doug davis

Did you listen with the front wheels raised off the ground? Loren, Yes I did raise the car on jackstands wheels off. The noise can be produced only after putting weight back on the suspension (floor jack under disc) and jouncing the car up and down. Jouncing both sides made the noise while the other side was unsupported. I think it is coming from the left side of the rack somewhere under the rubber accordian cover. I'm wondering if there is a ball joint in there that might be worn or binding when it gets hot. Again there is no noise from moving the steering, only from vertical suspension movement. I was going to pop the tie rod end off and see if it still does it, but I only have a fork seperater and didn't want to damage the rod end by taking it off that way. I was hoping it was a common problem that someone could confirm rather than replace the rack without knowing for sure. I imagine it is a very expensive piece. I guess a trip to the dealer might be in order. Doug Davis

UPDATE still need help Ok I got the car hot this morning and played around with it some using a stethescope. Here's what I came up with: The noise appears to be coming from inside the steering rack (not the tie rod ends). It is a metallic "clank" but does not produce any play in the steering. It can be felt and heard very sharply through the tie rod. Turning the steering wheel back and forth does NOT produce any sound or play at all. The sound is only produced with up and down suspension movement. I know that doesn't make sense but that's the way it is. There is no sound or play from either tie rod end, sway bar link, ball joint, control arm bushing upper strut bearing, etc. and all suspension/steering bolts are tight. Rack mounting bolts are tight as is the steering column and its joints. There is absolutley no trace of this clank until the car has been driven at least 45 mins on a warm day. I drove this car all winter and never felt a thing. Thanks for ideas, Doug Davis

Hoping the collective wisdom of the list can help here... My 1999 C2 Coupe 45k miles new to me. The car has a clunk coming from the suspension or steering on the *I think* front left. The clunk is audible and can be felt through the steering wheel at slow speeds and small bumps. It does not happen from steering input alone there must be some suspension travel. Here is the weird part: It only happens after driving at least an hour on a warm (over 75 F) day. It is completly absent when it is cool or short trips. I think the sway bar links are OK can't feel any play in them. In fact, I think the sway bar links were replaced recently because they look almost new. Tie rod ends also seem tight. I just had the suspension replaced with a brand new M030 Kit so that rules out struts (upper strut bushings were replaced when the kit was put in as well) and sway bar bushings. I was really hoping it would go away after the M030 was installed but it didn't. I described the problem to my Indy, asking him to check everything when he had it apart but he came up with nothing. Because it only happens after an hour when its hot out he didn't reproduce the problem. But in his defense, he probably thought like I did it would go away after the new suspension was installed. Anyway any ideas would be appreciated this clunk is driving me crazy. Doug Davis

If anyone is interested I just had a ROW M030 suspension Kit from Sunset installed on my 1999 C2. Had the alignment specs set to the ones provided by Loren in numerous other posts. On the 30 minute drive home on all kinds of roads I must say that I am initially very happy with the improvement in both ride quality and handling. Handling is much sharper with none of the "floaty" feeling at high speeds that existed before. Also the ride quality seems to be actually better than before, although with 45k miles the original struts might have been worn a bit. Ride is certainly no harsher than it was. Anyway for what it's worth IMHO, If you are thinking about making the change in your car to the ROW M030 I would do it. Doug Davis

$49.82 here Loren go ahead order yourself a pair, and after you crush your subframe post your pictures!!! I just mentioned the lower price. I see no reason to insult me - or anyone else here. Loren, You are by far the most helpful and knowledgeable guy I have ever encountered on an automotive message board (and I have been on a lot of them over the years). You make Renntech the best Porsche Board out there. I, for one, hope its not a waste of bandwidth to thank you for what you do, especially after comments like that. Doug Davis

