2005 Boxster S
Discussion
Longtime lurker here, thought I would share my experience with my current fun car. Previous ownership history include a ~1500 mk2 Mr2, ~£600 306 GTI, a £1200 E46 330Ci manual intersperced with some less interesting cars (Vectras, Astras, 306 estates etc). I am generally a sucker for a fun car at the cheaper end of its price range and try to do all of the work myself.
Anyway, about a year ago I decided I would like to get something fun again and fancied the idea of a sporty convertible. Budget was slightly higher than before and after considering Z3s and Z4s of various eras I decided that I didnt really want to go back down the BMW route again. I had plenty of experience fixing the 330Ci and never really gelled with it even after making it drive bascially like new. The Boxster was supposed to be a better drive than the equivalent BMW and since it would be run alongside a relatively modern estate the potential reliability difference hopefully could be worked around.
I viewed 3 Boxsters before buying the 4th;
-A 986S that was really quite tired. The owner would have let it go seriously cheap but even I could see it would take a lot to get it nice again. Although I love the look of a 986, I really wanted a 987 for the interior and nicer headlights (although I prefer the back of the 986)
-A 987S that had a new roof and was in great mechanical condition but had been resprayed in a modern porsche colour (car was keyed apparently). The colour and paint was lovely, but when you opened the door you could see the original colour.
-Another 987S that had good paint and was in good mechanical condition as far as I could tell but had a big dent from being dropped off a jack and a little too much corrosion around the damage.
My main criteria for a 987 was that it was an S with the 3.2 engine. This ensures the tax is based on the older system (~£400 rather than ~£700) and also that the engine is unlikely to get bore scoring. From what I can gather the IMS issues are also rare on the later 3.2s, which use a big (albeit not easily replaceable) bearing.
I had a bit of back and forth about a car based around Wolverhampton. Initially it was being sold with a short MOT and the owner was being quite sporty on price and this made me suspicious. I questioned if he would MOT for the price and he initially wasnt interested. Fast forward a few weeks and I could see he had it MOTd and serviced and was more realistic on asking price.
So in March 2023 I drove around 5 hours round trip to view the car. I have learned from previous purchases that its worth avoiding a situation where there is pressure to buy, so I drove there without having the money in my account and being clear that I would collect another week if we could come to an arrangement. To be honest it wasnt as good as had been described and I think the seller could see that he had been quite keen in the description;
-Lots of algae buildup on car generally (especially roof). Car generally dirty
-Some mould in car, although no wet carpets etc and no condensation on windows
-Roof would not fully retract without balljoint popping off
-AC didnt work (AC condensers looked battered)
-Slight surface corrosion on front arches
-Door handle had a decent scrape and was missing paint
-Headlights significantly yellowed
The car seemed as though it had not been run regularly, which squared with the conversations with the seller. The car had just over 100k but had some reasonable Porsche service history and was entirely standard. The fact that the car hadn't been run much but had no condensation gave me confidence that there were no active leaks (it was also stored outside in a damp alley). Overall I went away from the visit in two minds and this helped me from getting carried away negotiating. It was more of a project than I was really looking for so I ended up offering about £750 less than advertised and this was accepted. My aim was to have a good car for ~£10k and this allowed me around £2k so sort these and any other issues. The seller was actually a really nice guy who had a young family and just didnt have time to drive or look after the car. He had previously used it for some large commutes and I think his wife was not keen on the idea of holding onto the car until he might have the time to use it again.
So I took the ~3.5hr train ride to collect the car the next weekend. Some photos from the drive home (these for some reason make the car look in much nicer condition than it was).
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/SosRtg27.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/6hJrPWWu" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/6hJrPWWu.jpg)
Anyway, I hope the photos upload and ill end the first post there.
Anyway, about a year ago I decided I would like to get something fun again and fancied the idea of a sporty convertible. Budget was slightly higher than before and after considering Z3s and Z4s of various eras I decided that I didnt really want to go back down the BMW route again. I had plenty of experience fixing the 330Ci and never really gelled with it even after making it drive bascially like new. The Boxster was supposed to be a better drive than the equivalent BMW and since it would be run alongside a relatively modern estate the potential reliability difference hopefully could be worked around.
I viewed 3 Boxsters before buying the 4th;
-A 986S that was really quite tired. The owner would have let it go seriously cheap but even I could see it would take a lot to get it nice again. Although I love the look of a 986, I really wanted a 987 for the interior and nicer headlights (although I prefer the back of the 986)
-A 987S that had a new roof and was in great mechanical condition but had been resprayed in a modern porsche colour (car was keyed apparently). The colour and paint was lovely, but when you opened the door you could see the original colour.
