Porsche Boxter advice appreciated

[generallee]

Just a quick one for you all, my sister in law has wanted a Porsche for ever, has found one for sale which looks really good, apart from mot advisories about exhaust bolts. Is this a common thing?

It's a 2000 3.2 manual.

Any idea if this ought to be ringing alarm bells?

The advisories disappear, but I'm sure we all have advisories that 'fix' themselves for the next test...





We are going to look (buy) it on Wednesday, but I have fear of mid engine awful access leaky manifolds and manky exhaust clamps. It has done little mileage since.

I know nothing about Porsches, so am just there for general used car tyre kicking.

Any advice would be appreciated.
It has Porsche history but no recipts I don't think...

[ChasR]

Advisories can be a funny thing. You either can't see the wood from the trees, or the tester was possibly very picky or enthusiastic about testing a car.

In other cases, our mates testing the cars will be a fair test, but they won't be so anal about putting down every advisory they see.

As an example, it's worth Googling LJ56 OHR (BMW 535d). The last to second test had things which frankly, I wouldn't have put down as an advisory or fail, and I reckon most other testers wouldn't have (brake lines were OK where seen, and the indicator bulbs were not bad at all. As a result, the mate of mine got hit with a big bill. Some things were fair to put down, but I'm surprised the tester found the faults, seeing first hand how a few tests are done.

The only difference? They had a new tester at where they took the cars in, and this car was a victim of it.


With the Boxster, I'd say the tester was a keen watercooled owner, and knew what to look for. The studs corroding a known issue with these flat 6s. But again, I'm sure they are covered with an undertray on the car.

Would it stop me buying the car if the rest of the car presented well to me? Probably not, as I suspect most 986s have this issue. But it can be used as a haggling tool, and something to bake into the car's costs when you buy it.

Brakes can be pricey on these, but again, doing the work yourself will work wonders for your own piece of mine and for saving some cash.

[generallee]

Ooh ok, that bodes well that he knew what to look for, always good when a tester knows what he is looking at.

Thanks for your input, I'll be looking at general condition (which looks good from the pictures) and going in with my eyes open.

I took screen shots of the advisories but I'm not sure they are showing up.

I'm going to try again, sorry if I'm repeating myself

[ChasR]

They are bud.

Regarding the others.

-Coolant pipe is a slight worry, but there is alot of plumbing on a mid-engined cars.
-Brake pipes is part and parcel of older cars IMHO. I probably wouldn't get into a twist over that, given they are older cars now.
-ARB bushes sound like they are perished

[generallee]

Yeah I'm not bothered about brake pipes and bushes, it's an old car after all
Thanks!