Silver_TT

You're not going to be able to add any cheap noticeable horsepower to that car. A lot of people spend money to mod their cars which only places additional stress on the components of the vehicle. Sometimes they get away with it, sometimes it ends in disaster. It also doesn't make any sense economically with your car because for what you would have to spend doing a major overhaul of several components of the vehicle to accomodate the additional stress of more HP, you could just spend the money on a Turbo, for example, which is still going to be better than whatever you are able to do by modding your car. There is no gain with the K&N filter despite what folks say, to me it's just an expensive air filter, that is all. Anyway, I know all the modding folks are going to jump on my case but if you think about it objectively and don't just read some tuners' websites making all sorts of unproven claims, you will see that it's just throwing money away. Conversely, you can add lots of horsepower to a Turbo (a block built to take much more intense punishment).......but it ain't cheap.

Each of those listed ranges refers to a specific range of RPM. So in the case of the engine hitting very high RPM and dramatically exceeding what's tolerated in spec, presumably you would get ignitions in the lower ranges "on the way up" as the engine worked its way up to high RPM. You could be right but I've never seen anything convincing that there's a software bug or that this ECU information is generally not accurate or trustworthy. I would imagine that metering RPM has to be one of the more accurate things the car needs to do and that the tolerance for error would be engineered to be very low. There are folks out there who have had their warranties voided by Porsche because of the like so there's obviously some merit to it. I'm not at all saying that's the case of the original poster or even that it occurs that often, but if you will look around you can see it's happened to more than one person at more than one dealer. Anyway, not a shot at you but I think most tuners are full of it.

Figured it likely was but I'm glad it was that easy for you. Thanks for reporting back the solution and closing out your thread.

Be sure pin 2 on connector B isn't bent/damaged and is generally making good contact per jpflip's diagram. It's not impossible but still seems unlikely that the electronic cluster itself just died for this function only but completely works otherwise. You should maybe speak with some folks with experience on fixing clusters as jpflip already stated. I don't have a lot of experience with this problem but the first question you might ask them is if they have ever seen this particular behavior before, etc. Obviously if it's just a bent pin, that would be the best possible solution.....

Have them load test your existing battery. Any place like Autozone can do it quickly. Last time I replaced my battery I used an Interstate but any reputable brand that is compatible with your car should be fine. The shop you buy the battery from should be able to look your car up quickly and tell you what they have that's compatible. Keep it on a CTek charger going forward when you're not driving it. It will help prolong the life of your battery and avoid issues such as this.

No, it's not strange at all. The behavior you are seeing is very common on these cars when the battery doesn't have enough juice. You should definitely have the battery tested/replaced before you waste your money flat-bedding to a dealer. If you aren't driving the car that often going forward get a nice charger like a CTek and just leave it hooked up while the car is sitting.

Have you made sure you don't have any burned out bulbs to start?

I haven't checked the measurements and offsets you provided, but generally speaking the wheels on a 996 Turbo are different than on the 996 Carrera (they are however the same between the Carrera 4S and the Turbo). The 4S and Turbo are both a wide-body style. Depending on the measurements, you can sometimes use spacers and such but I would try to get a set that doesn't require any conversions if possible. Be careful when you have them installed as you said you want winter tires -- many of the full-winter tires like Blizzaks are pretty "tall" so be sure they aren't rubbing on your wheel liner when you turn the steering-wheel, etc.

The Mezger can take a flogging but there is no "software glitch" that I'm aware of. Missed shifts are generally what would get you to such a high RPM (the rev limiter kicks in way before you would be in serious violation gaining RPM using the throttle). No one here is saying you should live and die by this but if you are buying a car, looking at this can give some general indication of how the car was driven (sunday driver vs track). You should always be paranoid when you buy a car. Aside from that, I don't know too many owners that frequently obsess over these numbers........

