Porsche 911 997.1 Daily Driver

[adean22]

Even after drying out the brake light it still wasn't working.
As the original third brake light had been water damaged I was a bit reluctant to purchase a new one at over £100 to have the same happen again. This got me thinking about ways to improve it.

I ordered a 30cm LED waterproof light strip as i knew this would fir in the casing.

I replaced the old led board in the casing with this light strip and wired it up to the connector.

This solution works well and looks OEM. Its also brighter than stock and shouldn't get water damaged ever again.



For the first time in a few weeks, the car is now together in one piece and back to daily duties.

Im also slowly getting my dad used to driving the car as he had always wanted a 911 when he was younger (often tells me if he hadn't of had me he would of been able to buy one) Its nice to see him drive about in it and enjoy it too.

[TurboRob]

Lovely work all round

[adean22]

Brake light fix hasn't come up with any errors on the dash so I'm classing that as a success, since the car was taken off the roads for the thermostat etc after fitting new tyres I hadn't had proper chance to see how the new PS4s's were.

Compared to the old tyres they are so quiet, the tyre noise used to really bug me but now the tyre noise has gone. Dont get me wrong, there is still some tyre noise which is to be expected from 295 wide tyres in the rear.
The car also grips so much better now. Even when enthusiastically setting off in 1st the car just grips and goes which is impressive for a RWD car.

The car is now back to daily duties. Here's some pics of the car as it is now. And before anyone says anything about the front plate, it must have shrunk in the wash. But the plate is now the exact same size as the backing plate (only a little smaller than standard), in my opinion it makes the front of the car a lot nicer as the plate doesn't stick out from the bodylines of the car as much.

I have been pulled over by the police and they didn't mention anything about the plate and he did have a good look over the car. Apparently was a routine check - officers smirk was wiped off his face when I proved the car was owned by myself and it was fully insured ETC. Think he had saw a young lad driving a 911 and thought it was an easy catch.

Edited by adean22 on Friday 27th May 11:41

[Montyjsr]

Just read this full thread and really impressed by your attitude to the repairs with the gearbox etc... fella. Car looks very good and no doubt you'll continue to look after it. Have you got anything planned trip wise with it for the summer now? Saw you mentioned repeating the MG trip and wondered if anything was lined up?

[adean22]

Montyjsr said:

Just read this full thread and really impressed by your attitude to the repairs with the gearbox etc... fella. Car looks very good and no doubt you'll continue to look after it. Have you got anything planned trip wise with it for the summer now? Saw you mentioned repeating the MG trip and wondered if anything was lined up?

Thanks for the kind words. Original plan was to go back up to Scotland and fetch the 911 this time. However now travelling abroad has opened up again my summer holiday will be abroad this year. However I am thinking of a nice road trip round the south of France next year.

The car will be coming with me to a camping trip to Cornwall at the end of summer. Not quite Scotland but it will be interesting to see how it deals with a 5 hour drive. Granted, I feel the journey may be shorter than it normally is in the MG

[Montyjsr]

adean22 said:

Thanks for the kind words. Original plan was to go back up to Scotland and fetch the 911 this time. However now travelling abroad has opened up again my summer holiday will be abroad this year. However I am thinking of a nice road trip round the south of France next year.

The car will be coming with me to a camping trip to Cornwall at the end of summer. Not quite Scotland but it will be interesting to see how it deals with a 5 hour drive. Granted, I feel the journey may be shorter than it normally is in the MG

Yeah, getting out abroad is a lovely luxury again.

Cornwall in a car is good, we went down to stay with a friend just before the week before the original lockdown fully lifted and the place was empty, I was really surprised by how good the roads down there are without the usual caravan traffic. Sure the 911 will handle it well, after all they're basically fancy beach buggies right?

[adean22]

We all know bank holiday weekends are for car mods and the jubilee weekend was no exception.

