Re: Boxster received a clean bill of health...

Had the 996 in for an oil/filter service. I have been busy. How busy have I been? Well, I found out to day the 996 has not been in for an oil change since back in July and at 90.2K miles. The odo reads 100.9K miles. I put over 10K miles on the car between oil changes. OMG.

Anyhow, while the 996 was I had the Boxtser in to get a new head light bulb. When both cars ready a tech drove my 996 and followed my Boxster home then I let him drive my Boxster back to the shop. While he noted the clutch return was a little slow the clutch didn't need replacing yet. No slippage. No grabbiness. Nice take up. Clutch pedal effort up and but not as bad as some he's experienced.

Tech reported steering/suspension feel ok nothing scary or even half scary. He said really the worst cars are those with real low miles and the more years they have the worst they are. 261K plus miles.

Oh, the tech said the worst he came across was a early Boxster Tip with very low mles. The owner just never drove it. He brought the car in for an oil/filter service and this tech of course inspected the car and found oil leaks. The tech pointed them out to the owner who elected to let them go. The tech afterwards took the car out on the customary test drive and when he brought it back and parked it he looked back the thing was smoking from all the oil leaking on the exhaust. He was afraid it was going to catch fire.

Oh, almost forgot. The Boxster received an almost clean bill of health. The problem? The rear trunk lid struts are shot. When I raise the lid now I have to hold it up or it will fall right down. Next time I have the car in I'll have these replaced.

If not, how many clutches have you had to get to 261K?

oil spots on the ground and the tech said the leak wasn't bad and we could play the wait and see game. Wait and cry is more like it...

Oh, well. It ain't a Porsche if it doesn't have at least one RMS leak. Just wished it could have happened under warranty like the Boxster's RMS.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2012 11:58PM by MarcW. (view changes)

Mark I replaced those struts last year and took all of 5 minutes if that long.

for its next service I'll have the new struts in the rear trunk and the tech will swap them for me (at no additional charge) as he changes the oil.

Mark,
It has been a while since I have been on the board. The last time I read the board, you had a 996TT as well as your Boxster. Do you still have the TT? I ask because, if you do, I'm surprised at your comment about a possible RMS leak. I was under the impression that the GT1 block was not susceptible to RMS leaks or IMS issues. The TT's robustness is one of the reasons that I sold my '01S in 2010 and bought a 997TT cab.
Alex

Quote
Alberta Alex
Mark,
It has been a while since I have been on the board. The last time I read the board, you had a 996TT as well as your Boxster. Do you still have the TT? I ask because, if you do, I'm surprised at your comment about a possible RMS leak. I was under the impression that the GT1 block was not susceptible to RMS leaks or IMS issues. The TT's robustness is one of the reasons that I sold my '01S in 2010 and bought a 997TT cab.
Alex

pressure to do anything about it -- the tech said it was not very bad at all and based on my inspection I agreed with his assessment -- and since no oil was hitting the ground or even making a mess under the car -- with no pressure to address it I did not explore other possible explanations. The tech made an off hand comment there are several seals at the back of the engine that can leak, with me taking this as some indication the leak may not be a true RMS leak but just a leak from one of the seals at the rear of the engine.

BTW, IIRC, I've never seen the engine's rear exposed -- I'll look through my pics later today for I might have a pic of this but just don't recall it -- so I do not know.

The Turbo (Mezger) engine is based on the GT1 block and is a very robust platform with some of the weaknesses the Boxster and NA 911 engines have for instance the infamous IMS and its bearing, but this Turbo engine is not bullet proof. And any seal can leak.

I note I ran the oil (Mobil 1 5w-50 (not a typo for 15w-50) for 10K miles, 5K miles more than usual. I have to wonder if the oil got a bit too thin and this contributed to the leak?

Oil pressure hot didn't seem to show any noticable drop so maybe I'm just grasping at straws.

Anyhow, the car goes in for new front tires soon -- maybe this week if they come in -- and while in the air I'll take pics and talk with the tech some more about the leak. I will look to see if the leak has had a change for the better with fresh Mobil 1 0w-40 oil in the engine.

I can understand your concern but I think it is really not warranted. Relax is my advice. Your car's engine will be fine. About all I would take away from this is avoid going 10K miles between oil changes. Even if this extended oil service interval played no role regarding the oil leak I believe it a good rule to follow and will resume following it I can assure you.

The Mezger engine doesn't have an IMS or IMSB and is dry sumped and lacks the crank cradle and so on. Its camshafts are driven by a layshaft -- which runs in plain bearings like the crankshaft -- which in turn is driven by a gear from the crank. This is a bit noisy but in a good way. There have been a few reports of the gear on the layshaft working loose the bolts loosening up. This has to be a assembly defect. The gear has a key drive and this key can become loose which is also I believe an assembly or manufacturing defect but doesn't appear to be that common. 'course mountains are made out of less....

Oh, the coolant hoses are connected to tube fittings in the engine block and these fittings are epoxied in place. Some owners have reported these coming loose with sudden loss of coolant. The majority of these failures are cars that are tracked.

Anyhow, I expect the Turbo engine will prove to be as good as the Boxster engine maybe even better. One owner reports 360K+ miles on his Turbo S engine with no internal engine problems and darn few problems anywhere.