Even the relatively simple Boxster top is a PITA to make manual, and it's always a bit of a hack job IMHO. It's hard to make something complex into something simple without a lot of work. Better off just treating that SL like a coupe.;)

You're missing my point. Even if the Mexican or Chinese built Porsche was every bit as equal to the German built one, I'd still want a German built Porsche (or 911 anyway).

Like I said, I'd be okay with a Mexican Ford or Toyota or whatever. Call me silly but I suppose it is the aura or "mystique" that surrounds Porsche (and where it was born) that captured my imagination when I was a kid.

it is not simple to make an an sl top manual, as there are a number of complexities with the tonneau etc. Worse, it will eventually fail if you use it often in manual mode. Ok for a few times a season. Still, a lot of car for under 4k, even if you put 1k into the top parts and a weekend.

I love my r129.

I only messed with one, but I believe that even some of the latches were actuated by hydraulics on the sl It was one of the most german things i have ever seen. waaaaay over complicated

So: update time!

I had my car towed to Automobile Associates on Monday, but it wasn't until yesterday that they were able to take a look at it (there is a lot going on at Lime Rock Park over the next few weekends, so their dance card looks pretty full). Yesterday, when they pulled it into the garage, they heard the sound I described and feared the worst.

They pulled the oil sump pan and found... nothing. Totally clean of any debris or metal shavings.

They checked the magnetic drain plug and spin-on filter (which also has a magnetic strip to trap debris). Nothing. The oil was totally clean.

They scoped the cylinders, and found... nothing. Looked totally fine.

BUT when they went to scope the cylinders, they found that ONE OF THE SPARK PLUGS HAD WORKED ITSELF LOOSE. Sure enough, when they replaced the oil and got the car buttoned up again, the noise that I was hearing had totally disappeared.

Just to make sure, the shop let it idle for awhile and took it on multiple road tests. The car is purring like a kitten. It appears that a spark plug had worked itself loose, and what I was hearing was compression escaping out of the spark plug hole.

SO: I feel a little silly. Much ado about nothing. I'm glad that I didn't, like, fly off the handle and offer the roller to the highest bidder or anything. I also maintain my assertion that build quality of these cars is not what they used to be. But it appears (for now) that I have a healthy car with a healthy engine. Even the oil analysis from Blackstone came back sparkling clean.

I checked back in my service records, and it looks like the spark plugs were last changed at 35,000 miles by the shop in PA that sold the car to me (it looks like they did the whole 60,000 mile maintenance at that time). My guess is that it was just torqued *slightly* too loose and worked its way out over the course of 20,000 miles and four years of use? I guess?

But anyhow: you live and you learn. I will be picking up the car tomorrow. I'll let you guys know if any other issues pop up.

Bullet dodged. Cool to know. Thanks.

Wow, that is great news! All this german car and porsche bashing, and you get off with an oil change and tightening a spark plug. You should get a lottery ticket tonight. Glad you did not get to join the club .

Crazy question here. Does that loose plug mean that cylinder was spraying raw gas past the combustion chamber and thus contaminating your oil? Obviously, an oil change is called for now. But could that old oil have caused some damage?

I first noticed the noise DIRECTLY after an oil change -- at first, my thinking was, "my god, how did I manage to screw up my car doing a simple oil change?!" But then after thinking about it, I reasoned that, no, the oil change probably had nothing to do with it -- if anything, I probably noticed after the oil change because I don't let the car idle in my garage very often (I usually just get in it and drive, following the recommended warm-up procedure), so I was probably just *hearing* it for the first time as it idled in my echo-y garage.

Again, the oil analysis came back clean, but I don't know if that would cover contamination by gasoline. I would assume that I'm getting brand-new oil out of the visit to the shop, but he didn't mention anything about gasoline contamination...

I didn't smell any fuel when I was listening to the car as it idled, so I don't think that's an issue.

Well sure, but I'm still going to end up paying a couple hundred bucks to hear that one of my spark plugs was loose. Still: that's better than a $10K+ replacement engine!

I better double-check the PCA website to make sure I wasn't one of the six Carrera GTS raffle winners!

Also: for the record, I wasn't bashing ALL Porsches or German cars. I still think that the build quality of the m96 and m97-engined cars is at a lower standard than, say, a 911SC or 3.2 Carrera. And from what I hear, the new Audis are pretty good. So: yeah.

WTH wouldn't they do the obvious stethoscope to try to at least localize the noise first???? Would probably have found it right away.

Not sure. Maybe they did?

I'm not right very often, I need to revel in my astute guesswork when it happens.

Congrats. Could have ended badly.

Did the looose spark plug have blue paint on it?





(ducking for cover)

A loose spark plug would vent combustion gas to the open air. What you speak of is not an issue.

I was not pointing you out for that, there was just some general kraut car bashing going on in this thread . I was ready to pile on it myself.

Something tells me your garage did not do a thorough job. Somehow the IMS has to be junk and they just missed it. I would recommend to keep searching for a garage that tells you it is the IMS. Until then, you still have a problem. Probably a big chuck of cylinder floating around some place too. SmileWavy

My bud had a noise in his 996 motor and assumed the worse. I told him it was likely something stupid. It turned out to be something to do with the muffler. I think we have all been brainwashed. Heck, I did the IMS replacement too on my 50k car. I will probably do a 100k as well.

People keep looking, hoping for these cars to fail. Not sure why. Maybe it's the change to water cooled. Maybe it's the fact that these cheap cars can out perfrom a lot of the older more expensive cars. Honestly, mine has been chugging along nicely for close to 3 years now. I change the oil and do all the preventative stuff. Otherwise, no issues what so ever. Also, the ones that I saw in my town years ago are still there. Seems they are chugging along too. (small sample size I know).

As far as responses to the Boxster/996, most people just know it as a Porsche, not a Boxster, 911 or Cayenne for that matter. Only ones who seem to care are us. I still get kids waiving to my lowly Boxster like I did with my 911. Only difference now is I have more money in my pocket and A/C that really works. Call me crazy but I think the 986 is one of the most interesting cars visually Porsche ever built. Crazy stuff.

Be honest with yourself . If your boxster started to make clacking/knocking, or any unusual noises coming from the engine area, It would be hard not to assume the worst . I know I would

Hey FastFred,

Honestly, I might of when I first got the car. After spending a lot of time on the 986 board, there seems to be this rush to judgement a lot to find out it really was nothing major. Does it happen, of course. Do I have a more likely chance of getting hit by a bus, possibly.