PorschePRH

I don't think so - as I said this is the same setup as the GT3.

If the GT3 has 295/30 versus my 285/30 on the rear, the calculators show a 1.7% difference front/rear versus the 2.7% I will be running if I stay with these new tires. I'm hoping the 2.7% will be ok.

The 235/40 x18 should not rub on the front as long as you are using factory offsets (40mm). That is exactly what the GT3 (narrow body) uses. A 245 WILL rub at lock on tight turns.

A 295/30 x 18 would be better on the rear - that will just fit a 10" wheel. If you want the GT3 setup then you would go with an 11" rear with offset 63 mm (same size tire).

Thanks Loren!

So, just to confirm: Will there be a problem with systems in the car with the difference of 2.7% between the front and rear total diameters?

I asked because I already ordered the 235/40/18 tires for front 8.5" rims and the 285/30/18 for the rear 10" rims. If I must change the order, I am going to get hit with extra shipping costs, but I will do it if I need to do it.

I should have confirmed the sizes before placing the order, but I did one of those impulse buys which are so easy online.

PH

Front is fine but I think you want 285/30 x 18 rears.

Loren,

Would you please you confirm that 235/40/18 on an 8.5" front rim is ok with the stock 285/30/18 on the 10" rim? That's about a 2.7% difference in size front to rear. I'm more concerned with the difference in diameter front/rear than any rubbing issues.

I did lots of searches, but they left me wanting of a Loren confirmation.

Thanks!

PH

I had the rear wheel bearings reploaced under warranty in my 2000 996 with only about 20,000 miles, had a humming in the rear and the dealer said they were bad. The cost was over $2,000 because the dealer said he had to pull the wheel carier to press out the bearings. I don't know if this is really required and did not care at the time is the warranty paid for 100% of the cost. But it did seem like alot of money.

That is a lot for wheel bearings' replacement. Hopefully this one won't be as bad. Thanks for the reply.

I had an indy shop quote $650 per bearing. They and others have suggested that you need to replace both sides at a time to keep the friction levels the same left to right.

If your shop needs to remove the wheel carrier to press out the bearing, what they are saying is they don't have the right tools and/or know how to do the job and they just plan to pass the cost on to you.

There are specialty tools for doing it without disassembling the whole thing. And the tools aren't too expensive for them ($200-$300 for the tool). The bearings are huge and therefore around $100 per wheel bearing. There are several DIY articles on here about this topic.

FYI, it looks like the inner links are $92 each for the Porsche part or $70 for the TRW part.

Anybody have any conclusive outcomes with these noise issues now that it's 8 months later?

I too have a clunk type noise on "drop off" situations.

I just installed PSS9's and an alignment, but I can't quite recall when the problem started.

I tried reproducing the problem in the garage by jacking the car up, taking the wheel off, putting another hydraulic jack under the suspension and letting the suspension down quickly, but no noise.

The spring bushing at the top moves nicely, and it just doesn't seem to be that.

When taking a rubber mallet to the area, I found a suspicious noise when banging on the steering rack. It seemed like the arm was loose and clunking. So I am wondering if there is a common problem with the steering racks that I should look for?

My car is an 03 C2 with only 25K easy miles, so it's hard to believe it's a normal wear issue.

Have you seen this thread from a few weeks back? Might be of help to you.

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=26423

No I hadn't. Thanks for the link, it's exactly what I was was looking for!

Yes, cost would be very interesting to me too! I'm guessing a thousand. It just seems like that's what they would hit you up for on a repair like this...

What was the cost, at what dealer. if you do not mind?

FINAL UPDATE:

Problem fixed! Took the car to the dealer who sold it to me. They replaced all 4 tierod ends (inner and outer). No more noise. Can't tell which one was the culprit but at least the noise is gone. Unfortunately, my super duper extended warentee did not include tierod ends (surprise LOL)) so I had to pay for the whole thing.

Thanks for all the help, I don't think they would have found it without my suggestions gleaned from this list.

Doug Davis

Anybody have any conclusive outcomes with these noise issues now that it's 8 months later?

I too have a clunk type noise on "drop off" situations.

I just installed PSS9's and an alignment, but I can't quite recall when the problem started.

I tried reproducing the problem in the garage by jacking the car up, taking the wheel off, putting another hydraulic jack under the suspension and letting the suspension down quickly, but no noise.

The spring bushing at the top moves nicely, and it just doesn't seem to be that.

When taking a rubber mallet to the area, I found a suspicious noise when banging on the steering rack. It seemed like the arm was loose and clunking. So I am wondering if there is a common problem with the steering racks that I should look for?

My car is an 03 C2 with only 25K easy miles, so it's hard to believe it's a normal wear issue.

