Tips to reinstall rear transmission pan cover

[nosnow4pc]

I pulled the rear transmission pan cover to replace my shocks and I can't get the thing to line up. It appears to be off by ~.5mm, is this suppose to be this difficult to reinstall?

Car is 99 Boxster Base 5-Speed

[Wayne 962]

If the cover won't line up, then the alignment of the suspension points has most likely changed. This can happen if you didn't tighten the lower suspension arm bolt *after* the car has been lowered onto the ground. This is a very important step, as the suspension bushings will fail quickly if it's not tightened on the ground. I've got an article on this here: Pelican Technical Article: Front/Rear Boxster Suspension Overhaul - 986 / 987

Let us know what you did when you replaced your shocks - I'm sure it's related to that.

-Wayne

[BYprodriver]

Boxster is supposed to remain level while removing suspension pieces including sheetmetal brace to minimize shifting.

[nosnow4pc]

The car was on jack stands when I did this and it was as level as my garage floor. I put it on the ground and that didn't help, plus there was no room to work on it. So I put it back on jack stands and was able to massage it back into place by pulling on one of the tires. All in all a royal PIA!

Wayne I read through and even did key word searches, no where do I find anything related to haveing the wheels on the ground when tightening the lower suspension arm bolt. Perhaps I missed it....

I've done a few of your projects to date:

- GT3 upper consol delete
- ODBC Hack
- Shock Replacement
- Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement
- Sway Bar Upgrade
- Brakes
- E-Brake Adj (have to go back in on this one still 4-5 clicks to hold car)
- Oil Change
- Coolant Tank (I thought the 928 tank was a PIA, it has nothing on this one!)

Planned:
- 996 Guage upgrade

[Wayne 962]

Figure 4 of this article: Pelican Technical Article: Replacing Boxster Shocks & Boxster Springs - 986 / 987

The yellow arrows in the photo show the bolt that needs to be loosened in order to gain enough clearance to lower the shock and clear the edge of the fender. You don't need to remove the bolt: simply loosen it so that the arm can rotate a bit more than is possible through the deflection of the rubber bushing. Don't retighten this bolt until the car's tires are back on level ground and the suspension is fully loaded. In the lower right is shown a new bearing installed in a new front strut mount.

-Wayne

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by nosnow4pc

Wayne I read through and even did key word searches, no where do I find anything related to haveing the wheels on the ground when tightening the lower suspension arm bolt. Perhaps I missed it....

You need to loosen this and then retighten it only when the car is back on the ground. Otherwise your suspension bushings will wear out and break in about 100 miles or so...

-Wayne

[nosnow4pc]

Thanks! I was searching the body of the tech article not the side bars. I had loosened and retightened after bouncing the car a few times. Looks like I'm ready to head to the alignment shop.

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by nosnow4pc

I had loosened and retightened after bouncing the car a few times. Looks like I'm ready to head to the alignment shop.

Great, then you should be all set there!

-Wayne

[WhipE350]

Couple of things.

- I had the exact same problem when I changed my transmission fluid, it was so cold in my garage that I thought stuff had shrunk during the time I was working on it, I just started over and bingo it went right back on, was weird. I too had the whole car on jack stands.

- You actually don't have to remove that pan to replace the shocks, just the support bar.

- Wayne's picture is of the front but the point is it's the same bolt...just a whole lot easier to get at on the rear. I had to loosen mine to do the rear shocks and it is a cam bolt.

- I weighted the car by putting the wheel carrier on a jack stand instead of the tire before I tighten that bold on mine and it worked great on one side but on the other not so great, I'm going for an alignment tomorrow. Safety note, make sure you have a backup support if weighting the wheel carrier.

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by WhipE350

I weighted the car by putting the wheel carrier on a jack stand instead of the tire before I tighten that bold on mine and it worked great on one side but on the other not so great, I'm going for an alignment tomorrow. Safety note, make sure you have a backup support if weighting the wheel carrier.

Yup, that will indeed work - putting a jack or even a transmission jack underneath will enable you to load the suspension properly and then tighten the bolt as required.

-Wayne