perryinva

Also have the exact same noise, only after warmed up. Also a groaning noise, with just turning the steering wheel tho...Will someone please be the first sucker...errr..volunteer to discover the cause!!

Well smack me up and down and call me batter. There's a first for everything. I'm glad I said "virtually impossible". HAD to be defective from the factory. I know how it's great to be back on the road. I didn't notice you were in Virginia, or I would have offered you my OE one I took off for free. (I'm in Richmond). I put the M030 ones on mine. The GT3 bar is a far stiffer & better bar. Since you still have the OE front bar, I'd have put the rear on full soft, as it would still be way stiffer than the old bar was.

Yes, I wasn't trying to be flippant. When you're talking about tenths of a degree, then there is really no way that changing spring heights and shock droop can't affect you're alignment. I've replaced stock struts on cars with stock ones, and even after carefully marking all the nuts & bolts, they are still way off on alignment. There is actually a very measured difference from just tire wear, that if you want to be AR about handling, I can see getting an alignment as often as every 5k miles if you have heavy negative camber. I know I sure wouldn't have a severe alignment for just that reason, but getting it redone after your new suspension settles, say, 1k or more, would be well worth it if you had fairly new tires on. I hate the current tires on my 996 that the PO had installed new, right before I bought it (Sumi HRTZIIs), so I'll play with ride height & camber a little, at the expense of the tires, once I install the PSS9s. Then i'll buy new tires and have the alignment done. I have to say, that I have never had a car that didn't need an alignment based on before & after numbers. Except for the 996 (which I obviously can't rotate tires on), tho, I normally only do it if when I rotate tires and I can feel any unusual wear on the tread, or put new tires on. In my case, though, I have 4 vehicles, and the use of a company car, so do not put all that many on them. I use the "accelerated wear" from a "bad" aligment to replace tires that I'm not crazy about. Doesn't make sense to spend hundreds on an alignment to save the same amount in rubber, especially if the rubber gets 5-6 years old. Unless of course the aligment makes the car unsafe to drive. Also, I would wonder if getting an alignment often wouldn't wear the nuts and bolts that have to be loosened and retightened each time.

Regardless, when you replace the struts, you really have no choice.

$380 per seat is cheap for good lumbar from Porsche! I'd have thought Porsche air bladders were made from unobtanium, and only used Bavarian air..Sounds like drateams dealer is FOS.

+1

You can't go wrong with Bilstein HDs as replacements in this scenario. Better price, better warranty, better ride, same height.

It is virtually impossible to break a sway bar mounted on the car. Are you sure it wasn't a broken drop link to the sway bar? As wross said, that would have the effect of, if bent, adding more pressure on one side over the other and cause uneven wear on one side. If the link was broken, it would not affect wear unless you did a lot of cornering with it broken, which would be near impossible to do without wondering "WTF is wrong with this car?" Somethings not right here.

I have an '02 C2, with the Comfort Package option. It has standard full leather seats that are supple leather, heated, and have all electric controls. On the side of each seat there are 2 levers, plus a round rocker button. On non-lumbar seats, this is just a round plug. One lever control seat back, the other, seat bottm tilt and height. The round rocker inflates/deflates the lumbar, and also raises it or lowers it to where you want it contacting your lower back. Works perfectly on both seats. I love it.

Wow, I never thought that lumbar was a problem or problematic. Can you include the link to that thread? Was it not available on the Comfort package with a C4S? Or was that option not available? That was near the top of my must have list when I went looking, and it really wasn't that hard to find, IIRC. Mine have been trouble free, and very well worth it!

HMMM, every bearing and race on any car engine I've worked on has always been magnetic. I've not taken apart any Porsche engine. (just BMWs, VWs and some American iron. I know nothing about motorcycle engines.) Any tiny particles that can be seen are most likely machined residue or something coming apart. Acceptable normal machine wear, whether bearings, cam or crank shafts should not be easily seen visible particles, but near inviisible increased metal particles in suspension. Race cars, ultra hi performance, etc are different. Now, it may be that the M96 engines have normal wear that is mechanically engineering wise, unacceptable, which would then be the most likely culprit of their oil based observed destructions. Shame on Porsche if that is the case, but it is not unprecedented. Visible metal particles will cause advanced wear and oil passage clogging, and this, of course, is not normal. AFAIK, a cars life is still defined as 100k miles, an dif it is totally worn out at that mileage, there really is not much to be said, but we've come to expect a lot more, though, from almost all makers. I've only done one oil change myself on my 996 (at 41k miles), and the analysis from Blackstone did not show anything unusual, (knock on wood) and my filter pleats had no obvious particles of any kind. I wish now I'd kept the old filter and back flushed it through filter paper, but at the time, I wasn't thinking along these lines. I always have inspected the pleats on this type of filter, ever since I've owned BMWs.

