kgoertz

I have never believed in the recommendation to automatically resurface the rotors before putting on new pads. If they are damaged at all (including grooves, pitting, uneven wear etc) than resurfacing may be able to restore them. I have heard the theory that resurfacing them helps the brake pads 'mate' with the rotor but I'm sure that a good break-in will do the same thing. In my opinion mechanics usually recommend resurfacing since the cost isn't that high and it reduces the chance of the customer coming back complaining of vibration in the steering wheel or other problems. But it does reduce the thickness of the rotors. My advice is to check the rotors visually and with an inexpensive micrometer paying particular attention to any cracks starting from the holes in the rotor. If they are fine, than get a good set of pads and seat them properly. There are some good posts on this site on how to break-in new pads.

I had similar symptoms on my 02 and it turned out to be my reservoir. My mechanic guessed at the problem just based on my description and he wasn't surprised at all. I forget the version number on the replacement, but Porsche had definitely changed the design a few times. In my case I had a slow drip from my driver's side exhaust pipe but most was evaporating on the exhaust. The leak was on the bottom of the reservoir but I'm not sure how easy it was to find. It is probably worth checking if you can get a mirror to see under the reservoir, but I haven't tried it so I'm not sure. There are probably articles here on replacing the reservoir but unfortunately it isn't easy to get out. If I remember right it involves letting the engine drop slightly to make room to extract it.

According to "Porsche 996 The Essential Companion" by Adrian Streather, the allowable wear is 2mm per rotor (ie 1.0mm per side). For the regular 996 the new rotor thickness is 28mm front and 24mm rear. For the 4S and turbo it is 34mm front and 28mm rear. When I just did my pads at ~70K Km I checked the rotors and all 4 had worn roughly 1mm measured at multiple points on each rotors. There were no cracks around the vent holes in the rotor. If I remember the spec was for any cracks to be less than 3mm from the hole but I'd have to check that. Since they were only 1/2 warn I left them on my car and will replace next time.

Excellent. Thanks b-man. That really helps especially since you had them on the same car. I found a good diagram of the 996 exhaust online and it looks like they changed the cats at least twice. Prior to 2002 it looks like the second O2 sensor is near the clamp that connects with the muffler, but in 2002 it was moved to the catalytic converter itself. I was hoping for a cheap used cat, but the best I have found so far is ~$400 for one side. And that was for an low-mileage 02 cat but it is still 10 years old. It sounds like a few people believe the 2002 cats were particularly bad so I'm a little hesitant replacing with used. I'll start looking for a Fabspeed :-)

I took my 02 Targa to the track for an evening last week and as expected the car performed really well. It was a blast (of course). But at the end of the event there was a loud rattling sound from the exhaust. After convincing myself that it wasn't the engine by listening with a long screwdriver I drove home. I'm 90% sure the problem is with the left-side cat. After digging for prices and reviewing topics on the subject in this forum it looks like I have a few options. 1) Replace the failed cat with a used one. I may be able to get one for ~$500 or so. 2) Replace both cats with the Fabspeed Sport Cat X-pipes for ~$2K 3) Pull out the cats and get a muffler shop to weld in universal cats to the existing pipes I am in Ontario, Canada which doesn't have any specific rules on aftermarket cats other than having to pass an emissions test. So I don't think that is a factor. My main questions are around the value (and potential issues) of the Fabspeed X-pipes. Fabspeed quotes ~25 extra HP in their dyno tests, but I am very sceptical of their claims. I also wouldn't mind if the exhaust was a little meaner, but that isn't my main motivation. Te Fabspeed cats seem like a reasonable replacement to the stock units considering the outrageous price Porsche is asking for replacement parts. I know this has been discussed briefly on this list in the past, but I couldn't find any recent messages. Has anyone run the Fabspeed cats for a reasonable amount of time? How well do they survive during regular driving and/or track days? Did you notice any changes to the exhaust note or "seat of the pants" change in power? I found a few comments on the cats setting codes which would obviously be a problem. At this point I am leaning towards getting a used replacement mostly due to cost. I also read a rumour that 2002 was a bad year for 996 catalytic converters so I'd be looking for 2003-2005 cat's :-) Thanks in advance

There are quite a few discussions on here about the burning smell. On my car it is definitely from rubber from the rear tires melting on the exhaust. I can get rid of the smell for a month or two by taking the car to a power wash and spraying down the mufflers and exhaust pipes. On the other hand I treat the smell as confirmation that I am getting the most from my car :-)

I'm not quite sure on the price, but I think it is something like 8 hours work. Adding in the price of the bearing (not sure but somewhere around $6-$700 USD) that should come to the $1500-$2K. Add in a clutch kit for $500 and you close to $2500 US as logray mentioned. Although that is for the C2 manual. My understanding is that it is more for the TIP and possibly more for a C4.