New to me 99 C2 coupe. One night last week my battery mysteriously drained overnight. It has only happened once in the 3 weeks I have owned it. I read as much as I could find on this subject in previous posts and am now going to track it down (trunk light, "in series" ammeter test etc.), but I have a question before I go through it. I read that: 1)If you leave the key in the ignition, even if it is off, it can kill the battery and 2) If you leave a manual trans car in gear, it can kill the battery. I know I left the key (off) in the ignition once and left it in gear once overnight. I can't remember if those times correlated with the battery drain, but what I'd like to know is can either one of these things really kill the battery overnight? I read both these things in previous posts, but I'd like conformation if anyone here knows the facts. Thanks, Doug

Agreed on the tires, but they are brand new so I think I'll use them for a while. Decided to go ahead and purchase the ROW M030. I assume the ROW sport alignment specs you've posted before- http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?s...alignment+specs - cover my car ('99 C2 coupe)? The charts don't seem to show years or models. Thanks for all your help, Doug

Loren, If I'm not mistaken, from some of your earlier posts, these are the correct wheels. Right? Thanks for your time, Doug

Ok, here is what Ive got: Front: part # 993.362.134.06 size 7.5J X 18-ET50 Tires: Bridgestone RE960AS 225/40 R18 Rear: part # 993.362.140.04 size 10J X 18-ET65 Tires: Bridgestone RE960AS 265/35 R18 I will search for the correct size/offset in the meantime. Thanks, Doug

Loren, Any way to determine wheel size/offset just by looking at them? Are they marked anywhere or is there a part # on them? Seems like I'd have to dismount tire and measure without a marking of some kind. Doug

Hello, First let me introduce myself and thank this list for helping with my new 996 purchase. Just purchased a 1999 C2 coupe with 44K miles (couldn't resist the prices these days) from a local Porsche dealer. I drove many cars in my search for a 996 and found this one to be the best, so I bought it. I know the '99 may be a bit of a roll of the dice in the engine department but a PPI and the collective wisdom gleaned from this and other forums leads me to believe it is a good car. I hope it holds up. Anyway, on to my question: After a week of driving, I am feeling some strange things from the front end of this car. I read as much as I could on this forum about "floaty" front ends on US spec 996's and wonder if this is what my car is doing. The car gets sort of "darty" or "floaty" in moderate to high speed corners. Particularly on heaved or rolling pavement. I can actually feel the steering wheel pull a bit in my hands and the car can get a little squirrely. It will do it in a straight line as well especially above 80mph if there are rolls in the pavement. This gets progressively worse with higher speed. If I lighten up my grip on the wheel and try not to react to these motions, it helps a bit but it really seems to me this is not right. The car was aligned by the Dealer before I bought it. I can only assume that it is in spec. Steering is nice and tight and it doesn't feel like there are any worn parts in the front end. It has 18" factory wheels with new tires that are the correct size. Tire pressures are correct. I wonder if this is normal for these cars or is there something amiss. I am considering Putting a ROW M030 setup on it but I'm not sure I want the extra ride harshness just to resolve a problem that could be something else. If this is "normal" I will definately put the 030 on on though. I have owned 2 other 911s (78 SC and 87 Carrera) neither of those drove this way, but the half dozen or so other MK1 996s I test drove did seem to exibit this behavior to some degree. Any thoughts? Any MK1 experts near me (Philadelphia, USA) willing to drive it and give an evaluation or let me drive their car to compare? Thank you, Doug Davis

Well I just noticed that someone is selling a nice set of 17" twists in the classifieds. Just what I'm looking for so if anyone has an answer for this, I'll pick them up. Doug

Hello, Many of you seem to switch rims from smaller to bigger diameters. My question is are there any problems going the opposite way? I have a 99 C2 coupe that came with 18" Porsche wheels. I'd like to put some performance rubber on those and save them for track days. I'm hoping to find a set of 17" Porsche rims and put some lower performance tires on them for comfort, cost, wet traction, etc. to use for daily driving. If I stick with the correct (porsche origional) size tires would there be any problem with doing this? Is it a direct swap or were the cars specifically set up for the factory rim size they came with in some way? BTW if anyone out there has a set of 17" Porsche rims they'd like to sell, feel free to PM me. Thank you, Doug