mcj320p

Hi all, I am new to this forum and would appreciate your advice on the following issue:

The car is a 2009 987.2 Boxster 2.9 manual with 30,000 miles and full main dealer history. I've owned it for 3 months and had no problems at all, apart from once recently when it would only crank very slowly / briefly and then not at all on 2nd attempt. (This happened when the engine was warm). I rolled the vehicle back a little in gear, after which it cranked and started fine. At all other times, the car has cranked at a good speed and started with no problem, including from cold. I have a receipt showing a new OEM battery fitted just under 2 years ago.

Any advice / suggestions would be very welcome.

Many thanks.

TMc993

I'd begin by cleaning the clamps on the battery posts, checking the battery ground cable's connection at the unibody, and the starter ground cable connection to the unibody. It wouldn't hurt to load test the battery just to eliminate it as a cause. After that, the starter becomes a suspect but if it has happened only once, it's probably going to be difficult to trace down...

nicetheory

Congrats on buying a 2009 987.2 with only 30,000 miles!

I had a similar problem as you, only my car simply refused to crank at all. It was the engine starter. Replacing it cured the issue. I paid the Porsche tax by having my dealer’s service center do the work.

Agree with TMc993’s approach rather than jumping right into replacing the starter. However, if you narrow it down to the starter, I recommend doing the work or driving it to someone who will do it for you rather than risk being stranded. In my case, I woke up one day and it wouldn’t crank so I had it towed to service.

old man neri

Intermittent problems are often very hard to diagnose correctly. Here is a shot in the dark, it's a known issue with 987/997s that can exhibit slow crank symptoms.

Read this:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...56330-2400.pdf
https://rennlist.com/forums/987-foru...le-issues.html
https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...-resolved.html

scootr

Sounds like a starter issue to me.

ClemCLone

When you say this, it's pointing to the starter.
A very typical problem that's been around most cars forever it seems.
I remember this to be a problem in the old VW days.

If you plan on doing this yourself, it's terribly difficult. All work is on the top of the engine, removing some of the intake to get at the bolts on the starter.
there is also a battery terminal at the firewall that needs to be looked at when you do this. It's an area of potential resistance if the area is worn.

harveyf

Welcome to Rennlist.
Intermittent problems are always a PIA to resolve.
Just to be clear- You've only had 2 events? One was a slow cranking effort (starter engaged but sounded like it wasn't cranking at a normal speed) and in the other you got no reaction whatsoever when you turned the key to the start position?

First, putting the car in gear and pushing it a bit rotates the position of the flywheel and thus the ring gear that engages the starter, but it does nothing to the starter itself. I think that action was a red herring. As you can probably see, the battery is in the front and the starter is in the rear. There are multiple electrical connections on both the positive and negative side of things that could potentially be corroded.

Use the Search feature here and also more generally using Google to collect as many inputs as you can regarding the problem. Similar to what Old Man Neri did for you above. Although there is a core group of guys that happily respond to a forum post, the odds of one of us having all the answers is low. So do some research with a bunch of searches and educate yourself. If nothing else, if you hire someone to try and fix it, it will be backed up with some info to use in your bull**** meter

Keep us posted. It is always a bummer when the original poster doesn't get back to a thread with updates.

XuTVJet

Don't overlook the other obvious common issues like the clutch switches. These switches do go bad over time and can cause random no starts. Luckily replacing these switches (2 of them) is less than $50 total and about 10 minutes of your time.

ARC72

This was the problem with mine

mcj320p

Many thanks for all your replies, much appreciated. In line with some of the advice received here, I removed the connector on the B+ cable (the one which slides over the pin on the firewall leading to the power distribution box). I couldn't see any corrosion, but cleaned it anyway and applied contact cleaner before reassembling. I also greased the battery connections and re-tightened. I have not had a repeat of the problem, but since it's an intermittent issue it's far too early to tell whether it's fixed. I also plan to get the battery checked in the coming days. I will report back here, for sure.

Regarding pushing the car slightly in gear, my thought was that maybe this moved the engine to a lower compression point in the cycle, hence needing less torque from the starter to get it rotating. Any thoughts on this?

harveyf

Healthy electric motors develop maximum torque at zero rpm. You need to go through at least one compression cycle to start an engine.