Jason's 99 Boxster doc thread
 

On 12/28 I picked up a 99 Boxster. Arena Red, 63k miles, spotless interior, manual, paint needs some work, nearly new tires, new top with glass rear window, cruise control, a wealth of weird noises when the road gets bumpy, and it seems to be an instant smile generator. I'll use this thread to document what I plan to do and have accomplished. Meaning, it will help me remember what I wanted to do and what I've done lol!

It was a local car so I called Porsche of Orlando and got a little bit of information on it. When it was in for service in May and August they recommended that the rear sway bar end links, rear brakes/rotors, and front tie rod ends be replaced and the service was declined. Some of the work may have been done elsewhere but the rear brakes and rotors are definitely due.

So, first order of business are the rear brakes, rear sway bar end links, may as well do the bushings at the same time, and the outer front tie rod ends. I'm very intrigued by the powerflex bushings. Haven't made up my mind quite yet.

While I'm doing those I can inspect everything else and go from there. I'll be getting what I hope is a nice paint touch up kit to start tackling all of the rock chips. When that's done, I may even consider attempting to put a PPF on it lol! I'll probably just ceramic coat it though. Oh yeah, water pump and spark plugs/coil packs will be after the suspension. I'd also like to get the LN spin on adapter before the next oil change.

Hopefully this ends up being a fun ride for a long time. My wife and I were joking the day after we got the car that it was our anniversary car since we were married in 99. On a whim, I went and checked the build month, same month. We're dedicated to this car now.

Also, it's amazing how quickly my kids said they wanted to learn to drive a stick once I brought it home lol! I'll teach them, but only once I'm confident that the car is squared away.

Cool beans, welcome to the tribe, safe travels.

Great looking Boxster! Crew here is helpful. And lots of great information on here.

Do a suspension overhaul and the smile factor increases dramatically.

Welcome from your northeast neighbor. :)

Congratulations, enjoy it. I like the color ;)

Congratulations! Beautiful car!

Thanks everyone. I've been busy reading through years of threads lol!

Congratulations on the purchase! Boxsters are wonderful smile generators, enjoy and welcome :cheers:

Congrats! Love the color.

Thanks, I actually like yours more lol!

Your car looks great, congratulations!
Do your maintenance but don't forget to just drive it and get to know what you've got.
As for oil filter maintenance, if you don't go with the LN right away, get the OEM oil filter housing and filter so the filter bypass spring will be replaced. The entire housing and filter isn't much $...under $30 if IIRC.

Suspension and brake items you mentioned are easy and inexpensive to replace and will make a world of difference in the noises you're experiencing.
Enjoy!

Thanks! Due to medical concerns I’ve refrained from working on cars for years. Slowly getting better and looking forward to getting back to a hobby I love, doing my own maintenance 😊

Rear rotors and pads are on the way as are plugs, tubes, and orings. Those are the first projects. Then I’ll start tackling suspension components like the front tie rods and rear sway bar drop links. Basically, everything Porsche recommended to the PO and was declined lol!

Anything wrong with Tires Plus alignments? They have a lifetime alignment that may be worth it as long as they aren’t known for hosing cars.

First “mod” completed. Purchased a Scosche 12v port mounted mag mount for my phone. I really miss my Apple car play but this will suffice while I focus on more important matters.

very nice!

Went ahead and ordered the rear control arms as multiple threads indicated the "rattle" I hear right by the top of the seatbelt is almost certainly the control arm. Should have most of what I ordered by next weekend. Still need to order the motor mount. Will probably order the Powerflex mount. I really like that it has a lifetime warranty and the reviews on the bushing have seemed to be very good, it's the insert that gets panned pretty regularly.

Will probably do the water pump in a month or two as well as the driver side window regulator. The window drops, but not as far as the passenger side and it needs to be helped a little before closing the door so it doesn't catch on the trim. I have zero history on the car other than what the PO declined to do over the last year or so.

It'll be fun to be wrenching again, as well as showing my son how to do it.

Definitely still in the honeymoon phase. This car is pure bliss. We'll see how I feel after getting under it and seeing what other deferred maintenance I've been left with lol!

On suspension items....
the drop links (front or rear) will make clunking noises that will make you think more expensive components are failing. The drop links are cheap. replace them first and see how things sound.
Next item in rear is track arms (trailing arms). Noise is most prominent at low speeds on bumpy roads. Track arms are about $150 each but are easily replaced in driveway (30 minutes/side) once car is on jacks.

Motor mount: If you're not tracking your car, consider OEM mount or insert. It works fine and once you see how easy this job is to do, you won't worry about having to do it again at some point way down the road.

