What a welcome to the world of porsche

[Pilgrimfan]

This is a great site and I had some great responses to my previous post of choosing an auto or a manual.

I thought i'd just give an update on my choice and the problems I've been having since.

I chose to privately buy a manual "S" which looks fantastic in blue. Drove it away and all was fine. Took it for a 150 mile trip the next day where it drove brilliantly until 50 miles from home.

This is when the CEL light came on. a little bit further on the indicators stopped self cancelling. 

Then just as I was parking, there was a noise from the engine and the power steering went totally all of a sudden. 

I ended up having the car recovered from my home to a local independent Porsche specialist. 

One problem I was aware of when I bought the car was neither key fob not working (new batteries and all the tricks were tried but i was willing to live with this). 

So when I got to the local indy I enquired about having new keys and reprogramming while it was there. They quoted me £350 per key!!!! And this is an indy dealer. The closet main dealer wants £320 for 2 keys.

That is still to be done.

Now they had to get on with the power steering problem.

One of the pipes on the rack had fractured (the small metal ones). To get to the pipes the rack had to be removed. But the main feed and return pipes were totally seized into the rack. (should be push in). So they had to cut the hoses on the feed and return pipes and also because they couldn't get the pipes out of the rack I had to also have a new rack.

The price quoted for the rack of £300 +VAT, I thought was reasonable. So just the 2 pipes left to quote for. £500 +VAT for these pipes. Thankfully the pipe that broke actually came with the new rack so was already included in the price of the rack.

With steering fluid, seals, labour, trcaking and VAT the total bill came to £1500. What a welcome to the world of Porsche motoring. And there is still plenty more to spend yet.

I bought a cheap scanner to check the fault code and it looks like one of the rear O2 sensors is showing inactivity. The indicator stalk as well.

I'd only had the car a day and all this happened.

I assume I'm probably not the only one who has some Boxster horror stories to tell.

 

Martin

[rowbos]

Yikes!

Probably not the best time to raise this but I would not consider buying a car like this without having it independently inspected by a specialist...

That said you have it now and hopefully that's the worst of the bad news out of the way!

Good luck and I hope you are able to enjoy some sunshine in your new wheels  

 

 

[Jon61]

Yes, I too hope you've got it all sorted now and it's not soured your experience too much.

55 minutes ago, Pilgrimfan said:

a little bit further on the indicators stopped self cancelling

It will be little comfort given the bill you've already had, but in my experience, Porsche indicators can be somewhat reluctant to self-cancel (ie unless you turn the wheel quite sharply back towards centre they often stay on), so it's just possible you may not have anything wrong with yours!  (And I may be wrong, but I think the cancelling mechanism is mechanical in nature and I wouldn't therefore have expected that particular part of the indicators to generate a fault code.)

 

[Jason986S]

My indicators rarely self cancel, so just check them after making a turn (which is good practice anywho).

hopefully your expensive start to ownership has ended (minus O2 sensor)

[ooid]

Can I ask how many miles your car? My Power steering pump just failed last week. It looked like a bad part or assembly basically.

Here is more info, and pictures of the pump

 

 

 

 

[cj225]

5 hours ago, Pilgrimfan said:

This is a great site and I had some great responses to my previous post of choosing an auto or a manual.

I thought i'd just give an update on my choice and the problems I've been having since.

I chose to privately buy a manual "S" which looks fantastic in blue. Drove it away and all was fine. Took it for a 150 mile trip the next day where it drove brilliantly until 50 miles from home.

This is when the CEL light came on. a little bit further on the indicators stopped self cancelling. 

Then just as I was parking, there was a noise from the engine and the power steering went totally all of a sudden. 

I ended up having the car recovered from my home to a local independent Porsche specialist. 

One problem I was aware of when I bought the car was neither key fob not working (new batteries and all the tricks were tried but i was willing to live with this). 

So when I got to the local indy I enquired about having new keys and reprogramming while it was there. They quoted me £350 per key!!!! And this is an indy dealer. The closet main dealer wants £320 for 2 keys.

That is still to be done.

Now they had to get on with the power steering problem.

One of the pipes on the rack had fractured (the small metal ones). To get to the pipes the rack had to be removed. But the main feed and return pipes were totally seized into the rack. (should be push in). So they had to cut the hoses on the feed and return pipes and also because they couldn't get the pipes out of the rack I had to also have a new rack.

The price quoted for the rack of £300 +VAT, I thought was reasonable. So just the 2 pipes left to quote for. £500 +VAT for these pipes. Thankfully the pipe that broke actually came with the new rack so was already included in the price of the rack.

With steering fluid, seals, labour, trcaking and VAT the total bill came to £1500. What a welcome to the world of Porsche motoring. And there is still plenty more to spend yet.

I bought a cheap scanner to check the fault code and it looks like one of the rear O2 sensors is showing inactivity. The indicator stalk as well.

I'd only had the car a day and all this happened.

I assume I'm probably not the only one who has some Boxster horror stories to tell.

 

Martin

 

When I bought mine, I turned up to strike a deal, not to necessarily drive away.