-Another 987S that had good paint and was in good mechanical condition as far as I could tell but had a big dent from being dropped off a jack and a little too much corrosion around the damage.
My main criteria for a 987 was that it was an S with the 3.2 engine. This ensures the tax is based on the older system (~£400 rather than ~£700) and also that the engine is unlikely to get bore scoring. From what I can gather the IMS issues are also rare on the later 3.2s, which use a big (albeit not easily replaceable) bearing.
I had a bit of back and forth about a car based around Wolverhampton. Initially it was being sold with a short MOT and the owner was being quite sporty on price and this made me suspicious. I questioned if he would MOT for the price and he initially wasnt interested. Fast forward a few weeks and I could see he had it MOTd and serviced and was more realistic on asking price.
So in March 2023 I drove around 5 hours round trip to view the car. I have learned from previous purchases that its worth avoiding a situation where there is pressure to buy, so I drove there without having the money in my account and being clear that I would collect another week if we could come to an arrangement. To be honest it wasnt as good as had been described and I think the seller could see that he had been quite keen in the description;
-Lots of algae buildup on car generally (especially roof). Car generally dirty
-Some mould in car, although no wet carpets etc and no condensation on windows
-Roof would not fully retract without balljoint popping off
-AC didnt work (AC condensers looked battered)
-Slight surface corrosion on front arches
-Door handle had a decent scrape and was missing paint
-Headlights significantly yellowed
The car seemed as though it had not been run regularly, which squared with the conversations with the seller. The car had just over 100k but had some reasonable Porsche service history and was entirely standard. The fact that the car hadn't been run much but had no condensation gave me confidence that there were no active leaks (it was also stored outside in a damp alley). Overall I went away from the visit in two minds and this helped me from getting carried away negotiating. It was more of a project than I was really looking for so I ended up offering about £750 less than advertised and this was accepted. My aim was to have a good car for ~£10k and this allowed me around £2k so sort these and any other issues. The seller was actually a really nice guy who had a young family and just didnt have time to drive or look after the car. He had previously used it for some large commutes and I think his wife was not keen on the idea of holding onto the car until he might have the time to use it again.
So I took the ~3.5hr train ride to collect the car the next weekend. Some photos from the drive home (these for some reason make the car look in much nicer condition than it was).
Anyway, I hope the photos upload and ill end the first post there.
Edited by iangex on Sunday 14th January 19:36
So the drive home went smoothly. Since the car hadn't been used much I was apprehensive about doing a >100 mile trip in it. I brought some oil and coolant and basic tools with me in case I had issues and always have breakdown cover (this comes in useful later on) but none of this was needed.
The engine felt great, making a lovely noise and just the right amount of power. I live a little north of Bristol and avoided the motorways around Birmingham since I didnt trust the car yet and some of them are smart motorways that I really didnt fancy breaking down on. This meant I was on some nice flowing A and B roads and it felt great to be back in a fun car after a few years of less interesting driving.
I did notice the front end felt a lot looser and the car was wandering over bumps in a way I didnt remember from the test drive and to be honest was quite disappointed for not picking this up before. Having chased suspension issues in the past I was determined to positively identify likely causes rather than guessing and throwing money replacing everything.
Anyway, as soon as I got it home I took a look at the roof issue. The seller had reciepts for new balljoints and the units looked to be new. It was clear that no one had popped them on all the way (takes quite a lot of force and makes a loud click). Once this was done, all was well and the roof worked as expected so a nice easy fix to start with.
The engine felt great, making a lovely noise and just the right amount of power. I live a little north of Bristol and avoided the motorways around Birmingham since I didnt trust the car yet and some of them are smart motorways that I really didnt fancy breaking down on. This meant I was on some nice flowing A and B roads and it felt great to be back in a fun car after a few years of less interesting driving.
I did notice the front end felt a lot looser and the car was wandering over bumps in a way I didnt remember from the test drive and to be honest was quite disappointed for not picking this up before. Having chased suspension issues in the past I was determined to positively identify likely causes rather than guessing and throwing money replacing everything.
Anyway, as soon as I got it home I took a look at the roof issue. The seller had reciepts for new balljoints and the units looked to be new. It was clear that no one had popped them on all the way (takes quite a lot of force and makes a loud click). Once this was done, all was well and the roof worked as expected so a nice easy fix to start with.
So next on the list was a good clean of the interior and exterior. I am not really into car cleaning but do have a pressure washer, clay bar, wax etc. Paintwork came up really well and was thankfully in really good original condition under a lot of dirt. I couldnt find many scratches apart from the one on the door handle.
I gave the roof a good clean and protect with an autoglym kit. In hindsight I wish I had been more agressive as some small signs of algae remained, but ill probably have another go this spring and get the last of it.
