Silver_TT

I wouldn't be overly concerned... as you eluded to the number isn't as high as it initially seems. Not great to have a lot of range 2 ignitions but likely it's fine (ie no damage as a result that was repaired before you got the car). With this version of the DME you really don't have a ton of info on how much or how long the threshold was exceeded -- meaning these might have just been late up-shifts that didn't get caught by the rev limiter in time and a mild violation occurred that barely breached and only lasted a fraction of a second, etc....as opposed to someone accidentally dropping the clutch on a down-shift from 5th to 1st, etc. Enjoy your car and don't worry.

Fair enough, you have a valid point. That Boxster 101 book though, to be fair, is a paperback and only ~300 pages. But I agree with you and Loren, it's always there if you want to have both. Best of luck!

What makes you think Wayne's book will be cheaper? Private sellers are offering it for $119 shipped on Amazon. Paying $150-200 for books in undergrad and grad school is common practice these days, especially for quantitative/engineering books....like it or not. The Bentley Manual is a hardback, has lots of color pics, and contains a ton of information.

Wow, I just saw the Sumitomo HTR Z III on Tire Rack. Only $650 for a set of 4 -- and they have a solid 4 stars (better than some that are twice as much). Thanks for the info, I think I will try these since they are half the price or less of some of the others I was considering. Thank you!

Thanks to all for the comments. Actually the Super Sports were what I was looking at and am leaning toward at the moment.... however, as you stated, not too cheap. I was wondering (aka hoping) that maybe there was a cheaper tire out there that was just as good in all categories of performance but was a lot cheaper.

2002 C4S Track season is pretty much over here but thinking ahead to the Spring... does anyone here who tracks their car have any recommendations for a set of tires for the track that are still suitable for daily driving in the street (ie. in the rain, etc... no slicks). I wanted a tire that has both good track performance and also won't wear out in 2 weekends at the track. There are a lot of rankings/feedback at Tire Rack and Discount Tire but I thought I would see if anyone here had anything in specific on their 911 that they liked before I make the leap and purchase. Thanks.

Fantastic write-up, Loren. I also ordered the manual ... looked other places and Amazon was the cheapest by far (most other places want $200 or more for the same book). Great value in my opinion, even if you're not doing the work on your own car. I'm only a hobby mechanic but, as a frame of reference, the cost of this book is about the same as 1 hr of labor at most Porsche shops. This should make it a lot easier for me to talk to a trained professional and to generally understand my car better.

I will update this thread at some point in the future when I get more information or solve this. I will try the new LN replacement drain plug during my next oil change, likely in the Spring. The plugs, when I compared them previously (the original is back in the car now), looked identical to my naked eye with respect to threading and I did not detect any damage/nicks to the threading on either. These were the first things I thought of. As far as the threading in the pan, the original plug goes on very nice and smooth, able to be turned by the fingers until it's screwed pretty much all the way in before the torque wrench is needed. It doesn't leak any oil at all that I'm aware of, etc.

Thanks for the response. Actually this is interesting. The guy that I bought the car from had the car serviced by the dealer for everything while he owned it and kept all the records, which I got when I bought the car. So your response just prompted me to do what I should have done in the first place and look over the 100+ pages of documentation of service to the vehicle. Well, guess what, there is a note in the records that on April 2005 the Porsche dealer "replaced oil pan and installed skid plate". Very interesting. However, I'm still a little confused since all Porsche dealers have to buy parts from Porsche NA .... so this repalcement pan must have been real OEM (ie not aftermarket, etc). Does anyone know if there were revisions to the oil pan on the 996 ??? Did Porsche possibly change the threading on later versions of the oil pan?

Anyone switched from OEM to using the LN magnetic oil drain plug? I have a 2002 4S and ordered one of these plugs but upon installing I found that after turning it in the pan 2-3 revolutions it got very difficult to turn further by hand ..... vs. the OEM unit that turns all the way by hand until it's completely screwed in -- in other words, pretty sure the LN plug was going to strip if I started using the torque wrench on it. I have an OEM oil pan..the standard that comes with the 996. Sent it back to LN and they sent me a new one in case the first one they sent me was from a bad batch. The person in customer service (still trying to talk to the engineer) said they tried the plug I returned on a "universal" drain pan and said it worked just fine so they didn't have an explanation why it didn't work well with my 996. They sent me another one to try again but I won't get to try it until probably the Spring when I do another oil change. Anyone encountered this? Given how many 996s are out there and the relative popularity of the LN products, I am a little bewildered if I'm the only one that's run into this. Thanks in advance for any information anyone with a 996 has using this LN plug (working for them or not). Curious to know if it's just me.

Ok, that's what I thought, thanks. My car is a 4S has the "saddle" gas tank so this info particularly applies -- didn't know that before. Thanks again.

JFP -- is what you stated specific to the Cayenne or all Porsche models?

Made in Italy? I'm going with "knock-off". I know fakes are often heavier and bend easier than the OEM wheels. Do they have the Porsche part # on them?

Ordered another CR2032 (Panasonic ... $.99 w/ free shipping on eBay). Popped it into my second/backup key and now it works like a charm too. It was also a Renata as I mentioned in my last post, so I'm almost certain now that these were both OEM batteries that were 10+ yrs old. No idea why the guy who owned the car before me didn't just replace the battery as the second key was dead when I got the car (but it has considerable wear on the buttons so I know it was used a lot) but, whatever, $1.98 to fix both keys. I think the take-away here is always replace the remote key battery first. It's a little deceiving that the little red light on the remote key continues to flash even when the battery has insufficient charge (as was the case with both of my keys). Case closed. Cheers!

