Another 996 thread!
Discussion
Small post xmas update.
Having done 1500 miles in the last couple of months I thought the car deserved a small xmas present:
I did say a small present. It turns out one of those is the perfect size to fit to your airbox to blank off the helmholtz resonator:
Who says Porsche ownership is expensive?
It is indeed a perfect fit. This supposedly frees up a bit more of an induction bark which is a nice thing to have and cheap and very easy to reverse mod! I've got a spare if anyone wants it...
I'll eventually get a 45 degree silicone hose to replace the existing OE part. But for now the standard part is back on.
Just has a successful Sunday afternoon fitting new coffin arms and track rod ends. Everything came apart without much of a fight at all for which I am extremely grateful.
Inner bolt came out very easily, not corroded into the bush thankfully which is very common! Taper popped out with the mildest of encouragement too.
Meyle HD vs OE part. I know there was an issue with Meyle coffin arms being too long, but these looked exactly right. Clearly the casting isn't quite as good quality - the fillets are much tighter on the OE part - but the Meyle ones were £90 each including all fixings which I reckon is a pretty great deal. Meyle parts were 150 grams heavier too - 1.5kg vs 1.35kg.
The ball joints were squeaking quite badly but there was no play I could feel, although they were a lot looser than the Meyle parts and the bushes were a lot softer. Could have probably got away with injecting some grease into the ball joints as suggested by our very on PPBB. Still appears to have tightened everything up very nicely.
Drop links and tuning forks also seem to be in great condition.
Toe links had torn boots on both sides which is an MOT fail, replaced by TRW parts which I understand is the OE supplier? Need to get tracking done again now though...
Whole job only took about 3 hours so had some time for a wash and some other random jobs like adjusting the slightly wonky exhaust tips, forgot to take an after pic so here's a before of the car looking filthy!
Post work test drive confirmed I'd managed to remove the squeak from the front - it's now only squeaking from the rear! Very pleased with the work as I was anticipating this being a nightmare. The car really is very clean underneath - I count myself very lucky, no doubt it's low mileage is a factor in this!
Having done 1500 miles in the last couple of months I thought the car deserved a small xmas present:
I did say a small present. It turns out one of those is the perfect size to fit to your airbox to blank off the helmholtz resonator:
Who says Porsche ownership is expensive?
It is indeed a perfect fit. This supposedly frees up a bit more of an induction bark which is a nice thing to have and cheap and very easy to reverse mod! I've got a spare if anyone wants it...
I'll eventually get a 45 degree silicone hose to replace the existing OE part. But for now the standard part is back on.
Just has a successful Sunday afternoon fitting new coffin arms and track rod ends. Everything came apart without much of a fight at all for which I am extremely grateful.
Inner bolt came out very easily, not corroded into the bush thankfully which is very common! Taper popped out with the mildest of encouragement too.
Meyle HD vs OE part. I know there was an issue with Meyle coffin arms being too long, but these looked exactly right. Clearly the casting isn't quite as good quality - the fillets are much tighter on the OE part - but the Meyle ones were £90 each including all fixings which I reckon is a pretty great deal. Meyle parts were 150 grams heavier too - 1.5kg vs 1.35kg.
The ball joints were squeaking quite badly but there was no play I could feel, although they were a lot looser than the Meyle parts and the bushes were a lot softer. Could have probably got away with injecting some grease into the ball joints as suggested by our very on PPBB. Still appears to have tightened everything up very nicely.
Drop links and tuning forks also seem to be in great condition.
Toe links had torn boots on both sides which is an MOT fail, replaced by TRW parts which I understand is the OE supplier? Need to get tracking done again now though...
Whole job only took about 3 hours so had some time for a wash and some other random jobs like adjusting the slightly wonky exhaust tips, forgot to take an after pic so here's a before of the car looking filthy!
Post work test drive confirmed I'd managed to remove the squeak from the front - it's now only squeaking from the rear! Very pleased with the work as I was anticipating this being a nightmare. The car really is very clean underneath - I count myself very lucky, no doubt it's low mileage is a factor in this!
Thought I'd pop an update in here.
Been using the car as much as possible given the lockdown conditions, so not that much apart from a few trips to the office and to the shops!
During lockdown have been hard at work trying to spruce things up generally however...
