I have a 1.8 140hp MX-5 NB1 with a 160.000km/100.000 miles, pretty decent shape. Nardi Torino Edition, little rust and great mechanical shape. I am able to trade it for a 1996 Boxster with the 2.5 flat six, 204hp. Hopefully no money involved, but I may have to pay 500-2000 Euros.
Only problem is, the Boxster has driven 240.000km/150.000 miles and the owner says the engine “doesn’t run well when idling”, with a code on the engine and gearbox.
I have access to a workshop and have some experienced friends and family that can help me fix it. None of us know Porsches though.
I don’t drive too much, so it would mainly be a weekend and road trip car.
Would you guys get the Boxster or stick with the Miata?
It might be a nice project car if you have access to cheap labor. I paid $3500 for a spare 986 Boxster S engine a few years back. If you can get it inspected and discover the rough running is related to something relatively minor I’d make that trade all day long. And I love Miatas. But the Boxster is a level above.
Run. Fast and Far.
Cheap Porsche to buy=Expensive Porsche to set straight.
Rough idle could be anything from plugs/coils/injectors/air filter to effectively a ticking time bomb of a blown engine.
Only if you can diagnose the rough idle, confirm the codes and have confidence that you can address what’s causing the codes/idle only then would I consider proceeding with extreme caution.
In no scenario is this an even trade. You’ll regret it.
I’m interested in knowing how the rough idle can mean the engine is about to blow
From what I understand, probable cause can be coils/plugs/injectors (rare), MAF (common)/air filter/dirty throttle body and valve or a faulty fuel filter. Bore scoring isn’t really an issue on a 986, so what else can cause that?
I bought a 80k mile 2000 Boxster S that “needed some work” but had already had IMS, Clutch and Flywheel done. It still took about 7k in parts and 1k in labor I couldn’t do myself to get it mostly sorted.
I had a Boxster, and they’re buggers to work on. What might be a cheap and simple job on the Miata could end up costing thousands of a Boxster.
For example a new clutch or flywheel is an engine out job and can cost up to 2k.
Incredible cars but insanely awkward to work on.
Run a mile. You could pay over double the purchase price trying to sort it.
Yeah, hard pass on that.
Porsche engines of the time period have multiple ticking time bombs built in. Really research those before you get rid of a nice reliable Miata.
What exact ticking time bombs were you thinking of?