Thanks again for the input.
 

Again, thanks everybody for your varied and valued opinions.

thom4782, great perspective. The reasonable efforts/reasonable measures is a good yardstick and a great reminder. But I have to quibble that the mechanic's work did in fact fall below a standard in that I brought the car in for them to address one problem, and they didn't. And yes, jcslocum, their failure was that they didn't take it for a decent test drive to determine whether or not they dealt with the problem. (Going 50 feet down almost any road would show that they didn't.)

mikefocke, when they called me to tell me their plan to replace the parts, there was no guarantee but they were pretty confident they had the problem sorted out, and I gave them the go ahead to spend the money. In 10 or 12 years, this was the first time they didn't get something right the first time. And I don't know if they found things that *actually* needed replacing- I have the parts but can't tell by looking at them- and in fact they did not fix the problem I came in with. I just want to make sure I'm not paying for an approach by which they were solving problems by, as jcslocum says, throwing parts at them. As I say, I think they are honest but perhaps made an honest mistake, and if that's the case, I think they should share the burden of that mistake. The told me they are willing to do whatever it takes to make me happy, which indicates they understand this, so I came here for guidance. On the bell curve of the advice everyone has offered, I think I will go right in the middle, and it will come out alright.

bwdz, thanks for your thorough and thoughtful explanation. That is some great theory and practice. When we finally master teleportation and no longer need cars to get around, people will still drive Boxtsers for fun, and your shop will thrive. Your practice of having a separate inspection fee but applying it to repairs is completely fair and reasonable. When I go to talk to my mechanics, I will acknowledge that they have since put in extra time (as yet unpaid) diagnosing the true problem (though I don't know why they didn't do it before the misguided parts replacement). If they had located the source of the noise, as you point out, and also recommended the replacement of everything else along the way, of course I would have told them to go ahead. It would have been totally worth it for not having to drive away, hear the noise right away, and come back a second time, etc, etc. And thanks for the assurance I didn't waste my money- that's largely what I hoped to find out. I have no problem pouring money in, but like everyone, I want value for my money.

Might be time to re-read Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance! I have always sided with the classicists there, seeking the most reasonable and appropriate engineering solution, true to the intents of the designer, over the romantics' assertion that the purity of the vision is more important, whether the machine ends up working or not.

I am going to be a bit cruel here. You need to control yourself. You asked them to fix a problem and they addressed it by performing the work that most probably would fix it, and you agreed to have them do it. Unfortunately suspension noises are notoriously difficult to fix unless there is a glaring issue that shows where it is. The fact that it is still there simply means that the work they did didn't include where the problem is. Neither they nor you could know that up front. You say they were "confident" they knew where the problem was. That's kind of vague and not certainty.

I think its fair to ask them how they plan to proceed and point out that they have already made money on work that didn't fix the problem, and if they are the kind of people I like to work with they will give you a break on further work.

You should also recognize that the work they already have done will eliminate suspension problems that are bound to crop up sometime in the future, so you have received value for the work you have paid for.

So go and have a mature discussion with them about how to proceed, and don't be obnoxious.

If they become obnoxious, walk and find another mechanic.

One other thing that I forgot to add and this is all shops and mechanics are required to do this: verify and confirm the repair, it is the last step of any auto repair. You should not have come to the shop only to find out the car still has the same problem. There are some problems that do not show up every day and are intermittent so leaving the car at a shop for a week while the mechanics use it to run errands is sometimes not feasible so after a short test drive it is possible that I give the car back to the customer as it is not feasible for me to put a couple of hundred miles on it. With any other problem the issues must be verified that it has been resolved.

Curious how it came out.

Clunk noise resolved
 

Update for anybody subscribed or still following:

After the holidays, and driving the car around with the front end clunk noise, I had an idea. In the last few years I had made contact on Facebook with a family friend I hadn't seen in a long time. He has had his own shop for a long time, and I took the car up there as an excuse to catch up and see if he could sniff the problem out. He had always impressed me as a smart guy.

He put the car on the lift and with literally 10 seconds of observation he figured it out. My brakes are painted red. He noticed a fine red dust around the area. The brakes were loose. Took the wheels off, tightened the brakes on the spindle, and I took it for a test drive- problem solved.

He looked at the suspension control arm and front suspension stabilizer bar links that my first mechanic replaced. Said that stabilizer bar links are generally going out all the time and *maybe* they ought to have been replaced anyway, but that the mechanic "might have been a bit overzealous" in replacing the control arm. He didn't run down the previous mechanic, saying mistakes can happen. But I was impressed that he figured it out immediately with simple but close observation and intuition. It was never a suspension problem at all. All it cost me was a 6 pack of decent beer, and it was great to see an old family friend. I'll be going back, and hope to be paying full price.

Amazing! It just proves that sometimes it's who you know.

Glad your problem is resolved!

So who did the brake work and didn't torque the caliper bolts correctly?

This is why I do as much work on the car my self .This cars are expensive to keep on the Road. Nothing more expensive than a cheap Porsche. Had a starting issue .Some times car would not start . Didn't matter if car was hot cold tired or ready to go sometimes it wound not crank. Then 30 seconds later it would start . The worst time 45 mins. Tow truck on the way she firs up. Replaced the battery ,ignition switch.The steering lock. Relays . clutch swith. When I finally got fed up took it to Porsche they said short in starter.1800.00 bucks and a hole in my top later.car starts every time.Now she decides to have low oil pressure at idle.These are expensive to maintain.Do as much as you can yourself.

If you think you'll go back to the local mechanic, it might be nice to give them a call and tell them what your friend found.

In the past, I've done brakes and had a devil of a time to get the caliper bolts out. Someone had used blue loctite. From that point on, I started using it on caliper bolts, too. Makes sense to me.

Yeah, I crawled out from under (just finished tiptronic oil change) to make a comment. I got a cheap boxster too. It turned into project car.

I just replaced my old engine--$2500, runs good, came with an extra starter, alternator, and power steering pump. Had to replace coolant hoses right and left.

But, boy howdy, it's an adventure to change a boxster engine!

No idea. Would have happened under previous owner.