I had seen a Maxton splitter advertised on facebook for less than half of what it was new and it was still wrapped up in the brand new packaging. Only caveat was it didn't come with a fitting kit. But tbh I wouldn't trust the self tappers that they come with anyway.
I went to collect the splitter from Cheshire and found myself upon some gorgeous roads that I need to revisit. The guy selling had a gorgeous 997 that he had tastefully modified, I was extremely jealous of his carbon fabspeed intake

I had also ordered some plastic mesh to make some grilles to go infront of the AC rads to protect them from all the crap that builds up on them. I would install the splitter and the grilles at the same time as the bumper would need to come off for both - was also a good time to clean out between the radiators. The 997's have a common issue of AC Radiator and coolant radiators rotting out as leaves and other debris gets stuck on and between them and it sits there wet causing it to corrode. The idea of grilles is that it stops leaves and larger debris from entering the radiator area.

First job was to take the headlights out - this was very easy and I was very impressed by the mechanism.

7

Next job was jacking the car up and removing wheels so I could remove the arch lining to access the bumper bolts.




The bumper was now removed, it was a bit fiddly but was easy enough. Just have to be methodical and have some patience.



I used my grass (mostly moss but lets still call it grass) as a soft surface to lay the bumper on so I could test fit the splitter and go about securing it onto the bumper. For this I used 12 M14 bolts bolted through the splitter and the bottom of the bumper. The splitter is very secure on the bumper and there is no way its going anywhere. Some people use self tapping bolts but no way would I trust that at 100+mph, sorry I mean 70MPH.
(plastic wrapper still on splitter in this pic)


For the grilles I cut the plastic mesh to shape and used a hot glue gun to secure them in place - reminded me of primary school. I opted for using a glue gun as it would secure the grilles strongly but without the need for drilling or anything like that. And if i remove the grilles the glue will be removed as well and there will be no trace that the grilles were ever installed.


Next job was to clean all around the radiators, when I removed the cowling around them they were full of crap, loads of leaves, small stones and even a few parts of cigarettes. The previous owner has cleaned these last year so I was surprised to see just how much has accumulated in only 7k miles . I undid the front rads so I could properly clean out in front of the rear ones .




Going back to the wheel well, when had removed the lining I noticed that on both sides the metal support frame for the radiators had some surface rust and were really showing their age.




I couldn't put the bumper back on but leave them like that so I set about sorting them out.
I used a wire brush to clean all the rust and muck off, then painted some rust convertor primer on, ten went over the top with a few layers of black paint. These now look a lot more presentable and the main thing is they are now protected and wont continue to rust.


Once the paint had dried I went about putting everything back together. The tape on the car is to protect the edge of the bodywork when reinstalling the bumper




Here are some pics of the grilles installed and the splitter installed on the car. I really like the grilles, they are subtle but purposeful - basically the opposite to the splitter.

Moving onto the splitter, I really don't know if I like it or not. From some angles I really like it and it makes the front end look more aggressive, but from other angles I'm not too keen. Maybe the fact its gloss black doesn't help, I do feel if it was satin black or body coloured it would be more OEM looking. Im gonna leave it on for a bit and see how I feel about it in a few months. Here's some pics of it complete and back together:

Edited by adean22 on Thursday 9th June 16:46

[Gad-Westy]

Nice work. Amazed there was no factory mesh on the 997 (or 996.2 for that matter). Such a common issue on the 996 and so easily remedied.

[AyBee]

Would be great to see a photo of the splitter from further back with the whole body in view, but agreed that satin black or body colour might look better on initial glance.

[ballans]

Good work! Can’t believe how quickly the rads fill up with rubbish.
I like the look of the splitter but you’re right, it needs to be a more subtle colour. Body colour would be nice but a Matt finish would be a good start. Just not shiny.

[adean22]

AyBee said:

Would be great to see a photo of the splitter from further back with the whole body in view, but agreed that satin black or body colour might look better on initial glance.

Here you go:

[adean22]

8 Month Update with the car

So today marks 10 months of ownership. Its crazy how quick the time has gone, it only feels like a few weeks ago when I went to collect the car. Granted, I think collecting the car will be a memory I will keep with me for the rest of my life. Collecting the car circa 250 miles away from home threw me in at the deep end but the drive home had me with the biggest grin I had ever had. It sounds very cliché but my dream had now come true and I still struggled to believe it was real.