Water Pump: Great time to do the WP is when you do the motor mount. Also consider doing thermostat at the same time as you have coolant drained . Two thermostats are available...OEM and low temp version. I'll stay out of recommending one over the other.

Not must do but the fuel filter is easy pickins' while you have the car up for WP and motor mount.

@dghii Thanks for the advice! I am torn on the motor mount. We'll see. Probably going to hold off doing it until I take care of everything I have coming in right now anyway.

Good call on the fuel filter. I ordered one and should have it in time for this weekend.

Fun day. Front outer tie rods came in, rear sway bar drop links, spark plugs, a set of pickle forks, new rear brakes(rotors, pads, clip thingies, and wear sensors), and two new Esco jacks to go with some old ones I have. I also got a hockey puck for the jack from my daughter's boyfriend before they left to go back to school.

Still waiting on the rear control arms, plug tubes, and the fuel filter. A solid, first month, start to taking care of some deferred maintenance.

Found out this evening that the mirror control trim panel was glued in place. I'll need to see it in better light(freaking old eyes suck) to see if it's a problem with the trim piece or what it snaps into.

I also got down my grandfather's old wooden creeper. He was a mechanic and driver for Mercedes based racing teams back in his day. It still works and has significant sentimental and cool factor value.

"Found out this evening that the mirror control trim panel was glued in place."
Cheap on ebay!

As for motor mount...do it when you're ready but consider grouping it with WP and Thermostat.

On my old 2000S, the worn mount was felt at idle more than at higher RPM (which I did feel on a 98 Boxster with bad mount). With a good mount, I couldn't even tell my engine was running at idle.

I get some clunking at low speeds when shifting. My initial research pointed at the mount. To be honest, with so little info on the car other than CarFax, there are a lot of things I want to replace.

But, the rear drop links, front outer tie rods, and rear brakes are things the Porsche SA mentioned and all either are confirmed bad(brakes) or feel bad(tie rods and drop links).

I don't need a regulator for now. I added a couple of zip ties to the green grommet thingy and that seems to work for now. The window drops enough to clear the seals at least.

Yeah, one reason to delay the mount was to be able to do the WP and t-stat at the same time. I'm at $953 in parts so far this month. I think I'll find something that's $33 and call it a month lol!

I'll prob schedule the WP and stuff next month.

Well, the excitement at doing some work tonight has turned into frustration. Whoever put on the wheels last torqued the unholy hell out of them. 3 of the wheel lock nuts came off with a little cajoling but the last one isn't budging even with a 2 foot breaker bar. I broke one extension already and the breaker bar was bending so much I was afraid it was going to snap.

All I have on hand is WD-40 so the threads are, hopefully, all soaking in that right now. Hopefully it works, if not, may just take it to a local shop tomorrow morning and see if they can remove them.

Got some of them off. And then broke a breaker bar lol! Getting a 3/8 vs 1/2 this time.

Meant 1/2 vs 3/8, but whatever. I ended up getting another 3/8 and broke it too. Finally got the last one by jumping up and down on an old torque wrench that was way out of calibration anyway.

I hear you: air guns and idiots are a deadly combo. I had some "mechanic" strip a lug bolt on a Corrado years ago. I noticed a rattling when driving--with my three-year-old in the car. I was somewhat displeased. They bought me a new rotor.

Yup. Had a Z4 that was less than two years old. Had to replace a damaged run flat tire. I couldn't get the lugs loose for anything. Ended up at two tire shops before the second successfully loosened the lug nuts. Crazy!

My son and I have finished up today. Everything done but the fuel filter. Just plain forgot about that one.

I got horrid noise from the left rear on a test drive, turned out to be a heat shield rubbing against the rotor. After a longer test drive, and bedding in the brakes, I'm getting a similar though not as harsh noise from the right rear. So, I may take off all of the wheels one by one and push the shields back as much as possible.

Other than that the car is much tighter with far less noise when going over bumps. Extremely happy with the changes.

I did notice the right rear strut made some noises when I loaded it to get the track arm on and the left rear didn't. I'm assuming that means at least one is bad. So those may be on the docket for getting fixed in the next month or so.


Phenomenal time with my son. He genuinely enjoys working on the car, and I genuinely enjoy the time spent with him. Win, win.

Note to others. If you're letting your teenager help you for the first time, be more diligent at second checking them then I was lol! On the right rear brakes he put in one of the brake pads backwards. Honest mistake and one I should have caught before we buttoned it up.

All is now well with the car :)

We had our first "warm" day here in FL, it hit 75. The result was the front of my Boxster sounding like a jet engine lol! Did some troubleshooting last night and the right cooling fan resistor is out I believe. Also, the left fan didn't make the same noise as the right, it was loud but not a whiny sound, so a new fan assembly is on its way.