The headlights are easily removable and so I did this to fix the yellowing using a kit to sand back and polish the surface before adding protectant that cures in the sun. Because the headlights were removed this was much easier, especially in the corners. I forgot to take a before picture, but they were pretty bad. The headlight release mechanism is via a bar that is twisted from the frunk using a tool. On one side the bar was pretty corroded, and the tool had been damaged slightly using it so I got new bars and tool from Porsche, which were about £40 all together if I remember right. I've come to the conclusion that any Porsche part you see advertised new online seems to be cheaper if you just call up the dealership and my local dealership seem to also be happy to post any smallish bits for free.
Anyway, photo after a clean and headlights sorted
I gave the roof a good clean and protect with an autoglym kit. In hindsight I wish I had been more agressive as some small signs of algae remained, but ill probably have another go this spring and get the last of it.
The headlights are easily removable and so I did this to fix the yellowing using a kit to sand back and polish the surface before adding protectant that cures in the sun. Because the headlights were removed this was much easier, especially in the corners. I forgot to take a before picture, but they were pretty bad. The headlight release mechanism is via a bar that is twisted from the frunk using a tool. On one side the bar was pretty corroded, and the tool had been damaged slightly using it so I got new bars and tool from Porsche, which were about £40 all together if I remember right. I've come to the conclusion that any Porsche part you see advertised new online seems to be cheaper if you just call up the dealership and my local dealership seem to also be happy to post any smallish bits for free.
Anyway, photo after a clean and headlights sorted
I had been driving the car a few hundred miles at this point and thought the shifter was slightly tricky to get into gear. The gearchange is via a cable system and is set using a tool that Porsche sell called a bridge shift lock or something. This is another part thats just best to buy from Porsche because everywhere else just does that with a markup. Its just a plastic piece that holds the gearstick in the centre accurately.
The task is to remove the centre console then set the lock on the exposed gearstick. There are then two cables that need to be adjusted so that they have no tension. This is done by rotating and moving the blue piece to expose the circular 'threads'. The bit that looks like a male thread is attached to the gear cable and can then be slotted out and back in at a different height if needed, ensuring that the cable tension is set correctly.
Probably not a great explanation, followed by a not-great photo that I took at the time to be able to set back to how it was if I did something wrong.
This noticably improved the gear change, the box now slotted into any gear easily. It also allowed me to clean under the console, which was good because it was gross.
The task is to remove the centre console then set the lock on the exposed gearstick. There are then two cables that need to be adjusted so that they have no tension. This is done by rotating and moving the blue piece to expose the circular 'threads'. The bit that looks like a male thread is attached to the gear cable and can then be slotted out and back in at a different height if needed, ensuring that the cable tension is set correctly.
Probably not a great explanation, followed by a not-great photo that I took at the time to be able to set back to how it was if I did something wrong.
This noticably improved the gear change, the box now slotted into any gear easily. It also allowed me to clean under the console, which was good because it was gross.
Edited by iangex on Sunday 14th January 19:35
Thanks for all the positive comments! I don't normally go for posting things online, social media etc and im aware of much more expensive/in depth projects being documented on readers cars so im really glad people are as excited as me about older cars with interesting issues - there are a few to come!
So by April I had clocked up around 600 miles. The car was primarily to enjoy my once a week commute through the Cotswolds (from South Gloucestershire to Banbury and back) and the looseness in the front suspension needed looking into. Having learnt from previous cars to spend time on the diagnosis before firing the parts cannon I jacked up the car and pryed at various things for some time to make sure I understood what was going on. There was quite a bit of play on the inner tie rods and the big round bush on the coffin arms was quite 'soft' when pryed on. This would allow geometry changes, particularly when hitting bumps. These two observations aligned with what I was feeling at the wheel.
I ended up replacing the inner and outer tie rods, coffin arms and 'tuning forks' along with new rack boots and coffin arm bolts. Most of these parts were aftermarket and bought from Spyder performance and I have no complaints. Cost was around £500.
Getting the original coffin arms off was a nightmare because the original bolts corrode into the metal sleeves and need to be cut out. This doesnt sound too bad but actually is because;
-There is no space to get a grinding wheel in there, its strictly cutting blades
-There is a plastic cooling piece about 2" from the bolt
-The coffin arm bolts into an aluminium subframe, which can apparently crack if you get too heavy-handed. This turns an annoying job into a really annoying and expensive job to replace the subframe
Both arms ended up being cut out using a multitool and junior hacksaw. This took me about 1 hour for the first side and 3 for the second because the carbide multitool blade got progressively blunter. I have no photos of this process because I would rather forget it. A reciprocating saw would probably make light work of it, but I only realised this when had committed.