I'm glad you got it sorted. Since you plan to keep the car you will definitely average out some of that cost by putting miles on the car, of course. As you said, having a Raby engine when you sell it later will be a selling point to anyone in the know about these engines. While they do have their weaknesses, a lot of folks have gotten high mileage out of the M96 when the proper precautions are taken so you should be able to get a lot of years left out of that car if you play your cards right. Good luck and hopefully there's a few nice days left before the cold is here to stay........

Be sure your shop that emailed you is using a Porsche-specific reader.

Hard to really measure it by mileage since there are so many factors involved. However, I will say that I previously throught cat issues to be much more rare than they actually are on these cars. That said, 24K miles isn't much to get out of a cat (they cost some serious $$$). Mine occurred at much later mileage than yours and I stuck with OEM's. Some people might say I'm crazy and wasted money but there are too many problems with emissions in the state I was in. Cat deletes and ECU modifications are easy pick-offs for them. It was my daily driver so I can't really afford to not have a car that's legal to drive unless I want to take the train to/from work every day in rain, snow, or shine.

Click the "more reply options" button and then it gives you an option to attach pictures.

a post such as this must be accompanied by pics ;) congrats, you have a few months to put miles on it before race season starts at Gateway, Putnam, Blackhawk, etc.

Glad you got it sorted. It likely depends on a number of factors but there are quite a few 996's out there that had cats which didn't make it past 100K miles. In my case, it was certainly from vibration and I suspect it was, at least in part, in your case too as you saw the element was broken inside when you took the cats off. It's just speculation but your cats could have been clogged as a result of the engine running too rich (due to this issue). If you still have the old cats you can likely get a couple hundred bucks for them at a scrap metal shop -- it's not much but better than nothing.

+1 skip the "insurance" and just pocket the money, which is substantial, for repairs. As White says, you will come out ahead $ much more often than not. Not to mention saving yourself the stress of fighting with a company that writes deals that aren't worth the paper they're written on as JFP says.

Well, I'm in NYC...and I know JFP is in PA (obviously :P) So we can all help represent Renntech from the other coast :)

With this many knowledgeable people willing to lend a hand, I would say you'll be in pretty good shape ;)

Very true! But it's good for them to know that a lot of these issues aren't specific to only the TT and, more importantly, many of them really aren't that hard or expensive to fix. I have literally saved thousands of dollars over the years because of the information from other TT owners. They often know just as much or more than an OPC would. Great list, though I agree. Probably experienced about half of those problems during my time as a Porsche owner, so it's incredibly handy. Thanks for putting that together!

You have the right idea about looking over a long period of time. LA is a major city for sure but if it were me I would look in some other major cities though too. Plane ticket and shipping/driving the car back is pretty cheap if you can find one at a significantly better price..it obviously just expands the market to give you a lot more cars to choose from. Who knows though, you might find the best one right in your own back yard. And to that point, if you do buy one out of state be mindful of one that was modded. Jpflip is right that there's a lot of extra HP and torque that can be unlocked from the Mezger. But this can come at a price. Many states in the USA are now getting very smart about being able to detect mods and flashes. And I see you're in California to boot, which has a notorious reputation for being difficult on emissions and certification (aka harder to pass with mods and tunes). I got burned by this on buying a car that wasn't even modded, just had a flash on it. Car wouldn't pass emissions until I took it off. The tune came with a ODB2 device that was apparently supposed to switch the DME between stock and the tune......however it didn't work. Clearly some tuners are much better than others. Folks like Kevin @ UMW have a good reputation and I'm sure there are some others, but the list quickly falls off from there. For this reason I always stuck OEM... just something to consider, but that was my daily driver so I don't have time to mess around with a car that can't get me around on a daily basis. When I have owned a car I have always had just one and only one....so when I need something fixed, I need it in a jiffy or I'm riding the train to work every day :)

