thesandman

I am planning on changing out my clutch and flywheel in the very near future and was wondering if anyone has any advice/tips for me. Thinking it could be done at home...

2005 Porsche 997 - 28k miles

Curious if you ended up doing the clutch replacement yourself. Would make for a great write up if you have the time.

Hello all,

This is my first post in the forum. I recently purchased a 2000 996 with 111K on it. Since I am a dealer, I was able to pull all service records, etc, from Porsche and found (before purchasing) that no major problems occurred with the vehicle since new. Oil changes were done at the very least, every 5000 miles and all scheduled maintenance was completed. After purchasing the vehicle, I drove it TWO MILES before I heard a pop followed by large bellows of smoke from the exhaust. I took it to the local Porsche dealer where they diagnosed a failed oil cooler. After replacing the oil cooler and flushing the engine and cooling components, I drove the car home. After driving 143 miles, I noticed my coolant level dropping and my oil level increasing in addition to it being a milky white cooler. There was oil in the coolant reservoir as well. Both the compression AND leakdown tests were perfect. Any ideas as to what may be causing this? Thank you!

Wow, I thought I was reading about my 2000 C4 with 81k miles. I had the same problem, failed oil separater, reduced coolant, increased oil level, oozing coffee color fluid. I had the cracked cylinder wall problem. :cursing: $16,000 later I had a rebuilt engine installed. :angry: Odd thing, the original engine did not use much oil at all, the rebuilt engine uses more oil. I hope it lasts. I am disapointed with the 996 engine.

The safe way to go here is a 3.6 motor that you have reliable service history on and Jake Raby's IMS update... the 3.6 and 3.4 engines have their gremlins but I think the 3.6 engines are stronger with the exception of their IMS shaft... more IMS failures on 3.6 than 3.4 motors... even if I bought a used 3.6 996 I would drop tranny and replace the shaft via Jake's retrofit kit... a must with the 3.6 cars.... the 3.4 cars... its a pure gamble due to cylinder wall failures and cracked cylinder head potential...

Wow, please excuse my ignorance, but that sounds very aggressive to me for preventative maintenance. What would such a retrofit cost installed? Does this guarantee no IMS failures?

Patience. Good friends just picked up a 70k mile '01 cab with nice options for under $24k - from a dealer. My '02 C2 was under $28k just four months ago - with low miles and great options.

One bit of advice: expand your search area. Use Autotrader, cars.com, the PCA Mart, and Craigslist to search nationally - or at least west of the Mississippi. I found my car in MA, had it PPI'd there and then shipped to NC. If it had not been winter I would have flown up and driven the car home.

To search Craigslist across the country try using Search Tempest.

I'll admit that I spent many hours online searching. This is where narrowing your parameters really pays off. I wanted a full leather 02/03 coupe with less than 50k miles and a good set of options. On top of that my wife wanted red. That made the search harder, but also more specific. It took me 6 weeks, but I found exactly what I wanted. It was on autotrader, but I also found it advertised locally in Boston on Craigslist for $1,000 less!

Good luck!

Thanks for the information everyone. I am in the market for a 996 (possibly 997 for the right price). Does anyone know of a dealer in New York they would recommend? Also, once I get a car, are the warranties worth the paper they are written on if they are not a Porsche certified car?