Refitting was straightforward apart from the rack boots, which have a crimp clip which is a nightmare to get on with horrible access. New tools were required to do this task but its done now.
Alignment-wise I have had some experiences with even reputable shops that havn't filled me with confidence in them and so set it up using tape measures and 1m long straight edges attached to both wheels to get the toe right. A couple of test drives to balance the two sides and get the wheel straight. I cant remember the exact alignment I went for, but from memory was just a small amount of toe in. Its probably not as good as a good mechanic on a laser system, but since this alignment the car has done about 2.5k with no handling weirdness or uneven tyre wear. The front end now feels tight and precise even on uneven roads.
So by April I had clocked up around 600 miles. The car was primarily to enjoy my once a week commute through the Cotswolds (from South Gloucestershire to Banbury and back) and the looseness in the front suspension needed looking into. Having learnt from previous cars to spend time on the diagnosis before firing the parts cannon I jacked up the car and pryed at various things for some time to make sure I understood what was going on. There was quite a bit of play on the inner tie rods and the big round bush on the coffin arms was quite 'soft' when pryed on. This would allow geometry changes, particularly when hitting bumps. These two observations aligned with what I was feeling at the wheel.
I ended up replacing the inner and outer tie rods, coffin arms and 'tuning forks' along with new rack boots and coffin arm bolts. Most of these parts were aftermarket and bought from Spyder performance and I have no complaints. Cost was around £500.
Getting the original coffin arms off was a nightmare because the original bolts corrode into the metal sleeves and need to be cut out. This doesnt sound too bad but actually is because;
-There is no space to get a grinding wheel in there, its strictly cutting blades
-There is a plastic cooling piece about 2" from the bolt
-The coffin arm bolts into an aluminium subframe, which can apparently crack if you get too heavy-handed. This turns an annoying job into a really annoying and expensive job to replace the subframe
Both arms ended up being cut out using a multitool and junior hacksaw. This took me about 1 hour for the first side and 3 for the second because the carbide multitool blade got progressively blunter. I have no photos of this process because I would rather forget it. A reciprocating saw would probably make light work of it, but I only realised this when had committed.
Refitting was straightforward apart from the rack boots, which have a crimp clip which is a nightmare to get on with horrible access. New tools were required to do this task but its done now.
Alignment-wise I have had some experiences with even reputable shops that havn't filled me with confidence in them and so set it up using tape measures and 1m long straight edges attached to both wheels to get the toe right. A couple of test drives to balance the two sides and get the wheel straight. I cant remember the exact alignment I went for, but from memory was just a small amount of toe in. Its probably not as good as a good mechanic on a laser system, but since this alignment the car has done about 2.5k with no handling weirdness or uneven tyre wear. The front end now feels tight and precise even on uneven roads.
Edited by iangex on Monday 15th January 14:24
So by May 2023 I was enjoying the car for my regular ~140 mile round trip commute. The car felt great and was a nice balance between sporty and refined. My route takes me up the M5 and even with the roof down this is comfortable and fairly quiet. Its a cliche but the flat 6 behind you is a really lovely thing. My previous MR2 was definately more raw and connected, but I can drive the Porsche for longer without being tired.
So for 10 year wedding anniversary, the wife and I decided to go back and stay the night at the venue where we got married. This sounded like a great excuse to take her out in the car (she has only been out in it briefly, we have young kids and there arent many opportunities). Anyway, having covered well over 1k miles without issue, the car decided to throw an engine light about 5 minutes from leaving the house. Great.
It drove ok and so I decided to push on. Due to an accident closing the m48 bridge what should have taken up ~50 minutes took more than twice that but we got there.
The car continued to show EML and it was a few days until I got a chance to scan it. From memory the code was P0492 and P0491, which relate to the Secondary Air Injection (SAI) system. From what I understand this is a big air pump that blasts the cats for the first minute with extra air to get them up to temperature. This was a relief (as it wasn't damaging the car driving it with the code) and I cleared the code and continued driving.
Over the next few months and dozens of long drives the codes only recurred a few times, suggesting something intermittent was going wrong. More on that later
So for 10 year wedding anniversary, the wife and I decided to go back and stay the night at the venue where we got married. This sounded like a great excuse to take her out in the car (she has only been out in it briefly, we have young kids and there arent many opportunities). Anyway, having covered well over 1k miles without issue, the car decided to throw an engine light about 5 minutes from leaving the house. Great.
It drove ok and so I decided to push on. Due to an accident closing the m48 bridge what should have taken up ~50 minutes took more than twice that but we got there.
