Describes why the Porsche 981 engine is super easy to maintain and work on, and why what you've previously been told about this mid-engine car is a myth. Link to donate: paypal.me/Richodonate
I was trained as a Porsche mechanic decades ago, as fortune would have it, I had to expand my repertoire to other marques. It took a while to reach the conclusion outlined in this video, in that many of my colleagues refused to believe that Porsche did things differently but also led me to curse every other manufacturer as a result. I save my most incandescent ire at US manufacturers whose engineering is utterly appalling. I can’t thank you enough for this thoughtful video.
I started working on Porsches primarily and any time I have an American vehicle comes into my bay Im genuinely so lost and confused as to why they do things the way they do.
I never do my maintenance until i got my 981 S. It was my dream brand to own, i was afraid that the cost of ownership will be very expensive. I can afford the oem consumables but the service i know will be expensive. To cut the story short, i bought all the tools i need and started doing oil change myself, then the air filters, belt, flushed the break fluid, flushed the coolant, change my plugs and never had to send my car to the dealership or to an indy. And im more confident with the work done. I owe it to you and other content makers for sharing us the know how. I love your contents and you’re at the top of my list with no none sense just pure genius. My next job is to change my pdk and rear diff box fluid and im studying your diy for weeks now. I’m proud of myself of accomplishing this much in the last 2 years of my ownership starting from nothing. The car is in tip top shape, i can say with confidence that i did it better than the dealership. Thank you again and continue giving back to our small community in your own special way.
This puts a proper smile on my face. Start at something small and build your way up and before you know it you own a car that you have the confidence to do anything on. The PDK is easy, but like anything else will have you anxious before, and wondering what the fuss was all about afterwards.
And I love my 987 Boxster S. Great cars. I can’t understand Porsche haters. My guess is that they have never driven one. And btw, no ims/bore scoring issues on my 2007 car which has high k’s/miles.
I’m a motorcycle enthusiast, and over the years I’ve found that ease of maintenance is the key to keeping bikes well maintained. If it’s difficult, I’ve tended to put it off, often to the detriment of the bike’s reliability. My old 80s and 90s Moto Guzzis had their oil filters inside the sump, which involved about 16 cap head bolts, one of which invariably be difficult to remove or strip the socket, and sometimes tearing a sump gasket, creating unnecessary aggravation, so oil changes tended to get deferred. I realised that had to change so I fitted aftermarket sumps with external oil filters, and these days it’s a 15 minute job instead of an hour or so. This results in the bikes getting their changes when they need them, rather than when I can spare the time. The value of ease of maintenance is rarely discussed and this is a refreshing exception.
I knew the old Guzzis - but the ones I owned and loved best were the CARC bikes, which used spin-on filters (Mobil1 - 102, buy them at any Walmart!). They did need a fussy oil; I bought Motul 10W60 at NAPA. Put over 140K miles on at least three of them, and as far as I know they're still going with their current owners.
Agree Jeff, If Mr Porsche thinks you will need access behind a panel, then the panel will come off and go back without any trouble. Other cars I have worked on, panels are assembled for ease of initial production. Having a hoist helps, I need to run the front up on ramps then jack the back onto stands. Doing this has allowed me to do all required maintenance even at the age of 70. All regular maintenance on my Cayman has been accomplished over the last 8 years without the need to remove the top engine cover, except for a look. You do very good videos and I appreciate them, thanks.
@@ivok9846have you ever changed plugs on a Subaru wrx, if it was as easy as just taking the wheels off to change them instead of using a jack to push the engine and transmission up just a little bit so you can get the room to fiddle around with a socket for 45 minutes to get the one bank done I’d be happy
The Mercedes 190e is also a maintenance dream. Made me love working on cars in high school, which I hate now after experiencing other makes and models. When the design engineer takes things into account it really makes a difference. Now though, big dealerships have lifts and such that standard practice is just lift the car, drop the subframe and pull the whole engine out, do maintenance, put engine back in, do alignment (bc suspension mounts to subframe) then its set. This allows manufacturers to build the cars much cheaper bc they don't have to do extra bends or cuts for things, and allows dealerships to charge more for maintenance bc of the difficulty, which they see as win/win. But for the consumer its lose/lose..