8 months later I'm still living my dream with driving the car. Despite current crazy fuel prices and running costs the car makes me happy every time I drive it and iv made lots of memories with the car.
I think that's the great thing about being a petrol head, you make memory's from the experiences you have in certain cars and they stick with you forever. Granted, them memory's come with a cost but money can be earnt back, where as time cant.

There's no plans of the car going anywhere anytime soon, there's nothing I want to replace it with and there is no reason for me to move the car on. As long as my finances agree I do believe this car will be a keeper.

I know some people find it interesting to see running costs of cars like this (well I do) so here is 10 months of costs excluding fuel, insurance and tax:




So maintenance has been £1220.69
Mods have been £323.28

Mods cant really be factored into maintenance costs as they weren't needed for the car to run.

I think £1220 to run a 911 for 8 months is rather good. Bearing in mind tyres make up a huge majority of that. My current prediction(as long as nothing major goes wrong) is that its going to be about 2k to maintain for a year, me doing a lot of work myself has offset a lot of the cost. If labor was added in I would expect it to be circa 3.5k a year.

The next cost will be a service. As much as I like doing stuff myself I do want to retain the service history of the car so I'm currently looking at options of place to fetch it for a service in the north west (any recommendations are very welcome)

Iv not covered as many miles as I intended to due to working from home earlier in the year and making use of a company pool car for work related journeys (mileage allowance wont even touch the sides of fuel, nvm wear and tear). However iv still covered about 7k miles (very very close to 100k miles now) which I still believe is good going. Iv got a trip to Cornwall with the car in a month or two so that will be a good test for the car (around 750 mile round trip) .

Edited by adean22 on Thursday 16th June 16:16

[carinaman]

Very impressive.

[Gorilla Boy]

adean22 said:

8 Month Update with the car

So today marks 10 months of ownership. Its crazy how quick the time has gone, it only feels like a few weeks ago when I went to collect the car. Granted, I think collecting the car will be a memory I will keep with me for the rest of my life. Collecting the car circa 250 miles away from home threw me in at the deep end but the drive home had me with the biggest grin I had ever had. It sounds very cliché but my dream had now come true and I still struggled to believe it was real.

8 months later I'm still living my dream with driving the car. Despite current crazy fuel prices and running costs the car makes me happy every time I drive it and iv made lots of memories with the car.
I think that's the great thing about being a petrol head, you make memory's from the experiences you have in certain cars and they stick with you forever. Granted, them memory's come with a cost but money can be earnt back, where as time cant.

There's no plans of the car going anywhere anytime soon, there's nothing I want to replace it with and there is no reason for me to move the car on. As long as my finances agree I do believe this car will be a keeper.

I know some people find it interesting to see running costs of cars like this (well I do) so here is 10 months of costs excluding fuel, insurance and tax:




So maintenance has been £1220.69
Mods have been £323.28

Mods cant really be factored into maintenance costs as they weren't needed for the car to run.

I think £1220 to run a 911 for 8 months is rather good. Bearing in mind tyres make up a huge majority of that. My current prediction(as long as nothing major goes wrong) is that its going to be about 2k to maintain for a year, me doing a lot of work myself has offset a lot of the cost. If labor was added in I would expect it to be circa 3.5k a year.

The next cost will be a service. As much as I like doing stuff myself I do want to retain the service history of the car so I'm currently looking at options of place to fetch it for a service in the north west (any recommendations are very welcome)

Iv not covered as many miles as I intended to due to working from home earlier in the year and making use of a company pool car for work related journeys (mileage allowance wont even touch the sides of fuel, nvm wear and tear). However iv still covered about 7k miles (very very close to 100k miles now) which I still believe is good going. Iv got a trip to Cornwall with the car in a month or two so that will be a good test for the car (around 750 mile round trip) .

Edited by adean22 on Thursday 16th June 16:16

I'd recommend Porsche Unique in Westhoughton, the best bar none in the north west.

They've just done the big service on mine, brilliant attention to detail and they are more than happy to answer any questions (especially intricate/fiddly ones from a mechanical reliability engineer such as myself!)

They also do a discount on labour if you're a TIPEC member.

[monthefish]

Gad-Westy said:

Nice work. Amazed there was no factory mesh on the 997 (or 996.2 for that matter). Such a common issue on the 996 and so easily remedied.

