Hello there gentlemen!
This is my first post here. After almost 2 years of stalking this forum and daydreaming and fantasizing I finally took the plunge and got my first Porsche! She is a 2005 Boxster S with 57,000 miles - Atlas grey metallic/ Stone grey with 19" Carrera wheels and Preferred package. I owned a VW Jetta (my first car) before this and driving the Porsche is an other world experience! True said - there is no substitute!

So I have this little bit of trouble with the car and wanted your opinions on it. Every once in a while, I need to crank the engine quite a bit to get it to start. I am talking 10-15 rotations before she fires up.
Everything following this is additional information which might not be related:
I think this happens when the engine is warm and the car has been driven a couple hours before, but still need to confirm this. Also, before I picked her up she had been sitting at the dealership for 5 months, so much that the battery had run out and needed to be replaced.
Something changed after I got an oil change done yesterday. Presumably the last one was 2 years ago by the previous owner, he claimed to have driven only 7000 miles in last 2 years. I have sent a sample to Blackstone, waiting for their analysis. When I started up the car again on a warm engine with the new oil it cranked too much and displayed an 'Engine oil pressure low' before firing up. This warning never came up before the oil change, but there were no lights after and I drove her for about 20 miles after that with no issue.

Does anyone have a clue what could be happening? I wanna take good care of my first Porsche!

- LJ

 

Hello
I have the same issue since a couple of week on my boxster.
Did you find why the engine was cranking a lot sometime ?
Thank you
Seb

 

I'd suspect the battery. The only times I've experienced slow cranking with either of my Porsches soon after the battery had to be replaced.

The low oil warning light can be due to low electrical power. With one of my cars the radio would come on but not work.

Of course you're going to point out the battery was replaced. Was it? Are you sure?

Even so, a new battery can fail at any time. In the case of my Turbo the battery was replaced and 6 or 7 months later the replacement battery deemed bad (the engine wouldn't crank) and replaced again. I did not let the battery run down and drive my cars almost every day and for long trips so the battery gets recharged after engine start.

Now you can suspect the battery connections, not at the battery posts but at where those cables connect. I've been told that where the negative lead connects this can get corroded and cause some odd starting or other electrical symptoms. The fix is not gruesome. Loosen the fastener just enough to move the cable connection a bit to rub of any corrosion and then tighten the fastener again.

 

Thank Macster for the feedback
In my case, the cranking is not slow and work fine. Randomly the car doesn't work to fire. Actually if I crank for 20 s or so it will always start in that case.
The weird factor is "randomly". It happened on sunny day or rainy day, when the car was cold or warm, ...
Don't you think that if it was the battery the car will have this issue every time I'll try to start it ?
When I have to crank longer to start the car, it smells a little bit fuel, so I guess it's not an issue with the fuel pump.

 

Sadly I will not be able to help you as I don't have that car anymore and never really found a resolution for that issue.
I can confirm though that its not the battery, mine had a new battery installed just prior to purchase. Hope you get to the root of your problem soon.

 

@Macster I am positive the battery was replaced since the one before was completely flat and wouldn't retain charge even after the car was jump started and driven for a while.

One hypothesis is that the new installed battery had insufficient cranking power or was a bad unit. That could explain why the engine continues to crank but just not fast enough to fire up.

BTW the oil report I mentioned in the OP came out fine.

Could it also be faulty spark plugs? That could explain in @DaSeb's case why the engine is cranking and fuel delivery is good but the engine doesn't fire up.

@DaSeb do keep us posted how it goes.

 

Oh, didn't get that it cranks a long time before it fires. Two things. Still could be the battery. Years ago a woman lived next door to me and her VW (an old air cooled one) would just crank and crank and crank then fire. Sometimes she'd give up and go get her husband who'd come down and the car would sometimes fire right up but other times act up for him too.

A mechanic in training moved in next door and his wife and my wife and he and I became friends. He told me the problem with the VW was the battery was strong enough to crank the engine but not strong enough to supply enough volts to work the coil. A coil (back then I do not know now) needed 9v or the collapsing electrical field would not generate a spark.

Or it could be a crankshaft position sensor. If this doesn't work the engine will still crank but not fire as the DME with no crankshaft position sensor signal will not know where the pistons are and thus not fire the plugs.

I would think it would not trigger the fuel injectors either but you say you smell gasoline so this kind of takes the crankshaft position sensor as a possible cause off the list, or moves it further down the list.

However, it doesn't take but a squirt or two of fuel then none for the smell of fuel to be noticeable.

So I'd want to move the crankshaft position sensor a position or two back up the list.