Thus is one of the best presentations I’ve seen in years! The animations, inline dissassembly clips, arrows and labels on actual photographs of real cars are all “chef’s kiss”! Brilliant editing! However having said that… I must confess… that I was quite sceptical about the actual claim (of Porsches having easy access for maintenance) until the last few minutes of the video where you gave actual examples. In particular, the intake manifold removal example, and the deliberate angling of fasteners for ease of access were quite convincing.
Thanks. I've been trying to improve the editing a bit so it's not quite so amateurish. Having a collection of videos to go and get clips and screen shots from does help. The ease of maintenance really was a big surprise. I'd owned one Audi in the past, and it was a complete nightmare. I will never own another for this reason. I assumed the Porsche was going to be the same considering it all comes from VAG. They clearly have different engineering teams with very different priorities working for each brand.
Very observant Jeff and so obvious when you point it out. People seem very surprised when I say I try to do all my own maintenance but it genuinely has not been too difficult at all. With the right tools and information (mainly your video library) I’m working my way through pretty much every job and saving a lot of money. These cars are built to maintain and last. Thanks so much!
Thanks for the well thought out video, great production value (including the wood block mock ups) and clear dialogue. Was easy to follow for a non mechanic auto aficionado. I love my 1998 Subaru Legacy Outback with 250K miles/ 405K kilometers on it. Also a low mounted true boxer (not just a flat, opposed cylinder engine). However, the frame rails in the engine bay are about 2 inches/5 cm from the spark plugs. With my socket set I could loosen the plugs, but then I could neither retrieve the plug nor the socket and extension. I found dozens of RU-vid videos showing expensive tools, machinists modifying tools for this procedure and the like. I finally came up with a bizarre disassembly of my tool after only cracking the plug loose. Once I had the technique perfected, it took me 3 hours to change 4 plugs. Based on this video, I think Porsche would have come up with a better solution.
Man, thanks for the great video! I’m a new owner of an ‘07 Boxster, so you taught me a ton. Made me feel even better about the purchase. Not only, you have a a delightful vibe. Cheers!
Most of the manufacturers realized long ago, that most first owners do all service work in the dealership, and by the time any substantial work needs to be done, the car will be sold to someone else long ago. Therefore initial customers don't care about serviceability. It's someone else's problem. And making a car easy to work on costs money - both in time spent on engineering as well as more costly production later. So manufacturers aren't particularly interested in making their cars more serviceable than the competition - if they care about depreciation, the same money can be better spent to make the car more reliable in the first place. Bravo to Porsche - they build expensive cars but they still didn't need to make things easy, and yet they did.
As a Boxster owner I can attest to the ease of maintenance. I will caution new owners to have a mat in the drain pan during oil changes as the oil come out at high velocity and can create a lot of splash. I have a 6 cylinder SUV, ( not a Porsche) and to change the spark plugs requires removing the intake. Also, there is nothing quite like being inside the car to change the belt when it's raining outside. I tip my hat to the Porsche engineers for thinking us.
Thank you Jeff for your wonderful video and creatively simple explanation of the genius of Porsche design. As an owner of a 2015 981 Base Boxster your work here is much appreciated. So far I have done regular oil changes and brake jobs. Up next is coil packs and new spark plugs which, before watching this video I was a little intimidated over but now few confident I can carry out this service.
Really well made video, thanks for making it. Its clear that you've put a lot of time, care and energy into planning and editing the video so its really appreciated.
