Benjamin Choi

enjoy all you want, but for people who buy into the dyno graphs and get all excited about it only to find out that they can't pull on that stock 911... don't come back all confused. you don't get an n/a car for mod potential. go turbo if you're in it for the measurin contest.

you buy an exhaust for sound/looks here. period. placebo effect in the power dept. the wallet speaketh.

again, coming from a GIAC flash/EVOMS intake w/ PSE owner. i don't go around believing my car's picked up more power than the 98% of stock 911s out there on the streets up and down the West Coast.

PSE is absolutely worth the $2K+ however much it is. the sound is incredible. EVOMS intake straight up howls at 5K+ RPM WOT. glorious. well worth it.

-pse is the best sounding exhaust for the n/a 996s/997s; sounds better than the turbo period w/ pse; aftemarket options may be lighter, be louder, but they all pretty much lack that guttural growl (listen to believe)

-whether you gain hp or lose torque, the +/- is so nominal no one can begin to tell the diff and if they tell you so it's more wallet talking than objective reasoning speaking the truth

-best is to find someone with pse and hear it in person for sure; shouldn't be too hard since it's a factory option

good luck

original engine?

i actually have the GIAC flash coupled with the EVOMS and PSE.

i had the ECU back to stock for a week. could i tell a diff?

none at all.

lol post up a pic of your interior and i'll do the same for my e46 m3. we can compare visually.

I had an M3 as well. The interior is no doubt nicer than any 996.

If the 996 is optioned up, it is much more special than the E46 M3 and even the new E9X M3 which I think isn't as nice as the E46.

To stay on topic, I had my tranny dropped for the AOS install yesterday. IMS/RMS was dry now at 62K miles. Car feels fantastic. Still not bored with it after almost 3 yrs!

i define best as the one i want in my driveway, the one i want to DRIVE.

CGT no question about it . you can have the old ones.

lol post up a pic of your interior and i'll do the same for my e46 m3. we can compare visually.

i had this issue come up several years ago when i first picked up the car ... it may well be that pulley guiding the serpentine belt. what happens is for cars that get washed and then end up sitting for days at a time... rust forms. squeaks. the water is trapped. it gets bad enough where the pulley will seize and the belt will be thrown.

when this happens, you lose the alternator and your car will come to a stop with the batter warning light. happened to me on hwy 1 a shop skip and a jump outside of san fran. lovely.

i'd get the pulley checked out first.

on a somewhat related note

and i hope no one takes this the wrong way, but most likely due to my insecurities, i could not ever respond to people by telling them i drive a porsche (why lie?) and they get in the 911 then or later only to witness the typical dog Sh1t interior of your regularly optioned 996... esp bad in the 1999s. are you kidding with those plastics? it looks like something they used in the gym floor at my local 24hour fitness except it's hard plastic and not rubber.

this is where my long time argument continues to live on... i'd much rather have a $20K E46 M3 than a similarly priced 996.

no one knows man.

you're taking a risk. i'd personally never buy a $20K porsche. there are better options out there at that price point.

lots of little things will add up.

coil packs good?

clutch switch ok?

battery ok?

RMS/IMS leaks? history?

starter ok? alternator?

suspension parts ok?

oil sending unit ok? maf ok?

sure, a PPI can help to see if these components are working, but even then you'll only know for sure if those things have been replaced on a decade old car. unless this particular 1999 vehicle has been well loved and cared for, i would never ever touch it. heck, i'd begin with a 3.6 MK2 996 before i ever looked at an Mk1 996. so it's not just the IMS piece, it's the overall state of the car that i recommend you take a look at very closely. get a $30K 996 with everything in tip top shape than trying to work from the bottom up is my best advice.

don't stretch for this car. it does cost quite a bit to maintain.... correctly w/ care.

just so you know i'm not spewing things out of the side of my head... i'm actually going thru some needed and preventive maintenance right now on my very clean '02 C4S. in fact, it's currently at the shop for the following:

-air mass sensor $274

-air oil separator $35

-fuel gauge sender $229

+ labor

+ coolant flush

+ as part of this work, just found out the driveshaft guibo or something is torn and porsche doesn't sell the guibo separately so you have to get an whole new driveshaft $550 + 1/2 labor

now mind you not all the repair work was necessary, but anyone who really wants to have a clean ride will get it done.

