The Boxster now sits in my garage having been given a reprieve and a new lease on life and is eagerly awaiting its new future. It has no idea..

[bwdz]

You got Porsche dealer to charge you 15 minutes for something? Dude, you are a hero to everyone on here now. Excellent news that it is running decent.
As far as big, unnecessary charges go here is a story. 20+ years ago I used to drive a tow truck. I brought a Mercedes in to the local dealer and the service lot was so packed I went inside and asked where I should put the car, as a smart alec I also said "I thought Mercedes were pretty good cars so why do you guys have 100s back here for repair?" Writer replied: "they just need regular service but if we don't do a bunch of crap and tell them we have to wait on special parts from Germany they don't think their car is special enough and won't trust us unless it takes lots of time and costs lots of money, they want to tell their friends and neighbors how much special care their car requires"

[Paul]

I've had similar experiences.

Dealers are more willing to help when you order the fobs and immobilizer from them. Not so much when you order them from Sunset Porsche at a much lower cost.

[P_Carfahrer]

Originally Posted by Paul

I've had similar experiences.

Dealers are more willing to help when you order the fobs and immobilizer from them. Not so much when you order them from Sunset Porsche at a much lower cost.

Yeah, I had to do some talking to get him to even do it as I did not get it from him.

As a side note, I had a cool experience while there to have the immobilizer programmed that I thought you all might appreciate. A 918 sat two bays down from where we were working on my car and I got to take a nice look at it after my car was done and out and I was able to talk to another service manager and technician about it. The manager told me it had already changed hands twice in its short life. The original “owner” never took delivery of it as he sold his purchase place with Porsche to another for a cool $200k above his deposit. The second owner took delivery of it but never drove it when he sold it to a woman who ‘just had to have it as a surprise’ for her husband’s birthday. The second owner supposedly profited another $200k on this transaction. The car was absolutely stunning in its options. It was very humorous to me to have my ‘ball of yarn and bellybutton lint’ priced Boxster S next to the 918. Quite opposite ends of the price/performance spectrum though both carry the Porsche legacy.

















P.S. - The thought of somebody who can buy a spouse a $1.4 million car as a surprise birthday gift blew my mind.

[BFeller]

Originally Posted by P_Carfahrer

Yeah, I had to do some talking to get him to even do it as I did not get it from him.

As a side note, I had a cool experience while there to have the immobilizer programmed that I thought you all might appreciate. A 918 sat two bays down from where we were working on my car and I got to take a nice look at it after my car was done and out and I was able to talk to another service manager and technician about it. The manager told me it had already changed hands twice in its short life. The original “owner” never took delivery of it as he sold his purchase place with Porsche to another for a cool $200k above his deposit. The second owner took delivery of it but never drove it when he sold it to a woman who ‘just had to have it as a surprise’ for her husband’s birthday. The second owner supposedly profited another $200k on this transaction. The car was absolutely stunning in its options. It was very humorous to me to have my ‘ball of yarn and bellybutton lint’ priced Boxster S next to the 918. Quite opposite ends of the price/performance spectrum though both carry the Porsche legacy.
P.S. - The thought of somebody who can buy a spouse a $1.4 million car as a surprise birthday gift blew my mind.

I Live about two miles from Rhodes Scholars in NC. They host a monthly cars an coffee. It is a wonderful place to see vehicles like that one.

[marcoc]

Great to see you bringing your Boxster back to life. I bought mine from a guy in NY that pretty much did nothing but change the oil, brake pads, and tires. Bought my 986 S a year ago and invested about $8k in it (wife wasn't happy ). needed the major service done at 60k which I did. I did 90% of the repairs but new top with glass window, RMS, LN IMS, clutch, flywheel done by a Porsche shop local to me. Not sure why owners let these cars go to **** and treat them as appliances. Nice job with your car. I always have a project planned, next ones are suspension work, brake caliper refresh, maybe a coolant tank replacement.