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JeTexas

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Everything posted by JeTexas

  1. The shop did a teardown and had another estimator come out. It's confirmed that they are replacing the hood, the bumper and both headlights. I've decided to update to the 997 front end. It's not about posing or impressing people, I just like the 997 round headlights sooo much better than the ones on my 996. The next question is whether I want to go with the Gemballa style scooped hood and bumper with the halogen lights or to go with a stock hood and bumper with the bi-xenons. I listed out my options the shop gave me on my blog at www.fredfacker.blogspot.com. The stock option is the only one that allows for the cost of Xenons. The turbo option is the only one that would cost me out of pocket. Not happy this happened to the car, but it has been kind of fun getting to pick my nose.
  2. I had this issue on my 996 over the summer. I had to add a little silicone grease to the electrical connectors to get them to finally push all the way together and shut off the light.
  3. Thanks, RFM. I know the one you're talking about. I was actually yanking on that thing a couple months before the passenger side started catching outside the plastic trim because the corners were bunching and pulling up instead of lying flat. I probably pulled it too loose or tore something.
  4. Back in the 90s, my dad put myself , my brother and my sister in our 1983 station wagon for six months to a year after we each turned 16. Mind you, we were all three very responsible honors students and had six months of driving with a permit before getting our licenses. Within the first three months I was driving to a friend's house fiddling with the radio, looked up and realized I was in the ditch just in time to hit a driveway that crosses the ditch which ramped the car up into the air Dukes of Hazard style, crumpled the front fender and bent two rims. Within her first month my sister rear-ended another car in the school parking lot. And within his first six months driving, my brother got run off the road racing the station wagon and slid into a fence post. (He was the wild man, but I can't lie, I raced the wagon as well. It had a 305 in it.) My dad was never too hard on us about the wrecks. He'd say something like, "You learned an important lesson about paying attention and the responsibility of owning a car, and you did it pretty cheaply." Of course, then he'd make us pay for the damages to the station wagon, which were never more than about $200 or so because the scrap yards were practically giving away parts for that car. A couple months later after no more wrecks, he'd buy us an inexpensive but nicer car. And you'd better believe we all took extreme care of those cars. Not one of them was ever wrecked.
  5. Just to play devil's advocate for a minute: Remember that these soft performance tires have a life of about 12 months, maybe not even that with a 16-year-old driving, and cost about $1,000 per set -- although you may be able to get the fronts to last twice as long as the rears. An oil change takes 9 quarts of synthetic oil, so it's $100 versus $30 for a regular car. Parts like the MAF, water pump, alternator, brake pads, starter, etc. will generally be $100 or so more than a Ford or Honda and are almost guaranteed never to be in stock at the dealership, so even if it's an emergency, there's a delay, and you almost have to rely on mail order anyway for fair prices. I've had my 99 for about 3.5 years and in that time I've had to do 2 sets of rear tires, 1 set of front tires, replaced a cracked oil filler tube, replaced a water pump, replaced a MAF sensor, replaced a convertible top control module, and replaced the air-oil separator. Old cars have issues no matter how much they're babied. Then, you have the motor issue. Nobody has a way to predict when and why the IMS will go. I didn't know about the issue when I bought my car and after I found out I spent the first year stressing over it. I finally stopped caring. However, you have to realize that at any time through no fault of the driver, you might have a $14k bill to replace that motor. You might be able to pull off a salvage engine swap for $4 - 5k, but then you're just putting yourself in the same position with a different unknown motor. It's a fun car, but after owning one as an adult, I understand why my parents put me in a 4 cylinder Ford Mustang when I was 16.
  6. When you guys were having this fixed, did the techs say anything about what to do if the edge of the top started closing outside the plastic trim? My cable still seems tight, but for some reason it doesn't want to stay in the plastic channel. I have to close the top halfway, tuck it back in, and then close it the rest of the way.
  7. I met the Farmer's adjuster for the initial estimate at Don McGill Toyota's Collision Center. She estimated it at $3843 but was very clear that she could only write to visible damage and although she knew the bumper brackets would be bent and need replacing, they couldn't write a check for that until a shop tore the car apart and called them. After some deliberation I ended up taking it to Lakewood Car Clinic as they'd done the work on the bumper when I got hit from the rear sitting at a stoplight a couple years ago. Haven't decided whether or not to do the 997 conversion or even put a GT3 bumper on it. I'm waiting to hear how much more it would cost versus just repairing it back to stock. Every time I think about changing it too much, I start thinking of this.
  8. That's where Porsche of North Houston referred me. I'll probably go there, but right now I'm stuck waiting on a Farmer's adjuster. I'm supposed to meet him/her at Don McGill Toyota on Friday to have the damage assessed.
