Ant64

I removed the entire center console, as the pictures and directions suggest. After I did the repair, I thought it would be possible to make the repair without removing the entire console. I would try and repair it without removing the whole thing first, if you determine you need to remove it, then remove it. If you do end up removing it, don't forget to put painter's type tape at the base of your emergency brake to avoid the type of damage I caused mine when I removed it! Post back and let us know if you had to remove the whole center console.

I just did this on my 01 996 Turbo a couple nights ago. Once I removed all of the screws and the side cover to the emergency brake, I had a tough time getting the console out, even with the passenger seat all the way down. I couldn't get the right angle to get the front part of the console out from underneath where my ventilation and seat warmer controls are. When I finally got the right angle I noticed that in my many attempts to remove, I had really torn up the leather at the base of my hand brake! :censored: :cursing: The pictures were taken before I replaced the hinge. You can see on the driver's side photo where the leather has a blackish smudge, the leather to the left of the smudge is the area that got affected. So now, when the brake is engaged you can really see how bad it looks! Man, for something that was supposed to cost me $30, I'm not sure how much this is gonna cost to fix! Sheesh! I found replacement hand brake levers, but they're priced between $200 and about 4 to $500! OUCH!!!! And they weren't even in my color combo! I feel so bad about this! Maybe an upholstery shop? Anybody know any good ones in Chicago, IL? On a side note, I priced out the hinge replacement kit, the cheapest Porsche part I found was for $22.50. With shipping it would have been closer to $30. When I called my local dealership, they told me $38, I asked if they could price match, he said he couldn't go as low as 22.50, but he could do $28, so my out the door price was $30 and some change. Never hurts to ask!

Hi, I think I'm having ignition problems on my 01 996TT, what kind of ingnition switch did you get? If it will work on my car and you still have it, I'll take it! Let me know, thanks!

First time poster. Love you love your forum! :renntech: Anyway, I just did this repair on my 01 996 TT, the only additional thing that I had to do on my car, for ease of access to the part, was to remove the rear most plastic covering underneath the car. Once I did that, I was easily able to follow these directions! To remove the plastic cover, I used either a 9 or 10 mm socket and I forgot the number of the torx bit, but once you're under there, it's pretty easy to figure out.