smouser

Hello, I’m a new member and I’m very close to buying my first Porsche. I had a PPI 2006 Boxster base with manual trans done yesterday. It has just over 37k miles on it. Mechanic said it looks great but has an error message for the convertible top about limit switch. He said it works fine and smooth but wanted me to know. He also said a clutch limit switch code P0830 was coming up but again said all seems fine with the clutch and transmission. It’s a good deal for the car but it won’t be if I am walking into expensive repairs in the near future. Any thoughts or suggestions? Would you buy or walk away? Thank you in advance for any help and/or advice

Julian_KCMO

Speaking from my personal experience (I bought a Boxster from auction "no key, no start") I would suggest you have the cost of a full clutch replacement in the back of your mind. If the clutch goes out soon after purchase and that additional cost puts the car out of your price range then I would move on. I made sure my max bid on my Boxster was low enough that even if I had to replace the engine with another second hand one I was going to be OK, luckily that wasn't the case but I've also done all the work on my car myself, if I was paying someone else then there's no way it would have been the happy ending it has been. Was your PPI done by a Porsche specialist? The convertible limit switch isn't a big deal, I wonder if he cleared the codes and they immediately came back or if they were old codes? If they immediately came back then there's likely a reason.

Hope that helps,
Julian

smouser

I will check if the codes were cleared and came back. He was a specialist I found him from the Porsche club of America website. That does help a lot I appreciate your advice

smouser

Sorry, don’t know if this is repeated still getting the hang of this. Thank you very much. I’ll check on if he cleared the codes. He was a specialist found him on PCA

Bernie987

I agree with Julian....Plan some funds to set the car right. If it is a stretch to just buy the car, this might not be the car for you.

The elephant in the room is the M96 IMS. Do you have records of that being serviced? If not, I would plan a clutch and the LN Engineering IMS kit ASAP. Call a good Porsche shop and get that number first so you know what you are up against and can plan around that with your final offer.

Julian_KCMO

My 06 3.2S has the "more reliable" non serviceable/removable IMS, not sure if the 06 base engine has the same or not.

losblancos

Yeah with an '06 he's probably fine as far as IMS goes.

I am not terribly educated about this matter, but getting a convertible top limit code would make me a little nervous about the condition of the top transmissions. I don't think it should be a dealbreaker, though.

BondJ

2005 was the official change date for IMS bearing, but this can carry over due to production run. Below is copied info from recent post…

From a 987 thread a couple of months ago: "According to 2007 Porsche 987 Service Manual, the SMALLER IMS bearing was used up to engine 61.504715 on the M96/25 engine and up to 62.504094 on the M96/26 engine. All engines from 61.504716 and 62.504094 onward have the LARGER IMS bearing according to the service manual."