Managed to pick up some xenon headlights which were badly yellowed for a bargain price, a bit of time with some sandpaper and UV resistant top coat got them looks great:
Very pleased that the headlights actually work now, the standard units really are dire (even with new bulbs).
Still working on a 'Modern' bi-xenon HID solution however which I'm nearly ready to test. Should be plug and play so easy to swap out to compare outputs and for MOTs - while these use xenon units from a BMW X3 they're excellent quality and don't dazzle I'm a bit wary about sending them through an MOT.
Finally got around to replacing all the coffin arms, I was very very lucky that none of the adjusters were seized in the arms which makes the job so much worse. I now have zero squeaks from the suspension which is great, replaced both front tuning forks too, just need one more tuning fork replaced on the back left and the suspension will be totally A1!
Replaced the final bearing in the idler pulleys. These were in need of being done so another thing I don't have to worry about for a while. Buying the bearings and pressing them is much cheaper than spending £50 on an idler so I chose to go that route.
Finally had a big job to do and that was fitting the new OE M030 spring and dampers to the car. This involved removing the front spring and damper units, which comes with a particular pain in the ass Porsche issue. Cleverly the bolt for the drop link is also the bolt that clamps the strut in the hub carrier, which is why 986/996 drop links look like this:
However, as the drop link bolt is steel and the hub carrier is aluminium those two corrode together resulting in them becoming stuck fast. This is the same reaction that causes the coffin arm adjusters to get stuck, too. I had hoped given the car looked to have been garaged that this wouldn't happen to me. No such luck. I was lucky that only one drop link was stuck, but plenty of heat and hammer action got the thing loose without any damage.
This allowed me to get rid of this old stuff:
and fit my shiny new bits. You can also see above why simply loosening the drop link isn't enough to slide the damper out - there is a bit of sheet metal that prevents the damper from being detached unless the drop link bolt is totally removed.
The car was then driven (carefully!) to get the geometry set where the guy was very confused at how many different directions the wheels were pointing in!
My final job is to fit the (second hand) M030 anti roll bars that I've had delivered. This will take me up to full M030 specification. I'm going to have these powder coated red because racecar.
It's also nearly time for me to send my second hand gearbox with LSD off the Sports and Classic for a rebuild; my current gearbox is whining under load which is a sure sign of a knackered pinion bearing. Some cunning man mans means that when I fit that I should have my perfect 'useable' 996:
- Xenons (so you can see where you're going)
- 6 speaker upgrade (to listen to tunes)
- LSD (for skids)
- M030 (for me the best ride/handling compromise)
- Sports Seats (so you don't fall out of the seats when going round corners)
Been using the car as much as possible given the lockdown conditions, so not that much apart from a few trips to the office and to the shops!
During lockdown have been hard at work trying to spruce things up generally however...
Managed to pick up some xenon headlights which were badly yellowed for a bargain price, a bit of time with some sandpaper and UV resistant top coat got them looks great:
Very pleased that the headlights actually work now, the standard units really are dire (even with new bulbs).
Still working on a 'Modern' bi-xenon HID solution however which I'm nearly ready to test. Should be plug and play so easy to swap out to compare outputs and for MOTs - while these use xenon units from a BMW X3 they're excellent quality and don't dazzle I'm a bit wary about sending them through an MOT.
Finally got around to replacing all the coffin arms, I was very very lucky that none of the adjusters were seized in the arms which makes the job so much worse. I now have zero squeaks from the suspension which is great, replaced both front tuning forks too, just need one more tuning fork replaced on the back left and the suspension will be totally A1!
Replaced the final bearing in the idler pulleys. These were in need of being done so another thing I don't have to worry about for a while. Buying the bearings and pressing them is much cheaper than spending £50 on an idler so I chose to go that route.
Finally had a big job to do and that was fitting the new OE M030 spring and dampers to the car. This involved removing the front spring and damper units, which comes with a particular pain in the ass Porsche issue. Cleverly the bolt for the drop link is also the bolt that clamps the strut in the hub carrier, which is why 986/996 drop links look like this:
However, as the drop link bolt is steel and the hub carrier is aluminium those two corrode together resulting in them becoming stuck fast. This is the same reaction that causes the coffin arm adjusters to get stuck, too. I had hoped given the car looked to have been garaged that this wouldn't happen to me. No such luck. I was lucky that only one drop link was stuck, but plenty of heat and hammer action got the thing loose without any damage.
