Jeff 986

Hello, I picked up a 2000 Boxster S with 130,000 miles a couple of weeks ago because my daughter was interested in doing some autocross and what not. I was really looking for a Miata but bought the Porsche on a bit of an impulse.

The whole suspension and front end need to be gone through. I've done several full front end rebuilds on other vehicles (ball joints, shocks, struts, tie rod ends, etc.) but never on a Porsche, mostly on full size trucks and SUVs.

Anyway, I think the front struts are the original black Bilstein B4s and they are probably due for replacement. However, the rears are yellow Bilstein B6s (part # 22-046222). Were these offered on a 2000 Boxster S or have these likely been replaced and upgraded?

Other than that I can feel that it needs tie rod ends and something's worn/loose in the left rear end, which sounds like that's probably either the trailing arm or the strut. I'd prefer not to break the bank and do all upper and lower control arms, ball joints, etc but if it's all likely shot I guess I'll do all of it. What are the most common parts that are almost certainly worn out at 22 years, 130,000?

Heinzr57

I don have an answer for you but I do have a question.Did you put the fron5 bumper on or do yo know where I was purchased from?Looks good!The entire car looks good.
Back to your topic,I hear a little bit of a clunking from the suspension in the back driver side.Strut replacement needed?

Bush Pilot

Note that I believe that German cars need a special strut compressor, assuming that you're going to keep your old springs. I've had several mechanical engineers tell me that the springs are as new after 130k mi. so all you need there is the special strut compressor and new struts. I'm saying this because I recently did struts/shocks, tie rods, stabilizer links etc on my 04 BMW. It wasn't that hard once I had the right tools.

Jeff 986

I did the front struts last week using the standard O’Reilly loan-a-tool spring compressors, reused the original springs and it was no different than any other strut job I’ve ever done. I’ve not gotten to the rears yet but I don’t see much different about them. The original struts were completely shot, BTW. I just haven’t been motivated to do the rears

Jeff 986

I did not, the previous owner did that when he had a run in with a curb in a parking lot. I like it but it’s missing the lower spoiler and I’ve not been able to get a call or an email back from the manufacturer (NR Auto) about buying a replacement.

https://nrauto.com/products/porsche-...yle-997-bumper

I’ve emailed them and called (left voicemail) over the last few weeks and I haven’t heard back from them.

tcora

Well, the good news is that you don’t have to worry about upper control arms (cuz struts), and if you could find out from the PO when the rears were done, that could save you some time and energy. The actual R&R of the suspension is not particularly difficult. The noise you are hearing from the rear (probably when going over bumps?) is almost certainly the long trailing arms that run from the rear bulkhead back to where the hubs attach to the control arms. You will likely spend more time getting the car up on jackstands properly than it will take to replace those particular parts.

When you do replace the front struts (and at 130k miles, you should), they are very straightforward. The biggest challenge will be potentially rusted on nuts on the top end of the piston, where it goes thru the strut bearing. Since the struts are going to the scrapyard, grabbing the exposed part of the piston with vice grips and hitting the nut with an impact wrench is the brute force solution (they use a lotta road salt in the winter here in NJ).