Bostonduce

Brad; The Eastwood company sells several glass restore/scratch removal products. Regards BD

Scott, If you drain the turbo's you will need an aluminum crush washer ($0.25 each) for each one (in addition to all the filter and drain plug washers and o-rings) Don't expect to get a lot of oil out of there. Use "mechanics gloves' . They will give enough insulation for you to handle the drain plugs-just be quick pulling the plug away or you will get basted by hot oil.

Be careful going too low with that setup. The PSS9 has internal lower bump stops. It you lower to GT2/3 height you may 'bottom' out the strut during hard driving. Go here and search for "PSS9": http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/forumdi...hp?s=&forumid=2 There's one guy that did what amounts to a PHD thesis on the PSS9 setup. Regards BD

Some ideas for your broken bolts. We use a product called "Rust Buster". It is like an acid with the viscosity of water. It will disolve the rust and leave enough lubricant film to facilitate removal. Try to find it at Plumbing supply houses-boiler guys use it to remove broken studs on tankless heaters. It goes way beyond Liquid Wrench and PB. EZ Out is possible but you will have to drill a pilot hole thru the bolt and use a small enough EZ Out to fit. A very difficult task on a smallish bolt without having the engine on a bench. Also, the smaller the EZ Out, the weaker it is when any tangential forces are applied to it- if going this route better get more than one. Sears sells what amounts to female EZ outs. They look like a socket but they have a reverse spiral inside (instead of 6 or 12 points) so they grab a stripped bolt head. The challenge here is getting a size to fit, since you don't have any bolt head left. Worth a shot to buy a set. Good Luck Regards, BD

All good advice here. You need to go to a hi-line body shop that deals in expensive european car repair. Usually, as the body shop opens things up they find other things that are hidden damage. They then submit a "supplemental" claim for extra costs. No list compiled from exterior observation, without dissasembly, will ever be complete. You could have a supplemental claim the day after you pick the car up from the repair shop. Good body shops wouldn't let it get that far usually. Insist on OEM parts not salvage or aftermarket manufacture. Keep up the mantras: "I want to be made 'whole'" . "It was nearly new in perfect condition, and I want it back that way". Remember this is not a Ford Escort. In your state it may be possible to collect for "diminshed value" i.e. your car has been repaired and the perception is it's worth X$ less than if it was never hit. Try it-get every dime for it you can. Good luck. Regards BD

Stan; I have Bridgestones on a 'sport suspension' car so I couldn't give you an apples-apples opinion; but I don't think my setup is hard riding. A P-Car factory US suspension will not let you detect peas under stacks of mattersses-you will have to go to the ROW setup to get really stiff. Some guys and dolls think the ROW X73/030 is too soft, and go beyond those. My personal experience of a hard suspension was the Gymkana Corvette-needed a mouth piece to drive around city streets or you'd chip your teeth. Regards, BD

030 Slightly lower and stiffer suspesion Y29 stainless sills, exhaust finishers (4-pipe look), aluminum instrument dials Y06 shift knob and hand brake trimed in aluminum look finish Storage bin is the little covered box at the rear of the console-The crest is embossed in the lid not unlike the seat crests. Unless you have it deviated stitched, it is very subtle. Regards, BD

They won't fit on hollow spoke wheels with the valve stem locking nut- they are too long. Regards, BD

Does anyone know if the Sportechno wheels which come with the 17mm spacers, will accept the older style locking lug nuts from the 930-993 series? The wheels are are bolted on the spacers with the old style19mm aluminum lug nuts. The 996 bolt type wheel studs-along with the locking lug-are used to bolt the 17mm spacer to the wheel hub, so the locking lug is not protecting anything but the spacer. Part number 99336105700 (?) seems to fit most 930-993 models. Could these be used? Thanks BD

geoff: Go to the order guides on this website. They will give you an exploded diagram of the interior with a key. Use this to figure out what comes standard or what is contained in the various leather trim packs. I think the most noticeable difference is that full leather gives you the dash, doors, air bag covers, and full seat trim in leather (with some other little things). Be careful- "full leather" is not FULL leather. There are at least 12 items-some major- that may come painted if you don't order them in leather/silver/carbon. In the 996, the rear center console becomes a big chunk of black "soft-touch" painted plastic without an optional covering. For example, to get everything you can in leather in the 996 would take $7000.00+ over the cost of "full leather". I would assume that the 997 is similar. Do you really need the turn signal stalk in leather? For $600.00 you can have it-you get the idea. Regards, BD

