masterbm

Got it. Will tow. I'll keep everyone updated. . . B

Yeah, I forgot to say that I got rid of the old coolant reservoir several years ago, after I had the standard "coolant leaks into my trunk" issue. No coolant in the trunk this time. B

Uh oh. '99 Boxster with 160K was leaking a bit of coolant for a bit, then after a trip to the grocery store, steam started shooting out from coolant reservoir in trunk, and coolant starting pouring out of underside, by passenger side R wheel. It was like a teapot. . . . . .but that's not tea. I'm going to guess this is not a fix I can do myself. Anybody want to guess what it is, so I can tell the guys at the shop? What should I expect to pay? Shop is 20 mins from here, with significant highway driving. Can I dump distilled H2O to limp my car down there, or do I need a tow? Thanks as always, friends. B

Thanks again to kbrandsma and por986 for their help. A donation has been made to this board in their name as well! Thanks for being good citizens! B

All, DONE! FINALLY, got everything back in working order, clutch feels like a dream. Nice and soft but appropriately "sticky" as it engages early on. I love it. This project is do-able, but if you don't have a nice set of automotive tools, be prepared to go the local auto parts store quite a bit. Make sure you have plenty of metric wrenches, an appropriate triple square (aka "internal wrench," aka "double hex wrench," aka "bi hex wrench," aka "xzn wrench"), PB blaster penetrating oil, torque wrench, the special tool for replacing the seal if you can get it, maybe an extra RMS if you mess one up. You'll especially need 15mm, 16mm, 8mm, 10mm sockets, a breaker bar, a small drift to punch out the pegs on the spoiler, T55 hex wrench (if I remember right). You'll probably want both deep and short sockets for 15 and 16 mm. Get an appropriate tool (I used a reciprocating saw) to cut bolts with if your exhaust system isn't in great shape and the bolts appear rusty. Getting the exhaust system out was the hardest part for me because we had to cut the bolts out of the triangular flange where the rest of the exhaust system connects with the header. After cutting the heads of the bolts off we still had the problem of having the shafts of the bolts stuck in the flange. We used a blowtorch to heat the flange around the bolts to make the hole expand, and then pounded them out with a hammer. Obviously, if you can get the muffler out at its connections immediately to the rest of exhaust system on its left and right, where those c-clamps are, you're good too, but my muffler was so rusted to the rest of the system, we thought we'd hurt it more by trying it this way, hence taking it off further upstream where it connects to the exhaust manifold. A "transmission attachment" would have been nice to put on my floor jack to help get the transaxle in and out, but it's not strictly necessary. It would have been nice to replace the ratty looking attachments which hold the bumper and the wheel well shielding on, but we were able to use the old ones anyway. THANKS VERY MUCH TO: 1. kbrandsma who lent me his triple square and RMS tool. 2. Wayne Dempsey who published the info on Pelican Parts' site, and who offered his advice and encouragement 3. This board and everyone else who commented/helped. I'm pleased to donate again to this board, a small sliver of the money I saved doing this project. B

Great albatross, Dr. SP! OK, RMS is on, looked good. New clutch and plate are on, no trouble. Tranny is tough to get back on, though. . .we've got 2 bolts threaded loosely, but can't seem to get the tranny any closer to the engine, despite lots of tugging and wrestling. Probably still 3/4 inch of a gap, and it just won't go on easy. Is this normal? It came off pretty easy. Shouldn't it go on easy if I've got it lined up right? Maybe I should take it out and re-approximate it. . . Any tips? B

Update on what has become an albatross of a project: Be careful installing your new RMS: as we pushed it it, resistance around the flange caused the thin plastic to curl up and fold in on itself. Not good. Thank God my dad saw it, because we'd have been back under there in a few days wondering why my oil leak was much, much worse. Unfortunately, we had to put a hole in the new seal in order to get it out, and there was just no way to satisfactorily fix the fold in the seal without taking it out. #$@#!@!#@#!!!! The good news is that the fine people at Pelican Parts have probably got plenty of rear main seals to sell me. I'm seriously considering getting 2, in case we screw up again. The saga continues. . . B