I fitted some to my 996 turbo (although I thought Porsche added it as standard to later models?)

[adean22]

Gorilla Boy said:

I'd recommend Porsche Unique in Westhoughton, the best bar none in the north west.

They've just done the big service on mine, brilliant attention to detail and they are more than happy to answer any questions (especially intricate/fiddly ones from a mechanical reliability engineer such as myself!)

They also do a discount on labour if you're a TIPEC member.

They are only a few miles away from my house and everyone iv asked only has great things to say about them. Ill give them a ring and probably go with them. I'm also about to join TIPEC so that works out decent aswell

Thanks for the recommendation

[adean22]

Over the weekend iv purchased some brake caliper spacers and bolts.

These allow me to use the standard calipers but pair them with the 350mm Disc from the 997 turbo. One gripe I have with the car is the brake pedal feel isn't as good as I want it and this mod is meant to improve pedal feel, aswell as improve braking performance.
I also like how its adapting something to use OEM parts still. It will be a bigger disc but still a Porsche disc.

The standard discs are 330mm so I'm not sure ill notice a 20mm increase, but it should also look a bit better with bigger brakes. I did a similar thing on my mg by going from 240mm brakes to 280mm brakes at the rear and it did make a difference.

I'm currently only doing this for the front but will probably do the rears aswell. Iv been looking into braided brake hoses today to see if they are an improvement over stock lines or if they are just a gimmick. Any thoughts on the matter would be very welcome.

Im going on holiday to Thailand for the next few weeks so there wont be any miles or mods being done to the car for the next month, annoying as I'm so close to 100k on both the 911 and the MG.

Edited by adean22 on Monday 20th June 12:09

Edited by adean22 on Monday 20th June 12:10

[adean22]

Iv gone ahead and ordered some Goodridge braided stainless steel brake lines and some brake fluid.

The brake fluid is due a change and since ill be changing the discs and pads and fluid, some new brake lines is good routine maintenance at 100k miles.
All that's left to source for my brake upgrade is the 350mm turbo discs and some brake pads.

[adean22]

All my parts arrived in for the brake upgrade. I went for Sebro discs as I believe they make the Porsche OEM discs and they are coated which will prevent rust at the hubs or edges on the discs. I chose Textar pads as they are recommended on Porsche forums.


I set about removing the old calipers and flexi brake lines. The nearside brake line looked original and the offside had been replaced in the last few years, personally I would always replace these in pairs so that was another reason for me changing all the brake lines to new upgraded ones, the new brake lines should be fine now to fetch the car another 100k miles.

(new vs old lines)



Here's a picture showing the old disc vs the new disc. The new one is only 20mm larger so may not look that much bigger. The old discs had a fairly large lip on them and the pads didn't have much meat left on them so I'm viewing this more as maintenance as oppose to an upgrade. And what's the point of replacing standard discs with standard discs when there is an easy upgrade, even if it doesn't improve braking, they needed doing soon anyway




I got the new discs on easily - good thing about upgrading with parts from the same car but a better model is that things piece together well without any niggles/ modification. If i have some money burning a hole in my pocket in the future I may buy some 6 pot calipers but that wont be any time soon.

And I got the calipers on with the new bolts and spacers. The pads went in easy enough and I could reuse the brake wear sensors which easily clipped in.









The cars now back together but I ran out of time to bleed all the brakes and change the fluid so that's a job for tonight.

If all goes well this weekend I should be at tuner fest at Oulton park and possibly going out on track so we will se how the brake and car hold up. When the rear brakes need changing I will probably opt for the 350mm route aswell.

Edited by adean22 on Thursday 14th July 08:59

[adean22]

I changed the brake fluid and got all the brakes bled and managed to get out and put some miles on the car yesterday.

Initial impressions are as follows:

. pedal feel is improved and the brakes bite sooner on in the pedal travel
. the pedal needs to be pressed less than before for the same braking force
. when braking heavily the brakes feel like a huge improvement.


Now I don't know if this is caused by the bigger discs, new fluid and new brake lines. However it there is an improvement and for a low cost upgrade im happy with it.

Iv just got the rear brake lines to change now so hopefully I'll get chance this weekend to do it.