Is the window regulator removal straight forward once you have removed the door panel or is there a special way to remove it? :)

It was a while ago now that I did it, but it wasn't too hard. The regulator folds up after you loosen the bolts that hold it on. You can wiggle it out fairly easily.

During routine inspection on my 02 996 C2 Targa, prior to taking it in for a 30K service, I noticed that the rear tires were worn heavily on the inside shoulders on both rear wheels. The outside shoulders still had good tread. The tires looked good at the last service at 27K miles last year. The front tires are wearing evenly and still have good tread.

I took the car in for service and the mechanic called me to say that the rear sway bar is broken. Would this have contributed to the uneven wear? Or should we be looking for some other problem. The mechanics are going to check and realign everything once the new sway bar is on.

I just don't see how the sway bar has anything to do with alignment.

And I don't see how you could snap a sway bar. They are made of substatial metal.

Porsche does have some unique ability from an engineering perspective to screw things up, but I would still have to see it to believe it.

What's your alignment specs?

I think there are four springs total:

* two short tensions springs across the bottom, 997 352 721 01

* one long tension spring at the top, 997 352 723 02

* and the two compression springs, which it sounds like are the ones you stretched

- I think they are 997-352-741-01

Other than the shoes, the adjuster at the top and the lock thing at the bottom, that is about it. Not much to break. I bet you are OK except for the stretched springs. I assume you stretched them enough that the shoes are hanging a bit loose?

You are spot on, they are hanging a little. Cant wait to contact Porsche in the morning after the easter weekend and get hold of a pair.

Thanks very much for the help.

I broke these same springs by putting too long of wheel bolts without my spacer by accident.

Have you called the dealer yet? $30 per spring for something that could only cost $.50 in any real world. I went to Autozone and asked to look at their hardware packages for drum brakes and the second one I picked up had retainer springs that fit perfectly. The pack with 4 retainer springs and a bunch of other springs was $8.50.

When you install them, I highly recommend you use a mirror of some kind (I used a dental one) to make sure the hook part of the spring is properly seated in the grove in the hub carrier. Otherwise they could pop out and that's not good.

I put a C4S bumper on my 03 C2. I didn't cut anything. I just put black electric tape over the part of the metal bumper that was showing in the grill and it looks great 3 years later. Try test fitting the bumper with the tape and see if it looks good enough for you. I didn't incur any extra expense for a new bumper or any extra effort cutting the existing one.

well we test fitted it before cutting and there was no other way. the C2 metal bumper is much longer than the 2 radiator colling ducts and the metal touches the grill and there was a lot of fitting gaps.

so we ended up cutting it, but it was worth it.

It was years ago when I did the work, so come to think of it, I do think I trimmed some plastic off the grills to make it fit.

But if you're done, you're done.

I put a C4S bumper on my 03 C2. I didn't cut anything. I just put black electric tape over the part of the metal bumper that was showing in the grill and it looks great 3 years later. Try test fitting the bumper with the tape and see if it looks good enough for you. I didn't incur any extra expense for a new bumper or any extra effort cutting the existing one.

Just go to a reputable Porsche dealer and get a warranty thru them. That's what I did.

Yea, that's what I just did. But it sounds like that same warranty was giving Larold a hard time.

I would be very interested to know of more stories that will let me know what to expect from Easycare when I have an IMS, RMS, or Intermix problem.

I've always done my own oil changes since I got the car a few years ago, and I hope that doesn't give them the opportunity to shaft me. The oil is so incredibly simple to change on the cars, it's easier to do myself than take the car in.

Hi Larold,

I just signed up for Easycare because it seemed like the best option. I went with TotalCare.

So I am interested to see how things turned out with your tranny?

Did they put in a factory refurbished unit? If so, that seems ok. A junk yard one wouldn't be too cool.

PRH

Easy Care. That's the name I was trying to remember. I highly recommend them.

I have the same deal as fdorn.

OK. Here's an update, which may alert you to some issues. EasyCare is now offering me 3 options to fix my transmission.

First, get a refurb, and contribute $6000.00 towards it. Yikes!

Second, send it to a local (LA) transmission place, get it refurbished...and my dealer says there isn't a good one here, or

Third, send it to a good one, no matter where.

My Dealer will have the final say on QC.

I went for the last option. In the fine print, because the warranty company is looking at so much money, it says they can put a refurbished tranny in, and not a new one.

Though you might want to be alerted to this stuff.

Can anyone recommend a good extended warranty that will cover a 2003 C2 with 25K miles that is outside the factory warranty and already purchased?

It seems like a lot of the recommended companies like Warranty Direct or Easycare only cover the car if you get the warranty while it's still in factory warranty or buy the warranty with the car at a dealership.

