dcooper

It's rock solid, especially if you have a 997 C4 like I do. Even on ice, you can pass any SUV on the road at Z-rated speeds in the worst conditions.

You'll have a blast.

Don't forget: it snows in Germany :) One reason the Porsche is an awesome winter car.

First post, so please be gentle.

I've got an 08 C2 with Pirelli snow tires. I live in Ohio and we'll soon get snow and I'm planning on driving it this winter. Is there a consensus of opinion as to using PSM in the snow. Thanks

I had the update installed when it came out and I'm very thankful I did. The Big Dig here in Boston has changed the whole downtown street system. The update has evberything up to date and works well when you're driving underground for 7 miles :)

Damon

I have to say that I am not as convinced as others that the cause of degradation of the caliper finish is necessarily wheel cleaner. A couple of years ago, two or three of the calipers on my very low mileage (at the time) 2003 Boxster looked like this typical example:

First is the eating away of the factory clear coat by the wheel cleaner, then the paint is the next to go oce the protection is off. It may not account for every problem, but I hold to my theory that high-alcohol or bad pH-balanced wheel celaner can cause damage.

Damon

Ha..I just realized we may have gotten one of the rears the wrong way (both are facing down, when the left rear should be pointing up). Oh well. You get the idea.

Sorry about that. We (the Porsche service manager and I) closely examined a 997 Turbo that was onsite and oriented the lables exactly the same way. Let me see if I can label them.

Damon

Ok, all done. Pics attached.

dcooper:

The calipers (and the rims) look really, really nice.

I'm a little confused about the orientation of the decals though. Could you label the photos (i.e., LF, LR, RF, RR) ?

I am about to paint my calipers and would like to dol the decals the "correct" way.

Regards, Maurice.

Sorry about that. We (the Porsche service manager and I) closely examined a 997 Turbo that was onsite and oriented the lables exactly the same way. Let me see if I can label them.

Damon

I'd love top believe this is possible. Touchscreen nav + real-time traffic would be sweet.

Keep us posted, please!

Damon

Ok, all done. Pics attached.

That's it, really:

1) Realize that using wheel cleaner with bad chemicals / improper alcohol levels had eaten away the factory-applied Porsche clearcoat and paint on my calipers

2) Had the dealer remove them, high-pressure steam clean them in the Porsche dealer's shop (special new machine they had just got in), then send them to their trusted bodyshop for Porsche Guards Red powder coat painting and baking/curing in their ovens.

3) Order 4 of the 4-inch white Porsche caliper decals from Suncoast Porsche and bring to my dealer and have them installed while they have the wheels off. Note they are installed with the "Porsche" written "up" on front right/rear left and "down" on front left and rear right to match the "S" and Turbo brake patterns. (I maye have these reversed, but you get the idea)

4) Have the dealer apply two coats of special Porsche (or VHT) high-temperature caliper clearcoat paint and let dry overnight

5) Recondition the wheels with the P21S Wheel Cleaners (the ONLY thing that's touching my wheels except good ol' soap and water from now on!)

Hope that helps! Pictures in the next day or so.

Damon

I got the calipers painted guards red via the Porsche dealer at their trusted paint shop contractor and they powder coatred them, nbaked them in the oven to cure, etc. They look awesome. Next up is the Porsche white logo and high-temperature VHT clear coat application over that. I'll post pics when it's all done. Should look high-gloss and identical to the "S" brakes.

Damon

Damon:

Could you share with us the cost of the process you had done?

Regards, Maurice.

Ok, I'm installed and it's all goodness.

I always seem to be an early adopter that gets to find some bugs, and this was no exception. I got some bad hardware, and they issued a recall on Feb 22, 2008 for a bunch of units and mine was affected. There were a couple rapid-fire softwrae updates that luckily didn't require dealer install/uninstall (laptop and Bluetooth are all that's needed to update the Tooki's SW).

That fixed a bunch of serious bugs (the last update was May 27, 2008 as of this writing). It's all finally working in peace.

I have the mic installed just left of the HomeLink overhead panel. Works great with the top up. The noise cancellation is so good, people have NO IDEA I'm driving! I contacted another Tooki user and he otiginally had the mic installed in the OEM steering wheel position, and he said it sucked and had it moved to the HomeLink position as well later and it was the best spot for him as well.

HOWEVER...with the top DOWN in my Cabriolet, unless I'm at a stop light, the other end of the call can barely make out my voice due to the severe noise (wind noise is too much for it I expect).

I can live with that though. Even my Jawbone BT headset can't kill the wind noise, and is overwhelmed, so no suprise there.

