Boxster (2002) Transmission

[wams]

I live in San Diego, Ca. While I was up at San Rafeal (zipcode 94901) with my '02 Boxster, the transmission started to slip. Somehow, I managed to take it to Sonnen Porsche (By HWY 101) and left it there for them to find out what was wrong. They called me back and told me that the transmission had no fliud (!) and was totally shot. I needed a new or re-built transmission. The car is now sitting at Sonnen Porsche lot and they can fix (replace) the transmission and wanted $11K. Can someone tell me if there is a reasonable and reliable transmission shop in San Rafael (zipcode 94901) or nearby, who will replace the tiptonic transmission at a reasonable cost ... if I am able to provide a transmission. I looked at junk yards and found one (exact for 2002) for $2.5K. This can be shipped to SF area by the junk yard personnel and they will pick up the core. I am guessing that the shop could or would charge me at most $1500 for this job. Please let me know of any good transmission place. Thanks.

[vette67]

Ouch! Bad news! Be sure you arent running up a huge bill at the "stealer" for storing your car while you look for a decent tranny shop.

One of my vehicles (not the porsche) has an iffy transmission and Ive thought about what I would do if it decided to go out on me while I'm on the road. My insurance will pay to have it towed to the nearest dealer, or anywhere else as long is it is the same distance or less as to the nearest dealer. I definately do NOT want to take it to the dealer for the very reason you have discovered. So Im considering getting a $60 annual AAA membership because Ive heard that they will tow up to 100 miles free. I'd want to get my car back to the house until I find the tranny shop I want to deal with. Then I can get AAA to tow it to that shop from my house for free. That's the plan anyway.

I havent had much luck on this site getting tips for the best local shops. Hope you have better luck. Have you considered one of those warehouse-style tuner stores out there? Ive heard there are places that will sell you good mods like Pss10s, racing components, tires, etc and are actually pretty good at working on Porsches. Sorry I cant be more specific... its just something Ive heard and I live in Atlanta so there's been no need for me to really follow up on it.

Let us know how it works out?

Edited February 1, 2009 by vette67

[geoff]

Check with Tool Pants (although I haven't seen him here lately). I think he found some reasonable transmission rebuild shop in San Jose for his Toyota pickup. The base Boxster manual transmission is sourced from Audi, not sure about the Tip. Given the transmissions have been around for a while now, I expect a non-Porsche shop might have the wherewithal to tackle the job for a lot less than the dealer

You might want to check some of the wreckers up there as well to see if somebody crashed their car without damaging the tranny. See http://mike.focke.googlepages.com/listsofsources