b-man

DOH! On a similar subject, my water pump broke yesterday and left me stranded on the side of the road. It's a 2002 coupe with about 94,000 miles on it. There was coolant all over the engine compartment and back of the car. My serpentine belt broke too. I had it towed to a dealer and haven't heard back with a diagnosis and price quote yet. Does anyone know what the official price is for a water pump and the amount of time that it is supposed to take to replace? Thanks. Bernie

Let me ask a stupid question. Exactly how/where/why do these tanks crack? I'm just curious because I've never heard about a coolant reservoir tank cracking on any other car. b-man

Can anyone post a picture of the plate? Will it help to protect the engine, fittings, etc. from road salt that gets splashed on when driving in the snow and slush? Thanks. b-man

Would you mind taking a pic of what your seal looks like today? Also ... maybe a few pics of the change out? I think that I may need to change mine also? I'm curious how long it takes you. Also, I think I checked on the part before. It's fairly expensive ... ~$175. Thanks Dan <{POST_SNAPBACK}> danjen, I'm also interested in details of how this project goes. Any information you provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. b-man

I would suggest just bleeding the brakes (flushing the fluid). I think that would take care of the soft pedal feel. b-man

What are you guys using for transmission fluid? The factory recommendation or something special? I'm just curious. b-man

You guys have got to be kidding me. I have heard about a lot of 996's that burn oil. 3/4 qt every 1000 miles does not seem too bad. Obviously, it's not as good as burning no oil. But, my 2002 996 has 85,000 miles on it and it burns about 1 qt every 1400 miles. This has been the same since new, regardless of how hard I drive it. I broke it in easy and was concerned at first. But, from what found from others over the years, it was not out of the ordinary. My previous car (a 1992 VW Golf) burned 1/2 qt every 2,500 miles. This was after an easy break in, and 230,000 very hard miles. I think a large determinant of how much oil your car burns is just luck of the draw. b-man

It's really not a big deal. It's a personal preference. b-man

I change mine every 7,500 miles. b-man

Please, no flames. But, what you are describing is normal in my opinion. These cars (with the base suspensions) have "soft" suspensions. If I had my way, I would simply go with shocks with a stiffer rebound valving. But, I just live with it for now. b-man

I used to do a lot of highway driving and wanted quiet tires too. I aksed the guy at the Tire Rack what the quietest tires were (for my stock 17" wheels) regardless of price. He said the Kumho Ecsta ASX!?!? So, I bought them and have actually been very happy with them. It's hard to say how good they are without doing back to back comparisons with other brands with equally worn tires, etc. But, I have been very surprised (in a good way) about how quiet they are. I'd definitely buy them again. b-man

I agree with the others, I wouldn't worry about it. Worse case scenario (with high temp bulbs), the bulb will just burn out sooner. So if yours burns out, just don't touch the new bulb when you change it. I'd also just use this as a personal experiment to see if touching the bulb makes a difference. b-man

My rattles turned out to be broken baffles inside the muffler. Actually, I think the welds inside broke. According to my dealer, this is a known problem in these cars. b-man 2002 C2 Coupe

On the older cars (MY99-01) they used a silicon spray right at the shaft that enters the master cylinder. Do not use oil based lubricants that can damage the master cylinder seals. I would also like to know. I have a 2002 911 and haven't been successful silencing my clutch pedal squeaks. b-man

You may also want to consider BG 44K. It is well regarded in the automotive industry. It is also what my Porsche dealership uses. b-man

Are you going to change the rear rotors too? If so, please let me know how how it goes (with any tips or tricks) after you're done. I haven't changed mine yet but, I would appreciate any information that could help me when I do change them. Thanks. b-man

Excellent, thanks LVDell. The first picture (of the arena red cab) was a little small and I thought there may be more to it than what I was seeing. b-man

