Far M

Thank you sir. I unfortunately do not have a manometer, so I may just have to take it to a shop. Sigh…

Hi all, Late last week the Check Engine light & message lit up on the dashboard of my 2007 Boxster (base 2.7, 5-speed manual, 99k miles). This was a surprise, as I hadn't perceived any issues at all with how the car was running. I read and cleared the codes in Durametric to see if they'd come back: P2189 (x2) and P2187 (x2). Sure enough, after some spirited driving, the CEL came back. This time, I noticed that my engine seemed a little rougher at idle, and that when I went to neutral and rolled to a stop, my RPMs tended to "surge" into 1k+ territory for a bit. Checked again, and the same codes are present in Durametric. I saved the freeze frame data, which is attached. I am a little puzzled because the fuel trims look fine(?), but I suspect I'm misreading somewhere and/or the freeze frames don't tell the full story. The car does smoke a little on startup, but I understand that to be typical for these cars, especially at this age and mileage. For background, I did do a lot of work on the car (clutch, flywheel, transmission fluid, AOS) less than 1k miles ago. Everything I've read is suggesting some sort of vacuum leak somewhere -- i.e., engine taking in more air than it's supposed to be. I did check my oil cap, which seemed fine. When I tried to remove the cap with the engine running, I got only a bit of resistance and the engine ran rougher, so I don't believe I have a ton of negative crankcase pressure or anything like that (I do have a new AOS after all, although I suppose another possibility is that I installed it incorrectly, leading to an air leak). Is there anything left to do here before having to take it to a shop and get the intake smoke tested? Thanks. freeze frames.pdf

So, just following up on this in case it helps anyone else, because it was very frustrating and I got answers all over the map from various sources. I'm usually not at all a stickler for using genuine Porsche parts but this is an area where I chose to be conservative and wanted to refill the transaxle with exactly what it would've received at the factory, following JFP's advice. I also live in a cold climate and had read some suggestion that aftermarket fluids might be less than ideal. Ultimately, I have no idea what the differences are, or who makes the transaxle fluids for Porsche, which I understand in the past used to be specialized to Porsche specs. Hell, one local dealer told me they used Mobil 1 across the board. Anyways, if I'm reading the official parts catalogs downloaded from the Porsche website for both 987.1 and 987.2 correctly, they both spec part no. 000-043-304-71: (This is from the 987.1 catalog; my understanding from this is that the -204-71 part no (which incidentally also appears in the latest, 2017 revision of the 986 catalog) has been superseded by the -304-71 part no.) Two problems: 000-043-304-71 corresponds to a 20 ltr container 000-043-304-71 shows as discontinued everywhere I looked When I called Sunset, I got a voicemail back with part no. 000-043-305-00. Notably, this shows on their website as having replaced the -204-71 part no. Also, there were a few websites suggesting that -305-00 superseded -304-71. E.g., this from Porsche Atlanta Perimeter's parts search: So, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty confident the correct OE part no. is 000-043-305-00. Problem is, you have to find someone willing to sell it by the liter because it's also a 20 liter container. I know Sunset does this, though, under part no 000-043-305-00sp. (As for part no. 000-043-305-49 that my dealer gave me, I believe that's the part no. for the differential "side" of the automatic transaxle, since it's my understanding that the transmission and diff don't share the same fluid in that instance. To be clear, I believe it's also a 75W90 gear oil. It might work for our manual transaxles, but I wasn't willing to take that chance given that I could source what I'm more confident is the correct fluid.)

Thank you both. I guess I’m just reluctant to mess with the RMS since it’s apparently fine after 100k miles, and a little risk averse about removing the IMS flange/don’t have the tools at the moment for either. Hopefully will figure it out and resist the temptation to just clean it up and move on.

That’s why I’m inclined to leave it alone — never changed a RMS before and don’t want to fix something if it isn’t broken/possibly make matters worse. I don’t have the tool and would probably have to use the “PVC method”.

Hi all, What do you think about this leak? It looks to me like it’s probably just the IMS Seal but this is my first time seeing one of these engines and I could use some opinions. I’d rather not mess with the crank seal if I don’t have to. (‘07 2.7l, 100k miles)

No worries, thanks! From what I can tell, it works fine on one side, and only sort of works on the other side (fan spins sluggishly on only one setting). I do have a fault code in Durametric, 8106 "left radiator fan motor." I'm wondering if there's just a bunch of dirt and debris in the fan assembly that's obstructing/overloading the motor, and that's why it's not operating correctly. Unfortunately, I don't think I have a choice but to remove it and see what I find, because it seems to me like it's more likely the fan than the control unit given what I'm seeing.

Wait, I thought there was no such independent relays on the 997/987? I'm thoroughly confused now. I managed to apply 12v power from the battery to the fan. It moves, but sluggishly in comparison to the fan on the other side. When I try to activate the fans in durametric I get a similar result -- the "working" fan seems to respond more readily than the "trouble" fan (although on the higher speed activations it doesn't seem to move at all). Any ideas? I tried to spin the fan blades manually but that only seemed to help so much.

