Orient Express

I assume you have the hand brake engaged? Top won't go up or down via the switch without the handbrake set.

I recommend 30K miles, and I recommend using the Porsche factory coolant. It's actually not that much more expensive than the regular stuff, and you only change the coolant once every 3 years or so anyways...

-Wayne

With complete respect, there is nothing harmful in changing coolant at such a short interval, but is a real waste of coolant. Even a 3 year interval is overkill, but then again, some still recommend changing your oil at 3000 miles too.

I recommend flush at 10 yrs/100K miles. G12 Coolant is mandatory. In addition to the Porsche supplied coolant, I recommend the VW G12 coolant ($20/gal) or DexCool.

Solid mounts will certainly not leak, but they will transmit much more NVH to the body of the car. They are great for racing, but there are mixed opinions for street use.

NVH stands for Noise, Vibration, Harshness. It is not bad for the car, but it makes the driving experience less pleasurable for a daily driver car.

91 Premium is the only pump grade available here in California, but we do have pumps that sell 100 Octane race gas. So what I do is on every fill-up I mix 4 gallons of 91 with 1 gallon of 100 gas. This gives me a 93-95 octane gas. I also get about 19-24 mpg out of each tank.

I have seen them come on all of the time. You have to see what the stored fault is to determine its significance.

It's best to clear all codes in all modules and then address any that return.

+1 on this. A low voltage battery, and/or replacing a battery can cause all sorts of wacky faults. Clear all the faults and see what returns.

The first one is probably a O2 sensor on its way out, but with the engine cold, give each cat a wack with a rubber mallet or your hand, if there is any noise coming out of the cat, then the cats honeycomb is cracked and will need to be replaced.

If it is a cat and you have less than 70K miles, you may be able to get Porsche to do a goodwill replacement. The warranty on the cat is 7 yrs/70k miles.

Did you read all the posts in the DIY? You need to remove the motor mount bolt on that side and lower the engine just enough to get the tank out.

You will need to remove the rear motor mount bolts on both sides to lower the engine enough to get the tank out.

Agreed, use a claybar first, that should get the overspray off.

Based on your questions, I would recommend that you have a professional mechanic R&R the coolant tank. There is a special hose clamp tool for removing the clamps, and in some cases, the engine needs to be lowered slightly for tank to clear the engine and body. You have a car with the shorter tank, but it is still very difficult to remove.

If anyone is interested, I have a complete PSE electrical and vacuum wiring kit available. The only thing you will need to add is the dash switch (left or right side, your choice). This kit is worth over $350 is bought new.

Any time now! It has been in the 70's here in the Bay area this week.

Here is a write up of my PSE installation

Nice thread. I was old school 911 up until 2007 and we always lifted our cars by the motors. That's how it was done. I thought it would be ok with my 996 also, but now as I read more about these new-fangled hydraulic motor mounts I start to understand why it is I have to learn some new tricks.

So the question then is....are rubber or (gulp) solid motor mounts available for the 996? I haven't heard of any....

Yes there are solid mounts available, but their use is primarily in racing. The solid mounts transmit a lot of NVH into the engine.

Again this issue with mounts failing are for primarily higher mileage cars. The mounts will almost universally fail on cars with higher than 70K miles on them. The only control you have of this failure is wether you want it to happen in your garage where you will be aware of the failure, or out on the road where you might not notice it for many many months.

By the way, I got a chuckle from this photo in this months Excellence magazine.

post a picture of it.

I know this is beating a dead horse, but I'd be remiss if I didn't say something and someone got hurt. I work in a business where industrial accidents will usually kill you and we are trained constantly to watch for things like this. Orient, I love your car, I love your advice, I respect your prowess regarding these cars, but your advice to jack from the engine is just plain dangerous. You have, in essence, said "It's not aproblem at all, as long as you absolutely know that your motor mount will not give way." The sudden shift from a failing motor mount, regardless of the cause or reason, when the car is in the air, absolutely provides a chance for someone to get killed. I don't understand how you can't see this. I KNOW it's only until you get the car properly supported, etc, but the fact is, someone will eventually forget that part, and be under the car when it happens, or it will shift to the side and crush a bystanders foot, not even mentioning the exact thisng that happened to the OPs car from the shifting. It happens so fast, there is no time to react. I specifically asked both the dealer and my indy, last year about this, during a tech session, and he said, point blank, "you'd have to be crazy to do that." When I told him that on the message boards they say all dealers do it regularly, he said, "not ever as long as he's been working on Porsches". I am sorry, but you are wrong to recommend this. If you want to insist it's alright, then please preface it with something like "This advice can get you killed, but this is what I do"

My $0.02.

Thank you very much. A very well presented counter-point.

There are any number of low profile jacks available. I have used a Harbor Freight aluminum "Racing" jack for about 5 years, and have had excellent results with it. Sears offers a similar jack. Griots Garage also has an excellent low profile jack too. I'm sure that other board members have a favorite low-profile jack that they would recommend as well.

As I have said over and over, lifting the rear of the car by the engine to place the rear jack stands is not the issue for motor mount failure. The issue is fluid filled motor mounts are guaranteed to fail if they have more than 60-80K miles on them. It is not a matter of if, but just when.

It is much better to have them fail and get your attention so you can replace them, rather than them fail on the road somewhere, and you drive around for many miles before you discover that they have failed.

There is absolutely nothing wrong to lift the rear of the car with a jack on the engine as long as:

1. You lift the car and get the rear jack stands under the rear lift points as soon as possible as to get the load off of the engine. i.e. if you can't do this operation in under 3 minutes, you probably should not be doing it in the first place, and

2. Pay attention to what you are doing so that the jack is on the proper and safe lifting point on the engine.

UPDATE

I am now recommending that if your 996/997/986/987 has more than 90K miles on it, that as part of the 90K oil change that the rear motor mounts be replaced as well. This is a very easy operation, and given the expected life of fluid filled motor mounts is a reasonable item to replace.

I use the VW G12 coolant in my 996 and Audi and VW with no problems at all. The Texaco Dex-Cool is another alternative.

Use one of the screws or bolts that holds the fuse block to the body. That will work fine.

The latch and receiver for hardtop was redesigned in 2003. The twist locking pin mechanism was replaced with a breech screw assembly. There is a retrofit kit available from Porsche, P/N 000.043.300.46

That will tighten down the back. In the front, the header gasket needs to be kept clean and lubricated to keep it from creaking, etc.

What would you suggest lubricating the front seal with?

I just use silicon lubricant spray. I spray some on a rag, and then wipe down and clean the header gasket with it.

Before you pry off the center console, look under the drivers footwell, and make sure all of the electrical relays are properly seated. I had the exact same problem a while back, and it turned out I had dislodged the intermittent wiper relay.

Coolant for your Porsche is pretty cut and dried. Only use a G-12 type coolant. If you don't want to pay the Porsche parts counter price for a gallon, then go on down to your VW dealer's parts counter and get it there.

That is the brake dust that is stick in the rotor vents. When I wash my wheels, I spray some Simple Green on the rotors and then take the hose or pressure washer to the rotors and wash out all of the accumulated brake dust.

Removing the dash cover is not hard to do, it is just involved, because of all of the stuff that has to be removed to get the dash cover off. Once all of the instruments, vents, center console stack, etc. are removed, then the dash panel comes off with about 12 screws.

Once you have the dash panel off, then it is easy to recover it with new leather.