This allowed me to get rid of this old stuff:
and fit my shiny new bits. You can also see above why simply loosening the drop link isn't enough to slide the damper out - there is a bit of sheet metal that prevents the damper from being detached unless the drop link bolt is totally removed.
The car was then driven (carefully!) to get the geometry set where the guy was very confused at how many different directions the wheels were pointing in!
My final job is to fit the (second hand) M030 anti roll bars that I've had delivered. This will take me up to full M030 specification. I'm going to have these powder coated red because racecar.
It's also nearly time for me to send my second hand gearbox with LSD off the Sports and Classic for a rebuild; my current gearbox is whining under load which is a sure sign of a knackered pinion bearing. Some cunning man mans means that when I fit that I should have my perfect 'useable' 996:
- Xenons (so you can see where you're going)
- 6 speaker upgrade (to listen to tunes)
- LSD (for skids)
- M030 (for me the best ride/handling compromise)
- Sports Seats (so you don't fall out of the seats when going round corners)
That looks great, well done.
Suspension is on the list for mine, it's in at local Indy for minor service and gearbox/transmission oil next week, I've asked him for an opinion on suspension, seems fairly crashy to me. Tempted not to do it myself given the grief I've had doing anything else to this car with everything seized up. But then I'm on the exhaust group buy on 911uk so ummm could be an expensive summer!
Suspension is on the list for mine, it's in at local Indy for minor service and gearbox/transmission oil next week, I've asked him for an opinion on suspension, seems fairly crashy to me. Tempted not to do it myself given the grief I've had doing anything else to this car with everything seized up. But then I'm on the exhaust group buy on 911uk so ummm could be an expensive summer!
Those drop link/damper bolts are a big pain. I had fun and games on a friend's 996 doing the same sort of suspension job. Luckily we got the bolts spinning using a lot of impact gun, (breaking the drop links off plus grinding the ball joint off to allow us to put socket/impact gun on there) and then hammered the bolt out of the hub without causing any damage. New drop links/dampers and the car was good as new 
Gallons Per Mile said:
Those drop link/damper bolts are a big pain. I had fun and games on a friend's 996 doing the same sort of suspension job. Luckily we got the bolts spinning using a lot of impact gun, (breaking the drop links off plus grinding the ball joint off to allow us to put socket/impact gun on there) and then hammered the bolt out of the hub without causing any damage. New drop links/dampers and the car was good as new
I've heard various horror stories about getting these bolts out - as well as getting the eccentric adjusters and bolts out for the coffin arms which appear to rust for fun. I'm so lucky that this was the only real challenge I came across - I could even reuse the drop links albeit with copious amounts of antisieze.Yep, you were pretty lucky there! It looks like you've got a decent car and you're definitely doing all the right sort of maintenance These are on 'The List' for me. Driven but not owned, though I think my friend would entertain a temporary swap with my E90 M3 for his 996 every so often 
These are on 'The List' for me. Driven but not owned, though I think my friend would entertain a temporary swap with my E90 M3 for his 996 every so often 
Nice looking 911, I always got on ok with the standard Halogen lights on my wife's 986S, but my peepers are pretty good.
Next time you hoover the drivers mat it's worth checking the plastic accelerator floor hinge. Like you I heel and toe and eventually it split the plastic (repaired with a stainless hinge and self tappers).
Apologies if I missed it, but what are your plans for having an LSD fitted, which unit are you going for? Any plans to drive it on track?
Next time you hoover the drivers mat it's worth checking the plastic accelerator floor hinge. Like you I heel and toe and eventually it split the plastic (repaired with a stainless hinge and self tappers).
Apologies if I missed it, but what are your plans for having an LSD fitted, which unit are you going for? Any plans to drive it on track?
Fishy Dave said:
Nice looking 911, I always got on ok with the standard Halogen lights on my wife's 986S, but my peepers are pretty good.
Next time you hoover the drivers mat it's worth checking the plastic accelerator floor hinge. Like you I heel and toe and eventually it split the plastic (repaired with a stainless hinge and self tappers).
