FlamsteadHill

Parked her a week or so ago and had been running perfectly fine, as normal. Started yesterday and it seemed a little hesitant. Tried driving and it's mis-firing/stumbling like crazy. If I rev it up sometimes it goes clean for a second or two.

History - about a month-6 weeks ago I had it to the shop to replace the water pump. They left it outside and it rained. Apparently there are drain holes for the top, and they were plugged. Water overflowed into the interior, which flooded the floor where the control box for the top is located. This caused the top to try to open, which, since it was still locked, broke a couple of drive rods (that apparently are designed to break rather than cause other damage) but not before the piece between the top and trunk is started to raise. I have driven it twice - maybe a total of 30-40 miles since the repair and this happening.

I am wondering if some water eventually made it to the coil packs/spark plugs but I'm not familiar enough with the actual configuration to know if that's even possible. Any ideas?

2006 987.1 Boxster S

fatmike

Sorry that happened. It's a good lesson for everyone to clean your drains!!

Can you do a visual inspection of the areas around the drains?

Where did the water go? You can probably see sand/debris that will show the "high water mark".

Open the front trunk. Look in the back toward the windshield. What do you see? Is there sand anywhere? How high up? For example is it ABOVE the battery connections or ground cable?

Did water get in the cabin? Did it flood your carpets? How much water are we talking about?

There are drain holes under the Boxster top. If you stop it when it starts to go up you can find them. I don't remember how many on the Boxster (it's been a while since I owned one, but maybe 6). Again do a visual. Where did the water go? Follow it's path.

Report back with what you see.

/

harveyf

As a general statement, water in the interior floors of the car can damage the "control unit" that is mounted under the drivers seat. As far as I know, it has nothing to do with the operation of the engine. It is for "body functions", such has HVAC, etc. The spark action is handled by the Engine Control Unit, which is mounted in the trunk, on the vertical "firewall" that separates the trunk from the engine compartment. There would have to be 8" of water in the trunk for the ECU to flood. The coil packs are on the outside face of the two cylinder heads in the engine compartment. In that location, they get very wet on a rain covered road. They are designed to take this abuse.

For a sudden onset of rough running, I always suspect bad fuel or water in the fuel. It is really hard to drain the tank. (A shop can disconnect the fuel line back near the engine and pump the tank dry but not really a job for an amateur) You might want to go to the autoparts store and look for a fuel additive that removes water. Ask the guys at the counter, explaining your symptoms.

If it will run at all, even roughly, let it idle in the driveway. You may get lucky and it will clear up.

Beyond that, there all mutiple causes that could be the problem. Start with the simple stuff and get back with us.

FlamsteadHill

Water flooded the interior and ruined the roof control unit.

I did expect that the coil packs would be exposed to road water in normal operation but thought I"d mention it anyways. Will try the drygas route and let it idle for a bit to see if it clears up.

Thanks,
David

Julian_KCMO

Ouch, I hope you manage to get all this cleared up. Make sure you get the carpets properly dried out, they have a lot of foam underlay/deadener

Ubermensch

Drygas isn't a bad place to start, but it's also possible it has nothing to do with your water/drain issues. A coilpack may have have just reached the end of its life. How old are the plugs and coils? What codes are you getting and on which cylinders?

FlamsteadHill

Yes, the shop did a great job getting the water issue fixed. The ~$1700 bill was "paid" by the shop. I tried to argue with them that, if anything, it was my fault, as I had not had the drains cleaned. But it was like talking to a wall. To be fair, the shop is owned by by brother-in-law.

FlamsteadHill

I really have no idea. The car has 47k miles on it, and I have owned it since about 28k miles. I have not replaced either. I don't have a code reader and there are no messages on the dash except the "Check Engine" light. BTW, I did check and the engine is still there.

old man neri

A half decent code reader will pay off way more than just throwing parts at the problem and hoping for a solution. The first place you should start is reading the codes and any associated freeze frame data. Go from there.

ga 951

Not sure if this is your problem, but the maintenance schedule for 987 calls for the plugs to be replaced every 40,000 mi or 4 years. I would have the plugs replaced and a close visual check of the coil packs while they are off. They have been known to develop small cracks over time.