SUCCESS!!! Autozone gave me a new bit, seemed of better quality. Flywheel is off, RMS in full view! Will try to tackle that this weekend. Then, reassembly and I'm off!!! Good because wife's getting tired of driving my a$$ around. B

All, SUCCESS!!! The trick was the final, hidden, forward facing bolt at the very bottom of the transaxle. I just wasn't looking right. Came off like a champ, tranny came out like a champ, pressure plate and clutch came right off. I rounded out my T50 torx trying to get the flywheel bolts off. Guess it's back to the store to get another bit. If that doesn't work, anybody got any tips for getting the 8 torx bolts off? B

All, Thanks to kbrandsma who was gracious enough to send me his triple square (and RMS tool), I got off what I think are all the bolts connecting the transaxle to the engine. In doing this project, I've found a number of surprises: 1. somebody had used a plastic tie to keep one of the shifter cables in place. Interesting. . . 2. I'M MISSING SOME BOLTS THAT FASTEN THE TRANSAXLE TO THE ENGINE. Holy God. . .Specifically, there seem to be no passenger side M10 nut (the one on the bottom, corresponding to letter H on Pelican's article: http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/37-TRANS-Drop/37-TRANS-Drop.htm) and no passenger side M12 nut (the next one up from the missing M10, corresponding to letter G). Scary. Unfortunately, work has stopped at this point because I can't seem to disengage the transaxle from the engine. Is it possible that I'm missing something, like another bolt in this '99 boxster? I've got the engine supported by a jackstand, the tranny supported by a floor jack, and I've yanked and wiggled as much as I dare, and pretty much all I'm doing is wiggling the engine along with. Any tips? masterbm

Friends, So far so good. . .cut bolts off the flanges connecting the exhaust system to the header, rest of everything came right out. Next stop: removing bolts connecting transmission to engine. I've got a piece of cardboard diagrammed to make sure I get the right bolts in the right place. . .gotta go get a 10 mm triple square head. As is the curse of the budding mechanic, I spend more time driving to the hardware store than fixing my car! Also, I've seen various solutions for rear main seal replacement "special tools." Anybody got ideas that are easier than constructing the "Lowe's conduit pipe" version, (which is a great idea, but I don't have a router or the other woodworking tools to do it)? masterbm

You can drop the assembly from the headers back Then you can decide whether you want to split the exhaust Otherwise you can drill out the bolts, which is made easier with the whole assembly out. If u r in there strongly consider one of the IMS upgrades Mike Yeah, so any problem if I just pull out the whole system from basically where it looks like the manifold connects with the 3 bolts through that triangle-shaped part that leads to the cats? Can I just leave all 4 O2 sensors connected to the pipes, unplugging them from the electrical connection? Will that screw up emissions setting in my computer and trigger a non-functioning engine or a bunch of CEL's? Anything else super scary about this idea? Those 3 bolts are just in much, much better shape than any of the clamps or the bolts on the clamps, and I'd have the added advantage of getting the exhaust system out of the way for when I drop the tranny. B

All, Thanks for the help. Sounds like the thing to do is just cut those things right out. Will do. masterbm

Friends, Well, the time has come. Given how I got ewedscre by the local echanicsme recently, dad and I started our own clutch replacement project today. Thanks to Wayne Dempsy, Pelican Parts, and the manual, things were cooking along pretty good. . . . . .until. . . Removing the muffler has us at a stopping point. The clamps closest to the muffler have, no surprise I guess, rusted pretty tight to the bolts. Actually, it's the nuts rusted to the bolts, but whatever. Anybody got some good tips on how to get those bolts and clamps off? Should I just buy a Dremmel or other cutting device, cut and replace? Is there another way? I'll take whatever help I can get. Thanks as always! At least it's fun working on cars with my dad! masterbm

