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RatboneRanch

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Everything posted by RatboneRanch

  1. I would not count on a 996 as a daily driver (or really any other high-mileage German car from the last ~20 years). Always have something else to drive just in case. Just this year alone I had two potentially stranding failures (ignition switch and voltage regulator) within a couple hundred miles of each other, and my car only has 37K. Also, being able to DIY is great but that won't save you from high priced replacement parts. And I don't think any non-front engined Porsche is inconspicuous. Mine is silver and someone is always trying to either race or keep me from passing them.
  2. I’m looking at buying a used hard top for my 2002 cabriolet. Other than cosmetics, what should I look for when buying a used hard top? Do I need to make any preparations to the car before installing it? I gather that they came with 2 different generations of connecting hardware and I know there’s supposed to be hardware on the car already (assuming it didn’t come with the hard top delete option). But I’m not sure how to tell if I already have the hardware I need. Also, will I have to adjust the hard top after installing it, and if so, where can I find instructions to do that?
  3. I was trying to remove my taillamp cluster and one of the reverse torx bolts snapped off for some reason. Looks like the other one will, too. I guess I'm now stuck with trying to drill them out. Anyone else ever have this problem?
  4. This afternoon I got the "Warning battery/generator" light on my cluster. I put a meter on the battery and it's 13.5 V at idle but if I rev the engine the dome lights flare, the engine compartment fan flares, the voltmeter on the cluster varies and the climate control shuts down. Somewhere in the dusty recesses of my memory I seem to recall these are symptoms of a bad voltage regulator? The battery is only a year old and is kept on a tender over the winter. The drive belt is only 2 years old. The car has under 37,000 miles.
  5. Thanks for posting that diagram. There are nuts on there I didn't know about so I'll give it another try tonight.
  6. Well, I've been trying as suggested but no matter what I try, there's significant off-centeredness between the eye in the bracket and the threads on the engine. Maybe 3 mm? And my best efforts can only reduce that to maybe 2 mm, not close enough to insert the bolt without it threatening to cross-thread the casting. The pic is blurry due to the close range but it shows the situation accurately.
  7. I just wrapped up a water pump replacement and even though I supported the engine throughout, the small bolt (10 mm head) in the center of the engine mount bracket won't go back in its hole because the hole won't quite line up with the threads on the engine. I spent about 15 minutes fiddling with a jack and tightening the larger 15 mm head nuts in various sequences, which would make the engine shift around a little bit, but the small hole never did line up right. I was wary of jacking on the bottom of the engine too much so I quit. The hole is now covered with tape to keep dirt out. Is this something I can let go for awhile or should I sort this out before I drive again?
  8. Do you read Sports Car Market? They have an attorney on their editorial staff who writes about these things fairly often. Here's on article he did on diminished value. You can search for others. https://www.auctiona...nishing-returns
  9. If the tires are that worn, I wouldn't try to nurse any more miles out of them in a climate like NJ's. Even a summer-only car can get caught in a sudden rain shower, and fast cars on worn tires are dangerous in the wet.
  10. Since 1991, I've had exactly 2 speeding tickets. We won't go into how many tickets I've deserved, but suffice to say that most of my miles have been driven blissfully free of any radar detector. In my experience, a radar detector just gives a false sense of security. You're better off using your wits and common sense (i.e., if you feel like you're driving too **** fast, you probably are.) But if it makes you feel better, use one.
  11. For as long as I've had my 996 cabrio I've had a noise coming from behind my left ear while driving. Kind of a dry, scratchy squeak, like a SKKCH sound, when traveling over bumps. It was there top or up down, windows open or closed. I even searched this forum for ideas, but no luck. I learned to live with it, figuring my chances of actually tracking it down and fixing it were slim. The other day, when the car was parked with the top down, I leaned into it to get something from the center console. As my body weight pressed on the driver's door, I heard the familiar squeak. I pressed against the door a couple of times and was able to reproduce it. Suddenly, it dawned on me. My BMW 3-series makes an annoying noise on bumpy roads, and I've kept it at bay by rubbing silicone grease on the driver's door striker every other month or so. Would that work here? I rubbed some silicone grease on the 996's door striker and tried to reproduce the sound. Silence. To make sure, I took it for a test drive (always looking for an excuse to drive the 996). Sure enough, no noise. It's been a few days now, and it's still quiet. I guess that over the miles, the driver's weight stresses that side of the car and leads to excess flex, creating noise where the door shuts. This explains why both my 996 and my E30 make the sound in the same place. Of course, my 996 has 1/6th the miles my BMW has, but it is a cabrio, so it's naturally less rigid. Anyway, this may help somebody, so I thought I'd post it.