Can someone please post a closeup view of these, and maybe a side view? I've never seen them before and I'm interested. Thanks. b-man

danjen, I did not change my rotors. Actually, I didn't even measure them to see if they were in spec. I have confidence in the brakes being over engineered so I think they are fine for another set of pads. I never track my car. I'll just change the rotors the next time I change the pads. The only problem I had was not removing the adhesive backing from the silencers. It's not difficult or tricky, I was just being stupid. I described this in my first post here: http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1708 Also, I was fortunate that I had a good knife to use to slide between the silencers and pads (actually the back of the pads) when I was removing the old pads. I think a putty knife may be too dull. I slid my knife into place (between the silencers and pads) and then twisted it to separate them. I also used a pair of pliers that looked like the "channel lock" style, similar to http://www.channellock.com/acb/stores/2/pr...&Product_ID=117. These were very handy when I retracted the pistons back into the caliper. I would just squeeze the old pads back away from the surface of the brake disc. I used a scrap piece of pretty thick leather (about 2" x4") to cover the brake caliper to avoid scratching it. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions. b-man

Regarding the "vibration pads", I think the old ones were reusable, as long as you use new adhesive. I did not pay too much attention to them because they are not a critical component. Regarding the "pin/spring/clip kit", I did pay attention to these. I replaced them because I had already ordered the pieces. But, they are definitely reusabe and I will not be replacing them the next time. FYI, the pads that I put on were slightly different than the ones I took off. The news ones were a direct factory Porsche part but, I guess they have been upgraded because they have little weights attached to them to help silence them (i.e., no squeal). I remember the part numbers were slightly different than the part numbers on Loren's DIY section. When I ordered all of my arts, I just gave the info to the guy and he knew what had new part #'s, how many I needed etc. I ordered all of my parts from Suncoast Porsche in Florida and was very happy with them. b-man

I'd say broken coil (or broken spark plug wire somewhere near the coil) or, as Loren said, that a coil isn't seated properly. b-man

Suncoast Porsche in Florida, and yes, they deliver. I have no business interest in them. I'm just a happy customer. b-man

I've changed mine many times and it takes 9.25 quarts to fill it up. I always change the filter too. I'm not sure why yours took 9.5+. Are you sure you didn't count wrong? Don't take that the wrong way. These cars take so many bottles of oil that it's easy to miscount. I've done it myself and I'm no rookie to oil changes. Also, when are you measuring the oil level, before you've driven it? If so, all of the oil may not have had a chance to drain back down into the oil pan. Even if you drove it a little before measuring it, the engine oil may not be that hot, so it would also take a while to drain back down into the oil pan. Let us know what you figure out. FYI, I've found that the dash gauge (which measures oil level) is very sensitive to the amount of tilt that the car is on. The dipstick seems much less sensitive. b-man

What is the official factory numbering of the cylinders in the 996 engine? Is the number 1 cylinder the left most rear or forward, or the right most rear or forward? The terms left, right, rear, and forward refer to the position of the car in general. What about the number 4 cylinder? Thanks. b-man

An update (hopefully this information will be useful to someone): I took it to the dealer and they changed the last two plugs. The mechanic said that it's much harder to change the plugs on the 2002 911's than on the 1999-2001's. He says it has to do with the new cylinder head/valve cover design. He also said the heat shield is completely different. I assume the 2002-2004 911's are all the same. He was able to change the last two plugs without removing any of the exhaust system parts. He only had to remove the heat shields which come out when moving them towards the front of the car. Removal of the hex bolts was not too difficult but, he said removal of the coil pack was very difficult. He said he had to use needle nose pliers to get them off. He also said something about the angle of the coil packs being different on my car than on the 99-01's which make mine more difficult. According to him, the coil packs are the same for 99-01's and my 02 but, the way they are installed at the factory in my car made it more difficult to remove? I'm not completely sure what he was talking about but, I think that's what he was saying. I think it just has something to do with rotating the coil pack to be able to grab it or completely remove it? He also said that the passenger side rear most plug was the hardest one. My fatal flaw was not being able to figure out how to completely remove the heat shields. If I could have done that, I'm confident I could have changed all 6 of the plugs. :) FYI, my spark plugs (the 4 that I changed) looked pretty bad in my opinion. The mechanic at the dealer said the same thing about the 2 that he took out. There were 65k miles on them. The service manager said that they've been seeing that (crappy plugs when going to the new 60k mile interval versus the older 30k mile interval) as a trend in 996's. No, I don't think they were saying that to make money. This is the first time in my life that I ever had to take something I couldn't finish or screwed up to the dealer. So, I'm looking forward to tackling this job again to prove myself. b-man