Porsche Boxster Rear End Wandering

Had this Boxster come into the shop on Friday to diagnose a random rear end wiggle when going down the road, similar to tramlining. The owner said it was bad enough it you would really feel it in the seat.

With 165k+ miles on the car, diagnosing issues like this can be very expensive. There are so many things that can cause an issue like this on a high mileage car. Recent alignments did no good, and being on the original shocks/bushings/ball joints, etc, it can get expensive in a hurry once you go in to replace worn out components. Here you can see the inside of the wheels cupping. This can be caused by worn shocks, or bad wheel bearings, and could cause a wandering issue, though it shouldn’t come and go like the current problem.

While it was in the air, the rear brake pads needed to be replaced as well, so I put in some new pads and sensors.

Being the issue wasn’t constant, and typically only occurred after encountering uneven road surfaces, I looked towards the engine mount first. They are a known issue, and could easily toss the rear of the car around if the mount was blown out. A strategically placed prybar showed the mount to be indeed blown.

Lowering the engine to get the mount out.

And as you can see, this mount is completely shot and not supporting the motor in place like it should. A new replacement and we were back on the road!

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One Comment

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lin

July 15, 2013 at 8:01 AM

Good catch!
Really enjoy these early morning brain teasers.
lin

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