The car continued to show EML and it was a few days until I got a chance to scan it. From memory the code was P0492 and P0491, which relate to the Secondary Air Injection (SAI) system. From what I understand this is a big air pump that blasts the cats for the first minute with extra air to get them up to temperature. This was a relief (as it wasn't damaging the car driving it with the code) and I cleared the code and continued driving.
Over the next few months and dozens of long drives the codes only recurred a few times, suggesting something intermittent was going wrong. More on that later
Next drama came in June. I was driving into Banbury and was caught in traffic when I noticed some smoke/steam coming from behind me. Due to the traffic I thought little of it and thought it might be someone vapeing or something. As I continued along in stop-start conditions it became more and more clear that this was coming out of the right hand vent of the boxster. Not having anywhere good to pull over and with no warning for low coolant or high temperature, I persevered and got to the work carpark.
Underneath was not pretty - water was dripping very quickly from the bottom of the car, almost flowing out.
Thankfully the coolant circuit on these takes a LOT of coolant and the car hadn't run low yet but the rate of loss was quite high. I knew I wasn't going to fix it in the work carpark so at the end of the day called breakdown who drove me all the way home.
Driving off the tow truck the power steering also started acting up, so I crossed my fingers that the fix would be something related to both issues and not ruinous.
It was a few days before I got a chance to take a look. There is a panel behind the driver that gives access to the front of the engine. When I removed this it looked like something had tried to build a nest in there.
The belt that runs behind is meant to have 6 ribs, but one had been entirely lost and the belt was sitting wrong on the pulleys.
The waterpump bearings had failed, leading to significant leakage and wearing of the belt against various parts of the engine as it was severely misaligned. It must have completely gone when driving the car off the tow truck, so I am quite grateful for making it to work.
Anyway, the fix was a new waterpump and belt. The old belt hadn't done many miles before being chewed up. I flushed the coolant system through with a hose before draining and refilling as I was a little paranoid about bit of the plastic impeller being left in the system (although thankfully that looked intact). I made sure the replacement pump (Meyle HD) had a plastic impeller too. Apparently there are some with metal impellers which will wear into the aluminium block if they fail. Bleeding was relatively straightforward without special tools or methods, although I did have the car jacked up at the back to access the undertrays so this may have helped.
Once I had it back together I thought it would be fun to take it out for a quick spin with the engine cover off. It wasn't. I was expecting to hear more induction or exhaust noise but all you get it more noise noise. It is seriously loud and not in a nice way. It just sounds like valvetrain and belts and pulleys. Its also very hot. Porsche knew what they were doing when they put that cover there and leaving it removed even for a short test drive to check for leakage was unbearable.
Underneath was not pretty - water was dripping very quickly from the bottom of the car, almost flowing out.
Thankfully the coolant circuit on these takes a LOT of coolant and the car hadn't run low yet but the rate of loss was quite high. I knew I wasn't going to fix it in the work carpark so at the end of the day called breakdown who drove me all the way home.
Driving off the tow truck the power steering also started acting up, so I crossed my fingers that the fix would be something related to both issues and not ruinous.
It was a few days before I got a chance to take a look. There is a panel behind the driver that gives access to the front of the engine. When I removed this it looked like something had tried to build a nest in there.
The belt that runs behind is meant to have 6 ribs, but one had been entirely lost and the belt was sitting wrong on the pulleys.
The waterpump bearings had failed, leading to significant leakage and wearing of the belt against various parts of the engine as it was severely misaligned. It must have completely gone when driving the car off the tow truck, so I am quite grateful for making it to work.
Anyway, the fix was a new waterpump and belt. The old belt hadn't done many miles before being chewed up. I flushed the coolant system through with a hose before draining and refilling as I was a little paranoid about bit of the plastic impeller being left in the system (although thankfully that looked intact). I made sure the replacement pump (Meyle HD) had a plastic impeller too. Apparently there are some with metal impellers which will wear into the aluminium block if they fail. Bleeding was relatively straightforward without special tools or methods, although I did have the car jacked up at the back to access the undertrays so this may have helped.
Once I had it back together I thought it would be fun to take it out for a quick spin with the engine cover off. It wasn't. I was expecting to hear more induction or exhaust noise but all you get it more noise noise. It is seriously loud and not in a nice way. It just sounds like valvetrain and belts and pulleys. Its also very hot. Porsche knew what they were doing when they put that cover there and leaving it removed even for a short test drive to check for leakage was unbearable.
Edited by iangex on Monday 15th January 00:35
Ok so now we are in September. I had noticed the drivers side rear wheel getting a layer of grease on the inside. Upon investigation this seems to be a common issue. The driveshaft outer joint has an outer metal cap that corrodes over time until it becomes porous and leaks the CV grease. Not easy to see on the picture below but you can see its separate from the CV boot.