I've heard of drilling your own out holes close to the backing plate for the sensors. Just don't inhale the dust Regards, BD

Neil; The Porsche "Tequipment" catalog features many factory front masks. They come with an outline in the vinyl where the license plate goes-so if you have a front plate, you follow the stitching and cut out the hole. They are probably made by Colgan for Porsche, and just badged with the Porsche crest and reboxed. Try the "Porsche parts at dealer cost" link at the top of the page on this site. There are many warnings included in the box about possible abrasion and clouding of paint-so yes- it is possible that the mask will damage the paint if you are not careful with it The mask for a 996tt was about $100.00. Regards BD

Stokes; I have the "new" Porsche charger/maintainer. The older model was just a maintainer-not unlike the"Battery Tender" which has been around for years. Both plug into the cigarette lighter to feed voltage to the car-no clamping on the battery terminals required- no removing the battery cell caps. They will recharge a partially discharged battery -often over days- and then 'maintain' the charge without overcharging or boiling the electrolyte out of the battery. Less amperage than even a trickle charger-both will cycle themselves off and on when the battery is fully charged so there is no danger of overcharging. A trickle charger will eventually ruin the battery if left on too long. The 'maintainers' do not have a enough juice to start a car with a dead battery, nor do I think they will be able to recharge a fully discharged battery-at best that process with the 'maintainers' would take weeks. The 'new' charger/maintainer has a switchable ( both manual and automatic) setting which when on "charge" (as noted by the 'empty' battery icon) will charge a fully discharged battery- it will then switch itself over to 'maintain' ( as noted by the 'half-empty' battery icon) the charge, and can be left plugged in indefinitely. It will then monitor the charge and switch itself between charge and maintain as the battery's voltage fluctuates. A frozen battery indicates a full discharge- you have almost water in the cells. The plates will not be able to give back cations to the electrolyte and will overheat from the current supplied by the charger and be ruined or melt. In addition- since frozen liquid expands, you case could be cracked and any thawing will produce a nasty leak of electrolyte. Proceed with caution. Regards, BD

Don, By chance are you running a "k&n" type air filter? Regards BD

Len; Any mods to the factory MOST radio are difficult because of compatability, if that's what you mean by adding "amps" However if you mean antenna amplifiers, I've used antenna boosters by a company called Antenna Specialists. You power a small (about the size of a pack of cigarettes)electronic module and plug it in series with the antenna lead. Unplug the antenna lead at the radio plug the antenna feed into the A/S unit and then plug the lead on the A/S unit into the radio. Unfortunately, although I've installed them in a P car, it was not a 996. I'm unsure if they are still around, but they used to make both an FM only and an AM/FM booster. One word of caution, if the receiver is really that weak, when you boost the signal (especially AM) you tend to get a lot of cross channel interference and static in general. Try Crutchfield for auto radio accessories. Regards, BD

Techron concentrate by Chevron- 8 oz for about $6.00. Just add to tank. Make sure it's the concentrate formula, they have a more dilute cleaner which "contains" Techron and is cheaper but doesn't work as well. 3M makes a fuel system cleaner kit with 3 parts, a add-to-tank cleaner like Techron, a spray cleaner for the cleaning the throttle plate area, and a combustion chamber cleaner that you inject into the intake manifold through a vacumn hose (pcv valve) Regards, BD

Brian; The X-50 has bigger turbos and intercoolers, a different exhaust, a beefed up transmission (either manual or tip- but no sport shifter on the manual-still an option), 'upgraded' factory propriety ECU mapping to take advantage of the above, and last but not least, the factory warranty applied to all those goodies. All above is now standard in the '05 996TT S. The X50 parts breakdown (in general form) appears in the '04 'Tequipment' brochure (this booklet also shows various aero kits, wheels, stereo upgrades etc.) as if it was available as a retrofit, and the '05 Turbo S brochure as published by PCNA. Shame on your dealer!! Regards, Frank