Remember those sub £10k 996s from a few years ago?
Discussion
Year one June 13 to June 14
About 8500 miles. Total Spent £1844.73 excluding fuel and tax.
Not listed for some reason is the wheels. I think I paid ~£650 inc tyres for them newly refurbed. I flogged the old ones for most of that. Oh and I sold the old steering wheel (wish I kept it for originality now).
Remember - I had a car with an amazing history, but a couple of outstanding issues. I also do ALL the spannering myself and spend time sourcing parts at the lowest cost.
First job was to fix that front end knock and get the alignment sorted.
So I had a good poke around the front suspension. It had recent coffin arms so not that. There was some play felt at the wheel - so wheel bearing was replaced. This did not fix the knock. I got in the "frunk" and bounced up and down with my finger on the top mounts. These waggled around a bit and tuned out to be separated. There was play in that sides shock shaft. I had to destroy the ARB link to get the shock out, which was replaced with a low mileage used shock. I figured "what the hell" and replaced the forked arms too so all the front suspension was known good. I initially set the tracking.
Whenever I took a rusty part off I treated and painted it.
Now I bought an FAG wheel bearing as they make good bearings.
TRW suspension arms came with Porsche logo and numbers ground off - they are OE
Top mounts from Design 911 (which both later failed again)
Top mount bearings from OPC
Febi Bilstein ARB link
The passenger window stopped working. A few petrol flap bits fell off. Car was due a major service. Low temp thermostat seemed a good idea. I chnaged the gearbox oil in an attempt to reduce cranky cold shift to second (never been changed) The fill plug was stuck fast (always try to remove the fill plug before the drain plug...). Coil shield was rusted out.
In August the air con stopped working. The leak was traced by a local guy with a UV lamp to the long pipe under the sill - this had been damaged by careless jacking and had pin holes. I swapped the pipe and got him back to charge up. I fitted mesh from ebay over the front end grilles and cleared leaves out from between the rads at the same time.
The stock speakers were toast. In September I chopped them out of their cages and replaced with Pioneer units. At the same time I scored a three spoke wheel on eBay, these are nicer to hold (hands sit lower and they are thicker). Also got the front end alignment properly adjusted with laser guidance.
In November the MOT was due, the only advisory was play in the rear track arm. This was replaced with a TRW OEM item. Cutting the eccentric bolt out by hand was not fun. I changed the gearbox oil again for a higher spec Motul oil, as the gear change had got worse. This transformed the shift! Its has been crunch free ever since.
April 14 and I had my first fault code "enrichment limit reached". Googling around and checking the crankcase vaccuum determined too much unmetered air was going in the engine. The culprit was the rubber bellows that connect the AOS to the crankcase £8 aftermarket part from design 911. Seen here on the left of the AOS (this was changed with the AOS in situ with long arms and small hands).
I like to change the oil every 6k, 117k came around in April.
In May I got to know the car a little better at Aintree (yes the clio I think lapped me - who cares - I had fun, so did he):
They say trackdays test your car's limits. During the trackday the air con gave up again. On the way home I had a nasty knock on rough surfaces felt through the pedal box. This only occurred when the car was hot. I also got brake fade (probably ancient fluid).
The air con compressor had seized, destroying itself.
The new one is the same part as a Zafira and an Audi V6, I got a Nissens branded item. Easy to change (apart from that rear bolt!) and I got an air con guy to flush and recharge the system. I changed out the expansion valve (same as a mercedes) and the receiver dryer (same as a toyota). No brake fluid listed as I already had it in stock and pumped some new through, noting a snapped nipple which I left for another day.
I was hoping the next year would be cheaper.
About 8500 miles. Total Spent £1844.73 excluding fuel and tax.
Not listed for some reason is the wheels. I think I paid ~£650 inc tyres for them newly refurbed. I flogged the old ones for most of that. Oh and I sold the old steering wheel (wish I kept it for originality now).
Remember - I had a car with an amazing history, but a couple of outstanding issues. I also do ALL the spannering myself and spend time sourcing parts at the lowest cost.
First job was to fix that front end knock and get the alignment sorted.
So I had a good poke around the front suspension. It had recent coffin arms so not that. There was some play felt at the wheel - so wheel bearing was replaced. This did not fix the knock. I got in the "frunk" and bounced up and down with my finger on the top mounts. These waggled around a bit and tuned out to be separated. There was play in that sides shock shaft. I had to destroy the ARB link to get the shock out, which was replaced with a low mileage used shock. I figured "what the hell" and replaced the forked arms too so all the front suspension was known good. I initially set the tracking.
Whenever I took a rusty part off I treated and painted it.