Now I couldn't see any obvious non-used replacements for sensible money so I went down the used route here. I found a much better condition one on ebay for about £40 delivered and wire wheeled and derusted the area that failed originally then gave it a good coating of bilt hamber electrox followed by black hammerite. I figure that will pretty much stop the corrosion in its tracks.
Removal was straightforward - I have a large impact gun to remove the hub bolt and nothing was corroded. Refitting was harder because you are fighting the suspension more but this was an easy job.
Now I couldn't see any obvious non-used replacements for sensible money so I went down the used route here. I found a much better condition one on ebay for about £40 delivered and wire wheeled and derusted the area that failed originally then gave it a good coating of bilt hamber electrox followed by black hammerite. I figure that will pretty much stop the corrosion in its tracks.
Removal was straightforward - I have a large impact gun to remove the hub bolt and nothing was corroded. Refitting was harder because you are fighting the suspension more but this was an easy job.
So moving onto October. The nights were drawing in and I didn't really fancy driving the car on my commute through the winter. I was also keen to investigate the intermittent SAI fault codes, and because it takes ~30 mins to get the car into and out of the 'service position' (analogous to opening the bonnet on a front engined car) its not something I want to be doing outside if theres a change of rain.
I gave the car an oil and filter change before parking it up, carefully checking for any flakes in the filter paper (none found) and sending off a sample for oil analysis. I've never done oil analysis before, but since this was the first service in my hands and being mildly anxious about IMS-type issues I thought it best. Nothing suspicious reported, which is great.
Now I dont benefit from a large garage, nor a garage that is only for cars. My garage has bikes, tools, gardening stuff, recycling and all sorts in there. The Porsche fits, but working on it is challenging.
At least now I can leave the car in the service position whilst I get to the bottom of the SAI issue. This turns out to be a good thing, because theres a few things to fix in there...
I gave the car an oil and filter change before parking it up, carefully checking for any flakes in the filter paper (none found) and sending off a sample for oil analysis. I've never done oil analysis before, but since this was the first service in my hands and being mildly anxious about IMS-type issues I thought it best. Nothing suspicious reported, which is great.
Now I dont benefit from a large garage, nor a garage that is only for cars. My garage has bikes, tools, gardening stuff, recycling and all sorts in there. The Porsche fits, but working on it is challenging.
At least now I can leave the car in the service position whilst I get to the bottom of the SAI issue. This turns out to be a good thing, because theres a few things to fix in there...
After looking at 987 3.2S sale adverts on and off for many years, I'm hoping that this thread will either vindicate or blow my reticence out of the water. If it turns out to be the latter, then I may end up finally taking the plunge.
So congratulations, you are very much my 'canary down the mine' now. Bookmarked.
So congratulations, you are very much my 'canary down the mine' now. Bookmarked.
Really glad people are interested! Ill try to give some more general thoughts on ownership once I get up to date on where I am at with the car
So next up was a simple one - the sound system always sounded pretty bad, with lots of rustling noise coming from the door cards. The car only has the basic speaker setup (I think one in each door card and two in the dashboard but I might be wrong there).
Removal of the door cards was actually really difficult - once all bolts were removed the clips were extremely tight to the point I thought I was breaking something. I read something online that Porsche used the 'wrong' clips at some point and I certainly hope that was what happened here. Anyway, once removed I got a look at the speakers.
The speaker had basically disintegrated, with no connection between the outside of the speaker and the cone remaining. Pushing the cone in and out led to a loud rustling sound. Replaced with some halfords £40 units and now sounds quite a bit better. I would like to put a new headunit in because the display is intermittent and it has no aux capability. This is job for the new year.
So next up was a simple one - the sound system always sounded pretty bad, with lots of rustling noise coming from the door cards. The car only has the basic speaker setup (I think one in each door card and two in the dashboard but I might be wrong there).
Removal of the door cards was actually really difficult - once all bolts were removed the clips were extremely tight to the point I thought I was breaking something. I read something online that Porsche used the 'wrong' clips at some point and I certainly hope that was what happened here. Anyway, once removed I got a look at the speakers.
The speaker had basically disintegrated, with no connection between the outside of the speaker and the cone remaining. Pushing the cone in and out led to a loud rustling sound. Replaced with some halfords £40 units and now sounds quite a bit better. I would like to put a new headunit in because the display is intermittent and it has no aux capability. This is job for the new year.
Next up was cracking into the SAI issues. I couldn't find many people with SAI issues on a 987, and thankfully the system is a lot simpler than that on the 986 (which has a vacuum operated valve, vacuum tank and lines to all go wrong as well as a pump). The 987 unit is the same as that on the 997, being just a pump into a valve that opens when the pressure is sufficient.
