On my car, I've ...

Do you think it's "normal" to have to replace the water pump at 65k miles and AOS at 68k miles? I didn't think I would have to deal with these expensive repairs until after 100k miles.

On a Boxster, these two repairs are relatively commonplace around 60K miles, although some have gotten more than 100k miles before replacement.

On a DIY basis, these two repairs are relatively easy, inexpensive and straightforward, except that with the water pump you also have to bleed the system of air bubbles. If you don't have a vacuum tool, such as the UView Airlift, bleeding the air out manually is time consuming and can be tricky.

Regards, Maurice.

My water pump died at 59k miles, and Maurice graciously helped me change my AOS as a precautionary measure at 62k miles, so yeah...for me, it's normal.

Less than ideal perhaps, but not uncommon.

Fwiw, my 2003 Boxster, water pump replaced at approx 85,000 miles and AOS replaced at approx 89,000 miles.

First one failed around 70K...6 years
The second one failed 3 years later at around 100K...also had to replace the coolant tank.
The tank was leaking slowly after the first replacement, but could never really isolate the leak.
The leak was slow enough that we just kept topping it off when low....which was every few months.

It was after the second failure that we had the shop really dig into it.
Now that the tank has been replaced...no more disappearing coolant.

Also had to replace various sensors over the years (O2, etc...)

Mine went at around 90,000 miles. As for the AOS - what are your symptoms? Cracked oil filler tube can also produce engine smoke.

1998 986 Turbo-Look Cab
172,000 Miles
Dilithium Crystal Supercharger

Car is 10 years old with 68k miles. Symptom was humongous plumes of white/grey smoke from the rear of the car. Scared the hell out of me. I thought my car was going to catch on fire.

1998 986 Turbo-Look Cab
172,000 Miles
Dilithium Crystal Supercharger

... never had a water pump or reservoir failure.
I just replaced the engine (at 196,000 miles) and the "new" engine came with it's water pump.
The reservoir now at 13 years and 203,000 miles is still going strong.

Nevertheless, in the last 2 events I've had cooling issues.

On 1/15, on my way to the Key Largo Brunch I started seeing a weird exhaust from my car (against the sun).
A few minutes later I understood what it was as the temp started creeping higher.
Had to pull to the side of the road to call the tow truck.
Turned out to be a pinhole on one of the 3rd radiator's hoses.
My front left had been rubbing against the hose and wore through it.
Flatbedded it back and fixed in 10 minutes, but missed the event

Last Sunday at the 1st AX of the season I set a very good first lap.
Little did I know it would be my only lap. Still good enough to win the class anyway
Through the middle of lap 2 I heard a "whoosh" and saw vapor coming from under the car.
This time it was towed it back with a friend's Boxster. The AX venue is about 6 miles from my house.

[i83.photobucket.com]

Again on the lift and when the underpanel was removed it was immediately apparent what happened.
One of the hoses that connects to the thermostat just pulled right off.
With the strong lateral forces from AX'ing, I'm sure the engine moved a bit and the hose which had probably not been completely tightened when the engine was replaced just pulled right off.
No harm done, but I missed the other 8 laps of AX-ing

Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

I have never heard of a water pump or reservoir on one of these cars making it that long. However, I have never heard of a water cooled car with a water pump making it past 100K, hence Prof. Dr. Porsche's preference for air cooling.

However, you mention cooling issues and I will share a few interesting observations:

1) Airflow - in normal driving we don't realize how important airflow is, but under heavy load it becomes very apparent - if I get caught in a train on the track for more than 1 lap, the temp starts to creep up due to restricted airflow coming into the front of the car - surprising when it first happened but not really when you think about it. I leave a couple of car lengths of space and the temp drops right back down.

2) Radiator temp sensors - I was having an intermittent cooling problem over the summer that was very frustrating to diagnose. The car would overheat in traffic or slow local driving (sometimes but not always), but wouldn't overheat in heavy driving. I also figured out that the car was running fine with the A/C on but overheating with the A/C off - ??? - well, turns out the temp resistors were bad, so the fans weren't turning on. Not a problem at speed, and the A/C turns he fans on manually. Pretty straightforward repair job - took about 3 hours.

1998 986 Turbo-Look Cab
172,000 Miles
Dilithium Crystal Supercharger

Fuel pump a bit longer yet.

Just had my local Porsche dealer service department replace the passenger side VarioCam solenoid and actuator. Miles? Over 238K.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

My last Porsche had over 175k on it's original pump.
This one went 106k before I replaced the engine (for fun - no problem with the old one) including the water pump.

The second replacement was shortly after the first and was blamed on a bad replacement part.

My water pump went at 68000 miles, and the AOS at 68500. From what I read in the past on the board, they both seemed pretty much "on schedule", and I was not concerned that they had happened.

For me, it was AOS at 75k, reservoir tank at 85k and waterpump at 90k.