86 951 Driver

I am looking at buying a 1997 Boxster Manual car with 52000 miles on it. I know all the 986/996's could potentially have the IMS bearing issue. What are some of the other issues that could come up? Is there anything specifically I should be looking for on this car?

I have experience with 924/944's but nothing on the 986/996's. So any help is appreaciated.

Macster

Specifically? Everything.

The 1997 Boxster is just a used car so a thorough used car check out is paramount.

You need to visit the car cold and at cold engine start and afterwards while the engine idles and warms up some listen for any scary noises or for signs of a sick engine.

When you start the engine be sure the check engine warning light and other warning lights come on and then go off when the engine fires and runs.

Leave the A/C off for now too. You check this out later.

After some idling time have the seller take you on a test ride. The route should be around 15 miles in length and the route should be chosen so the driver can demo the car like you intend to use it.

Back at the starting point then you become the driver and take the car out over the same route and drive the car the same way.

If after the test ride and test drive you still like the car give it a thorough used car check out. Assume nothing works until you confirm it does. Try to get your hands on the CPO check list the techs use when CPO'ing a used Porsche. You can't do all the tests/checks but you can do a good number of them.

If after all of the above you still like the car and believe you can buy it for an agreeable sum of money arrange for a PPI. This among other things has the car in the air and gives the tech (and you if you can arrange to be there) a chance to check the underside of the car for any leak sign. That the engine was run nearly an hour during your check out of the car prior to this gives any leak a better chance of being spotted.

With just 52K miles on the car likely it was not driven in bad weather but check the radiator ducts for trash build up along with the body water drains for any serious collection of trash.

Check the tires and tire age. Porsche considers tires past their use by date after 6 years.

Try to determine what kind of service history the car has received. This includes of course oil/filter services, but brake/clutch fluid flush/bleeds are important too.

I would like to see at least one coolant drain and refill but at 52K miles that's not likely.

Unless they've been done already sparks plugs are due on time.

The car should have had an engine air filter and fuel filter replaced and a cabin air filter too, maybe more than once unless the car was driven mostly in top down weather. (I lived in KC Mo area (Oak Grove MO) for a couple of years with my Boxster and for me there were 2 weeks in the spring of top down driving weather and two weeks in the fall. At all other times either it was too hot or too cold for top down driving.)

mikefocke

A '97 has the second best (or worse) IMS bearing and many are know to go 150k+ miles.

As to problem areas, a list is here. There are about a dozen "Buying a Boxster" articles on the same site. Follow the links at the bottom of most pages to get to an index.

Don't over react to all the possibilities of failure, thousands are running happily for every one of the problems I cite. Not that they aren't real and expensive, but any used car has the problem potential, especially one 18 years old.

Condition and maintenance history is everything.

Owned a '99 and a '01S, both wonderful trouble free cars I didn't hesitate to take anywhere.

matt11

The list noted above by mikefocke details the highlights for problem areas.

For my 1999, the airbag light has caused the highest amount of frustration and dollars spent.

zedcat

I would add that the coolant tank in the rear trunk is a common failure. of course a thorough inspection should spot any coolant leak. Also check the plastic rear window as it can crack over time.

mikefocke

Rubber and plastic age. So tanks, hoses, bushings, mounts, etc can be suspect on any car this old.

My car was in the shop 4 times for grounding contact issues relating to the seat belts and airbag lights. Once for a previous owner, three times for me. 2 were paid, 2 free. The issue is well known now and a TSB was issued.

86 951 Driver

Supposedly the car has a few issues. It has a horn button issue that needs something done with pulling the horn button off and fixing it.

The car doesn't leak any oil or other fluids. He did mention that the muffler has an exhaust leak. It has aftermarket headers and muffler. There isn't a Porsche dealer in town, and my normal shop is 1.5 hours away from where the car is. I will need to do a through job looking at the car. I may bring a jack with me to jack up the car to take a peak underneath.

My main concern would be high dollar items like engine, trans, clutch, or some other issue that wouldn't be easily seen.

Macster

High dollar items can develop a problem or even fail at any time.

All you can do is find a car that has been well taken care of, not abused, and give the car a thorough check out to ensure at least at this time it is not manifesting any signs of something serious.

A thorough test ride then a test drive followed by a PPI with the car in the air is all I can think of.

A PPI would read the DME overrev counts and engine runtime stamps and advise you on this. Additionally the oil filter housing can be removed and the contents dumped into a *clean* drain pan and checked for any scary bits of material. 'course, the filter element and housing o-ring and the 1/2 quart of oil this represents should be replaced.

