New Boxster Service Manual

Posted By: Gary Samad gsamad@san.rr.com

"Today I received an interesting new book, which will be available to the public tomorrow, December 15, called the Porsche Boxster Service Manual from BentleyPublishers (www.BentlyPublishers.com). It covers Boxster and Boxster S models from 1997 through 2004. In the spirit of full disclosure, they sent me the book for free in the hope that I might review it.

I like it. It seems to cover many of the areas that are frequently asked about on the Boxster Racing Board, including suspension component removal and reassembly, electrical system diagrams, clutch, transmission, and engine removal and installation, and more.

It begins with a 32 page color section of Boxster overview, including nice descriptions of model year differences. A section on maintenance follows, along with photos and diagrams. In fact, the entire manual is formatted with photos and diagrams on the left and detailed descriptions of procedures on the right. Nice.

I jumped to the section on suspension removal and installation, which is discussed often here, and it certainly includes detailed descriptions and photos of the specific bolts to be removed, specialized tools required, etc. It includes helpful hints such as ?leave transmission in gear and apply parking brake to make removal of inner CV joint retaining bolts easier.? This job certainly requires some experience and specialized tools, however; but, with that experience, tools, and this manual alone, I expect that it could be done.

Electrical questions seem to come up regularly on the Boxster Racing Board, and the electrical wiring diagrams section is the most extensive in the entire book ? 130 pages long!

The section on transmission removal and installation was detailed, but stopped short of disassembling the transmission to change gears, etc. I guess there's only so much you can do in 1,000 pages!

Initially I thought the index was skimpy, but after consulting it for several different items, I realized that it was pretty nicely cross-indexed, and simply didn't cover things that the manual didn't cover (such as heated seats).

So, although I haven't used Bently Publishers' Porsche Boxster Service Manual yet for a specific job, I will consult it the next time I have a question or problem, and compared to the price of the Porsche manuals, it certainly seems like a bargain for $99."