This means there are very few things to go wrong - valve, electrical supply or pump. Unfortunately the pump is not as accessible as it looks on the 986, being tucked away under the right hand intake manifold. This is made more tricky because I found working in this area quite awkward for long periods of time due to poor access. Removing the intake manifold is a matter of removing bolts and jubilee clips and being careful not to drop them into the exposed intake valves but I spent a while working out where each bolt was as its quite busy in this area.
Once the manifold is out, the SAI pump and bracket can be removed. I dont have a picture of this, but here is the engine at this stage.
I bench tested the pump via a 12v battery and it worked ok. Damn. I kept trying the pump and found something interesting. The pump would work about 9/10 times, but would sometimes fail to start. Very interesting and would make sense given the intermittent nature of the fault.
Now the pump disassembles ok to a point, but the motor is sealed up. I took the brushes out and they looked worn but ok. Icould see the commutator looked worn so tried to clean it by spraying IPA through the available holes. This didn't help and it was clear it would need replacing. To check this was the issue I broke open the motor to have a good look. Here is what I found;
Definately found the issue. This seemed to be a fairly uncommon failure on 997 and 987 cars, and a new part was >£1000 so I thought it worthwhile to try a second hand unit. Many sellers wanted a lot of money for these, but I found one from a 997 in Germany for ~£55 including shipping. The part number (99760510400) appears to be superceeded by 99760510402. I couldnt find out why this was done (possibly reliability), but the replacement part was the same as the original part number.
I bench tested the new unit and it checked out every time. I also disassembled it slightly to check its air filter condition (air from the engine bay is used for SAI operation, so a small foam filter is used under the pump case to prevent debris being sucked up). The filter looked fine. I also cleaned inside the valve with a little intake manifold cleaner spray.
The SAI pump assembly went back in ok. I put new seals between the engine and SAI pump bracket and torqued everything to spec.
I noticed some oil pooling and general grottyness under the pipe below
I realised the retaining clip wasn't in place properly so installed it correctly but then realised something else was up. Those hose clamps are not supposed to be there! Someone had damaged the tube and tried to fix it with tubing and hose clamps. This was quite an ugly fix and possibly a vacuum leak. This tube carries oil from the boot (where the filler is) to the engine and I had been noticing a slight 'hot engine oil' smell after extended runs. Hopefully this is why
New pipe ordered for £30. There are different ones on different years so I was careful to cross-reference it against how the pipe looked
Removal of the old pipe was honestly one of the most difficult jobs ive done on a car. I bought the remote clamp pliars like these;
Even with them the cable had to take a convoluted route and the whole job was done completely blind and by feel. Because of the routing of the wire even once on I had to pull the pliars to the point I thought they were going to break. I even tried to get access by loosening the expansion tank from the boot, but that didnt help at all. There are a lot of other pipes and cables exactly where your hands want to be to do this job. Removing this one tube took around 2 hours. I am pretty sure I could do it quicker the second time around but I am hopeful not to have to mess with that area of the engine bay again.
The new hose went on easier as I could lubricate the connection and get the tool on the clip and compressed really well before introducing it into the engine bay but was still very blind. I bought a cheap endoscope to check I had it on correctly and actually had to re-do the job a bit to get it fully seated. Overall I am not surprised (albeit a bit disappointed) if a shop chose to bodge it together - that was a nasty job.
Next up I cleaned up the oil that had leaked from the original pipe and remembered that the starter motor very occasionally squealed a little after startup. Having seen a youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ9qnnf2kWU) where someone had the same issue and fixed it by disassembling and cleaning the unit, I thought now was a good time to do this.
This process was straightforward when following the video. I did have to replace the bolts that he did as they were siezed. The starter was sticky but after cleaning and regreasing moved freely. Time will tell if thats a real fix.
Next up I was cleaning up the intake tubes and decided to check the secondary throttle butterfly thing.
This unit is vaccum actuated so can be tested by twisting the valve fully against the spring and blocking off the vacuum port. The vacuum should stop the valve returning but on this one it returned easily. An easy fix - new one from ebay for ~£25 which tested fine and was fitted.
Then it was just a case of putting the intake manifold back on with new seals and torquing everying to spec.
I started the car and let it get up to temperature, no squeals and no fault codes present but as its on SORN now I haven't taken it for a good drive to ensure everything is 100%.
This means there are very few things to go wrong - valve, electrical supply or pump. Unfortunately the pump is not as accessible as it looks on the 986, being tucked away under the right hand intake manifold. This is made more tricky because I found working in this area quite awkward for long periods of time due to poor access. Removing the intake manifold is a matter of removing bolts and jubilee clips and being careful not to drop them into the exposed intake valves but I spent a while working out where each bolt was as its quite busy in this area.
