FlashingBlade

The diaphragm spring in the pressure plate is cracked, replacement of the complete clutch is recommended.

That sounds like a reasonable diagnosis. Is this a warranty item? So far I have not been too lucky for P to step warranty anything clutch related. I have the pre-owned extended warranty which is about to expire (figures).

I have a regular 2002 C2. I gather my choices for clutch replacement are as follows:

1) Replace with OEM item

2) Replace with Turbo Clutch

3) Replace with Sport Clutch (which comes with a lighter flywheel).

I am inclined to do 1 or 2.

Any experiences in the benefits and downsides of 2?

How much heavier is the clutch application?

How does it affect driveability?

Does it last longer than 1?

Thanks.

The clutch saga continues: I had it checked out at the dealer and they believe either the clutch material disintegrated or the pressure plate warped. Neither one is of course covered under any sort of warrantee.

However, the plot thickens. On my drive home I accelerated hard from one light, and the clutch pedal suddenly became very soft and the clutch started slipping.

Any speculations on what may have happened? Pressure plate defective?

I still feel this is not normal wear and tear. The clutch material was examined about 5k miles ago during an RMS replacement and found to have 50% material left. On my other cars, I usually get around 100k miles out of a clutch, so I find this to be a bit soon. I am familiar with a clutch slipping but not the sudden change in pedal feel.

What does the clutch feel like with the car off? Could be the accumulator.

The clutch pedal feels smooth(er). I did some more testing, and what I seem to feel is engine rotation transmitted to the pedal. So the stick slip feel seems synchronized with engine rpm.

To answer some of the other questions, I did pressure bleed my brakes recently, but I did not do my clutch.

I am trying to diagnose a strange clutch problem for an 02 C2. When I try to engage the clutch with the engine running, it feels as though the pedal releases in sticks-and-slips, making it hard to engage smoothly in stop and go traffic. There also seems to be more clutch chatter. This almost happened overnight. About 10k miles ago the clutch was declared as healthy for an RMS repair.

Any idea what the cause could be? Release bearing? Pressure plate binding on the splines?

Thanks.

You have corroded discs (that may have also been overheated). The 'rings' around the disc am i right in assuming they are 'rust' rings??

Yes, they are rust rings.

I agree with you all, that probably the best remedy is to get new pads and rotors. While waiting for my mail order I decided to take all the pads out, and grind them flat with my sander. Next I cleaned the rotors and pads with brake cleaner, and reseated the pads. Braking has improved markedly and because the pads started of flat, the height of the ridges in the rotors. has been reduced somewhat. The rust rings are also gone.

Not sure I would recommend doing this, but at least it did improve the situation.

I am also amazed how easy it is to replace the pads on these cars. You can just about do it with out any tools.

What pads were in the car?

Stock pads.

After my last DE event I washed my car. There was a lot of brake dust on the wheels and so I used a strong jet of water to wash most of it off. Some of the spray inadvertently went onto the rotors and actually managed to wash out the brake dust through the cross drilled holes. Needless to say, the disc started rusting almost immediately. So far, this is all normal. I went for a drive afterwards and braking was significantly less effective. I figured the pads must still be wet, and the problem will go away after a couple of stops. It did not, even after 2 more days of (careful) driving. It felt like the brakes were slippery and I needed a lot more pressure to stop. First I suspected air in the lines, but pressure bleeding did not help.

I bit the bullet and removed all pads. What I found was uneven wear on all pads. Parts of the pads were smooth (which is how I would expect them to look) but other portions were rusty looking or rough (see middle of pad in the picture). The rough parts on the pad typically corresponded to still rusty looking tracks on the rotors (see middle of the rotor, towards the left of the picture). All the rotors are scored, but they have been this way for a while. They seem to be within the wear limit.

Question for the collective intellect:

1) Is it normal for rotors to look this scored?

2) What's the mechanism behind this strange problem? Moist brake dust in the cross drilled holes contaminated the pads which in turn transferred to the discs?

3) Anyone else have had this happen, and what was you remedy?

Thanks.

Do these things have counter balance weights? From the pictures it does not look like it.

