Soooo how bad is it to red line an old Boxster? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Long story short.....I was showing my brother my new to me used 01 Boxster with 158k miles on the dial.....he was really loving the test drive and grinning from ear to ear. I told him he was shifting way too early and I finally got him shifting in the sweet spot. I made the mistake of saying this thing doesnt even red line til 7k........The very next stretch of open road he red lined 2nd gear into 3rd before I could say WTF!!!! it was done..............given my car is an 01 with high mileage do u guys think this is a big deal or and absolute joke and no worries? Thanks

I suspect no problem.. There's a number of folks here that track their cars regularly and take great pride in red-lining pretty much every shift. And...they seem to get away with it without regrets.

Get him steering to slide and start worrying about trees instead I’ve redlined my car a hundred times without regret Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There is a rev limiter for a reason. Its Ok to bang it when upshifting. Very bad when down shifting as you cabn mechanicly overrev it. You don't want a money shift

Thanks for the replies.......I mean the ole gal handled it......but I am trying to squeeze a few more miles out of her before she gets in my wallet deep.

158K miles is a lot of miles. Your engine is definitely a senior citizen. Your current driving style will have very little to do with the remaining longevity of the engine. What matters the most is how it was treated the previous 158K miles. If the engine was hammered on for years and years, driving calmly now won't matter much as whatever wear it experienced can't be undone. And if it was driven by a little old lady who never revved it over 3K rpm, then an occasional run up to redline isn't going to matter much. My advice is to enjoy it and if that means the occasional run up to redline, then so be it. Starting with a used 90K mile engine, my engines experience more than 3,000 runs up to redline each year on the race track (4 upshifts per lap x 10 laps x 4 sessions x 20 days). At this level of use (abuse?), an engine lasts 2 years. Then I install another used engine and keep going. I'm on Engine #5.

Wow....sounds like your having a blast on the track with these little monsters. I am sure you know then inside and out by now. Yes I feel like I am on borrowed time but just want to enjoy the car for the summer or maybe even a couple of years. If she blows up then she blows up. At that time she would get a nice used replacement and we will keep the ole gal rollin.

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It'll make for a great story blowing er up in a spirited drive than blowin er up in granny gear.

Redline upshift on a straight road, no problem. Redline mid corner on a long sweeper, or over-rev downshift is the motor killer. Enjoy your car!

Cool...thanks......would like to enjoy my car but have doors pulled apart to fix the dang window drop problem.........will enjoy it again soon.......will be 100 degrees here in Va this weekend

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You are only worried about it because you know about it. The car could have been red lined many times before you purchased it. Forget it and enjoy the car.

.....spank her. She loves it.

I've got a '00 base with 160k miles and I still redline in the mornings to work. Since we share a similar year and mileage and you were concerned about getting more miles out of it I wanted to share something going on with mine. Recently I had the driver side variocam timing chain guide disintegrate ( I have a recent post in the forum). It appears to be a common problema s the engine ages. I bought mine a few years back with 112k and zero history. You can do some of your own online research by looking up variocam. I'm learning there is a way to see this issue coming as the pads wear, but you have to have Durametric software to diagnose. You will see many posts on the subject. Hopefully this can help you get ahead of the issue instead of how I learned about it. I'm not intending to create panic here either, just check it out.

Interesting that you are still redlining the ole gal. Sorry to hear the chain guides have failed. The previous owner of my car had them fail and repaired the top end on both banks. I believe thats the correct terminology. Anyway I havent driven my car since the day my brother redlined it in second gear that day because I have had the door apart to fix the window problem. So the car has not been started in sayyyyyy 2 weeks. When I started it tonight a big puff of white smoke came out of the exhaust. Now I will have to check the paperwork but I believe my previous owner ( a Porsche technician ) also replaced the air oil separator so I am assuming my white smoke is oil getting past the valve seals......but thats just me trying to sound like i know what i am talking about. Is this a common issue on high mileage 986's? When the previous owner told me the chain guides were replaced and refurbed the top end of both banks....forgive me if my term is wrong.....I would assume valve seals....would that be a reasonable assumption since he was already in this area of the engine?

Sorry to ask this but are you sure it was white? Or looked white? WHite smoke is usually associated with antifreeze. A large puff of oil (blueish color) every once in a while seems common from what I have read over the years. Before I replaced my AOS (a year after I bought it) I was getting a puff of smoke which started infrequently and got more frequent (like once a week) before it totally went and was blowing smoke until I got home 10 minutes later. My AOS is 3 years old now and I would say over the three years I've got a puff maybe 5 times. Bad valve seals can also create a puff at start up but generally when those start to go bad, you get smoke every startup. So definitely try to determine if it was white or blue. If it was a blue puff, then I would hold off to see when it happens again. If it's white, it would definitely be more concerning.

and sometimes they smoke on start up, usually when everyone is watching you leave the pub. It is a flat 6, oil lays about, the AOS goes bad, (even after being replaced) and sometimes it rattles on start up. wait to see if it is a problem before you start worrying. :+)

It was def a strong puff of white smoke on start up....the car had sat for 2 weeks after being run hard on a couple of test drives. Of course im gunna keep on gettin on......just trying to learn as I go. I started it up a day after the white smoke and there was zero smoke. Im going to start it up and go for an evening spin around the block tonight.......

Well shoot......yep she is now blowing smoke consistently on start up. One thing I do know.......I started the car 20 times or so since I have owned it with zero smoke on start up. I let my brother red line the thing on a test drive and now it is blowing smoke on start up. I checked suction of oil cap while car was running......there was light suction which I believe is normal right? Will have to look into all symptoms for AOS.......at this point I am hoping its the AOS.........

Light suction is what it should have. strong suction is bad and indicates an AOS failure.

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If I had nickel for every time I did this... I would have $3.35