I've got a durametric code for the left radiator fan in my 987, and when I try to actuate the radiator fans in durametric only the right one powers on. On physical inspection they both look fine but the left one, while not stuck, does seem a little more difficult to rotate. I don't have a 12v battery handy to apply power directly to the fan connector, but I do have a multimeter... But it sounds like that won't help me?

Will do, thank you sir!

Cool, thanks. Sunset actually has a pretty good price on p/n 000-043-305-49 (the parts counter at my local dealership gave me this one) at $30/liter, but what's puzzling me is that the parts catalog seems to supply the same part nos for "transmission fluid HYPOID" for the base 5-speed and 6-speed/S models. Is it possible the factory fill for these cars was the same for the 987.1?

Thanks JFP. What's confusing me is that even when I'm searching for genuine Porsche fluid the sites aren't differentiating between 5-speed and 6-speed cars, which is making me wonder which part no the correct fluid is. And unless I'm misreading, even the official parts catalog has the same part nos for both? Do you happen to know what the correct genuine Porsche fill (part no) is for a 2007 with a 5-speed manual transaxle?

Hi all -- going to be dropping my transaxle for a clutch swap and will also be changing the gear oil as I'm close to 100k presumably on the original fluid. I'm having trouble figuring out what the correct part no is for the gear oil. Is it the same as the 6-speed cars? Is there an aftermarket equivalent, or is this one of those areas where it's best to stick with the genuine Porsche stuff? Car is a 2007 Boxster 2.7 5MT.

Got it, thanks. So, as far as I can tell, everything looks normal. I wasn't able to get inside the portion of the evap canister pointed at in red, but it seems to me that part is not meant for disassembly: What should I expect to see on the filter housed in part [8] if everything is functioning correctly? Because mine is just a little dusty but otherwise looks clean, no smell of fuel. *** I want to document a few things in case it's helpful for others, because I had a tough time wrapping my head around the system's routing without taking everything apart (it's not obvious from the parts catalogue to a dumbo like me) and there's very little information out there about the 987[/997?] in this regard. There are of course two tubes that connect to the canister at its bottom side. The tube designated [2] in the above schematic runs from the bottom of the canister (the driver side connection) to the top of the gas tank -- right underneath the battery. We'll call this "Tank Tube" for this post. If I'm not mistaken, the other (smaller) hose connected to the bottom of the canister (and specifically the connection on the passenger side) is the super long part [4] in the picture that follows: If i'm not mistaken, that particular long tube [4] runs all the way to the purge valve in the intake. We'll call it "Purge Tube" here. To remove the canister, I disconnected the Purge Tube first. It's not easy, as it has two tabs -- one hidden and obstructed, facing ~2 o'clock and the other visible at ~8 o'clock (if the rear of the car is at 12:00). I don't think there's enough room for fuel line pliers. I figured out a way to get it off by carefully levering a right angle pick against the thicker Tank Tube into the tab facing 2:00. The Tank Tube by contrast has a large tab encompassing roughly 8:00 to 2:00 that requires some contortion if you have big hands but is relatively easy to get off once the Purge Tube is disconnected. My Tank Tube (again referring to [2] in the first schematic) is clear with no obstructions, and I smelled gas when I disconnected it from the tank, so it doesn't appear there's any obstruction inside the tank or fuel pump assembly itself. By process of elimination, here are what I perceive to be the potential remaining culprits: --something clogging the inside the sealed part of the evap canister (red arrow above), for example from someone topping off the tank previously --something inside the fuel filler neck (going to try to put a siphon in it and see if I run into any obstruction on the way down) --Purge Tube [4] or the purge valve is obstructed/malfunctioning (but I believe I'd be getting a code if that was the case? In any case I'm going to get into the manifold and make sure there isn't any obstruction in the tube) --(other possibilities?) --nothing's wrong, my car is just picky, and I need to fill it up slower???

Your memory is exactly right -- it's easy to get to but hard to get the connections off. Anything in particular I should be looking for in this area? Ive read about others having issues with the purge solenoid in/near the intake but I don't have any codes, so I wonder if my problem is upstream...

Thank you sir. I joined in part to seek your sage advice. 😄 As you say, things look a little different in the filler neck on my car -- to put it another way, I believe there really isn't much there(?): I don't really see anything obviously amiss in the wheel area. Any suggestions about what I might be dealing with/looking for? I'm guessing I'll be looking in the frunk as I can't see anything of interest under the car either. Many thanks.

I'm having a lot of trouble filling up my 07 boxster base. Basically, I can't get the pump to go more than a few seconds at a time before I hear what sound like fuel backing up the filler neck and the pump cuts off. My durametric isn't showing any codes. Do you have any tips or advice for what to look at first? I've taken off the wheel liner and nothing looks wrong, so I'm going to dig into the funk next. The car is new to me and there's evidence of a mouse infestation in the frunk in its past.