Now I bought an FAG wheel bearing as they make good bearings.
TRW suspension arms came with Porsche logo and numbers ground off - they are OE
Top mounts from Design 911 (which both later failed again)
Top mount bearings from OPC
Febi Bilstein ARB link
The passenger window stopped working. A few petrol flap bits fell off. Car was due a major service. Low temp thermostat seemed a good idea. I chnaged the gearbox oil in an attempt to reduce cranky cold shift to second (never been changed) The fill plug was stuck fast (always try to remove the fill plug before the drain plug...). Coil shield was rusted out.
In August the air con stopped working. The leak was traced by a local guy with a UV lamp to the long pipe under the sill - this had been damaged by careless jacking and had pin holes. I swapped the pipe and got him back to charge up. I fitted mesh from ebay over the front end grilles and cleared leaves out from between the rads at the same time.
The stock speakers were toast. In September I chopped them out of their cages and replaced with Pioneer units. At the same time I scored a three spoke wheel on eBay, these are nicer to hold (hands sit lower and they are thicker). Also got the front end alignment properly adjusted with laser guidance.
In November the MOT was due, the only advisory was play in the rear track arm. This was replaced with a TRW OEM item. Cutting the eccentric bolt out by hand was not fun. I changed the gearbox oil again for a higher spec Motul oil, as the gear change had got worse. This transformed the shift! Its has been crunch free ever since.
April 14 and I had my first fault code "enrichment limit reached". Googling around and checking the crankcase vaccuum determined too much unmetered air was going in the engine. The culprit was the rubber bellows that connect the AOS to the crankcase £8 aftermarket part from design 911. Seen here on the left of the AOS (this was changed with the AOS in situ with long arms and small hands).
I like to change the oil every 6k, 117k came around in April.
In May I got to know the car a little better at Aintree (yes the clio I think lapped me - who cares - I had fun, so did he):
They say trackdays test your car's limits. During the trackday the air con gave up again. On the way home I had a nasty knock on rough surfaces felt through the pedal box. This only occurred when the car was hot. I also got brake fade (probably ancient fluid).
The air con compressor had seized, destroying itself.
The new one is the same part as a Zafira and an Audi V6, I got a Nissens branded item. Easy to change (apart from that rear bolt!) and I got an air con guy to flush and recharge the system. I changed out the expansion valve (same as a mercedes) and the receiver dryer (same as a toyota). No brake fluid listed as I already had it in stock and pumped some new through, noting a snapped nipple which I left for another day.
I was hoping the next year would be cheaper.
Edited by was8v on Tuesday 6th November 16:47
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
was8v said:
Year one June 13 to June 14
About 8500 miles. Total Spent £1844.73 excluding fuel and tax.
I'd have a wager that the number per year is not dissimilar thereafter either........ About 8500 miles. Total Spent £1844.73 excluding fuel and tax.
Having only owned a 987 from new for a short time back in 2005, I have fancied that one day I'll have a 911 but the cost of ownership in this thread does surprise me.
Like I said earlier, I still run my e36 323 bought in 1998 and it has barely cost me anything to keep on the road. Battery went flat after 9 years so it's on its second battery for the past 11 years.
Just the usual pads, discs and springs.
I know it's nowhere on par with a 996 but the stuff being replaced isn't performance orientated much.
Is such an originally expensive car really so fragile?
I ask out of genuine interest.
Like I said earlier, I still run my e36 323 bought in 1998 and it has barely cost me anything to keep on the road. Battery went flat after 9 years so it's on its second battery for the past 11 years.
Just the usual pads, discs and springs.
I know it's nowhere on par with a 996 but the stuff being replaced isn't performance orientated much.
Is such an originally expensive car really so fragile?
I ask out of genuine interest.
croyde said:
Is such an originally expensive car really so fragile?
I ask out of genuine interest.
I'm not sure it's fragile per se.I ask out of genuine interest.
You have to remember that it was 14 years old and 110k miles. Suspension bushes and rubber parts do age due to exposure and will wear out.
The Aircon pipe is a bs design running close to jacking Point. The Aircon compressor is the same as an Audi part, I was maybe unlucky?
One costly design issue is the ball joints are moulded into alloy arms. You can't just bolt in a ten quid ball joint.
The car was high days and holidays for the PO. I pressed it into daily service.
I remember having a 15 year old golf MK2 GTi. I was constantly replacing things on that in the same manner.
I think it's immaterial how expensive it was new. Nothing built to a cost is hewn from granite.
