Silver_TT

Edit: The most common cause for intermix in the 3.4L is a cracked head. They can be fixed (Dharn55 would be a good guy to contact if you have to go this route)... the 3.4L does have thinner cylinder walls (d-chunk, etc).

Taken from: http://www.gboxweb.com/rebuild2.html The Porsche transmission rebuild process starts with disassembly. This part of the process is a lot more important than most people would think. An untrained person trying to take apart a gearbox is simply trying to get it apart without breaking or damaging the parts. Often they do not accomplish this.

Sorry to hear that. I agree with JFP, and you definitely need to get that out before driving the car as even something like a small washer could cause very expensive damage to the gearbox. Maybe goes without saying but I wouldn't have the little European imports garage down the street do the job. Someone trying to tear down that gearbox even to do something this simple can cause damage if they aren't familiar with it and don't know exactly what they are doing. Then you could really wind up in a bind. I don't know what it costs in the UK, but to give you a reference something like this would cost you $1,000 USD here in the US using a top-notch shop like G-Box. $1,000 is the base price they charge to break down a gearbox. It also wouldn't be a bad time to have them take a look at the internals to make sure everything looks good. You can get the 2nd gear detent done at the same time. Sorry to hear about this but if it makes you feel any better this wouldn't be the first time even some of the smartest people here have done bone-headed things. We all have those days. Cheers

I have no idea if your seller did work after the fact or what your specific situation is so I won't opine on that. But a PPI is really just a basic sanity check and is by no means comprehensive or an end-all. It's a ~ 1 hour checklist that a mechanic goes through with the car on a lift. Not all mechanics are equal. It's important to get an experienced mechanic who knows these cars well -- different guys could see different things. Hopefully if there's something major they would catch it. A leaking RMS is pretty easy to see and is one of the things they should be looking for if they know these cars. But I've seen numerous instances where one dealer PPI noted something and another didn't. So it's not really about dealer vs indy doing a PPI, in my opinion, it's more getting the sharpest guy you can to go over the car with a fine-toothed comb. A PPI can miss plenty, believe me. It's just a last-ditch safe-guard before you pull the trigger on a car purchase.

very nice!

Why don't you believe it's possible? It has one very serious range violation. Over revs that high probably a result of a missed shift. Range 1 and 2 violations aren't anything to get worked up about on the 997. It's the higher range violations that would void warranties, etc.

Turbos don't really have that many unique intrinsic problems. In all due fairness, you would have a hard time finding a true Achilles heel in the TT. Like JFP said, why look at cars that have any problems? Why try and guess how much something like this is going to cost to fix? And why didn't the current owner just fix it before selling the car? Seems a bit odd to me but I wouldn't waste your time trying to answer those questions and I would just find a car where everything is working and has been well maintained. A lot of people have tried to mod the TT and there's some garbage out there. I have no idea what the deal is with yours but I wouldn't be surprised if someone flashed it and did something to the DME. Just too many clowns out there who don't know what they are doing. The Turbos do have more expensive hardware on the car and, yes, it will cost more to fix than a NA 996. But there are some of them out there for sale that don't have problems....you just have to be patient and sift through some bad apples to find the right one. Once you do, it's heaven.

Definitely good to get the battery tested -- it's easy, free, and a battery that's not at 100% can cause all sorts of headaches. Electrical problems in these cars are, in general, very annoying. They can manifest themselves with all sorts of strange behaviors and often aren't reproducible, making them difficult to track down. If the problem persists, it could be a number of things, but the harness would be the first place I would start. . .especially if this has never been replaced in your vehicle. Much more likely than a CPS, and it doesn't sound like it's the CPS anyway.

This is a well documented problem on the 996 and some early 997's as well -- do a search and there's a lot of good information. The bottom line is you will need to do some troubleshooting. It could be your CPS but is more likely a wiring harness that is the well-known culprit. Pretty common that the issue is exacerbated when the engine is hot as resistance increases as heat increases. Best to do some troubleshooting before throwing parts at it. Ahsai had a nice write-up in the past with diagrams if you DIY. It's pretty simple in theory -- however practically speaking I personally found the wiring harness a bit difficult to get at in the M96. Never had to do it in my 996TT but I'm pretty sure it's not any easier.

Ahsai - I don't mean to deviate off topic and I might be going out on a limb, but I would venture to guess you see less tips with IMS issues because there are less of them out there. Issues related to IMS failures should be completely independent from the transmission type.

Definitely hear you on the wife front, that is a very important consideration. A TT with 60K miles is actually still very low mileage in my opinion though if the car was well taken care of and maintained. $39K is a reasonable price if there's nothing wrong with it. 33% more cost than the car you are looking at (the difference if which is only 25% the coat of the TT) with a rebuilt engine, but no M96 headaches and a much more reliable and powerful engine. Turbo owners are risk averse and sleep better at night, but they pay more to do so.

Before you jump off the deep end and buy a Corvette, why not consider a 996 with a serviceable bearing? There's no shortage of 2002's with the original motor out there if you like that year. Get one that's been taken care of and price in a LN IMS replacement. Otherwise, if you can splurge, spend $40K and get a 996 Turbo and never think about an "IMS" again.