There have been many, many discussions on replacing the IMS bearing on this forum including an in-depth discussion with Casper labs recently. LN Engineering has the most mileage on their replacement bearing although there are a few other new options including one from Casper. FWIW I have booked my 02 996 into the shop for the LN bearing replacement on Monday even though nothing is noticeably wrong. If you are already replacing the RMS and have the transmission out it probably makes sense to replace the bearing at the same time.

Perfectly normal. They have been a few theories on the cause but it appears to be very common. One is that it is due to the cosmoline Porsche sprays on the car before shipping. In my case it is definitely due to small pieces of rubber from the rear tires ending up on the exhaust pipe. Spraying down the exhaust and the exhaust tips (once the engine is cool) makes the smell disappear for a while. But then again I now consider the burning smell as proof that I gave the car a good workout :-)

I just replaced my previous PS2 with the new Michelin Pilot Super Sport. They seem to be a little quieter than the PS2s and handling seems to be as good or better. I have been very impressed that they managed to improve on the PS2. But on the bright side Michelin dropped the price pretty substantially (~25% I believe) which brings them much closer in line with the top-name competition.

FWIW. I did a similar mounting but replaced the CD trays with an open storage cabinet first. And then wired the GPS audio and power into the back of the Becker head unit. The GPS comes on with the car stereo. Using a large flash card I now have all of my media in the car at the touch of a button and my mobile phone works through the car speakers using Bluetooth. Very easy modification and works better then I had expected.

That is very common. Actually my belief is that if you don't smell burnt rubber after a good drive in a 911 that just means you weren't driving it hard enough :-) If you search the forums you will find a few discussions on the topic. I'm pretty sure the problem is that small bits of rubber end up on the exhaust and melt when the car gets hot enough. On my car the problem seems to go away if I power wash the outside of the exhaust from the rear of the car and from the wheel wells. Another theory that has been discussed on this list is that it is due to burning of some of the cosmoline that Porsche uses to rust-proof the engine.

If you do end up having to buy a new assembly it might be worthwhile to try to find a used one. They do appear on ebay occasionally. I would also recommend calling Randy at Whale Tail Porsche in Waterloo (as a Canadian source). I have had good experiences dealing with him in the recent past.

I believe my 02 Targa was originally set-up similar to what you are attempting. I don't have the exact numbers handy but it was lowered by the previous owner by more than 1". It was also running 235/35R19 tires on front and 315/25R19 tires on rear. I love the looks of the car and it definitely appears to fill the wheel wells out more than stock. However I would strongly caution against lowering the car that much. The main issue is that the dramatically reduces the clearance of the front bumper . With the C4S bumper I had to be extremely careful not to scrape the nose. Driveways were the worst since the car is usually angled downwards when it meets the incline of the driveway. In one instance the bumper actually caught a small lip on the driveway and pulled part of the bumper from the car. A secondary issue was that it was impossible to get the alignment into spec when lowered that far. The rear cambre was too negative at the limit which resulted in too much tire wear on the inside of the tire. The third issue is that the car would occasionally bottom-out the suspension when there were significant dips in the road. It was only an issue when driving quickly on really bad roads though. I have since raised the car up so that it is just slightly lower than the ROW spec for the 996. Clearance is no longer an issue and I have managed to get almost 40,000 KM on a set of PS2s :-) Although the body role was noticeably reduced when the car was lower. The car definitely felt more planted in corners. The 19" rims have also been a bit of a problem for me. It doesn't look like the 315/25R19 size will be available for either the new Michelin Pilot Super Sports or the new Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position. I am hoping to drop to 295/30R19 but the diameter is 0.8" larger. If I had to do it again I would have stayed with 18" rims since I believe the car's handling isn't as neutral as with the stock setup. But on the other hand the 19" rims do look good.