You may notice that after a fresh oil change with 0W-40 Mobil 1 that the "surge" is absent or greatly reduced, indicating how sensitive the Variocam+ is to clean oil and viscosity. I noticed a great change after my last oil change.

Is there a Mobil 1 5w-40 or 5W-50? That would seem ideal if you want a higher cold pressure. However, both 0W-40 and 5W-40 would both yield about the same hot oil idle pressure. The 0W and 5W only come into play when the oil is cold. Also, keep in mind that the pressure indicated is the pressure at the sender, not in the oil channels. It stands to reason that the lower the overall viscosity, the higher the flow, which is just as important as pressure. However, f there is any blockage,due to dirt, metal shavings etc, I would think that the higher pressure would have a better chance of flushing it out over flow, so it may be a 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other situation. a 5W-50, as 1999 advocates would give you a higher pressure as hot idle. I am also a mechanical engineer of 30 years, and while I have taken tribology courses, I have to admit that I'm not sure where 1999 gets the "old wives tale" that lower viscosity flows the exact same as higher viscosity. That would only be true for a positive displacement pump, which all automotive oil pumps that I have ever seen, including the 996s certainly are not. They are gear driven or impeller driver pumps. I deal with pumps and different oils for burning and lubrication all the time, and I have never come across that. But like I said, I'm not an engine lubrication expert, just educated enough to be dangerous. Viscosity and lubrosity (shear protection) are not related. Every bearing/journal, etc has at least 2 wear planes, inner and outer. The correct viscosity simply allows adequate flow to the (supposedly engineered correctly) location distribution point that distributes the oil in a way that allows a balanced shear to occur in both wear planes, and that correctly counters the mechanical force of the engine part. The oil shears and carries away heat in a balanced synergy. Too low a viscosity, and the part to part contact may occur in one of the planes. Too high a viscosity and inadequate oil is supplied that may allow contact in either one or both planes and overheating. Consensus agrees that mostengine wear occurs at startup, but loss of oil destruction occurs at highest stress due to lack of lubrication/cooling at the subject bearing. I believe it is splitting hairs in non winter use to choose 0W-40 over 5W-40 or visa versa. Certainly, the lowest viscosity available will flow faster to cold parts, and have less parasitic loss to increase MPG and performance. Once up to temp, they have to behave the same.

One knob does compression and rebound at the same time. I have a complete list of parts needed, they are shown on the PSS10 instructions which you can download direct from Bilstein or I can email them to you. PM me with your email address. The PSS9 instructions show a representative square which says something on the order of "reuse OE parts here". On the fronts, you reuse everything except the bump stops & springs (duh). On the rear, same, but you do not used the slanted spring spacers. If you buy all new parts, including the 4 replacement one time caliper bolts, it will run you about $600 from Suncoast. The 8 concave washers (strut stops on the PET) are $140. I chose to reuse those, and just replace the rubber parts and bearings. I also used the X74 front upper strut mounts (rears are the same, stock or X74), which were about $20 each more than the EO upper strut mount. So mine was about $540 total. Ialso bought the 997 GT3 brake air scoops, ($22 a set, larger, nicer, brakes run cooler) and the Porsche engine protection pan ($86).

I'm also also here in Virginia..can I ask if you always drove it w/o the front plate? Ever had an issue?

So about $380 USD each..just the parts?! Sheesh!! Wow.

Yes, and they are not hard to replace at all, one nut and connector Have to remove front bumper cover. You can often find a new pair of identical shaped red Hellas for the same price as a single black OE Hella on fleabay. The only difference is the wire connector. If you want the easiest change, get them from Sunset. Cheapest is on flebay.