7:11 and that's why most of the BMW with Xdrive (awd) systems leave the oil pan gasket leak....removing the subframe is a daunting task for the dyi, add side front quarters made of composite instead of metal and you need a three leg engine support not to crack them l..aghhh
Great video. I’ve owned 3 Boxsters and this is eye opening. One big frustration that is counter to your assertions is 718 gt4/Spyder oil change. No access window to filter and drain plug. Have to drop 2 undertrays and remove about 30 screws. Also the filter is way up high on the Spyder vs other 98X’s. Considering this is the #1 maintenance job and they made it so infuriatingly inconvenient is a real problem
I love your videos. They are so interesting, well done and just so enjoyable to me. I look forward to many more. Thank you so much for all your efferts. You are appreciated. From Los Angeles.
Last year I purchased a one owner clean title 981 base with 54,000 miles , 2.7 L engine with PDK and Sport Chrono , the car has been bulletproof with the exception of one of the active engine mounts failing ( no big deal) I am absolutely in love with the sound the design and especially the handling !!!!
I've been working on cars since 1964 and not once in all of that time have I ever heard of engine and transmission being put in a north-south Arrangement or an East-West arrangement. It's always been an inline or transverse mounted drivetrain. Whenever I looked at the Porsche boxster, I quickly realized that for considerably less money I could buy a Honda s2000, and it will spank a Porsche Boxster all day long. And it's also easy to work on
I also think one of the major reasons why the maintenance is so well thought through, because Porsche has not radically changed the design of the boxster/911. Stuff that worked in the last 60 years can easily be implemented or improved in the new model.
Jeff-you are the genius Sir! This is one of the best videos I have ever found on RU-vid mate. 👍👏👏👍👏👍 My newly acquired 981 will thank you for giving me the confidence to tackle most if not all maintenance jobs. I love the presentation-style and content 👏👏
I recently bought a 981 Cayman and was worried about exactly this as I usually like to have a got at any maintenance, simple fixes, diagnostics etc . Brilliant video, thank you. I knew the engine could be accessed from above but didn't know about the hatch access behind the seats for the belts/alternator - genius.
I work on my own Cayenne V8 and it's the same, very clever design once you figure it out. Thanks for this Jeff, gives me motivation to get a Cayman or 911.
I’ve done every 981 from the boxster to the gt4 and I got to say it’s my favorite Porsche to work on. The amount of stuff that can be one to the car with the engine still in the car is amazing specially with it being a mid engine flat layout Porsche really did an amazing job at making this engine serviceable
I love turning wrenches. Thanks for clearing up the false narrative that the boxster is difficult to work on. I really need to buy one. Sure parts can be pricey, but they're well built. And who doesn't want to drive a Porsche? Worth it!
Nothing compares to the wonderful access on the Triumph Spitfire/herald with its flip front and then totally exposed engine.You can even sit on a front tyre while working on the engine without the back ache.
Thanks for that Jeff. I've never worked on a Porsche but I have owned a couple - so it doesn't surprise me that the engineering thought and effort that went into the design - and is one of the reasons I love them - also extends to the issue of maintenance. Thanks for the eye-opener.
I have a 996.1 C2. I bought it 2015 and I basically do all the maintenance by myself. I have noticed this same thing. At first it looks the engine bay is very cramped but when you actually work on it you quickly notice that the design engineers must have worked on car at race track pits. It’s good to have a proper workshop manual. All and all I think the car is the easiest car I have had to maintain. I have taken the engine out twice. First time it took me a couple of evenings. Alot of time when getting the car high enough with simple jacks and stands. Second time it took me maybe three hours. I could probably squeeze it now down to 90 minutes - but now I have lift to make things simpler. Also with 911 you need to often drop the engine a bit from the two rear mounts - just take the nuts down end of the threads and you have enough room for many “difficult” things. But nowadays if I need to do something bigger I am confortable taking the engine down with my single post lift and a piler. Once the engine down it is so easy. Then you lift the engine back - it is about three hours when no hurry. It does teach you thinking to do many things at the same time like: injector cleaning and cabibration + AOS + Y-cable + starter + oil sender and of course IMSB, RMS, plugs, coils, water pump, thermostat, aux belt. Ive also done the chain sliders, added X51 extra oil scavenger and swapped to X51 sump, done the whole clutch, swapped cats, wrapped exh headers, added a couple of heat shields. And again, I find this all relatively easy. I also have a 1997 Audi S8 and it is a pain to work on compared to the Porsche. it is filled with design errors like try to get the lower rear suspension link bolt off at front. You need to lower the whole front subframe/engine/gb combo just to get the bolt off. If that designer had been in front of me at a certain moment … Also change the generator and either you will have to take the whole front in parts or work blind from underneath the car. Something that should be a 1 hour job took me two evenings. Most cars today are designed for the assembly line. With Porsche you get the feeling the designer has spent time underneath the car. Yet, Im somewhat surprised of the material choices Porsche has made in the water cooled era. The “for life lubed” IMSB is a clear design error most likely based on empty promises by the bearing makes, some cast materials are rather weak. Ultimately I think a Cosworth design is of higher quality than Porsche. It also has the racing pedigree but often more simple solutions than Porsches which are Isak’s churches in many ways - some call it German over-engineering. But all and all, my 911 has given more good moments than any other car Ive had. To own, drive and maintain one is a joy.