FWIW...page 109 of the latest issue of Panorama (Feb 2011) has an advertisement for a company that apparently has remanufactured steering racks for the 996 for $450. I happened to be reading it this morning :-) http://www.allzim.com

Dave, Do you have a picture of your cell-phone setup? I have a solution now for GPS and audio, but I wouldn't mind adding a mount for my Blackberry and was looking for ideas. I did something similar with a Garmin GPS and it also looks and works quite well. In my case I made my own mount for the GPS right above the 1st storage tray and wired power and audio into the stock radio. No visible wires and the mounting is completely hidden. With a 32Gig SD card I now have all of my music available at a touch of a button and since the GPS has bluetooth it also provides hands-free calling. The added bonus is that I can reach the GPS touch screen without lifting my hand off-of the stick :-)

I would personally vote for the 02 over the 01 in order to get the improved engine and interior. However something else to keep in mind between a C2 and C4 is that the C4 has less trunk space. For me that would be a big problem since I frequently take it on day or weekend trips with my wife and 2 little boys. With the C2 you can fit two carry-on sized suitcases in the front :-) I don't believe that is possible on the C4.

My 2002 Targa was originally a US car but the previous owner imported it to Canada. Apparently it was pretty easy. The digital portion of the speedometer can be switched from mph to kph using the onboard controls, and adding daytime running lights was pretty straightforward. Of course this was for a 996 not 997. I was originally looking at importing one myself, and the most common advice is make sure you get a pre-purchase inspection on any car you are seriously looking at. If the seller doesn't co-operate then just walk away. .

Sorry that I missed this earlier. I had the same problem on my 02 C2. The suspension would squeak over bumps but only when it was hot (driving 30 minutes or more). Eventually it started squeaking when turning the steering wheel. The problem was also the lower ball joint. Replacing the lower control arm fixed the problem.

I had a similar squeak occur a few months after I bought my car. The previous owner did not drive it frequently and the car had very low miles. The sound was only audible with the top open or windows down and it sounded like a squeaky cable. I chose to live with it, and luckily after about a month of ~daily use it disappeared and has never come back. So you might get lucky...if nothing else use this as an excuse to drive the car often :-)

FWIW. My 02 996 had 19" wheels when I bought it. Given the choice I would actually prefer to go back to 18" wheels for a few reasons: - I am running 315 25R19 tires on the rear...traction is very good however the car is pretty unforgiving on rough roads. A little more sidewall would probably help for non-track use - the rear tires at this size are considerably more expensive then the stock size (at least with the PS2s). - my guess is that the handling would likely be slightly better with 18" tires (although I can't prove it). The car seems to understeer more than I would like probably due to increased traction in the rear.

I thought I'd update an old thread. FYI Here in Ontario the two best choices for gas used to be either Sunoco (94 octane but 10% ethanol) or Shell (91 octane with no ethanol). I have been running mostly Shell for the past 2 years. I was using Sunoco before that but was concerned with the Ethanol and wasn't able to tell a difference between the two. I filled up yesterday at Petro-Canada with the 'new' 94 octane. The pump did not indicate whether or not it included 10% ethanol but there are rumours that Petro-Canada is now selling a 94 octane non-ethanol blend. I commented several times the next day that the car felt faster before I realized the reason. There is a clear difference in both "seat-of-the-pants" acceleration and engine noise. I am unable to dyno the difference, but even my wife noticed the difference in sound. It sounds a bit more like a banshee :-) If anyone else has compared the two I would appreciate the feedback.

FWIW. I am running 19x11 rims on my 02 Targa (C2). Unfortunately I do not know the offset. No problems with rubbing. I would actually prefer to drop back to 18" rims in order to get the car's balance closer to what Porsche intended. The rear end sticks really well but the car understeers a bit more than I would like. The car has PS2s with the following sizes: 315 25 zr19 (rear) 235 35 zr19 (front) From what I have read on this forum, 295 30zr19 are more common. No significant issues however the wheels stick out a tiny bit too far from the fenders, and I actually just scraped the rear rims on a curb today since the rim hits the curb before the rubber does :-(

If your perception of the "nose high attitude" comes from driving that sounds very unusual to me. The ride height should be measured from the lower mounting points on the front and rear suspension. The booked "Porsche 996 The Essential Companion" describes this in detail. Loren has also posted diagrams on this forum under topic 23413. 996 suspension - Measuring ride height

I'm pretty sure that lowering the car results in decreased camber which increases wear on the inside of the tire. My 02 was lowered about 1.5" when I bought it. At that time the alignment shop that I was using was unable to get my car within Porsche specs with that height. The numbers after alignment were ~-1.75x for the rear camber where spec was -1.48x. The tires were completely worn on the inside, but still had decent tread on the outside. This was at ~15,000 miles. I replaced the tires (PS2s) at that time and have since driven 15,000 miles on the them (mostly highway). I guess this means I don't drive aggressively enough :-) If your tire wear is more extreme you might want to get a full alignment and check the rear camber.