  12. I've followed that thread over on Rennlist and while I think it's an interesting idea, I'm skeptical and won't be standing in line waiting to hand over my money. I mean, Flat 6 sells IMS upgrades, so isn't it in their best interest for you to think your IMS bearing is bad? And Jake strikes too much of a be-afraid-be-very-afraid tone for my taste. For chrissakes, he encourages you to flatbed your car to him for the upgrade -- don't drive it -- because it might lunch its engine AT ANY SECOND!! I'll pass.
  13. +1 to what everybody has said so far. And, for the same money (or less), you can find a Boxster with half as many miles (or less).
  14. Interesting. I've never heard of these ramps cracking. Unless it was a different brand. Mine are made by a company called Rhino Ramps I believe. That's who made mine. It wasn't a big scary crack. In fact, I think I still used mine once or twice afterward, but still. A 914 isn't a heavy car. I now use one of these for most lifting purposes: MaxJax I still use metal ramps for quick n dirty oil changes.
  15. I had those ramps. They cracked under the weight of my 914. Now I use only metal ramps.
  16. Are you sure the lights don't shut themselves off after a while? My engine and trunk lights shut off automatically after being open for a period of time and I'd expect the interior lights to do the same.
  17. With such soft windshields, German roads must be paved with the skin of angels.
  18. I've been wondering about this myself. My '02 C2 with 29,000 miles has more pitting than my 87 BMW with 185K miles and I know the miles on the Porsche are genuine.
  19. If you're super-ambitious, you could try re-doing the soft-touch rubbery paint: Soft touch paint This material is showing up on more and more cars lately, so somebody is going to have to figure out a fix for it.
  20. My most interesting story isn't about a newer Porsche. In late 2009 with the recession fully underway, I started scanning the Web, figuring I could find a bargain in used 911s. I found several fairly-priced 911SCs across the country (U.S.), but all had some sort of issue, either with the seller or the car itself. Then on a Thursday evening in early January 2010, I saw a beautiful gold 1980 911SC advertised for less than $10,000 on Pelican Parts' forum, with records dating back to new and no mechanical or big cosmetic issues. The ad had been there some time, but somehow I'd missed it, and I couldn't understand why this car hadn't sold yet. I called the seller (Shannon) and he and I talked for about 20 minutes. Turns out he had a buyer coming in from Germany that following Monday, but that buyer had declined to send him a deposit, so Shannon told me the car was still on the market. He even offered me a lower price than advertised, which he had negotiated with the guy from Germany. Since I had no way of knowing that, he was under no obligation to offer me that price. He did it totally voluntarily. Nice guy. Only problem was, the car was in L.A, 2300 miles from my home in Ohio. No time to arrange a PPI or a transporter before the other buyer arrived on Monday to repatriate the car to Germany. No, I would have to go look at the car in person, and once I was there, I might as well drive it home, right? But it was Thursday night, and the earliest I could leave was Saturday. Only if I could find a cheap flight would this transaction make sense. I went online and found several flights running upwards of $500. Too much. Then I saw one for about $160 all-up, fees, taxes and everything. I snapped it up and e-mailed my itinerary to Shannon so he'd know I was serious. He forwarded me the e-mail trail he'd had with the guy from Germany, so I knew he'd been truthful. The next hurdle was to explain to my partner that was I abruptly flying out of town to buy a sports car sight unseen and drive it back across the country. That went pretty well though, because my partner knows about my car sickness and my penchant for spontaneous adventures. So all was falling into place. I had a minor hitch on Friday when the two bank branches I went to both didn't have enough cash on hand to meet my withdrawal request. (Banks don't keep much cash on hand? Who knew??) Luckily, I had some cash in my safe at home. Saturday morning came. I packed a duffel bag with just enough clothes, some hand tools and a flashlight, and headed to the airport, dark and early. Going through security, it occurred to me I must have cut a pretty suspicious figure: one-way ticket, $10,000 cash in my pocket, no checked baggage, and a bag full of tools. Drug mule, perhaps? TSA did rummage through my duffel, but