Once the manifold is out, the SAI pump and bracket can be removed. I dont have a picture of this, but here is the engine at this stage.
I bench tested the pump via a 12v battery and it worked ok. Damn. I kept trying the pump and found something interesting. The pump would work about 9/10 times, but would sometimes fail to start. Very interesting and would make sense given the intermittent nature of the fault.
Now the pump disassembles ok to a point, but the motor is sealed up. I took the brushes out and they looked worn but ok. Icould see the commutator looked worn so tried to clean it by spraying IPA through the available holes. This didn't help and it was clear it would need replacing. To check this was the issue I broke open the motor to have a good look. Here is what I found;
Definately found the issue. This seemed to be a fairly uncommon failure on 997 and 987 cars, and a new part was >£1000 so I thought it worthwhile to try a second hand unit. Many sellers wanted a lot of money for these, but I found one from a 997 in Germany for ~£55 including shipping. The part number (99760510400) appears to be superceeded by 99760510402. I couldnt find out why this was done (possibly reliability), but the replacement part was the same as the original part number.
I bench tested the new unit and it checked out every time. I also disassembled it slightly to check its air filter condition (air from the engine bay is used for SAI operation, so a small foam filter is used under the pump case to prevent debris being sucked up). The filter looked fine. I also cleaned inside the valve with a little intake manifold cleaner spray.
The SAI pump assembly went back in ok. I put new seals between the engine and SAI pump bracket and torqued everything to spec.
I noticed some oil pooling and general grottyness under the pipe below
I realised the retaining clip wasn't in place properly so installed it correctly but then realised something else was up. Those hose clamps are not supposed to be there! Someone had damaged the tube and tried to fix it with tubing and hose clamps. This was quite an ugly fix and possibly a vacuum leak. This tube carries oil from the boot (where the filler is) to the engine and I had been noticing a slight 'hot engine oil' smell after extended runs. Hopefully this is why
New pipe ordered for £30. There are different ones on different years so I was careful to cross-reference it against how the pipe looked
Removal of the old pipe was honestly one of the most difficult jobs ive done on a car. I bought the remote clamp pliars like these;
Even with them the cable had to take a convoluted route and the whole job was done completely blind and by feel. Because of the routing of the wire even once on I had to pull the pliars to the point I thought they were going to break. I even tried to get access by loosening the expansion tank from the boot, but that didnt help at all. There are a lot of other pipes and cables exactly where your hands want to be to do this job. Removing this one tube took around 2 hours. I am pretty sure I could do it quicker the second time around but I am hopeful not to have to mess with that area of the engine bay again.
The new hose went on easier as I could lubricate the connection and get the tool on the clip and compressed really well before introducing it into the engine bay but was still very blind. I bought a cheap endoscope to check I had it on correctly and actually had to re-do the job a bit to get it fully seated. Overall I am not surprised (albeit a bit disappointed) if a shop chose to bodge it together - that was a nasty job.
Next up I cleaned up the oil that had leaked from the original pipe and remembered that the starter motor very occasionally squealed a little after startup. Having seen a youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ9qnnf2kWU) where someone had the same issue and fixed it by disassembling and cleaning the unit, I thought now was a good time to do this.
This process was straightforward when following the video. I did have to replace the bolts that he did as they were siezed. The starter was sticky but after cleaning and regreasing moved freely. Time will tell if thats a real fix.
Next up I was cleaning up the intake tubes and decided to check the secondary throttle butterfly thing.
This unit is vaccum actuated so can be tested by twisting the valve fully against the spring and blocking off the vacuum port. The vacuum should stop the valve returning but on this one it returned easily. An easy fix - new one from ebay for ~£25 which tested fine and was fitted.
Then it was just a case of putting the intake manifold back on with new seals and torquing everying to spec.
I started the car and let it get up to temperature, no squeals and no fault codes present but as its on SORN now I haven't taken it for a good drive to ensure everything is 100%.
Edited by iangex on Monday 15th January 14:22
RS Grant said:
After looking at 987 3.2S sale adverts on and off for many years, I'm hoping that this thread will either vindicate or blow my reticence out of the water. If it turns out to be the latter, then I may end up finally taking the plunge.
So congratulations, you are very much my 'canary down the mine' now. Bookmarked.
Likewise, this is very timely. With a company car incoming, I am currently weighing up chopping in my mildly modded Focus ST daily for a 987 or going full track build on th ST So congratulations, you are very much my 'canary down the mine' now. Bookmarked.
Edited by MarkoFoST on Monday 15th January 18:57
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