I mainly just want coverage for the big ticket items (IMS or tranny failures).

Thanks!

I am just going through this now, and if you have the Bose system, you need to know this:

Step 1 of the rear shock removal is much more complicated. That rear panel covering the tops of the shocks is tricky to figure out. You have to remove the bezels around the stereo subs on the left and the right to expose the torx-30 screws.

Once you remove the screw on both sides, you can slide the panel forward and disconnect the electrical connector by squeezing both sides of the connector.

Then you have to remove the holding brackets on both sides and then the very thick sound insulation that is under the panel to get to the shocks.

I thought I was going crazy when I read the instructions because it just says to remove the panel and that there are no clips. So whatever you do, don't pull really hard to remove this panel if you have the Bose. Fortunately, I didn't break anything when I did this.

Also, on the rear shocks, I would not bother putting the spring compressors on until you get the shocks out of the car (assuming you need parts from the shocks). The shocks come out just fine by tapping them out gently with a rubber mallet down at the bottom of the shock where you would never hurt it.

And no need to mark the location of the bolts on the top of the rear shocks, because they have to play like the front shocks. They will go where they belong whether you like it or not.

Hope this helps someone...

i just removed the door panel to take out the window regulator. here is my contribution to making it easier for you:

that foam liner is a bear to get off with that glue. people who write just to pull it off carefully are understating the issue. the glue is very goopy and the foam liner will easily tear before the glue separates, especially around the screw holes where the foam is weaker.

after very slow progress and minor damage to the liner, i ended up getting the whole thing off in a couple of minutes by using a hair dryer to heat the glue and applying constant pulling pressure. it worked like a charm with no damage to the liner.

HTH

You people are gullable. It's so cute.

Let's see, the car weighs over 3000lbs. And say about 1000 lbs of that is on the front wheels. Then you go 100mph and you generate 100lbs of upforce.

Hmmm... So there's only a mere 900lbs pushing the front of the car into the ground. So now you can see how your Porsche has a better glide ratio than a bird!

:renntech:

Don't forget to rotate your tires...

Just because they are directional, doesn't mean they can't be rotated. You just have to have them flip the tires on the rims and then mount them on opposite sides.

Can nearly double the life of the tires.

Why bother - I just use the classic X pattern rotation... Steering is a little odd, but its great on tire life... :soapbox: :clapping: :D

You cannot rotate them in the X pattern since the front and back tires are of a different size. ONLY removal of back tires from the rim and reversing them will help even out the inside wear, but why bother?

I think John from IL was joking...

I have heard of this rotation method in other car forums and have almost unanimously heard that it is not a good idea. The tires get a certain run in shape that you are working against once you move the tire to the other side. You will feel like you are running the car on the tires edge.

Why bother? Why bother? How about nearly doubling the life of the tires, stupid.

Feel like you are on the edge of the tires? What a bunch of idiots.

You mention that the inside wear is more than normal. Inside wear IS normal when you have a negative camber setting as per Porche's specs. The only way to reduce this uneven wear is to reduce the amount of camber. For street driving, you will not notice any difference in handling and your tires will last much longer. Your uneven wear will be the same whether you run 265's or 315's.

May I jack into this thread please?

This weekend I pulled the rims to do a cleaning and noticed some unusual wear on all 4 tires.

The rears are in need of replacing soon and are smooth on the inside but according to this thread, the rear wear is normal.

But the fronts....now the fronts have a wear pattern on the inside that looks like cupping to me. That would certainly explain the recent hint of shaking on some really smooth streets. The car doesn't pull left or right at all but can there still be some way for me to know when the aligment is off before seeing wear?

(996 targa)

Good chance your toe is off in the front.

And don't forget to rotate those puppies.

Don't forget to rotate your tires...

Just because they are directional, doesn't mean they can't be rotated. You just have to have them flip the tires on the rims and then mount them on opposite sides.

Can nearly double the life of the tires.

I got my kit from carnewal.com (excellent service btw!). Here are some pictures of the installed aero kit side skirts:

I tried to take a picture with the door open to show you the mistake I made but it is impossible to see with my phone camera.

I suggest using mental therapy to be ok with it the way it is.

You will only risk making a bigger mess trying to fix something that is unnoticeable on a black car.

And when we go to Le-mans they scream the guts out of them for 24 hrs & very few break down. No thats not a high miliage thing but still all other makes have engine troubles apart from the audi

Yea, but they don't go to Le Mans with a regular 996 engine... They go with the block in the GT3, which is far from the same engine.

How about putting all the junk on the side of the garage in the attic? that's why you can't get a passenger in there.... You can also try parking at slightly angles to give more room for the doors.