Bill L Seifert

I posted a few days about our Boxster check engine light comming on. I took the car to a Bosch Service Center. (I am afraid of our local Porsche Dealer.) It showed fault P1411 and P0411 and said Secondary Air Injection Malfunction. The mechanic thinks the system needs to be cleaned between the air pump and the heads, because whoever owned the car before obviously lived on a dusty road, cause the engine and the engine air filter were pretty dirty. This is a 6 to 8 hour job,(There are two valves in there he thinks need cleaning.) so I wanted to check with all the people out there in Boxster Land and see what you all thought. I gotten pretty good advice from you so far.

Thanks in advance,

Bill

RobertG

ive had that replaced. However, my tech did it in 3 hours. Unless that guy only has one arm. It can't possibly take that long to replace those items.

HDK

Hello,

I've been contemplating about a getting a pre-owned Boxster...have you had a lot of problems with the car? Are they reliable? If not, what problems have you experienced and how much were they to fix? If I get the honor of owning one, I want to know it will last a good 4-5 years. Thanks in advance!

Bill L Seifert

To HDK

We have only had the car a few weeks, but so far except for the engine check light, the car has been fine. We bought it from a Dodge dealer in Franklin, Tn. Taking away the blue sky of our tradein, I would guess we paid $24,000 to 25,000 for the car, which is pretty low for retail cars. I noticed a form in the car a week or so after we bought the car with no waranty, that the car had the check engine light as far back a April, 2002. My mechanic says it is not a real big problem, and is the secondary air, which is part of the emissions, which may or not be under factory waranty. I am trying to get another posting to answer that question. The car had right at 60k when we got it, so I did the 60K check, and the car checked out perfect, except for the secondary air problem. I have an appointment to get that fixed, but I am trying to find out about the waranty question first. I sure don't want to pay for something that is covered. Most cars we looked at were around $30,000 at dealers, or $26,000 from private parties. I found one at $22,000, but it was black, and had some minor problems. My wife wanted a light color, and this one is grey. One other thing. At the 60k check, one tire was found to be going bald, so I had it replaced and the guy that changed the tire, found that the left rear wheel had a bend in it. I could have done that myself, as I hit a pothole the day before I took it in. I have hit potholes a zillion times, and have never bent a wheel, but I guess it is possible that I am the clutz that did it. The bend is fixable, and will cost about $150, but will have to be shipped to Calif. The place in Atlanta has gone out of business, so I guess the wheel will have to go to Calif. Other than that, great handling, good power, (I also have a 91 CII cab, and it has lots more power.) great looks, top lowering and raising is a snap. All round great car, and we love it.

Bill

HDK

Bill,

thanks for your reply, and good luck with the car. Grey is my top choice as well, I think it looks amazing. I understand your car has 60k miles? Do you know of its service history? I am convinced the Boxster is a true sports car, but am still worried about its reliability. I would love to hear how your journey with the car pans out...thanks.

Ghost Rider

How a car was treated will make a lot more difference than a car's "average" history. Whether or not Boxsters last a zillion years or not is irrelevant as it pertains to the individual car in question when compared to how the car in question has been treated to date. One good "bluff" I've used before is to ask the seller if they mind if my mechanic runs a "red line check" on the car. I tell them that ever time the car hits the rev limiter it records it (which is true) and that I want to have the car checked out to see if it has been red-lined a lot. If they are trying to hide something, like their past driving habits, they usually come clean at this point and spill their guts as to how the car was treated. Having all the service records is important, don't forget to check those.

Overall the Boxster is pretty sound, especially given that these cars are often driven hard, sometimes very hard, and still hold up as well as any other car on the road.

One problem of note however if your color choice. Grey is the color of a cloudy day, everyone knows that sports cars come in only one color...

SPEED YELLOW
<a href="http://www.smiley.net/boxster/" target="_blank">SPEED YELLOW</a>

Bill L Seifert

Ken,

Yeah, I kinda agree. I have had a lot of red Porsche's so yellow was what we were looking for. However, the yellow ones were all 2000 or later, and we could not afford them, so grey got picked. I guess I should call it German Racing Silver, but white is actually Germany's racing color. I think Mercedes changed the color by running their cars without paint. I am not actually sure of that whole story, but it sounds fairly good. But you right, yellow would have been better, and yellow will be our next color.

Bill

Moogle

Seifert is that a reference to the legend of the silver arrow mercedes story?

yea whats not to believe about it tho,

for everyone who doesnt know about it,

at the nurburgring once the mercedes were too heavy and the team leader had them sand all the paint off to barely meet the wieght requirements, and the mercedes won , thus earning their legend...