 

Plenty on here will testify that I bought mine from an awful place, but it was literally the right car at the wrong garage - It was sat in the corner of a car wash come trader site, looking sad and getting damp and mouldy from the constant jet washing in the vicinity.  All the workers were arabic or perhaps turkish, and spoke little English, but I wanted her.   The battery was dead and it had no fuel.   On one of my first viewings, I found the service book and some receipts in the side door pocket, and the bloke (who knew nothing about cars) snatched it from me and took it into his office.  

 

When I turned up and paid the money, as soon as the money transfer was confirmed, I was told "Car is on road".   They literally drove it onto the road and it was sat abandoned with the engine running, so I didn't have time to mess about!

 

When I got in, it was struggling to idle and the EML was on.   I couldn't see a thing as the wipers were well worn and the screen was slimey.

 

I wasn't even sure if I had insurance, but had to leave my other car parked at the garage and just drive off.  I found a safe place to stop and took this photo.

 

 

By now, the fuel situation was dire, so I pulled into the nearest petrol station.  On returning to the car, the battery had completely died, and the alarm was going mental.   I got  a push start and just drove back as best I could!

 

I've spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours on her since, and a few thousand on parts, but I am happy that I managed to rescue her from being broken for spares.

 

 

 

It's a shame you've had a bad experience, but here's hoping things start looking up for you from here! 

[Stuart21UK]

...now that's a bad story...

[cj225]

ah, I forgot the extra...

 

because of this rushed "the car is on the road" event, it took me a few weeks to notice I didn't have the bits he took out of the car on an earlier visit - this was the service book an a few random other bits.

 

When I tried to ask about them, he wouldn't return my calls.  Next thing, the place went bust and reappeared under a new name.  I gather it has done this a few times, and it seemed like about 5 different blokes claimed to be "Ali" (I think it was) the salesman.

[Jason986S]

I wouldn't buy from a jet-wash trader if you paid me!

[cj225]

1 hour ago, Jason986S said:

I wouldn't buy from a jet-wash trader if you paid me!

 

Sometimes you end up with the right car at the wrong place.  Wasn't common spec I was after.

 

Bet you couldn't find me many (if any other) 2.5 Boxsters with traction control, glass rear screen and heated seats now, for sale or otherwise 

[Jason986S]

3 minutes ago, cj225 said:

Sometimes you end up with the right car at the wrong place.  Wasn't common spec I was after.

Bet you couldn't find me many (if any other) 2.5 Boxsters with traction control, glass rear screen and heated seats now, for sale or otherwise 

I probably can't, so won't look, haha 

[Pilgrimfan]

I have had the car back now and there is another problem with the power steering.

I've had the "indy" check over the work they done and there isn't any leaks from their repairs.

Every time I start the car (from cold) there is a slight noise that goes almost right away but the power steering isn't working. 

I get going and after about 200 yards a noise devlelops. Sounds like when there is air in the power steering system and needs bleeding. This goes on for abouth half a mile the the noise stops and the steering ois then ok. The level of the fluid is always ok.

I visualise it as when the car is standing the oil drains out of the pump and then on starting, the air then has to be purged from the system before it starts working properly again.

I was going to do a quick search on this site to see if others have had a similar experience but I have read the replies to my original topic so thought I'd put the problem on here.

15 hours ago, ooid said:

Can I ask how many miles your car? My Power steering pump just failed last week. It looked like a bad part or assembly basically.

The car has 88K miles on the clock and yes I looked at your post last night about your steering pump. It doesn't look too bad a job to do. Did you do it yourself or get someone to do it? Were there any particular difficulties you encountered?

 

This is a great site and thanks for all of the comments.

[CliveH]

Some sad stories of woe here, and no doubt lessons learned.

I just hope that the money you saved by striking a deal with a trader will have gone a long way to covering the costs of putting the car into a decent condition.

[antjrice]

These stories reveal the beauty of many a 986 nowadays. 

For any other model out there which is 12-20 years old, i'm sure their numbers are dwindling and general condition with it.

However with the 986, you'll find time after time, examples of people who will rescue them and pour the money in to get them back up to a decent spec. It takes time and money but the output is always a tremendously build, great looking, brilliant drivers car.

[ooid]

On 2 August 2016 at 2:57 PM, Pilgrimfan said:

I have had the car back now and there is another problem with the power steering.

I've had the "indy" check over the work they done and there isn't any leaks from their repairs.

Every time I start the car (from cold) there is a slight noise that goes almost right away but the power steering isn't working. 

I get going and after about 200 yards a noise devlelops. Sounds like when there is air in the power steering system and needs bleeding. This goes on for abouth half a mile the the noise stops and the steering ois then ok. The level of the fluid is always ok.

I visualise it as when the car is standing the oil drains out of the pump and then on starting, the air then has to be purged from the system before it starts working properly again.

I was going to do a quick search on this site to see if others have had a similar experience but I have read the replies to my original topic so thought I'd put the problem on here.

The car has 88K miles on the clock and yes I looked at your post last night about your steering pump. It doesn't look too bad a job to do. Did you do it yourself or get someone to do it? Were there any particular difficulties you encountered?

 

This is a great site and thanks for all of the comments.

My local garage (London) sorted it out as usual. They have been working on the car since I've got it.

Pump was a scary event but I guess I was lucky that I stopped immediately before it overheated.

Very easy job, but yeah make sure that other pulleys and especially water pump is good condition!