my bill on wednesday that i thought was gonna be around $1500 will be nearly double.

and this is a CLEAN C4S.

i notice that when i have the AC on the car runs cooler cuz the fans are on

i had one of the pulleys replaced because it seized. this was 2 yrs ago. thx, man.

update: the fuel sending unit part was shipped broken and they ordered the wrong AOS :( need to go back on monday.

the reward of picking up a car in tip top shape and enjoying the drive home is sweet memories for me

i've seen threads sharing that X part went wrong, but very few that provides a collective list of 996 carrea weak spots so that was the purpose here.

if things happen to... clutch switch, oil sending unit, fuel failure indicator pops up, starter is slowerish to crank (battery/starter), you get a crap load of smoke coming out of the car (AOS)... you know not to be alarmed. esp now that the 996s are getting closer to being a decade old + many are not regularly driven.

as for the continued talk about people actually paying others to do work... GASP! time is money buddy and you obviously aren't gonna step up to pay for it. lol

"runs like new"

"my oil analysis shows excellent..."

"doesn't burn any oil..."

really, what does this all mean? who is writing this? nobody knows or should care.

however you should care that porsche has an approved oils list ready for your consumption. there is no substitute. follow the list. done. now go worry about something else like when you're going to get to drive the 911next.

I believe in preventative maintenance to a point. I replaced belts and hoses, pads and rotors, flush the brakes, flush the fuel system, etc. However, I draw the line at replacing parts like the AOS, starter, alternator, etc. just because they're getting up there in age. Having installed alternators and power steering pumps (not on a Porsche, which seems to have hardier parts, but still) that are bad right off the shelf, I believe that with replacement parts it's just as much risk that the new part will go bad within the same time period that the old part would have lasted through. Except now, instead of just paying once or fixing something once, you're spending the time and money to fix it multiple times.

I have 115k miles on my starter, AOS and all my fuel components. No problems yet.

The only part that I'd make an exception on is the water pump. It went bad at 107k miles, so from now on I will change water pumps in all my cars every 100k to be on the safe side.

I'm in no way saying you're bad to freshen things up. I just see it as an unecessary expense.

I didn't post this to argue whether what i'm doing is too much or too little. replacing pads and rotors is not the same thing as replacing a maf. a MAF works or it doesn't. pads and rotors wear over time and is easy to visually see when it's time to swap out. my rotors are about 5K miles new now, replaced when it was called for by my indy. cool.

so i know for sure the rotors would've lasted a good 50K miles on my street driven car. it did. but i don't know how much longer the MAF has to go before it goes kaput much like the clutch switch. same deal for the AOS. the fuel sending unit just started malfunctioning one day. with that said, i can see why someone would say the work i'm getting done to my car is superfluous/premature.

but what you believe to be an "unnecessary expense" (my list of things i'm doing) i consider peace of mind. going further, some may find my wheels to be "unnecessary". i have a different tolerance level on the condition of my car and the look of my car. it must be tip top else i don't enjoy the drive. i'd rather garage it until it gets back to 101%. going against what may have been predicted, i highly dislike garaging my car. i put consistent miles on it.

again, it was more the frustration as of late of stuff going out than me really feeling the need to drop $ on parts that haven't gone kaput. i am clearly justifying the expense and would encourage others to go ahead and do the same thing given that these parts are known to go bad on the car and it's really not that expensive esp if you're going to DIY.

i can't wait to pick it up on friday and drive it around town this weekend w/ $2000 worth of peace of mind added to the value equation. :)

P.S. thx to you, i will replace the water pump at my next oil change which would put me at 65k miles

minny, good to hear you're doing the same thing as i am. preventative, defense wins champs.

bmohr... should've? no thx. i have no interest in doing the work myself. just not my personality type. and its thx to this forum that i came up with that list of things to do. AOS, clutch switch, oil sending unit, MAF... all these things come up quite frequently. nit picky stuff. thx. :)

As of late, I had the following things go awry at 60K miles on my 2002 C4S:

-Clutch switch (car wouldn't start on the first crank at times even with clutch pressed all the way down)

-Oil sending unit (OBC light)

-Cracked coolant tank (coolant on parking garage floor)

-Aging starter motor (replaced with a new not refurbished unit)

-Battery (Interstate)

After all that, car started like a rocket ship each and every crank. If your car doesn't crank powerfully and that starter motor doesn't whir really rapidly, it's not the same as new.

