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I'm looking to buy my first Porsche and would appreciate your advice on whether this is a goer or not!
About the car:
2003 Turbo
73,000 miles
Good service history, serviced regularly although hasn't been serviced for past 3 years, though hasn't done many miles in this period,
Speed Yellow When revved the oil gauge goes up to its upper limits, is this normal?
Only light cosmetic wear and tear
Slight paint damage over one wheel arch, resprayed front spoiler, resprayed patch over door (well done and hard to notice) No major works done to engine (will I need to do a top end rebuild at any point?)
Pictures below, thanks in advance for advice and what you think the market value is for this car.
The color is pretty rare and desirable if you're into that sort of thing (I think it's awesome)
Porsche says the cars should be serviced annually, even if not driven (i.e., oil change)
Brakes should also be flushed every 2 years
The standard front lip is actually unpainted plastic. It seems to be considered by many to be a "wear item" and often replaced by the $75 eBay version. I wouldn't worry about this as much as the other paintwork.
I'd estimate that the price should be high 30's to low 40's [EDIT: I was thinking USD and just noticed the pics are RHD, so take that for whatever it's worth], but I also wouldn't pull the trigger without more info. The color is desirable but the expensive cars have lower miles and no paintwork, so you can definitely use that in your favor if negotiating. I wouldn't necessarily let those things scare me away if I could see more records.
It'll be interesting to see what the market does with these kinds of examples.
What is a gt2 slave? I've been told by the dealer that no major work has been done on the car.
Maintenance appears up to date in the book, with stamps, including a service at 60,000 miles with ticks on the major maintenance box, I assume this is the big service? Picture below
Great to know about the front lip!
Also I don't know what spoiler rams are? I thought the spoiler was fixed?
No reports of the resprays.
It's priced at £38,000 (in the U.K.) a good buy or not?
Assuming the market there is the same as in the states, it is priced about right. You might figure a few thousand pounds for unknown normal maintenance items, as listed above. Once put right, these cars don't require excessive expenses.
You have to go kick the tires and light the fires. Road test. Road test. Road test.
I won't post my usual test ride/drive recommendation. The link Carlos_Carrera offered has it along with other good advice from others.
After your test ride and drive and used car check out then you have a PPI done.
As an owner I'm not comfortable -- probably wouldn't allow it -- with bore scoping. Plugs have to be removed and with the Turbo this involves some work to get at the plugs. Rear bumper cover has to come off. Exhaust system. Some intake disassembly.
I do not like to have used plugs removed then installed so new plugs should be used.
Then the car must be put back together. Lots of places to screw up if somone picks the wrong place to do this. (Also, the metal o-rings that seal the turbo to the exhaust manifold should be replaced so the turbos don't have a leak.)
With a proper road test: cold engine start, idling, then a test ride followed by a test drive with the car being driven as you intend to use it goes a long way to offering you the chance to know if the engine (and car) is sound. The Turbo DME runs through the readiness monitor tests twice and if the readiness monitors are all set to complete after your test ride/drive and the CEL remains dark and of course the engine manifests no untoward behavior at any time the engine is sound.
Then a PPI consists of reading the DME overrev counters and run time info.
It also consists of getting the car in the air for a thorough check for any issues. Mainly this involves looking for any leak sign. For this reason it is important the initial engine idling after cold start time and road test time have the engine running about an hour.
Top end rebuilds are very rare for water cooled engines. One owner put over 400K miles on his Turbo and then reported he tore down the engine to address some leaks and take care of the engine wear he assumed would be found and found none. There was a story in a car mag about a Turbo that covered even more miles with no internal engine work required.
Not a Turbo but my 2002 Boxster 2.7l engine has 310K miles and has required no top end/bottom end work. The only internal engine work so to speak was a VarioCam solenoid/actuator had to be replaced when the solenoid failed and the tech believes failed in such a way to take out (wear out) the actuator. The other bank's solenoid and actuator are just fine.
The Turbo will need things as you pile the miles on the car: Plugs and probably coils at some point. O2 sensors at some point. A MAF perhaps. CV boots. Maybe an RMS. Probably a water pump. Maybe one or more radiators. Maybe a spoiler. Accessory drive idler/tensioner roller bearings. But it won't need a top end job.
The spoiler rams are part of the hydraulic system that raises and lowers the rear wing at speed. They have a tendancy to leak after sometime and cause spoiler faults!
Raise the enginge lid and on both sides you will see two black cylideds with plastic caps on the bottom. Look for wetness. Thats a telltale sign of imminent failure!
03-23-2017, 02:14 AM
Is this a good turbo to buy?
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