assembly. Early on they could replace just the electrical portion but there were too many bring backs and Porsche stopped supporting replacing just the electrical portion.
Somewhere I have the old switch out of my Boxster but I can't put my hands on it. My memory of when I looked this old switch over -- right after it was replaced -- is there is a lot of hardware between the key and the electrical blob on the back end that could account for the difficulty in turning the key.
For my 996 the switch developed a problem removing the key. The way this was progressing I was afraid at some point I'd not be able to remove the key and thus be unable to lock the car and with the key still in the ignition this could cause the battery to get run down.
I know I'm in the minority but if I felt the switch was acting up I'd replace the entire assembly, electrical as well as electro-mechanical. That's a lot of work to have to do twice in case the electrical portion doesn't fully address the symptoms. Besides there is alot of aging electrical wiriing/connectors that get messed with. The less handling these receive the better. There is an antenna around the ignition switch that is part of the car's security system. If one is not careful this gets damaged and the car's security system may not be able to energize the key's RFID pill and then receive the pill's RF broadcast and the engine won't start.