Well, it was a bittersweet ending to the great case of the cranking-but-not-starting engine. Turns out gssereik on 986forum.com was correct: It was the crankshaft position sensor. Here's his post: >> Frankly it was a bit of a leap of faith... I described the symptoms in detail to a couple of local German car mechanics. Both of them indicated that it could be a sensor issue. Because the car ran perfectly once it did start. There were no drivability problems whatsoever. But the Crankshaft sensor in particular needs to get a reading on the position of the crankshaft or else the computer that control things will not know what position the engine is in and so it cannot make a judment as to when to produce a spark and/or fuel or what have you. But once the engine starts, it relies on other readings perhaps? I don't know... Looking at the old crankshaft sensor, there were no visual clues indicating that it was worn out or damaged. Just a bit of black soot on it. But not much really... I also posted the question online in many different Porsche and Boxster forums and there were some posts from people indicating that the Crankshaft sensor might be at fault. There are also two camshaft sensors but a mechanic mentioned that they were a less likely culpret. And there were two of them, so more expensive! ultimately when i found the $70 price at Advance Auto parts I decided that was a price i was willing to take a gamble on. I did not have a check engine light. And none of my OBD scanners found any codes. And i was not going to invest in the right scanner that finds all of the available codes for a boxster. I almost was going to bring it to the dealer or to a good mechanic and pay whatever fee to get it plugged in and tested. But for $70 and my gut feeling that the crankshaft sensor was a likely culpret, I went ahead and bought it. And it worked! More often when i have taken such a gamble I end up being wrong and just wast money. But the Porsche God's shone upon me this time! thank<< Unfortunately, the bad news is that the shop I took it to here in Cincy (Sports Car Store in Florence, KY for anyone who is local) did me wrong. They held on to the car for a few days and couldn't figure out why it was doing what it was doing. They told me they thought it needed a new ignition switch which took 4 hours to put in. Then they tried it, and the same "cranks fine but engine won't ignite" issue happened again. This is, by the way, AFTER I'd told them I thought it was the crank sensor. They said they didn't think that was it because the error sensor would have picked it up. So they put the ignition switch in (which the guy later said was "shooting in the dark,") and when I called back they said, "well we thought we knew what it was, but it wasn't that." So I told them to just go ahead and try the crank position sensor, figuring it sounded SO MUCH like gssereik's problem there was a reasonable chance that was it, and I'd take the chance on putting in more unnecessary parts and labor (keep in mind this is days later, and I'm really needing my car.) They put it in and now the car's running great. $150 part, an hour's work. All in all I paid $550 for something I could have done for $150 (and had fun doing it), thanks to paying for unnecessary parts and labor. When I complained they said they had to charge me for the hours they put in, and that I couldn't prove that it wasn't the COMBINATION of the ignition switch and crank position sensor that did the job. Actually, I resolved not to go there again in '05 when they "mis-fixed" a CEL that turned out to be a fuel pump issue. That was $400 for nothing too. Now I'm REALLY never going there again. Next project: change rear main oil seal, replace clutch. Anybody know of a good step-by-step article on this? B

Saga continues: Fuel pump relay wan't the issue: started fine twice, then same symptom: key turns, engine cranks just fine but won't ignite. I fold. Took it to the shop. When the guy heard my story he said he thought maybe the starter. If it was the starter, though, isn't it true that the engine wouldn't crank? I like the flywheel idea. . .I'll mention that to him. Found this on 986 forum.com: >>My 1999 Boxster recently began having a problem... The car starts fine when cold. But once the engine warms up and then is turned off, it will not re-start. When trying to re-start, the lights all come on and the starter turns the engine over briskly. But it will not start. Like it is not getting a spark or is not getting fuel. But then if you let it sit for a couple of hours or more it will start right up. And it will always start the next day! It just recently began doing this. The first time I got a tow home. The second time, I drove it around to warm up and it ran just fine but then when i pulled into driveway and shut it down, it would not re-start. Lately I don't drive the Boxter very much. I do drive it at least once per week but usually only drive it around for 10-15 miles max. The Check Engine Light has not turned on. I have an OBD-II code reader that works on my other (non-porsche) cars but I don't know if it captures Porsche codes. At any rate, i did run the code search procedure but no codes were found. Not sure that I trust it though... Is it possible for a code to exist in the Boxsters computer but no Check Engine Light?<< This sounds like a good lead. . .any thoughts from anyone? B