I was reading about different types of engine oils and found a few articles about Ceramic Oil that can be added to the existing engine oil to improve life and gas consumption among other things. Has anyone tried this? Here are two links:

http://www.speedtuningusa.com/products/spt..._oil00.html#Oil

http://www.americanccf.com/I_Tech%20info%20pg2.htm

Sounds like another Slick50, graphite, snake oil, whatever, additive.

I'd be rather careful pouring anything into my engine that Porsche did not explicitly approve. I assume they know a little bit more about tribology than I do. In the case of slick 50, Dupont considered it an unauthorized use of their product and asked the Slick50 guys to stop advertising it using the Teflon name. IIRC, most of the PTFE ended up stuck in the filter doing little good to the engine. This is not to say that some of these additives don't reduce friction. MoS2 for example decreases friction in grease by 50%, but that does not mean that it's necessarily good to add to your engine. There is more to it then that.

Regarding the ceramic oil additive...I find it suspect that it's only good for engines up to 2.5l. Huh?

I am considering retrofitting a tire pressure monitoring system to my wheels, and I was wondering whether any of your could recommend me one.

I am not looking for anything too sophisticated, just something that will give me a warning if the pressure falls below some preset limit (20 psi?), is small and adds minimal weight to the wheels.

I got a little bit of scare the other day during a DE event when my car suddenly started vibrating and I thought I had a flat. Fortunately, it was only an accumulation of gumballs that my tires had picked up.

Thanks.

While you have your wheel off, you may as well take a small drill bit and clear all the holes in your rotors. Some of mine were clogged. When you are done, clean off with some brake fluid.

This message pertains to a US 2002 996 C2 with CDR-220 + CD Changer.

First, I am aware of the various ways to hook up an IPOD with the Becker cables (most notable Oriental Express' excellent write up). I was wondering whether any of you have attempted the following solution?

As many of you probably know, the CD changer is not made by Becker, and the connector to it resembles an Alpine AI-NET connector. I stumbled upon the following web site that seems to offer an interesting solution that would allow me to just plug the IPOD in.

http://www.discountcarstereo.com/detail.aspx?ID=935

and

http://www.discountcarstereo.com/detail.aspx?ID=881

see also the other possibilities further down the page.

Even if I can't control the IPOD through the head unit, as long as I can get power and sound through this cable (and the parallel RCA jacks), I'd be happy. I figure a wireless remote control would suffice to flip through songs (I intend to leave the ipod in the trunk, less messing around in the passenger compartment).

Any experiences greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Talking of weight savings, have any of you ever seen a non lead acid car battery?

I gather that the Prius and such use NiMh or NiCd, so the technology does exist.

Probably wont be cheap as a cellphone battery costs about as much as a car battery.

Aerodynamics start playing a major roll at those speeds, and so the little pieces of plastic that you may or

may not have may influence how the car feels like. You may also want to make sure your alignment is ok.

If it's off, the car may feel unstable.

I am looking for feedback/gotchas for using a Neo unit from www.mp3yourcar.com to

connect an iPod to a CR-220 unit in a US 2002 C2 with stock CD changer (no nav, pre-MOST).

Ideally I'd like to just leave the iPod in the trunk.

Does it work as well as advertised?

Is the CD Changer still usable?

Does it power on and off with the radio?

Does it require removal of the radio, or can the instal be done at the CD Changer?

Do the controls with the head unit work ok? How do you jump between playlists, or are you

limited to 6 playlists (i.e. is a playlist an emulated "CD")? What are the gotchas? Are all songs accessible through the radio? How do you switch from iPod to CD changer?

Thanks.

I have a 02 C2 with PSE and I want to add the switch. Do I need to upgrade the PSE realy? My current one has part number 996 618 980 02, do I need 996 618 980 03 relay? It seem to me that the 02 relay don't 've anything on pin 4 and pin 7.

Yes, you will have to upgrade to the 03 relay. The 02 relay does not have the

switch override built in (the pins are not connected internally

nor does the circuit board have the circuitry).

1) When reinstalling the bolts, coat them with some Anti-Seize compound

2) There is a DIY article on polishing your tips using polishing rouge.

