'00 boxster base - cam deviation issue
 

A few weeks ago, I was leaving work and came to the first stop light and the car started to have a rough idle and lower than normal rpms, but accelerated just fine. Decided just to get home (stalled a few times). Ran the durametric on the car and found a P0300, P0304, P0305, P0306 and one other I cant remember but had to do with the variocam. I also checked cam deviation and bank 2 was running somewhere around +22, other side about a -8. After much research, I decided it was time to pull the cam cover and see what was going on. I did all this engine in car. What I found was a variocam chain guide on the top completely gone. The bottom one severely worn. The timing chain and marks all seemed in order so no jumped teeth. I figured the missing guide was the problem so I proceeded to put on new guides, reset the timing and put all back together. I did that and ended up with the same rough idle at start up. I went back in with durametric and now the cam deviation is +19. I used the durametric to cycle the solenoid on bank one and it definitely made the engine rpm change. I tried it on the bank 2 but didn;t seem to alter the engine. I'm about to tear it all back down again as I am thinking it is either the solenoid or actuator (or both) that is also the problem in addition to the failed guide. Is there anything else I should check before I tear it down? Can a cam sensor also cause this issue?

Just curious how many miles are on your engine.

A friend of mine had his chain guides fail recently (about 100,000 miles).
I had a variocam actuator fail on my car (2.7L boxster). It only had about 42K miles so I didn't worry about the chain guides then. I don't think a cam sensor would be the cause of your issue.

I wonder if these guides are becoming a new "maintenance" item now that more and more cars are higher mile examples or ia combo of both miles and age (and old brittle plastic)

Large cam deviation values are also a symptom of a failing IMS bearing. Have you checked your oil filter or oil sump recently for shiny bits o' metal?