Just based on some of the ideas of others with the same issue, I went ahead and shelled out the $25 for a new Fuel Pump Relay. Old one didn't look bad, no obvious corrosion or damage. . .but hey, it solved one person's issue and if nothing else it gave me an excuse to learn about where relays are and how to change them. And if it works I probably saved myself $100. Car started right up, but it had been starting right up anyway today. . .who knows? B

Here we go again. . . Man, seems like of I've had one of every problem noted on this board. . . '99 986 with 140K is having the "classic" problem of turning over beautifully when I turn the key, but the engine won't fire up. A search of this board revealed a surprising number of people with the same issue, but no clear consensus (unlike the cracked coolant reservoir or AOS issues) of what is usually the problem. Some folks seem to have issues with fuel filter/pump, some with clutch sensor, some aren't sure but they check a bunch of stuff and it just kinda goes away. . .Here's the story: Had car in shop about 3 weeks ago for routine maintenance, et al. Still have an oil leak via main seal, but that's hopefully a different issue. Hopefully. Anyway, they changed out plugs, put in new fuel filter. Now car occasionally won't start, as above. I think battery is OK, all electric like radio, top, etc works fine. By necessity I've had to let the car sit overnight or for several hours, and when I come back it starts right up, no trouble. One person on this board just turned his key and let the car just turn over for a minute, and the issue fixed itself. I tried for about 20 secs, but didn't have the guts to just let it spin for a minute. Also tried pumping the throttle several times, then trying to turn it on like another person did. No dice. I was able to start the car the ol' fashioned way: get a buddy to push me started, pop the clutch, and voila, started right up. While I was fiddling around trying this and that I opened the engine compartment: no gas smell. No power trouble, once I get started all cylinders seem to be firing nicely. No CEL. I haven't plugged my OBD decoder in yet, but will tomorrow. Whattaya think? B

WD, FANTASTIC! What fun! Thanks so much! Book looks great! I looked on the Pelican website to buy the book, but there was no link for it. How can I get one? B Music to my ears!!! Here's what you need - you *CAN* do it yourself. Jacking up your car: http://www.pelicanpa...-Jacking_Up.htm Removing the transmission: http://www.pelicanpa...-TRANS-Drop.htm Replacing the seal (see the clutch article): http://www.pelicanpa...RANS-Clutch.htm It's all very doable. Let me know if you have any questions! -Wayne

Friends, '99 Boxster with 160K miles has oil leak. Similar to others on this board, seems like it's right under the engine, maybe a tiny bit to the passenger side. Sent it in to shop, they "re-sealed" everything, plugs, blah blah blah. Thought it was fixed, took it out for a drive, and they discovered it was leaking again. They say it's the "main seal", and they have to take out the whole transmission to get at it. $1000 work to install a $12 part, ha ha. I did repair my AOS, what about a year ago? No engine code, no white smoke, so I assume it's not AOS associated like last time. When I get the car back, I'll try to take a look and see where it really is, put down some cardboard to map it, etc. Question is this: is there any kind of goo I can dump in there that will auto-seal itself but not hurt the engine? Any other suspicious places where leaks pop up on these cars that maybe the shop guys don't know? If I do gotta get to the tranny, anybody know of or wanna post a "how-to" on how to fix this seal? Anyway, I'll post again when I know more. . .just don't want to spend another 1-2K if I can avoid it. Might be a fun project to do with my dad, anyway. B

