New member just got a 2001 Boxster S......
 

Just picked her up a week ago. Car has 51K on it......Bought it from a local porsche dealer, Oil changed, coolant changed, clutch is good and i have the full service history records. passed full inspection.
A few questions.
Is the IMS bearing worth doing at this point????
Is there any place to get the Led headlight under 1000? That's the lowest price i have seen on ebay

IMS if it worries you then spend $1800 and get it done. With 50k miles and 16 years the odds are low (original failure rate was only 3-4%)

Thanks, I think i will just let it ride............

What's the low down on the ebay exahusts there seems to be alot of them

Be sure you keep an eye on the body water drains keep these free of trash build up. If the trash build up gets too bad this will have water backing up and overflowing the basin and flowing into the cabin. The security module is located on the cabin floor and any water in the cabin goes right to the security module. There are a couple of water drains under the front trunk under the plastic panels on either side of the battery box. You'll need a set of Torx tool bits -- the "security" kind -- to remove the Torx screw that holds the panels in place.

When removing any trash be gentle with the styrofoam basins and don't poke anything sharp in the hole. Pick the trash out and use a pitcher of water to make sure the water drains promptly and drains under the car. If the hose from the basin down to under the car is damaged the water can drain out of the basin into the car and still end up getting in the cabin.

There is a body water drain located under the clamshell arm on either side of the top. To access these you'll have to put the top in the service position.

Keep the trash build up in the radiator ducts under control too. When I take my cars in the tech blows this trash out using the shop air. In real bad cases -- if the trash has been there a long time -- you'll have to remove the front bumper cover and manually remove the trash. There are write ups on this.

After a wash or after the car has been exposed to rain check along the door bottoms for signs of dampness. These cars as they age will suffer from a door membrane leak. (My 2002 has had both the passenger and driver door membranes replaced due to leaks.) If you don't catch this water in the door can cause door/window gremlims.

Congrats on the car! I have an '02 S that has 53K miles. It had IMS failure at 21K miles (under warranty) and PCNA replaced it. There are signs that you can look for to tell you to be worried. Mine was an oil leak at the bearing. Car was taken to dealer three separate times before failure for them to check out oil leak and they said they never found a leak.

Thanks, I will keep an eye out for it.....

I don't know where grrrmonster got his statistics from but they were well below even the ones Porsche admitted to in the lawsuit they settled over the second generation IMS that a 2002 ere build should have had in it (of course look at the engine serial number to see if it is a replacement engine and any documentation you have). Those figures were what, 6 years ago? So the probability is surely higher since then. I always use the 1% per car year as an approximation that included early failures and longer term wear and tear.

Headlights are a combination of the bulb and the reflector each designed to work with the other. There is a reason LED headlights come with very different looking projectors/lenses.

There are lots of forum stories of unfortunate third party kit installation attempts that created problems, didn't pass state inspections, etc.

Your era car did have an Porsche option to have Litronics as a factory headlight upgrade. The Litronics also included headlight washers and a self leveling feature lest they blind oncoming traffic. At one time there was a Porsche kit for less than $1,000 for the Litronics upgrade bulb and lens kit but then they went to around double that. They didn't heat the lens as much and so ice/snow were a challenge for the Porsche upgrade kits that didn't come with washers or self leveling. Not sure I ever heard of anyone installing either of those features with their upgrade kit.

Any pics of this???