Hello everyone,
I am new to the forum. I am planning on purchasing a used 97-00 porsche boxster and was wondering if theres any problems I should be watching out for. Thanks for any help that can be given.

 

Watch for rear main seal leaks, & excessive smoking on startup (a brief puff of smoke is normal. 30 seconds on smoke is not). Which would indicate a bad OAS, or slipped cylinder sleeve.

 

If you can afford to go a little newer, go with the 2003. The rear window is glass, the car has more power and it has a glove box. We love our 2003 Boxster.

Greg

 

Sure take it out on the guy that has to work on your car! Lol, those glass rear windows really make it a pain in the butt to work on the top side of the engine [sm=happybounce.gif]

I agree though, the glass window is much nicer than the plastic window from an owner's standpoint

 

I see. I understand that the aluminum pistons are laying flat, In your experiences, Do you knowif the sealswear out faster on one side than the other? alsois there a big difference between 99' boxsters and later models such as 00', 02', 03' aside from slight change in the looks (lights, accesories, trims, etc) and horse power?Thanks for the Knowledge guys. I appreciate it.

PS: I pretty muchlike to maintain my own vehicles and since I have never owned a mid engine. I was wondering how difficult it would be to maintain this type of roadster.(ex. changing sparkplugs). My brother told me thatI might bleed a little trying to change the sparkplugs without hoisting the car in the air.
Thanks Again for yourhelp.

 

After reading some threads here last night, I took my Boxster home (my 996 is here, but the rear tires are pretty bad). I saw a nice open stretch of freeway and I pushed her to 145MPH! No problem and the car felt amazingly stable. These cars are incredible and they are so much fun to drive. I still think you should go for the 2003 and enjoy the extra horsepower.

Greg

 

The 99 had the 2.5L engine, where as the 2000+ base model has the 2.7L engine.

The seals do not wear out faster on one side, there really isn't anything to wear out just because it is a horizontal engine. The brief puff of smoke at startup is because since it is a horizontal engine, oil will slightly weep past the valve seals and into the exhaust. On startup that oil should instantly burn off, producing the very short puff of smoke.

The early cars also had the occasional catastrophic convertible top failures. The fix was to update all the parts in the mechanism to the newer parts which were reinforced. About a $4k bill. I have seen top failures really bend the heck out of the top mounts when they fail.

 

thanks for the feedback guys. Its great help.

 

older than 2003 the rear windows are plastic, they like to tear and seperate from the stitching on the top

 

sorry but what is a OAS?
Thanks!!