I loved this video Jeff. It really explained things in a simple but effective way. Certainly gave me encouragement to try more of the servicing myself. By the way the trickiest job I have done was replacing the air filters on my 981 Cayman. Even making up a tool to remove the filter holders was not enough - they were just stuck solid. Finally got them out, but boy it was hard work.
Thank you! This was a wonderful presentation. I wish resources like this had been available when I was a struggling college student many years ago. I once found a guy selling a 1969 Porsche 911s for just $5,000. The catch? The engine and transmission were disassembled and scattered across his garage floor because he was pressed for time before moving. I took the plunge, bought it, gathered some used tools, and a collection of shop manuals. I spent quite some time just staring at the pieces, wondering what I'd gotten myself into. Eventually, I began disassembling everything further to really understand how it all fit together. A month later, I managed to get the car running-and it ran beautifully. However, that experience led me to believe it was entirely normal to jack up the car, place a hydraulic jack under the engine/transmission, unbolt the unit, and lower it just to pop off the valve covers and adjust the valves. Or to run the engine at 6000 RPM while adjusting the distributor body with a timing light in hand. Oh my, indeed...
This is so true. I have been modifying and maintaining my 987.1 since 2006 and I wasn’t expecting that I can do it myself. Once the front panel, car is lifted, removed the two rear wheels, and the top is removed. Everything is accessible.
The fact that every car is not designed with maintenance like this in mind is inexcusable. This video makes me mad I don't have a Porsche! Then again, I was mad I didn't have a Porsche before this video as well... 😁
I have been a Pro Automotive Tech since 1976. I love working on Boxster's. I love driving them. The Boxster is my favorite Porsche. They are dependable and fun. I love Mazda MX 5's too :)
I like the wood block engine and transmission. What a complimentary video to Porsche Design. I heard a Porsche salesman say “Porsche is an engineering company that happens to make cars. Man I want one.
Jeff, I've been following and referencing your videos for some time when I have a question about 981 maintenance. They are excellent but this seems to take it to another level. Definately should have a wider audience. Well done my friend!
Picking up my very first Porsche tomorrow. A 981 Boxster. I also have a 93 vette that I do all the maintenence on but sometimes get very frustrated with but because it was "good old American muscle" I just assumed it would be easy and working on my new Porsche would be like, well, reading German! Now maybe I realize I have misjudged. Can't wait to get my hands on it. Thanks!
Great video “truth telling”. I am just a guy with no particular training or skill in automotive maintenance. I bought a 2010 987.2 Boxster in 2013 and have put 110K miles (total 137k) on it. Have done nearly all the maintenance myself or using an independent repair shop that works on Porsches and all manner of European Classic and modern cars. Jobs like changes of oil, Filters, plugs, coil packs, serpentine belts, fluid check/fill, brake pads and discs, all bulbs/lamps, battery, etc are all easy peezee. Of course RU-vid videos remove most of the mystery. Thanks again for a super video. As you noted folks need to be careful who they take advice from….lots of ignorance shovelers out there giving Porsche a bad rap re reliability and ease of maintenance.