86 951 Driver

I went to look at the car today. It drove fine and seemed to be pretty solid. The owner told me there is a mileage discrepancy reported on CarFax, but when I did an AutoCheck nothing shows up.

Year:1997
Mileage: 52,xxx
Exterior: 8/10 I noticed when I had my sunglasses on the hood looked kind of splauchy. Had a few scratches on the car, but overall pretty nice.
Interior 7/10-One of the best I have seen from the 986/996 era of Porsches

The car seemed to be underpowered, but I may just not be used to these cars. My dad's 2001 S runs pretty well, but this 2.5 seemed to be a little slow.

The car hadn't been started in 3 weeks before today. It smoked a bit at start up but didn't smoke at all while driving or even when idling.

What would be a good price for a car like described?

Macster

The 2.5l engine is a bit "slow". I mean it is only 2.5l. And if you are used to your Dad's S with its larger and torquier engine you may have to "relearn" how to drive the 2.5l car. While the engine is not a monster in the HP department (or really any department), the fact the car is rather light mitigates this some.

The smoking upon startup probably comes from the fact the car is for sale and is not getting driven much. Most times the engine is started and maybe there's a test "drive" around the block. Then the car is parked until the next time.

I can't stress how important it is to give the car a thorough check out on the road, first as a passenger then as a driver. The engine must be run around an hour and the car driven as you intend to drive it, within reason of course. The car must be experienced in various scenarios to ensure at all RPM's, under a varied number of situations the car and the engine behave, exhibit no untoward behavior. This ranges from of course scary engine noises, to stumbles, high RPM cut outs, smoking at any time other than briefly after a cold start, that the transmission shifts just fine, the clutch holds, and about a zillion other things.

As for the price.... well, from a buyers point of view the less I pay the better I like it.

The car is worth between low book (wholesale) or the lowest amount the buyer is wiling to accept and at the upper end whatever you are willing to pay.

I like to start out low. One can always go up.

I like to have a list of similar cars -- they don't all have to be -- in your case -- 2.5l Boxsters, they can be cars you might not be caught dead in but the seller doesn't have to know that -- and impress upon the seller that his car is not the only car around and that I intend to buy a car today if I get my price. I'll buy his car but if unsuccessful I'll go to the next car on my list and buy that one.

The seller must be convinced that if he sees you walk off his lot, or from his driveway, he has lost a sale to another seller and will never see you again.

I try to arrange to have the car I'm really interested in not the 1st car in my list. I arrange to have one or two cars ahead of it but because this car is an interesting color, or has some other "unique" characteristic I decided to view it out of order.

Couple of things: 1) Price is not fact only an opinion. The seller is entitled to his opinion, but so are you to your's. 2) There is always another car.

mikefocke

Condition and maintenance history are everything in determining an old car's price. And a '97 is old.

What tires and their condition/age? What top and the condition of the window?

Ever had a brake job? Clutch?

Start out budgeting $1,500 for a major service scheduled at 60k but because of age can be done any time, the sooner the better.

86 951 Driver

The car is a little loud in the styling department. It is silver with black interior, red wheels and possibly lowered slightly.

I did have my wife drive first, then me drive it second. I was running a OBD-II scanner with Torque on my phone to look at stuff. No codes and everything seemed to be running fine.

He is asking around $6000 for it and has a loan on the car, so that is his bottom dollar.

I looked underneath the car and it appears to be completely dry. There were no oil/fluids on the ground in the garage where the car sits.

Macster

$6000 may be a reasonable price for the car. I really have no idea. Well, I do have an idea and that is invariably a seller will put an optimistic price on a car for sale. I've never met one yet who offered the car at true market price let alone below market. (Admittedly it is as tough for the seller to know what the car should sell for as it is for the buyer to know what he should pay for the car.)

For a used car buyer I like to advise he visit the various online sites that offer used car prices and plug in a car's numbers and see what the trade in, private sale, and retail sale numbers are and work from those. Well, really work from the trade in.

If the seller's asking price is too much above what the car's "worth" you have to make up your mind are you going to help the underwater car owner out or find another comparable car that you can get for a better price.

mikefocke

The red wheels can be cured by going to a wheel refurbishing place and have them resprayed and clear-coated in your choice of color.

Re the smoke, I'd suggest you test the AOS by removing the cap on the oil fill tank in the rear trunk while the car is running. See how hard it is to remove and what sounds happen and report back.

Wheel Dynamics

My suggestion is take any Porsche you are interested in to get a PPI, well worth it!