  9. You're probably right, Ratbone. The smartest thing to do would probably be to buy a used Artic Silver hood and bumper on eBay and spend the rest of the insurance money on a new top since I'm about due.
  10. So far this seems to be the best kit. It comes out about $6k with the lights, etc. Anyone used one? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190329856647&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:MOTORS:1123
  11. Two things to check. As mentioned, make sure the hydraulic fluid level is good. Also, make sure the little side flaps are moving up and down. Sometimes they get stuck and need to have their screw drives greased. Each microswitch triggers the next motion of the top in sequence, so if one piece isn't moving, it will time out and stop the entire chain of events that continues to close the top.
  12. The front end of my car got crunched last night while I was sitting at a stoplight. The guy in front of me decided to back up to pull into the other lane. Despite my blaring horn he backed right up on to me. Jacked up bumper and hood by ffacker, on Flickr Thankfully, he had insurance, so they're taking care of it. My question is, if you had to replace the hood and bumper of your 996, would you go stock or would you update to the 997 style? Any thoughts on the long-term value impact if I updated it to 997 fenders, hood, bumpers and lights?
  13. Mine died with no warning last Sunday at 140,100 miles. Huge smoke screen across the freeway. Normally I would have tackled it myself and made a video, but due to time constraints and needing the car running, I reluctantly let the dealership handle it. With a tow to the dealership it came to $1120 for my 99 C2 6-speed. It should be noted that the AOS has been superseded since 1999 and with the current part, you have to modify the manifold to create enough bolt clearance. Even Porsche of North Houston did not know this and had to call Germany to figure out how to get things to fit back together.
  14. As long as you stay tasteful with it, I don't think anyone is going to complain about extra alcantera surfaces when you sell.
  15. I have no idea why your remote quit working. However, I know why everyone's hardtop heated rear windows don't work. There's a plastic ring on the driver's side mount with two wires that lead to a metal contact patch on the ring. There's also two wires on the top. You have to have contact on that ring for the electrical signal to the rear window defroster to work. Unfortunately, those rings get brittle and tend to snap into pieces. I lost mine last year. The ring isn't sold separately, so to fix it you have to buy an entirely new driver's side mount -- or clip the wires at both the top and the mount and splice them into a butt connecter, so that you can just put the top on and then plug in the wires.
  16. Ahhh, found it. Passenger side of the transmission. Looks like if there was a clip on the slipped cable it's long gone now. The zip tie worked it's way off as well. Guess I'll order a new clip tomorrow.
  17. This just happened to me on the way home from work, but the gears showed back up before I got home. Anyone have a photo of these retaining clips, so I know what to look for when crawling under the car?
  18. If I remember correctly, I first sprayed it with some lithium grease, and that got it running again, but then I decided to take a little wheel bearing grease on my finger and slather it up and down that threaded screw drive. I don't think the convertible top itself actually touches it in any way.
  19. The top is programmed to perform a series of movements. Each movement is activated by a microswitch that notifies the computer that the previous movement is finished and it's time for the next one. The flaps you're talking about have screw drive motors. You can grease the screw drive, so that the nylon bearing moves up and down them easier and that should solve your problem. The reason the top starts moving once you hand manipulate the flaps into place is that when you kick them into the correct position, it triggers the microswitch to tell the computer to activate the top movement. I had to grease mine about a year ago. I haven't had any trouble since.
  20. Congratulations. It always sucks to lose money on a car, but hopefully you've got happiness and peace of mind now.
  21. Thank you, Loren. I was almost certain that was how it worked, but I started second-guessing myself.
  22. I have a Durametric as well. I just didn't bother running it because the PST-2 didn't show any errors/codes. I'm wondering of the new sensors just aren't pushing far enough into the sockets. There's definitely an issue with more than one because I swapped one of the old sensors that was still good into each socket to see if the light would go off. No dice.
  23. I just did a brake job, and I ordered the off-brand brake wear sensors from deutschparts on eBay. I used these sensors for my last brake job two years ago with no issues. However, this time my brake wear light hasn't gone out. I was sure that last time it went out by itself after I replaced the sensors, but I thought maybe I was forgetting something, so I ran my PST-2 thinking I must have just forgotten that I needed to reset the light. Nope, couldn't even find a way to do that. Then the seller suggested that I might need to disconnect the battery to reset it. I tried that, but no dice. I'm pretty sure the light is just on a circuit with the sensors and when something breaks the circuit, it comes on. Am I wrong? All four of the sensors test good for a complete circuit. What am I missing here? Is there anything else I should check? I'm going to trouble shoot it one more time tonight before giving up and returning these sensors. I'm getting really tired of taking the wheels on and off. Any tips or advice is appreciated.
  24. Congrats, Phillip. You've really upgraded since your 996 fiascos.
  25. It's just the overfill hose on the power steering. I have the same question posted on here somewhere from a few years back. lol
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