r/986Boxster

Have a 2002 with blue soft top and a glass window. It’s tearing from the window seams and is shaking/wafting a lot at speed. Assuming I’m going to need it replaced.

Does anyone have any recommendations for replacements. I’m assuming go glass is a better idea then the plastic. But any suggestions?

Anybody limiting miles on their 986? I know every body says “get out there and drive it” “enjoy it” ”let it rip“.

But some counterpoints. I bought my 986 only in part because of the favorable price. A major factor for me is the design, which has not been replicated in subsequent generations(987’s are great too, but not as enjoyable to me as a 986). I didn’t like the 981 and wouldn’t really consider a 718 unless it was the N.A. motor, which is way out of my price range and I still think would be overkill and too modern for my taste.

Now there is the argument that mileage doesn’t really cause wear to a car if you do all proper maintenance. I just don’t really agree with this. I’ve driven well-maintained high-mileage cars(a couple of my own too) and eventually everything wears out. Creaks form in places that are virtually impossible to fix. Everything starts wearing out from the seats to the suspension to the drivetrain to paint chips to interior etc. All of that can theoretically be replaced, but at what cost?

My 986 has 79k miles, and I really see myself owning it for the next 20-30 years. If I didn’t care about wear and tear, I’d probably drive it 6-8k miles a year, maybe 10k a year max. Thats already low for most people, but considering it’s 25 years old at 79k, it has averaged just over 3k over its life. My driving pattern is nearly ideal for maintaining the car, year round(rarely get snow here and there is no salting), I drive at least once a week, and my trips are usually 10-15 miles each way and about 30 minutes, enough to fully warm the car up each time.

I usually use public transportation and the car effectively serves the purpose of what would normally be someone’s second car, just for fun and periodically for real use cases.

3k miles a year is about 60 miles a week, that’s about 2-3 days a week of driving for me.

I could theoretically drive more, and I would probably do about 5k miles a year, but I really don’t want to be 20 years down the road with a 180k mile car that is wearing out. At that point I expect another clean 986 will be hard to come by, regardless of the price.

Anyone else thinking similarly? Its not really about cost, its that I don’t see my 986 as easily replaceable, and I don’t necessarily agree that mileage is just a number, especially once you start pushing over about 150-200k miles.

I appreciate anyone’s insight

Just bought a reasonably clean 2.7 with 140k miles on the odo but only have limited service history and no knowledge of the IMS bearing being replaced.

Question is, as it's already done 140k, would the IMS bearing already have failed by now? Therefore, do I assume the bearing is a 'good one' or potentially has already been replaced? .

Over the winter months, it's likely I'll be replacing the clutch and rear main seal so is there any way I can identify that the IMS bearing may have been replaced?

So got a strange one: The coolant level light is slowly blinking. The coolant is grand level wise, it was low but turned out from sitting for so long the coolant was practically empty so took a proper good fill and bleeding. It’s been sitting fine since that but now the compartment fan isn’t activating, which it had been whilst sitting in traffic..I also don’t think the main radiator fans are activating at all.
To add to this the driver door window is being temperamental sometimes going down before the door being opened as it should and sometimes just refusing to.

Anyone able to even suggest where I start?

Haven’t driven really at night by noticed the current halogen setup isn’t exactly the brightest. Was thinking of just putting Amazon h7 LED bulbs in for some added visibility. Anyone do this with luck or problems?