Orient Express

The clear coat on Porsche calipers is notorious for drying up and flaking off.

As a mater of routine maintenance on my 996, I just take some 1500 grit sandpaper to feather out the edges of where the clear has flaked off on my 996 calipers, clean the caliper really good with brake cleaner or mild solvent, and then respray the offending area with Rust-Oleum crystal clear enamel. This clear coat seems to have much better wear qualities than the OEM clear coat, and once I have sprayed an area, it never needs touch-up again.

Meanwhile I could get hold of a pump.

I found one of the vacuum boxes, attached to the muffler is leaking.

However, this box is not sold separately for the 996, only the complete muffler.

In the 997 catalogue is a part no. for the vacuum box itself. I wonder, if I can use this for the 996 too? This box is about USD 80,- only

and to be honest, I would not like to buy a new muffler for more than USD 1.000,-, just for this "cheap" part!

Thanks a lot!

Gert

996 & 997 PSE baffle actuators are the same.

Blackstone labs. You send in an oil sample and they take it from there. They will tell you exactly what metallic materials are in your oil and how much.

Thanks for a great idea.

Since I wrote the original post, I had installed the ROW M030 suspension on my car, and it lowered it to about the height of a turbo, so now what I do to get the Jack under the rear of the car is drive the rear tires onto some short 2x4s. That 1.5" of additional clearance is all I need to get the jack under the rear.

What you have here is the classic "Caliper Clear coat Delamination" that is a chronic Brembo Porsche Caliper problem. Over time the clear coat gets dry, and flakes off. I have had this even happen with new calipers that was so bad, that I got Porsche to make a warranty replacement of the caliper.

I have found that the easiest repair is to feather sand off the clear coat around with blemish with 1600 grit sandpaper and respray the affected area with high-temp engine clear paint. This repair has worked for me.

Is this a pre-owned car? If so, that is an abandoned lojack connector. That is not an OEM connector.

It is assumed that you have the airbox to throttle plate pipe correctly installed with no air leaks? If you did not put the pipe back on correctly, that would make the car run lean, which would cause problems like what you describe. Loosen the hose clamps and make sure the hose pipe is correctly seated.

I did this mod a few years ago, and it is very easy.

+1 on the Michelins. They are by far the quietest high performance tires I have used on my Cab. It is very difficult to make a meaningful difference in road noise with the soft top simply because of the top's acoustic transparency.

I have found that the best way to make a significant dent in noise is to install the hardtop. it is like night and day with the hardtop on.

Start by tracing the PSE vacuum lines back to their source on the engine. That is probably a vacuum takeoff next to the throttle body, then examine all of the lines for obvious cracks or disconnects. Be sure to check up on the mufflers where the baffle actuator is to make sure one of those lines did not come loose.

If you can get a hold of a hand vacuum pump you can connect it in place of the solenoid to see if you can get the baffles to close that way. If so that will help you trace down where the leak is.

Here are some pictures of my PSE install to help trace the lines

Paul:

There will be some compression of the motor mounts that will raise the engine a bit, and depending on how your muffler tips are set, they may hit the top of the bumper cover.

However, you should also inspect your motor mounts as they may have failed sometime in the past. Look for purple dribble stains of a dried liquid on where the motor mounts bolt to the engine carrier. If they have failed, now would be a good time to replace them.

+1 sounds like (no pun intended) on a Vacuum leak. Check the connections to the Vacuum storage tank behind the solenoid valve. Also make sure that none of the plastic vacuum lines aren't broken. Also try manually energizing the switch to see if you hear it clicking on and off.

I use Rejex on my windshield and it makes the glass surface very slippery so that bugs and fine ablative particles bounce off without leaving much damage.

I wanted to add that if you are doing a PSE installation from scratch and have to run the PSE wiring harness (or are having someone do the install for you), an alternative to cutting the diode in the relay is to simply not to install the Speedometer Signal A wire (Grey/Pink) that goes from the Relay socket pin 6 to the jumper plug 1/1 in slot 23 of the relay support. Simply tie that line off. If at a later time you want to activate the speed cutout, it is easy to just install the wire in Jumper Plug 1/1, Slot 23.

My car is a 1999 cabriolet with PSE installed complete with the vacuum cutoff but without the dash switch. I would like to add the dash so I can turn the system off completely if desired. Is a wiring diagram of harness available to add the swith later?

thanks for any help.

Here is the install instructions for the Sports Exhaust System. In this installation document are the connections into the relay block for adding the switch.

Sports Exhaust System 03.pdf

Another solution might be to get the speed data from the speedometer signal wire in the cabin. That is the pink/white wire in the relay support bracket. This signal wire provides speed info for things like the PSE, soft top retraction system, and other things. This wire is a universal tap for anything that needs vehicle speed info to work.

One other thing that you should make sure is cleaned. in the radiator area is between the radiator and the A/C condenser. That is the area that really gets clogged, and can cause the car to run hotter.

What are the RCA jacks for?

The RCA jacks are the output for the generic ipod adapter. The Becker cable for the radio also has RCA jacks as its input so the two are plugged together.

I have the Becker CDR220 as well and an iPod Touch 4g. I went with the Becker Sound cable and am very pleased with the results. It's one wire, not a bundle of RCA plugs. It charges the unit as well. Most other solutions will not work with 4G as the electrical requirements are different.

The Blitzsafe link mentions iPod Touch and iPhone, but doesn't specifically mention 4g. I would bet that it won't work with 4g.

I have this rig, and use it on my iPhone 4 just fine.

Put this between your Becker cable and the iPhone/iPod and you will be fine. The is the rig that I have installed:

Blitzsafe universal adapter

This will allow your iPhone to be charged and will pause the device when you turn off the car.

The coolant cap has an indent in the last quarter turn to set it correctly.

Here is a cap that is not fully tightened:

And one that is fully tightened:

Notice the alignment of the cruciform. This insures that the rubber gasket is correctly compressed to prevent leakage at pressure.

I use bootcamp with a PC partition on my macbook for all of my PC diagnostic software. I have been using this for several years without any issues at all.

The door switch is part of the door handle, and is not available as a separate part. Likewise, the door latch microswitch is part of the latch assembly and not available as a separate part.

With that said, the microswitches are standard Cherry switch parts, and could be replaced if you are good at being able to disassemble the latch and door handle assemblies.

996 latches are very similar to VW latches, Here is a discussion on how to repair the VW latch.

I use EBC Red Stuff ceramic pads on my 996 and have had good results. There is still some dust, but not at all like the OEM pads. I highly recommend them.

Very nice, the interior looks new!

Is this door/foam the same door that controls mixing from the heater core? Or are there two different doors to clean up?

I don't think that the mixing baffle has foam on it, but the cabin air intake door that is in the cowl does have foam on it. Since this door is exposed to the outside it is the one that is most susceptible to degradation.