Thanks to Specialist's posting I was able to perform the bi-xenon conversion on

a USA 02 996 C2. Here are a couple additional tips:

o Before you start, mark the spots on some wall where your current low beams shine. I just

used the wall of my garage.

o You don't need to buy a new set of connectors, nor do you need a pin removal tool.

You'll need two pins with the following part number:

999 652 744 20

available at your dealer. I bought a handfull in case I screw up. The pin looks like (see pic):

o Once you remove the headlights, you will see the connector in the back.

The connector can be removed by depressing two yellow clips in the rear.

Use a mirror to locate the clips and then use a needle nosed plier to depress

the clips by rotating the pliers aft. The connectors slides downwards and then out.

o Locate the 3rd hole at the bottom and pry out the rubber plug from the rear

using something like a dentist tool.

o Crimp a 14AWG wire to the pin. I soldered as well and used some heat shrink tubing for insulation.

o Push the pin into the empty slot with a needle nosed plier. Make sure it lined up right.

This takes a fair amount of force. I found that rotating the pin 180 degrees sometimes

works better. Make sure you don't bend the pin.

o Splice this wire to the wire that comes out of the second slot. It is best to solder. Insulate.

o I added some silicone caulking to rear of the new pin to prevent water build up.

o Slide the connector back in, install the light and you are done.

o Adjust the lights so that they shine more or less in the same spots that you marked previously

The benefit of this modification is that both halogen and bi-xenon lights will

work interchangably and costs only an additional 2US$ (in addition to the lights).

It took me about an hour, but that included trying to figure all this out.

Caveat: If you don't add this pin, the low beams will work, but your fog and highbeams won't.

Hope this helps.

I finally obtained a couple of Bi-Xenons for my US 02 996 C2.

Like other messages already pointed out, pluging them in will not make the high beams work

nor will the fogs work.

Like specialist pointed out in an earlier message http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?a...ost&id=4375

the xenon high beams use pin 3 in the connector in the car instead of pin 2.

Since pin 2 is not used in the bi-xenons and pin 3 is not used in the halogens

I plan to add a pin in the unused slot of the connector.

Could someone please verify whether the following p/n is the correct pin for this:

999 652 744 20

It's a special order item, so there was no way to eye-ball whether it's the correct pin.

If that is wrong, please let me know what the correct p/n is (or if VW/Audi has an

equivalent).

Will adding this pin make the fogs work as well? I noticed that if I leave one halogen

in the car with a xenon, the fogs work. I figure it must be an errand current path.

Thanks!

Why not just tap it into the dome light? Use a voltemeter to figure

out which wire is switched. See also:

http://www.geocities.com/porschecarrera996...v3_document.htm

Note, there are several other resources on the web with a description.

Why not use an iPod as "CD" changer?

1) You need all four wheels aligned for best results.

2) Depending on what you want to do with the car, the alignments differ

(street only, mild performance, etc).

3) Have a person experienced with P's to look at your tires whether you need alignment.

4) Prices seem to range from ~120$ - 350$, depending on where you go

(indy, dealer), though one lucky lister reported a ~60$ price.

5) Choose only an experienced alignment shop that either uses manual tools or the more advanced tools (Hunter 600?). Most regular alignment jigs cannot hold the necessary accuracy or repeatability. The tires for our cars are expensive, and you want to maximize your enjoyment of the vehicle.

Story: I recently failed by DE inspection because of excessive rear tire

wear. I was referred to an outstanding alignment shop and I was amazed what a difference the alignment made. The car handles dramatically better, without any major sacrifice to regular drivability. If there is interest in this mild street set up, I'll be happy to publish the specs. A second change was to run 32psi front and 36psi rear for the track versus the stock pressures.

This worked really, really well!

What would be required to add such an item to a 2002 996 with

the CDR 220?

Thanks.

I personally would not spend too much time on this or agonize about it.

Rotors are wearable items, so just get high temp enamel paint from some car store

in whatever color suits you. I have used that tape of high temp paint on calipers

of other cars with reasonable results. However, with that amount of rust

I would certainly try to brush/sand most of it off and then use Naval

Jelly (jellified phosphoric acid) to eat the rest of it off before you paint it.

Don't bother with primer.

Obviously, you DO NOT want any paint on the disc surfaces, and I also

would not paint where the rim contacts the hub.