Overall: if you're buying one now with the latest updates, check the compat list for your device (I've heard a few folks have problems parining or getting functioinality on some devices) and you should be good to go.

I also added the Porsche multi-function steering wheel (I have a Tip so it also has gear shift buttons) and it all works great. I can control the telephone functions from the steering wheel, and since I have the Nav-TV iPod OP-iP unit as well, that my iPhone mounts into, I have iPod from my phone and full funcytionality of my iPhone, and the main controls are from the steering wheel.

Hope this helps someone looking to marry the iPhone and 997. They're GREAT together :)

Damon

I've just ordered my TOOKI Bluetooth kit for my 2006 997 C4 Cab Tip, and in a fit of inspiration, I also ordered the OEM multi-function steering wheel with phone + volume controls etc to be able to control things right from the steering wheel. I will try to get them to put the mic in the steering column when the OEM mic is supposed to go if possible.

Thanks to you guys in the forums here for pointing out this whole solution. Should be sweet when it's all done.

I also ordered the new Porsche NAV update fo good measure. I already have the Porsche OEM Sirius Sat kit installed and the NAV-TV iPod/iPhone interface, so I'll be good to go with this update!

I'll post back on how it all works together once this last batch of stuff is installed.

Damon

I got the calipers painted guards red via the Porsche dealer at their trusted paint shop contractor and they powder coatred them, nbaked them in the oven to cure, etc. They look awesome. Next up is the Porsche white logo and high-temperature VHT clear coat application over that. I'll post pics when it's all done. Should look high-gloss and identical to the "S" brakes.

Damon

Wheel cleaner is likely the culprit.

Wheel cleaner = evil.

Damon

I have a 997 with roughly 9000 miles on it and I've noticed that all four of my stock brake calipers are no longer the same black color as when the car was new. Rather they have an uneven discoloration to them, making them appear more grayish. Is this typical? I don't "ride" the brakes, but I'm worried that I may be overheating them.... The discs seem fine...

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Dave

has the car been tracked ? This is normal for calipars that get v.hot (re tracked car) - not normal for even fast road use. Are the rears the same as the fronts ?

I've come to realize from talking to the dealer that brake pad squeeling (assuming you have plenty of meat still on the pads) and caliper paint fading can be caused by:

Wheel cleaner.

It's evil.

It faded my brake calipers to a dull milky white/grey from black and I'm now getting my calipers re-painted as a result, at a cost of about $400.00 per pair. Since I'm repainting anyway, I'm going gloss Porsche Guards Red + adding black Porsche caliper logos I got from Suncoast Motors and doing clear coat on top of that.

One very expensive lesson, unfortunately.

Damon

One note for brake squeeling I've come to realize from talking to the dealker that could be the culprit, assuming you have plenty of meat still on the pads:

Wheel cleaner.

It's evil.

It faded my brake calipers to a dull milky white/grey from black and I'm now getting my calipers re-painted as a result, at a cost of about $400.00 per pair. Since I'm repainting anyway, I'm going gloss Porsche Guards Red + adding black Porsche caliper logos I got from Suncoast Motors and doing clear coat on top of that.

One very expensive lesson.

Damon

The only way I know how is to use fresh dampeners with the adhesive intact as Scott suggested. But in my opinion and experience, one good track day or 2 will remove the adhesive anyway as your brakes will get pretty hot. I use Hawk Blues for tracking too, and find them excellent so far. But I do change back to Mintex for street and they don't squeal even with dampers unglued. The hawks will sound like an old school bus around town, not the attention you want to get....

Sadly, I can't see anythig to do with traffic yet either. Of course, I haven't actually NAVIGATED into a trafic jam yet to see what might happen, but it doesn't look hopeful.

Damon

Install happening at the dealer now (with a bunch of other stuff getting done). I should be able to post this weekend on how well it works.

Damon

Anyone from Toronto, Ontario, Canada?

Yeah, but I'm living in Boston, MA now, so that probably doesn't help ya :)

Damon

I'm not sure if this is how this works, but here are the FM radio-based TMC taffic data broadbast stations in the USA: http://www.realtimetraffic.net/StationList.pdf.

I'm going to try tuning to one of them that's local and select the PCM's "Traffic Program" option to see if that's the ticket. That would be sweet if that's all it is.

If someone has a chance to try this out that has the new Nav already (or at least factory nav + PCM 2.1 Level B/C), please post here and let us know if this gives you traffic overlays.....

Damon

Just ordered mine from Suncoast Porcshe for $315.00.

