Overview: Boxster S clutch & flywheel
 

Here's the patient. 2000 Boxster S with 104K miles.

Attachment 22597


Remove axel nuts -- you need the half-shafts out to remove the tranny:

Attachment 22598


Put the top in "service mode":

Attachment 22599


Remove storage tray/speakers, carpeted sound pad, and engine cover:

Attachment 22600


Raise car and begin working under the car -- at first it looks daunting with all of the exhaust parts and underbody bracing:

Attachment 22601


But once that stuff is out of the way, access to the tranny is excellent:

Attachment 22602


Here's another view, note the black cross brace that passes under the tranny bell housing. You can leave this in, but it is only 4 bolts (plus the crash tether bolt) and removing it gives even more room to work:

Attachment 22603


Before removing the tranny, you have to support the engine. Here is my $10 solution -- a 4x4, an eye bolt and a short chain:

Attachment 22604


Now is a good time to loosen the bell housing bolts 1/2 turn. Then support the tranny and take off the tranny mounts (from both chassis and tranny). Do not attempt to remove the center bolt on the mounts -- doing so will destroy the mount. Instead you take out the two small bolts on each mount to separate the entire mount from the car. Then remove the mounting brackets from tranny.

Right-side mount and bracket:

Attachment 22605


Left-side mount and bracket:

Attachment 22606


Disconnect reverse switch (at rear of tranny), shift cables (use a large flathead screwdriver to pop them off), and bell housing bolts. Then the tranny just slides out with plenty of room to spare.

Attachment 22607


Old pressure plate, clutch, and flywheel.

Attachment 22608


New flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate. While my flywheel was OK, I decided to replace it anyway to ensure many more years of no worry driving.

Attachment 22609


Replace your throwout bearing, clean & lube the release pivot point, clean & lube splines on tranny input shaft, clean and lube the surface the throwout bearing slides on, then re-install tranny, half-shafts (don't forget to fully torque these after you have the car back on the ground), exhaust, underbody bracing, and go for a drive!

In my case, the new clutch is super smooth and progressive.

Wow, nice write-up. What's the book rate for the job?

Shudder (bad memories:() The manual trans looks much easier. Nice writeup. FWIW, You don't have to pull the axles. The manual just says to unbolt the CVs @ the trans.

Correct, you don't **have** to pull the axles, but they will be a major annoyance throughout the job and taking them out is so, so easy I can't imagine anyone deciding not to remove them.

Nice job John.

Looks like lots of room in there once trans under brackets and shields are out of the way.

Did you do a new pilot bearing as well? Boxsters have them?

Going to replace clutch slave cylinder or master?

Glad(e) you replaced the DMF.

Nice work. :)

What, no money shot showing the RMS and IMS flange?

Great write up - thanks!

Book rate = $1000+ in NoVA
$800 in Winchester

(Now you got me thinking about doing this myself...)

Have the RMS or IMS bearing ever been changed? At 104k miles, that might have been good things to get access to.

Thanks, Jase.

Yup Boxsters have pilot bearings. The new flywheel came with a pilot bearing already installed.

No issues with clutch hydraulics so I chose to leave them alone. I did bleed the system (no bubbles seen).

I was so excited to see a dry engine case when I removed the old flywheel that I forgot to snap a picture. The RMS looked good, so I decided not to mess with it. Ditto for the IMS bearing, mine looked fine from the outside: no oil leaking, retainer bolt not sheared off. I considered doing the Flat6 Innovations IMS bearing upgrade while I had it apart, but given only about 2% fail (best guess on some web boards) I didn't think the ~$700 cost was worth it.

Entire engine was replaced at 69K miles by PO and Porsche (PCNA paid 75% of replacement cost, by the way), so I only have 35K on this engine. RMS and IMS looked fine and I decided to gamble and let 'em ride, so to speak.

Got it!!!