Friends, OK, tension spring replacement project went very well. I was able to complete the whole project in about an hour, using Isaacson's "door panel removal instructions at http://www.bombaydigital.com/boxster/projects/window/. Replacement part was like 5 bucks. I made a Word document with pics detailing every step for those who have the same issue who want to fix it themselves. If an administrator here approves, I'm happy to send/upload it. B

B: Do another search for the door removal DIY. The instructions have been moved and IIRC someone posted the new site here a couple of weeks ago. The part number for that little spring (Porsche calls it "tension spring") is 99952201500. Regards, Maurice. Thank you sir. Unfortunately, despite my re-search in DIY for "door panel removal," still not getting anything other than links to Jason's removed address. No worries, I've got the relevant pages from the service manual. . .part is on the way. If administration agrees, I'll post how I fix it. Unless I totally screw everything up, in which case I'll keep it to myself. B

Friends, Put some new headlight bulbs in my '99 986 with 140K, and as I was getting out after a test-fire, my driver side interior door handle went loose. A quick search of this board makes it sound like the "tensioner spring" may be bad: door opens and closes just fine, opener just wont return on its own accord to fully closed position. When I shut the door the force of the close flips the floppy interior handle out, and the window comes down a bit, since the car thinks I'm about to open the door. A bump on the highway does the same thing. Irritating, but probably not a big deal. Unfortunately, the commonly-referenced "how to remove the door panel" website at "http://www.ecoutez.net/boxster/door-panel-removal/" appears not to be in service at this time. . . I'm going to keep searching, and if I can, I'll post pics etc for this board. Quick question: is the tensioner spring something I can get in the community? Anybody got a part #? Any other hints for this project? B

Friends, Well, it happened again. . .Posted this in Jan: >>Left town for a couple weeks, '99 Boxster c 120K miles exposed to a cold Midwestern chill in my absence. When I came back, car started up immediately, ran fine for 5 mins. Then I lost a cylinder: clunky vibration when accelerating, lost some power, smelled gas, engine sound with a deep cough. Check engine light came on resulting in OBD code 0306 among others, though the codes seemed to fluctuate at times. 0306 came up the most consistently. Leaving the car alone for a few days resulted in a repeat of the phenomenon: normal engine function for a few minutes, followed by all symptoms of cylinder loss. . .<< Readers will remember that it was just a plug/coil issue. Cheap fix. Similar story today, though: went away for 5 days, came back and car sputtered and coughed. . .gave it a bit of gas, gradually got some power, but engine still with unhealthy growl, smell of gas: misfire. CEL on, varying between blink and steady. Same deal, different cylinders: OBD II codes were p0300, p0302, p0305. At least I knew not to freak. I appreciated this awesome bit of wisdom from Loren: >All cylinders misfiring has to come down to one of the following: wrong spark plugs bad gas, plugged fuel filter, or fuel pressure too low air intake leak< I'll try some new gas, check/replace the plugs and coils again, see what happens. My question is this: why is my Boxster so temperamental? Shouldn't I be able to leave this jealous ol' gal for a few days of vacation with my wife without having to deal with a Porsche-style tantrum? Just not driving the **** thing for a few days seems to always result in some kind of problem. But I can leave my emotionally secure Subaru in the rain, snow, sleet, and hail for weeks, no problem. Seriously though, what is it with Porsche that such a well-engineered machine can't tolerate a few days off? And I mean literally 4-5 days? masterbm

Thanks all, for the helpful input. Answer was the water pump, believe it or not. Fixed now, but cost me $300 in parts, $300 in labor. S'okay, because it coulda been much worse, but I'm kinda bummed because I wanted to try my hand at fixing it myself. Oh well. Car sounds great, runs great, and I got out for under a grand. B