Edited by was8v on Tuesday 6th November 19:47
Year Two June 14 to June 15
About 6000 miles. Spent £1310.40
The knocking in the footwell when hot turned out to be the inner track rods. When the power steering fluid heats up these get hot and tighten up, causing the weird knocking. So I replaced inner and outer track rods with TRW parts (remember, they make the genuine bits too).
I was having some rough running and weird idle stalling problems (no codes) so I thought I'd try a new MAF as it ran better without the MAF plugged in. Made it much better. MAF sourced from a genuine Bosch suppler (be careful of fakes) in the euro zone (remember when the euro was cheap?). 4 new tyres and quick laser alignment check to make sure I had set it right. The KU39 is a great value tyre - I'd encourage people to try them before casting aspersions.
The left exhaust box started blowing. I scored a brand new item for a C4S on eBay for £200 from Jasmine. The exhaust boxes on all 3.4/3.6 Carreras are interchangeable, just the final pipes and tips are different on a C4S, easy to swap them over and flog the new C4S tip on eBay for ££££
Another oil service and shift to Millers OIls as per hartech recommendation.
The top mounts failed again, I was upset by this so sent them back to Design 911 for a refund. I bought SACHS brand replacement for much less than the d911 ones, and they came with Porsche logos and numbers gorund off (they are the genuine article).
A TRW track arm for the other side (as there was a little play) and new ARB bushes all round.
Another fairly pricey year.
About 6000 miles. Spent £1310.40
The knocking in the footwell when hot turned out to be the inner track rods. When the power steering fluid heats up these get hot and tighten up, causing the weird knocking. So I replaced inner and outer track rods with TRW parts (remember, they make the genuine bits too).
I was having some rough running and weird idle stalling problems (no codes) so I thought I'd try a new MAF as it ran better without the MAF plugged in. Made it much better. MAF sourced from a genuine Bosch suppler (be careful of fakes) in the euro zone (remember when the euro was cheap?). 4 new tyres and quick laser alignment check to make sure I had set it right. The KU39 is a great value tyre - I'd encourage people to try them before casting aspersions.
The left exhaust box started blowing. I scored a brand new item for a C4S on eBay for £200 from Jasmine. The exhaust boxes on all 3.4/3.6 Carreras are interchangeable, just the final pipes and tips are different on a C4S, easy to swap them over and flog the new C4S tip on eBay for ££££
Another oil service and shift to Millers OIls as per hartech recommendation.
The top mounts failed again, I was upset by this so sent them back to Design 911 for a refund. I bought SACHS brand replacement for much less than the d911 ones, and they came with Porsche logos and numbers gorund off (they are the genuine article).
A TRW track arm for the other side (as there was a little play) and new ARB bushes all round.
Another fairly pricey year.
Fast Bug said:
Good thread 
Those 996.1 rear parking sensors really are awful looking things though, it's amazing they passed sign off!
I find them pretty useful though!Those 996.1 rear parking sensors really are awful looking things though, it's amazing they passed sign off!
I once contemplated buying a plain bumper and putting modern sensors in it. But then I came to my senses after spending on maintenance!
Year Three June 15 to June 16
About 4000 miles. Spent £542
The rear dog bone bushes didn't look too clever (one had separated from the arm) so I replaced all 4 arms with very low mileage 997 items. Also painted the gently rusting shocks and ARB.
Sagging engine mounts, really transformed the car! Amazing difference. I chose genuines OE supplier items, of course I sourced them from rockauto in the USA didn't I - note 993 part number.
Battery gave out on me. Yes 996s can be bump started on a hill in reverse in case you were wondering..... Front Coffin arm ball joint started knocking so was swapped (this was the first in the history to be swapped years ago). No more TRW arms were available, so Meyle was the next best thing.
Damn window regulator gave out again! This time replaced with a mint used item. OSF radiator sprung a leak and got replaced.
Not a bad value year all told, but few miles.
About 4000 miles. Spent £542
The rear dog bone bushes didn't look too clever (one had separated from the arm) so I replaced all 4 arms with very low mileage 997 items. Also painted the gently rusting shocks and ARB.
Sagging engine mounts, really transformed the car! Amazing difference. I chose genuines OE supplier items, of course I sourced them from rockauto in the USA didn't I - note 993 part number.
Battery gave out on me. Yes 996s can be bump started on a hill in reverse in case you were wondering..... Front Coffin arm ball joint started knocking so was swapped (this was the first in the history to be swapped years ago). No more TRW arms were available, so Meyle was the next best thing.
Damn window regulator gave out again! This time replaced with a mint used item. OSF radiator sprung a leak and got replaced.
Not a bad value year all told, but few miles.
Edited by was8v on Tuesday 6th November 22:09
Edited by was8v on Tuesday 6th November 22:10
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