Now just a week or so ago, the OBC reads "fuel indicator... failure". Yay! It looks like my car's just getting up there in age. Original factory installed parts need to be subbed out for fresh legs. No biggie. I'm just getting a little frustrated with having the car in and out of the shop (unfortunately I don't have a daily errand secretary) so I decided to do the following things this week:

-Replace fuel sending unit

-Replace no issues original MAF

-Replace no issue original air-oil separator (part$:labor$ is insane)

-Coolant flush

The total cost of the job is $1700 which includes 9.X% sales tax. The AOS labor is the most expensive bit.

So in the past two months, I've dropped close to $5K on the p-car which includes the 60K service. And it's worth every **** penny! I hope this helps some of y'all curious about maintenance. The car runs strong and nothing serious has gone wrong. But, yes, let's not get it twisted: It costs to maintain a 911... well.

For whoever is buying my car next, you're getting a mint ride. :) I'll pat myself on the back for being a good 911 steward.

Best,

Ben

just ignore 1999

judge, just use what's on porsche's approved oils list. then forget about it. then enjoy the drive.

i never get the alignment done at the dealer. indy's BETTER.

they do it to other cars, too. just mind your business and enjoy the drive.

Anyone else go through this and have any input into what it may involve?

Mine's a 996 C4S. The message obviously popped up on the display. I was driving at the time and the fuel level needle went to zero and the red light blinked. I was already due for a fill-up.

ph,

just save up for the 997tt. it is that much better. youve done the 996. time to move on.

nice!

here is my lame one testing out a camera i just picked up

Since this got resurrrected, I'll just point out that these readings are with new tires at recommended inflation. Worn tires alone will vary this up to 18mm LESS (7/10s of an inch), plus all tires from different makers are NOT the same diameter, even for the same size. This is just one minor spec of the "N" rated vs non-"N" rated tire specs. It is hard to correctly calculate what the height should be, as you can't just add tire wear, because the tire flattens. It is probably closer to .75 of tire wear.

In addition, it is a grave misnomer to conclude that PSS9's are the same type height "adjustable" as true adjustables like JICs or Motons. This is not true at all. There is a strict allowable range set by Bilstein, if you want the strut to perform as designed. Many have called the PSS9s junk because they were trying to force the strut to perform outside it's recommended range, simply because it is possible to adjust the spring to that location. They are a great improvement over stock, within the limits prescribed by Bilstein, which is one of the reasons they are so much less than Moton or JIC. SO the charts above are of very limited FYI use when installing PSS9s...you CAN"T just choose the height you want to ride at, you can only choose "a little higher in the Bilsein range or a little lower". The installation instructions are crystal clear on this. There is only a 5mm range of adjustment for the rears, you start about 25mm lower than stock and can only go down to about 30mm. The start point is car dependent. Remember Porsches spec for the springs is + or - 10mm!!. If your car runs naturally higher due to spring tolerance, then you may find it 30 or 35mm lower to start. If your car runs lower, then it will lower less, as you are replacing the inconsistent stock springs with the consistent Bilstein ones. The 5mm is primarily for corner balancing, not for ride height. The fronts also start about 25mm lower but allow adjustment of 20mm lower from there. According to the PSS9 "expert" at Bilstein I spoke with, this is to allow adjustment for different front spoiler heights, rake, and corner balancing. The fronts require more height adjustment to "move" the same weight frontward or rearward, than the rears, due to the heavy rear bias on the 911. They are designed to be installed near the center of each range. I had called them because I thought it odd that the fronts had 20mm adjustment vs the 5mm in the rear. The rear height is more critical due to the rear engine RWD design of the 911, and the PSS9 is designed to be in it's best range when installed accordingly. They make 1.5mm thick spring isolator "kits" (read big fat blue plastic washers) that allow you to add a little height if need be, and fix the spring windup clunk that sometimes occurs on the front struts in slow turns.

My $0.02.

preach perry preach! well done