they never said anything about the tools and they didn't notice the wad of cash when they patted me down. Next hurdle was the weather. There was a winter storm warning and we were delayed on the tarmac while they deiced the wings. I was worried all flights would be canceled and I'd miss out on the car. I felt guilty about leaving my partner at home with a foot of snow to shovel while I was in sunny L.A. But we finally took off. Naturally, a cheap flight across the country sucked. I think there were 2 layovers on the way, and I had the middle seat most of the way. But I finally got to LAX only slightly late, and Shannon was calling me on my cell as I was walking through the terminal. I went to stand at the curb, and it was no problem spotting the Casablanca Gold 911 as it rumbled up. Shannon had his little girl with him…I think her name was Bianca. She climbed into the back and Shannon offered me the driver's seat, but I asked him to take us out of the airport, since it was my first time at LAX. So far, so good. The car looked good, smelled good (like hot oil, but don't they all), sounded good, and didn't present any alarm bells. Although the deal was that I was buying the car, not just inspecting it, I planned to walk away if I saw any Big Red Flags. Judging by my survey of recent SC prices, the car was under priced by about $2500. The only major cosmetic issue was a genuine L.A. bullet hole (!) in the lower driver's door. Of course, in all the excitement, I'd forgotten to find out if the car had had the oil-fed tensioners installed. It didn't. But it was too late to turn back now. Shannon drove us to the beach to do the transaction. We parked at the curb and did the paperwork and exchanged the money while his daughter played outside. I kept looking around, hoping we weren't being watched too closely. You hear stories about L.A. crime, after all. Then Shannon took my picture beside the car, and I took a pic of him and his girl with it. He told me he'd named it "Gunther," and that his daughter would miss it. Then he pointed out to me a bag of soda and snacks in the backseat he'd bought me for the trip back. We talked a little bit and then he asked for a ride to the bus stop. I offered to drive him home, but he said it would take me too far out of my way, so I dropped him and his daughter a block from the bus stop and waved goodbye. Time to drive home. The legendary L.A. traffic wasn't too bad. I got a taste of the Santa Ana winds, which reminded me how bad a 911 can handle in a crosswind. Otherwise, the drive couldn't have been better. I took the southern route to avoid snow. No trouble with cops, no snow, no rain, and no mechanical problems. I got as far as Kingman, AZ before stopping on Saturday night. A couple at the gas station in Kingman complimented me on the car, shared a story about their Fiat 850, and asked me if I'd join them in bed. (I didn't). I spent all Sunday crossing the rest of Arizona, New Mexico, the Texas panhandle, and got as far as Enid, Oklahoma. Shannon once checked in on me by cell phone. Turned out it his whole family was following my adventure. I kept up speeds that would've got me thrown in jail back east. I stopped to collect some lava samples in New Mexico (I'm a geologist, so I couldn't help it). Crossing the Texas panhandle in the dark on that Sunday night, it suddenly dawned on me how crazy this plan was. I had no idea if my spare tire was even any good (I later found out it wasn't). But it worked out OK. The snow held off until just as I was pulling up to home, late Monday night. It was so late I didn't have enough light to rearrange my other cars to put the new SC in the garage. The following morning, I couldn't show my partner what a beauty the new car was, because it was under a blanket of snow. But I'd had a terrific 2 ½ days driving the golden bullet across the country. And I didn't drive it again until I could install a set of oil-fed tensioners. My car gets comments all the time, for the color and the fact it's an old Porsche. I haven't fixed the bullet hole, because I've come to like it. It's a conversation starter on track days. Shannon and I kept up by e-mail occasionally, but we eventually lost touch. I never got to tell him that when detailing the car one day, I found a gold Sacajawea dollar in the glovebox. I assumed it was there for a reason: Gold car, gold dollar. I put it back in the glove box and it's still there today. Shannon, if you're reading this: thanks for a great car! My other interesting purchase story is about a 914, but that's for another day.
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