This was an amazing video and I learnt a lot from this. You earned a sub sir ! Also, that engine and transmission mounting explanation was really nice...it looked more work than any thing computer drawn
Hey cheers for this Jeff. What a pleasure to watch. Thinking of getting my first boxster and inspired even more now to see the brilliance reflected in another area.
Fantastic video and so well explained. I love my 981 in part because it’s so well designed but I hadn’t fully appreciated the forethought that went into its packaging to make maintenance easier.
Thank you Jeff, that is an excellent video. Thank you for taking so much trouble. I have my sights set on a Boxter in the future. I have a 914 at the moment, which I love. I am fascinated the amount of trouble Porsche have taken for the servicing, the bug bear of many unusual vehicles. You are doing a great service to every 981 owner.
I am continually amazed at the engineering and technology that goes into my 987S. You can do so much of the maintenance yourself. Without too many exotic tooling or techniques. Will though out and durable. Thank you again for another excellent video.
Thank you so much for making such clear explanations. The video editing and all your pictures are fantastic! You are also a genuines! Thank you thank you thank you.... I hada 981 and nowown a 25th edition. Cheers from North Carolina
What a great video. Thanks for making this. I have a Cayman S (987.2) that I love, and I have over the last number of years learned how to wrench on it. People tell me I’m crazy, but I have found the same thing all around the car. What I think is going to be too complex, ends up being far more simple than I expected.
Thanks for another great video. One of the reasons I bought a 981C was the ability to wrench on it myself-I enjoy it and I hate paying mechanics unless I’m really in a bind.
I'm impressed by the amount of thought and effort in putting up an illustrated model for this representation even impressed when given 0 budget to start with!! 👍👍👍
Please accept my sincere appreciation for the effort you took to make this video. Hope you make many more such informative videos on Boxsters. ;-) Boxster GTS 4.0 owner.
I do everything myself on the 987C and its perfectly doable.. Waterpump first time ever, took me 3 hours.. a normal PC will count 4 hours at the minimum and then over run that .. Changing sparkplugs is a bit of a pain in the hole if you only have jacks, need good jacks and have to remove wheel and liner, but its again perfectly doable without a lift The hardest job so far, was the coolant distribution pipe thingie, a plastic coolant thing at the front of the engine. That thing was hard to get to and I had to lower the front of the engine about 10 cm and luckily i havent got huge hands..
VW’s also have an undeserved bad rap when it comes to maintenance. MQB platform VW’s are quite nice to work on compared to other makes. The Porsche Cayman was already on my list of cars I’d like to own, but this makes me want one even more.
As a 987 Boxster owner I found this video incredibly interesting! I changed the AOS myself and the hardest part was pulling it out because the seals were holding it extremely tight in the oil filter housing.
Wow, really interesting, I’ve got the 987.2 and didn’t know ANY of this stuff , me thinks I need to check out some of your other video’s . Thanks so much.
I used to have a 99 boxster base and it was my first European vehicle but since I do all my own maintenance and I all ready had 99 percent of the tools I dove in head first and I must say after working on it for a couple of years it wasn't near as bad as I thought for a mid engine car. I miss that sweet little sports car every time I think about it.
I see the same thing of the heritage from VW Beetle, 356 and 911. It is the same arrangement of Cayman/Boxster; but engine + transmission were turned 180*. Oh...you explained it in the later part of the video lol
The BMW motorrad R1100 / R1150 are kinda cool to work on. You can remove the rear wheel & transmission and it's still on the center stand with half the motor cycle removed. you can hoist the frame up for easy access with a built in hinge, the downside is you need lot of BMW tools you can't buy (maybe anymore) even for simple things like seals.
Great video, thank you, and couldn't agree more. I have a 986 and had to change the alternator, very easy (after I had watched your video of course). I use a well respected independent Porsche specialist to keep the service history up to date and their prices are very reasonable, no more than BMW or even Nissan/Renault dealerships.
