THSCC Forums

OK, all you Porsche afficianados, Fact or Myth: Changing Plugs on a Boxster requires lowering the engine to access the front two plugs.

I pulled the following dialog from a Porsche forum:

>You must lower the engine on a Porsche Boxster to change the plugs!

>> One Does NOT pull the engine to change plugs on a
>> Boxster. It's done on a lift w/the rear wheels
>> removed.

>>>If I am mistaken, then I apologize. I was just repeating what I was told. At a car show the first year the Boxster came out they had one on display with both front and rear trunks open. One man pushed his way through the idiots asking where the engine was and asked if the oil filter was user accessible. The dealer rep blushed and said no, but that they were working on making it that way. I then asked if the spark plugs were accessible and he said that the rear two were fairly easy to get at with the car on a lift, and the middle two could be got to with the rear tires pulled off, but that the front two required undoing the front motor mounts and tipping the engine forward.

It is possible that the design has been changed to make them more accessible, and it is also possible that the Porsche guy was giving me a line of hooey. If you have more complete info, I would like to know it.


Anybody know for sure??

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Brad

I was able to change the sparkplugs on my 1999 Boxster by just pulling the wheels and removing the plastic wheel well liner. The process is not different for earlier years. All the plugs were fairly easy to get to. I had to use an extension on some of them.

Changing the oil is the easiest of any car I have ever owned. The oil plug and filter are directly under the engine with no panels in the way. It could actually be done without jacking the car up although I do. Pep Boys has the wrench you need to remove the filter - cheap.

Changing the serpentine belt at 60K miles was also very simple once the access panel behind the seats was removed. Removing the panel took about half and hour and changing the belt about 5 minutes.

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Mitch Moore

Miiiiitch!!!
You da man! Just the answer I was lookin' for.

Looking at an '02S for Sharon. MAYBE be allowed to run a couple of autocrosses with it. Right, hon, OK? Huh? Huh?

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Brad

Even easier than the 325i? I thought that wasn't possible.

(PS - Based on how stupid (not hard, just dumb and time-consuming) it is to change the oil on Kendra's Passat, I will never, ever own a VW or Audi product ever again. Here's a hint -- you need a US Nickel in your toolbox to properly fit some fasteners to be removed. Idiots.)

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Amen. Sorry David...hope the car is still treating you well.

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Stephen Westerfield
2009 Infiniti M35 | 2007 Honda Fit Sport | 2005 Ford Mustang GT |2000 GMC Sierra |1992 Acura Integra LS | Super Westerfield Bros Acura Integra

I'll have to agree that the filter being on top of the engine does may the 325i slightly easier but because the Boxster filter hangs straight down no oil spills out as you remove it. On all the American cars that I have owned the filter was always on an angle and oil starts spilling out and running everywhere as soon as you start taking it loose.

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Mitch Moore

Small block Chevy V-8. Filter is straight up-down and right on the side of the oil pan. Very easy to do.

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http://www.greywinds.com

Same for the S-10 4.3l. The Miata is messy but you don't know what you are missing until you change the oil on a VR6 equipped VW. For those that don't know-it's a caseless filter. There's a drain plug in the filter housing cap and 2 o-rings that can go bad. One of them has to be replaced each oil change. You have to pull the plug to drain the filter, pull the cap to access the filter. Then the fun begins because there is no way to pull the filter off the cap without getting oil on something-usually several somethings. The real kicker is that the filter costs ~ $10 and that's for just a paper element and o-ring.

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'99 Mk IV Jetta VR6 now claimed by the better half.

'90 Miata A-package, Floats like a butterfly and buzzes like a BEE with loudspeakers.

On my first car. A '64 Datsun 410 the oil filter was an element that sat inside a case with 2 O rings. (The germans steal bad ideas) The casing was inverted and had no drain so 1 qt of oil went down the side of the motor and kept the distributor with points from rusting. The upside is there was not much other stuff in the way for the oil to run over. BTW the car also had 60 Hp., 3 speeds on the column, and a hand crank available. I did hand crank it once. It also had threaded puller holes on all four brake drums.

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George Bright Member # 141
One of the youngest of the old farts.
Yes I voted against you joining the club.

I have no real problmes with the Under Carriage fittings with my fat short screw driver, it takes me no longer to change the oil in the passat than it does the del sol or the integra.

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David Teague
2015 Lexus IS 250c
1994 Honda Del Sol HS 39
2009 Dodge Journey R/T
http://teaguefamily.us