Yeah, you can say that again. That plastic neck snapped on my 528 and cost $3k worth of engine damage...warped head, pulled block threads that had to be helicoiled, etc, etc. Until this happened to you, I'd not have though of it either, but of course those rads are just collectors for everything, as low as they are, but then I don't drive the 996 in what little snow we get, here in Richmond. I thought most all rads cooling portions are finned aluminum nowadays, so I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often up north. BTW, how much were the rads? As I may have mentioned somewhere in this thread, the rads were 'clean' in the sense that debris had been removed. The corrosion developed in the outboard lower corners of the rads, which are of course behind the AC condensers. Regular hosings might help, but I suspect the only way to prevent it would have been to regularly remove the bumper cover and separate the rads and AC condensers as some here do from time to time. It was somebody else's car for six winters, so caveat emptor. But this is the first car I've owned with aluminum rads. Never would have occurred to me. (That said, I like this problem better than BMW's plastic rads and the fun way they fail!).

hot 0w-40 Mobil 1. 1.5 at idle. Cold (less than 20 minutes) idles varies from high of 4, and drops failrly quickly to 2.5, then more gradually to 1.5 when fully hot. Higher viscosity always yields higher pressures.

Like we said, radiator cleaning is normally the culprit, in your case, it just wasn't leaves, but the result is the same. Salt is nasty stuff on aluminum. Would definitely pay to hose out the rads in wintertime to get the salt out. Glad you found it before you sprung aleak!

I would seriously still consider finding some PSS9s on ebay. IMHO, the forte of the PSS9/10s is not being able to adjust them often, but just being able to adjust them to where you want/need. PSS9s (which will be much less $$ if you can find them) are going to be significantly more supple than M030 on the kind of impacts you are describing, when set to the soft end, & be about the same height as rowM030, or maybe 3/4" lower than USM030, when adjusted to the top. (Don't confuse height adjustment with compression/rebound adjustment, they are separate) Yet, they will still handle great, better than stock and on par or better than M030. M030 kit has recently gone up quite a bit, and the kit includes new sways, which, in your case you don't need to change. Since you already have the US M030 springs, it may still be cheaper to go M030 if the cost of just the struts (not the kit or total assemblies) is less. PSS9s show up pretty often in the $1200 range. The advantage of PSS10's over 9s is the stiffest setting is stiffer on 10s, and suppossedly the consistency of the settings is better than they were on the 9s. Your old shocks most certainly are gone at 110k, whether they leak or not, and their life would be shortened even further with the use of lowering springs, as it forces the shocks to operate in the wrong part of the stroke. I'd bet a lot of the shock you feel is hitting the stock bumpstops too soon because of the lowered springs.

Probably the sending unit, especially if it goes to 0 with the engine not running. Normally it's 5 when cold, then drops to 3.5 in 6th at 60mph. Pressure varies with RPM. Idle is about 1.5 when warm.

The speaker wires in the trunk are fine to use, twisted for less noise. I'd run new power and rcas to the new amp from the head unit. I wouldnt reuse the unshielded high level input wires that came from the oe becker hu.

Hi8, Yes, I've read all those. The key to the ? was finding a suitable mate to the oem connector. In virtually all my past cars, including BMWs, someone found the connector that allowed an easy reversal back to stock if you sold the car, you wanted to change amps, etc, etc. I'vr gone so far as to bid on cheap 5 channel amps on fleabay, just to get the connector and make my own. Unfortunately, even the crappy stock amps still go for more than I want to spend for just a connector. Steve, If you have the same basic amp as the Boxster, then Blaupunkt does (did) make an amp with a special T-harness that used stock connections, but then of course you're limited to their amps. If you search for Blaupunkt amps like this one http://cgi.ebay.com/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem...em=380111164423 and find the cross cable here http://www.blaupunkt.com/us/7607792132_main.asp for a Boxster. Very elegant solution, but doesn't work with the 5 channel 996 pre-2003 "upgraded" amp, only the basic amp. BTW, what part of the country are you from. I'm originally from Westchester, NY.

I had asked a similar question and have seen the same question asked before, but have never got an answer. Amazing to me, considering how crappy the oem amp is. Let us know if you find one?? Perry Esposito