Don't be afraid of the TT. Yes, it's a more complicated car than a Carrera but it's also much more reliable (not to mention mind blowing to drive). The TT is hands down the best car I have ever owned. For the prices they go for, I really think the buyer market out there has it wrong -- they shouldn't be so cheap. The engineering is way too cleaver and sophisticated to pick a 50K mile car up for $40K. It's not priced correctly but that's what they go for. Budget for maintenance. Many parts/jobs on the TT are the same as a Carrera (so a Bentley manual is still handy) but others can be more expensive. While you would be hard pressed to find a true Achilles heel on the TT, there are a few things to lookout for. Coolant lines come to mind, for example.... but there's really nothing common that's catastrophic like on the Carrera (cylinder scouring, D-chunks, IMS, the list goes on). There is less info out there on the TT as far as DIY compared to the Carrera. But, in general, the folks that have TT's are usually knowledgeable. Jpflip for example is one of those people (the guy has experience as an aircraft engine mechanic). Before I bought my car I knew if there were other active people like that with a TT then I would never feel lost. I also have an honest mechanic with 30 yrs working on Porsche for the jobs that are too big or too time-consuming for me. If you know the TT well, there are tons of shortcuts when doing work on the car. I would also definitely get a Durametric. You can pick one up for under $300 and they hold their value so it's the best investment by far on any Porsche. I order parts from Sunset Porsche out of Oregon. They are a dealer but they are the only one I know that operates on a cost-plus structure so their parts are all OEM and the price is hard to beat because they're just selling at a thin margin over cost to a dealer. They are also very good about shipping immediately, correctly identifying parts, etc. I use them exclusively and almost never find the price cheaper elsewhere. I highly recommend them. Be sure to get a PPI and, more importantly, spend as much time driving the car and looking it over with someone you trust. PPI is a good idea, but is certainly not a catch all. Good luck with your purchase!

Seems weird you just replaced the belt then and this problem started. The problem I was describing with the wiring harness is fairly common so it's not out of the question that it's completely unrelated, just seems a bit odd timing-wise if you just did the belt. As I said, just be sure to give that a long look. Gear and engine oil should have nothing to do with this as long as nothing was knocked loose with the wiring, etc. You wouldn't have a low voltage light or anything like that in many circumstances. The PSM light sometimes is the low voltage warning :) Definitely need to follow that Ahsai guide to testing to see where you could potentially be seeing a voltage drop.

Ahsai - Great idea making that separate for easier search. Lots of folks will find that very useful as this is a pretty common issue especially for folks with the older version of the cable. Balbir - Just to repeat, if you did just replace that drive belt (or anything else) immediately before this started happening I would be sure to give that a long look.

Yes, and just to elaborate I was saying that if your PSM still isn't working it could indicate a voltage issue. This could be from your battery, alternator, but may more likely be from the cables that connect them all together. I was just saying that Ahsai, another user on this forum, has written up instructions in the past on how to test this to see where you might be getting a voltage drop. Otherwise if you don't feel comfortable doing this yourself I was just saying that a good Porsche shop should be able to diagnose this pretty quickly. You can also have your battery tested very easily and this might not be a bad place to start. A battery that's less than 100% in these cars manifests itself in weird ways sometimes. If you suspect the alternator they can also pseudo-test the alternator in minutes as well without taking it out of the car. JFP owns a shop so he sees more of these cars, but based on my experience it's usually one of the wiring harnesses. And there was even a Porsche TSB (a memo released by Porsche advising customers of a potential issue or important note) regarding this and some updated part#s for cables which are less prone to this issue (I believe they are a thicker gauge). Keep us posted and let us know what you find.

Sounding a little more like what I described as far as a voltage gremlin (wiring harness?, etc).......however, if you just changed the belt and the problem manifested itself immediately afterward, I would be sure this isn't related because that would be a coincidence (although still possible, of course). If you trace the voltage back, this will narrow down the potential problem. Ahsai had a nice write-up on this in the past. This is a known issue on the 996 and 997s and there are some updated part #s that addressed this. You would really want to trace the voltage back at idle as JFP says to start narrowing the possibilities IMHO. If that's what it is, it's not terribly expensive or difficult.... these cars do all sorts of funny things though when your voltage isn't 100% right. Best luck