Apologies if I missed it, but what are your plans for having an LSD fitted, which unit are you going for? Any plans to drive it on track?
Thanks!Next time you hoover the drivers mat it's worth checking the plastic accelerator floor hinge. Like you I heel and toe and eventually it split the plastic (repaired with a stainless hinge and self tappers).
Apologies if I missed it, but what are your plans for having an LSD fitted, which unit are you going for? Any plans to drive it on track?
I'd have probably been happy enough with the lights except for a couple of things - first being my M3 had exceptionally good bi-xenons (the first car I drove with these!) so the contrast from the BMW to the Porsche was particularly noticeable. Second of all I work in the lighting industry (although we only really work with LEDs nowadays) so my sensitivity to these sort of things is pretty high.
Will check around the throttle hinge - thanks for the tip - although the car is low mileage at 62k so should hopefully be OK.
With regard to the LSD - I've picked up a spare gearbox with an OE LSD fitted (or so I'm told) and plan to get that rebuilt along with the gearbox hopefully in the next couple of weeks.
It could be my size 10's mind. Just wrapped up some fairly major work!
So I've had a whining noise coming from the gearbox basically since I bought the car. Turns out it's a rare but not uncommon issue with these cars in which the pinion bearing inside the transaxle wears causing noise when cruising.
I finally relented and found a local gearbox place that was happy to do the work.
So jack the car up:
Whip the box out (so easy to type....):
transport to gearbox place:
take off the flywheel and reveal the IMS which was slightly weeping - bear in mind this is 60k's worth of clutch dust:
clean the area:
After locking the flywheel and removing chain tensioners you can remove the IMS cover:
at which point the IMS was inspected and found to be in excellent condition. It's a double row version which has a failure rate of something like 0.4% which is extremely good news. Current best practice is if you have a dual row in good condition then leave well alone apart from removing the outer seal to allow oil to circulate.
seals replaced:
additional sealant used to reduce any chance of leakage down the line. RMS left as it was in great condition:
clutch refitted with new hardware. Gearbox refitted too which was a fair old struggle but not too bad in the end:
Whole episode took just over two weeks from start to finish. I also had a Quaife LSD fitted to the box while it was out of the car.
I'm happy to say that the car is now much quieter (or as quiet as a 20 year old 911 with a noisy backbox can be...) and is free from gearbox whine which is a great relief. The local rebuilders did a great job - if anyone wants their contact details hit me up as I'd be happy to recommend.
Feels great to be back on the road and I've not attended to most of the common issues that 911's of this era can be subject to.
At the next oil change I'll take a look at the variocam sliders which are known to wear and replace them. This requires the exhaust manifold to be removed though which is it's own challenge!
So I've had a whining noise coming from the gearbox basically since I bought the car. Turns out it's a rare but not uncommon issue with these cars in which the pinion bearing inside the transaxle wears causing noise when cruising.
I finally relented and found a local gearbox place that was happy to do the work.
So jack the car up:
Whip the box out (so easy to type....):
transport to gearbox place:
take off the flywheel and reveal the IMS which was slightly weeping - bear in mind this is 60k's worth of clutch dust:
clean the area:
After locking the flywheel and removing chain tensioners you can remove the IMS cover:
at which point the IMS was inspected and found to be in excellent condition. It's a double row version which has a failure rate of something like 0.4% which is extremely good news. Current best practice is if you have a dual row in good condition then leave well alone apart from removing the outer seal to allow oil to circulate.
seals replaced:
additional sealant used to reduce any chance of leakage down the line. RMS left as it was in great condition:
clutch refitted with new hardware. Gearbox refitted too which was a fair old struggle but not too bad in the end:
Whole episode took just over two weeks from start to finish. I also had a Quaife LSD fitted to the box while it was out of the car.
I'm happy to say that the car is now much quieter (or as quiet as a 20 year old 911 with a noisy backbox can be...) and is free from gearbox whine which is a great relief. The local rebuilders did a great job - if anyone wants their contact details hit me up as I'd be happy to recommend.
Feels great to be back on the road and I've not attended to most of the common issues that 911's of this era can be subject to.
At the next oil change I'll take a look at the variocam sliders which are known to wear and replace them. This requires the exhaust manifold to be removed though which is it's own challenge!
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