Broken Boxster
Discussion
Unfortunately it looks like I'll have to add my name to the Porsche Engine going 'Bang' list. 
Driving the car, a 2000 2.7 on Saturday and without any immediate warning, accelerating away from an island down a duel carriageway, and the oil warning light flashed, almost immediately the whole dash lit up and the car lost all power.
Managed to get the car to a safe spot under it's momentum and after a few try's to restart, sounded like a flat battery, called for the RAC.
They arrived, a good look underneath and it'd not lost any fluids, although it was impossible to remove the dip stick.
RAC man asked me to try and start it after checking the battery was fine, and it tried to catch but immediately sounded like a bag of spanners falling down stairs so killed it sharpish....low loader called.
It's now in storage with the RAC due to the bank holidays and will be deposited at my local Indy on Tuesday.
Not expecting good news, the cars done 130k and any massive engine bill is going to be way in excess of the cars value, obviously I'm jumping the gun until a diagnosis has been done but has anyone dealt with breakers of these sort of cars, and values of none running cars.
Driving the car, a 2000 2.7 on Saturday and without any immediate warning, accelerating away from an island down a duel carriageway, and the oil warning light flashed, almost immediately the whole dash lit up and the car lost all power.
Managed to get the car to a safe spot under it's momentum and after a few try's to restart, sounded like a flat battery, called for the RAC.
They arrived, a good look underneath and it'd not lost any fluids, although it was impossible to remove the dip stick.
RAC man asked me to try and start it after checking the battery was fine, and it tried to catch but immediately sounded like a bag of spanners falling down stairs so killed it sharpish....low loader called. It's now in storage with the RAC due to the bank holidays and will be deposited at my local Indy on Tuesday.
Not expecting good news, the cars done 130k and any massive engine bill is going to be way in excess of the cars value, obviously I'm jumping the gun until a diagnosis has been done but has anyone dealt with breakers of these sort of cars, and values of none running cars.
Really feel for you buddie, when this happened to me on my gen 1 cayman I could of cried, I loved the thing.
I was a bit luckier (if there is such a thing) as in the remedial work could be done to the car just so it made sense. Then stuck it in 'we buy'. Still told a hit on what I thought it was worth (as was in A1 condition) but I wasn't prepared to gamble with keeping it long term.
However at the time I was planning for the worse, the best option I looked into (or I worked out assuming you have the time) was breaking the car for spares and then selling them on ebay.
If your not in a position to do this I would look at finding a place that might take the car on with this proviso, you will be surprised how many items on these cars you can actually sell / people want - from tyres to badges etc...
The best way to get some kind of money back for it though is breaking the car for parts yourself.
I was a bit luckier (if there is such a thing) as in the remedial work could be done to the car just so it made sense. Then stuck it in 'we buy'. Still told a hit on what I thought it was worth (as was in A1 condition) but I wasn't prepared to gamble with keeping it long term.
However at the time I was planning for the worse, the best option I looked into (or I worked out assuming you have the time) was breaking the car for spares and then selling them on ebay.
If your not in a position to do this I would look at finding a place that might take the car on with this proviso, you will be surprised how many items on these cars you can actually sell / people want - from tyres to badges etc...
The best way to get some kind of money back for it though is breaking the car for parts yourself.
Obviously you will need to establish what exactly has happened before you make any decisions, but given your description of the symptoms it sounds like the IMS bearing has collapsed.
If you are unfortunate enough to be another IMS statistic', you could consider selling it to Hartech.
If you are unfortunate enough to be another IMS statistic', you could consider selling it to Hartech.
Happened to bump into the gaffer of the Indy while out today, felt a bit guilty talking shop while he's off duty but like has been said it's a good chance it's IMS but there is a slim chance it's air/oil separator, it has been being a little smokey recently, and last week gave out an almighty puff of white smoke, but until it's opened up we'll not know. If it is IMS it's not going to be an economical repair, even though apparently the price of a block has just halved it'd still be daft to throw £4-5k at a £4-5k car, and I've not really got the time or inclination to break it myself, so would be looking for someone to buy it as a rolling shell.
It's the only straw I have to cling on to at the moment. 
The Indy mentioned they had one in recently that had sucked it's AOS inside out and caused a complete hydraulic lock up....but let's just say it's insurance is due for renewal in a week or so, and I'm not bothering getting quotes just yet.
The Indy mentioned they had one in recently that had sucked it's AOS inside out and caused a complete hydraulic lock up....but let's just say it's insurance is due for renewal in a week or so, and I'm not bothering getting quotes just yet.
Edited by raceboy on Tuesday 7th April 11:03
Well, not one to do things by halves, the engine has given up in quite spectacular fashion, managed to send a conrod out the side, apparently the 1st 2.7 Boxster engine my indy had seen do this.
So that makes fixing it well beyond an economical repair, so the task of selling a broken boxster begins.
So that makes fixing it well beyond an economical repair, so the task of selling a broken boxster begins.
I am bit worried I may the next inline for a rebuild! I have had a tapping noise when cold from the drivers side which I thought to be hydraulic lifter or possible leaking manifold gasket. Ran engine flush, new oil and changed gaskets drove down the road and the dash has a warning message of insufficient oil pressure along with a whistly noise like a bearing being dry. Not good, at garage awaiting diagnosis.
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