Damon

quick question, does the 2006 Carrera 4 have the wider body as the 2007 and 2008 models.

Thanks

Yes, correct. And the C4 Cabriolet is a tiny bit wider still. (I have a 2006 C4 Cab).

Damon

FYI: the Porsche part number is 997.044.901.51.

The dealer says it'll likely be in the $300-$500 range.

Damon

Someone pointed this out in another thread, but I think it deserves it's own topic, it's that good....

In TSB 32/07, it states that "Where there are TMC ("Traffic Message Channel") info available, road sections for which traffic-related delays have been reported are displayed graphically on the map".

The update does not require the telephone module of satellite radio module to work, apperently, and I found that FM-radio based TMS is what Clear Channel and others broadcast here in the US (in addition to the dedicated XM and proposed Sirius TMS channels).

So....in theory, we should ACTUALLY get real-time traffic overlays with PCM 2.1 Level B/C and the Nav update!

This is great news, and I hope this is reality! I've placed my order with my dealer! BTW, coverage areas can be seen here: http://www.realtimetraffic.net/. Click on "Coverage" and find your area on the map. These guys are somehow hooked up with Clear Channel FM radio broadcasting of RDS / TMS info. They mention a $15/year fee, but I can't understand how that can be enforced over FM broadcast.

Anyway, should be interesting, especially with our built-in "Divert" button on the PCM Nav! If you see a "red" road ahead, hit "Divert"!

Damon

I found that FM-RDS based TMS is what Clear Channel and others broadcast here in the US (in addition to the dedicated XM and proposed Sirius TMS channels).

So....in theory, we should ACTUALLY get real-time traffic overlays with PCM 2.1 Level B/C and the Nav update!

This is great news, and I hope this is reality! I've placed my order with my dealer! BTW, coverage areas can be seen here: http://www.realtimetraffic.net/. Click on "Coverage" and find your area on the map. These guys are somehow hooked up with Clear Channel FM radio broadcasting of RDS / TMS info. They mention a $15/year fee, but I can't understand how that can be enforced over FM broadcast.

Anyway, should be interesting, especially with our built-in "Divert" button on the PCM Nav! If you see a "red" road ahead, hit "Divert"!

Damon

Doesn't look like there are any additional features unless you were one of those who didn't have the traffic info etc.

Traffic info? I guess I'm one of those without "traffic info"! You have my full attention now! What do you mean?

Damon

Just got the Porsche Multi-Function steering wheel and Nav-TV's "Tooki" PCM-integrated Bluetooth unit installed in my 997 C4 Cab at Porsche Nashua in N.H. These guys are really, really good.

Let me just say that it's an AWESOME combination and it's completely OEM/invisible, which is great.

The multi-function steering wheel's telephone controls now operate my iPhone, mounted in a cradle to the right of the PCM, and 99% of the Porsche Telephone Kit functionality works now on my PCM but with my iPhone. The keypad is active, the on hook/offhook work, I have my phonebook automatically sync'd in the PCM, and there's nothing I have to do. I start the car and "ATT" and the number of bars for signal strength show up, even if my phone is in my pocket buried somewhere, like it normally is when I get in the car.

Once I updated the iPhone's software to 1.1.4 (1.1.3 had an issue where the Bluetooth service would crash when Tooki downloaded the address book), and updated the Tooki software to the latest (you just download a simple utility and update the software using Bluetooth on a laptop near your car, all is well.

I had looked at the multi-function steering wheel before, but couldn't justify it since the PCM was so close by, but with the telephone controls working now, man, it's a real pleasure to have everything so close at hand. I had the Tooki little black microphone installed above on the light cluster in the center. I'm told it's very clear and I can be heard with only slight road noise at 70MPH (top up of course!)

I had heard from others that mounting in the OEM Telephone Kit location inside the steering column didn't pick up very well and the best spot was above. The audio while on a call comes oiut the right speakers and sounds excellent.

Note that I did not have the Porsche Telephone Kit before starting this.

I bought the steering wheel and Nav-TV upgrade at Suncoast motors online and brought the parts to my dealer (Porsche Nashua) and they got everything working in just a few hours. I'm very pleased with the result.

Regards,

Damon

I've got a 2006 997 C4 Cab still under the original warranty and I intend to keep the car for many years to come, and I am wondering if I should investigate the Porsche extended warranty options.

Anyone have anyt thoughts/info/experience with Porsche's extended warranty program? I'm told by the dealer there are many options as long as the car is still under the original warranty (which it is).

Thanks in advance!

Damon