This thread should be moved to the 996 Series forum. With regard to your question, some folks say that a car that wasn't driven as often will be more prone to IMS failure. While these cars are best driven frequently for a number of reasons, the IMS question you raise will get you different answers when asking different people. I'm not sure if you're planning on having the IMS done but one thing you might want to pay close attention to is the replacement motor to see which bearing is used. If your motor was replaced in 2007 it may have Porsche's final solution with an IMS that can't be replaced without a tear down of the engine -- although some folks have reported success tearing the seal off the bearing so oil can freely get in there as an alternative. Should be quite a few of the models you are looking at for very attractive prices. So get one that looks like it's been well cared for, and maybe even price in the cost to replace the IMS if it's possible. Good luck with the purchase.

+1 for gbox

Right, my point was to put it into perspective for you: specifically that replacing my entire headliner was cheap -- $200 labor for a complete replacement including the sunroof. So you can haircut that for however much time it takes to get under the section of your headliner that needs tightening up. I imagine the cost is going to be low and as Loren already stated it's not as easy as you might think if you want it looking the same way it was before you started when you're done.

I agree with Loren here. I had the headliner replaced in my 996 4S because the original had a tear. I got the new headliner from a wreck (but it was literally in like-new perfect condition) from an LA dismantler for like $100 (which is awesome because it's $1000+ new from Porsche). Took it to a local shop that specializes in upholstery that was recommended by a friend. Upholstery guy told me it would take a day and cost $300 to replace the headliner including sunroof. He called me 30-45 minutes later telling me the car was done, come get it, and he would only charge $200 because he put 2 guys on it and they got it done quick. So apparently it was pretty easy for them, but that's because they had two guys doing it and they both work on this stuff every day. It looked 100% perfect when they were done. I think this is the kind of job you should have a specialty shop do just because you might end up burning a lot of your own time, not have it look that great....and the cost isn't that much -- at least wasn't in my case -- as Loren said. If you ask your local Porsche shop for an estimate or to do the work, they will likely recommend you to a good upholstery shop since they often don't do that kind of work. I don't know what's going on with yours but if it cost that little for my entire headliner replacement, and you only need one section that needs to be fixed....it could be very cheap for you to get fixed properly.

JFP is giving good advice as usual. Use your Durametric to log the precat and postcat sensors and you can chart the data (or see it live in Durametric) to compare it against the charts he provided. I had the same issue on a Carrera 4S and the cat was bad.

My personal experience after doing this a few times is to get a PPI but preferably done by your own mechanic or someone that you trust (not by the seller's mechanic) with solid experience working on Porsche. This can often be difficult though as many times cars are located out-of-state, etc in places you have no connections. It's important to get a car up on a lift. There are things that are much easier to identify when the car is up in the air. I would also recommend driving the car as much as possible, much more than just a test drive. I would try to drive the thing as much as is possible without the seller yelling about racking up miles. The biggest thing you can do is log some miles/time on the car. Usually when something is not right I can tell after driving the car long enough. But even that said, it's still a good idea to see the car up on the rack. Much easier to look for leaks, etc....which can be expensive to fix on the TT. They are worth every last cent though. Hell of a car.

My personal advice is never buy a car sight unseen and always take a PPI with a huge grain of salt. A PPI is nowhere near a comprehensive test and can vary from shop to shop as far as what they check and how thorough they are. If the car was misfiring that should have been stored in the computer and any halfway reputable Porsche shop would scan the computer as part of the PPI and let you know if there are codes. The bottom line is there are a number of problematic things that can get past a PPI but are an issue. All the issues you mentioned seem pretty minor. The seat for example might just need a new motor or drive cable. Really no big deal. You won't know for sure until you look more closely and you didn't state much about the car like year or mileage, but that likely could just be plugs and coil packs. No big deal and should be expected depending on the mileage and when they were last done on your car. Sellers are dishonest in general so never buy a car sight unseen. When I bought my TT I had a PPI and drove it myself before making the purchase. However it still had a gearbox that needed work (the previous owner didn't use the OEM gear oil), the engine blower fan was shorted (lots of fun tracking that one down), and it had an aftermarket flash that wouldn't get past emissions (another fun one to track down). The 996 TT is an awesome car and the best value there is out there right now in my opinion, but if you own a car like this some money is going to have to be spent keeping it in top shape and that should be expected.

She looks beautiful -- very sharp. Painful to stay at low RPMs (for now) :)

Don't just leave us hanging like this.... where are the PICS??? :)

True. But no matter how many times she makes you mow the lawn, I can't see how you wind up on the losing end of that deal. Ya, let me know when you make it down. I live in the upper east side of Manhattan but you can bet your last dollar I would make the trip down to Brooklyn.

+1 to that. Very jealous of your new toy. I live in NYC and have seen a couple of them around. They are beautiful cars. Please fill us in on the details (with pics of course) once she is broken in a little more. Congrats!

Learn something new every day. A guy who has been working on Porsche engines for a living for 30 years has always given me good advice. He obviously has a lot of experience (and doesn't read internet forums). He owns a dyno at his shop and has tested a lot of the things for fun that you hear people or companies making claims about. He has told me in the past to stick with OEM filters. If there are rumors or "madness" as you put it, it might be largely unfounded but there's probably a reason for it -- obviously some folks had some problems. As Loren said, in many cases I'm sure it's a result of over oiling the filter. I guess you guys have saved some money on filters for the last 15 years.

Only use OEM filters. "Performance" filters = just marketing. You are not getting HP gains by just changing a filter -- even on the Turbo. There's no upside to using anything but OEM and it can only possibly cause problems (for example, oils in the filter as Dave mentions...big no no).