Also, still getting some squeaky noises when going over bumps, nowhere near as bad as before, but I'm pretty sure it's either the struts themselves or maybe some plates at the top of the struts. Regardless, I'll be swapping those sometime soon.

Took the car on its longest drive with me yet, a quick trip from Orlando to Tampa, and other than the fan whine everything was great.

I jury rigged my phone holder. Had some thin, sticky backed, foam left over from something that I cut and placed at the top and bottom of the plug to help it fit tighter in the euro spec'd hole. That's when I found out the entire plug assembly rotated inside the dash. So, some duct tape wrapped around it held it in place on the back side and I finally have a stable mount for the phone.

New MaxJax is on its way. I also ordered a PowerFlex PolyUrethane motor mount bushing to break in the lift with along with the new fan. With a lengthy history of neck(2 surgeries) and back issues the lift should be a welcome addition.

Drilled some sample holes in the garage floor this afternoon and all were at least 4 inches, some barely, but they made the cut. Wow does a rotary hammer work like magic lol! First time using one.

My goal is to arrange the posts so that one of the garage stalls could still be used. Hopefully I am able to!

Phone holder is still sticking in place but still looking forward to installing a CarPlay receiver.

MaxJax to be delivered tomorrow. Daughter is coming home for a weekend so may be into next week before it's installed.

MaxJax is almost set up. One of the anchors didn't sit and ended up spinning, even with epoxy. Have an epoxy anchor on the way but am going to see if I can rescue this one in the meantime. This will make life so much easier.

When sizing it up I decided to forego trying to be able to fit another car in for now. It would be too close for comfort, so might as well give myself some extra width. All concrete ended up being at least 5" thick with most spots 6" or greater.

Hopefully I can post a pic of the car up on it within a week!

I would say please excuse the garage and pretend it isn't always like that, but it is lol! Well, except for the trash, that of course will go away.

Stuff like this is what I would save if the house caught on fire (after the humans and the pets).

It is so very cool that you not only still have it, but value it for what it is. Stuff is just stuff, but stuff with a story, a provenance and linage is priceless.

:cheers:

Thanks! Glad to know others appreciate the sentimental side too. You can see the creeper in the pic above. It's along the right wall after the black chair and before the fish tank.
:cheers:

MaxJax installed. Had an issue with one anchor so I sourced an epoxy anchor to replace it and all is well.

Got the car on the lift and replaced the right front radiator fan. Next job will either be spark plugs, the engine mount, or both depending on how much time I have.

Double post as I put this in the "What did you do to your Boxster thread as well but I really want it here for my own reference down the road.

Replaced my motor mount with the Yellow Power Flex bushing. This thing is like a dream compared to the old insert that literally fell out when I took out the mount. Some have complained about an increase in vibration but I didn't notice that at all. It felt great.

Also replaced the existing NGK spark plugs with Denso 5304 Iridium plugs. Car starts up much faster, so a positive there. I have no idea how old the previous plugs were. Porsche of Orlando said they recommended new plugs back in August. I don't think they were done before I got it.

So, at this point I've done everything on the dealer's recommendation list except the driver's window regulator. That can wait a bit.

Next thing due will likely be an oil change. I plan on dropping the sump to take a look as well as order the L&N setup with the spin on oil adapter and magnetic drain plug.

Can't stress enough how much better the car felt with the Power Flex insert. Impressed enough that I'll go with them for the sway bar bushings when I do them.

I envy your DIY adventures! If you every need a professional garage and don't want to pay the Porsche dealer, Zotz Racing in Orlando has a long and excellent reputation. I grew up near their shop, and they did the PPI on my new-to-me '00 BS. Followup work by my local mechanic didn't spot anything Zotz had missed, either.

Awesome, I'm always on the brink of buying an old lift from a shop. I'd like to put a second garage in my back yard but my grass is so god dang nice. Maybe its time to buy another house just for cars and parts. LOL

Those max jax lifts can be easily moved right? You could do duel parking if you can figure out a place to store the posts right?

So, whats up with the water tank in the back? Looks like a gravity feed system.

Thanks for the head's up. I'm committed to doing as much of the work as I can myself. It isn't a daily driver so if it has to sit a few weeks while I gather parts and the nerve to do something it's no big deal lol!

Yep, posts are portable. Takes about 15-20 minutes to set them up. We typically have 3 cars in the garage. I love the MaxJax. It's so nice to at least be able to sit under the car vs laying down all the time.

The tank is my "fuge" for my salt water tank. Basically it provides additional volume, a refuge for very small crustaceans to breed and provide natural food for the fish, and a place for me to put equipment that I don't want or have room for under the display tank.