One last point on this that's tangential is that I've noticed after replacing the key remote's 3v CR2032 battery, the distance from the vehicle that the remote consistently works is significantly better. I had been considering the A-pillar hack some time ago because I had to be literally right next to the vehicle for the remote to work. However after replacing the battery I'm not even considering it as the remote's working ~ 20+ ft away from the vehicle consistently. The battery brand I pulled out of the remote to replace was a Renata. This is a Swiss-based company so I'm guessing this was probably the OEM battery that's now 10+ yrs old (the car's a 2002). Makes sense that it would need to be replaced and might only intermittently be putting out 3v after 10+ yrs of use. Hope this information can help someone else in the future.

Problem solved. New CR2032 battery in the key head did the trick. I ordered another CR2032 battery to see if that fixes my second/backup key (which has never worked since I bought the car but I really haven't messed with that one too much) -- but the primary key is really the one I'm concerned with. My second key is actually a full key head, not the key blade only as DBJoe mentioned he has. I'm surprised this was "only the battery" given the pattern I saw; specifically that it would start working after I would manually unlock the vehicle (implying it was potentially something related to the vehicle not just the remote in the key head). But I've learned that electrical issues and related observed behavior can be very strange and are often much more difficult to troubleshoot than mechanical issues. In this case it was an easy fix, so I'm not complaining. Having the alarm go off half the time I would unlock the car manually with the key blade was not cool. Thanks to everyone for your input. Hope you have a similar experience as I did after replacing the battery. Maybe I'll get the Design Key in the future, it's definitely a lot cooler, but at the moment I'm going to hold off on spending $112.95 + shipping for a little plastic housing.

DBJoe - If you buy one and it works let us know. If you mention Renntech you should get dealer pricing from Suncoast and the price is $107.51 + shipping (~$6-8 USPS Priority) per what they quoted me yesterday. Good luck!

The only thing about this that makes me think it might not be the key is that I've noticed the following pattern: The remote lock/unlock never works when the car has been sitting for a long period, like when I've been at work all day and come out to drive home. However, if I then open the door manually, put the key in the ignition and turn the first click, then take the key back out again....the remote lock/unlock starts working again! Strangest thing. It's like somehow this wakes up the remote's sending or receiving signal and makes it work again. I've seen this numerous times and it looks like a consistent pattern of behavior. I read in some other posts is that the car's computer will automatically turn off the remote feature to save battery....but after something like 5 days. Is it possible that mine is prematurely activating this functionality? Would there be a way to test with my Durametric if I leave it hooked up? I wonder if this is one of the many things a Duramteric can monitor -- I may call them tomorrow to ask that as well. If anyone finds a solution in the meantime, please speak up. Thanks!

Thanks for the response, Loren, but this DIY talks about taking out the circuit board from the old key housing and placing it in the new Design Key. The assumption I'm working under is that there's a problem with the circuit board so while the Design Key looks a lot better, it doesn't appear that it's going to solve the problem I'm posting about. Thanks for the input. If anyone else has any other suggestions please let me know. Otherwise I guess the next step is to buy the new key head from Suncoast which is supposed to come with new electronic internals (including circuit board, etc).

Thanks, Loren. My transponder is in great shape as far as I know. I had been thinking about getting the Design Key but when I called the guy in parts at Suncoast said he believes this is the housing only (in other words, no circuit board, etc). He said in order to get a new circuit board I need to buy a new key head for ~$100 and then the local dealer (or someone with a PIWIS) will need to program it. I guess what Loren is saying is this is not the case if the transponder pill I currently have is ok. Is there no way to get a new circuit board without buying a whole new key? I took my key apart the other night after reading some other posts where the poster had said the soldering came loose -- but in my case I don't see this, or at least if it is it's under the battery where it attaches to the circuit board or otherwise where I can't see it. So back to Loren's point: So I am clear, Loren, are you saying that if I buy this new key from Sunset (not the housing like the Design Key but an actual new key itself that comes with the circuit board according to the parts guy at Suncoast) then I can just use my current transponder pill with it and I won't need to pay any labor or find someone with a PIWIS to do the programming? If any of that is not true and it's possible to just get the circuit board/buttons seperately (without a new key) please let me know. Thank you for the responses.

Good to know I'm not alone. Please post a follow-up if you are able to find a solution and I certainly will as well. I'm hoping this doesn't mean ~$300 to a dealer or someone with a PIWIS to reprogram. It was working just fine for the last year so I don't see what would have prompted this.

2002 C4S (996).. I did a search but nothing definitive. Sounds like replacing the remote key worked for some people, and other people had luck doing otherwise or just didn't close their thread if they ever found a solution. I'm experiencing the following which was never a problem until a week ago: Sometimes the key remote opens/locks, sometimes it doesn't. It seems either that the remote device has an issue or it's somehow intermittently getting out of sync with the receiving unit in the vehicle. When I hit the button on the key I can see the light blinking on the key. When it's working I see the little red light on the vehicle dash receiver flash in "response". When it's not working I don't see the receiver flash at all. The lock/unlock button seems to only work intermittently. When the remote unlock does not work it seems that manually unlocking with the key, putting the key in the ignioion, then taking the key out and trying the lock/unlock button again makes it work again temporairly right away. The system works just fine when I use the key to unlock the doors the old fashioned way (manually using the key itself), etc.... so I'm thinking this is likely something more with the remote device in the key than it is with the central alarm and control unit within the car. If it is the remote key, what else could need to be replaced beside a battery? Can these remote devices in the Porsche keys just "go bad"? Strange that it's not just completely not working and does work intermittently still. Some other notes: - Durametric is showing no faults under "Alarm". (The only fault the entire car shows in any category is under "Seat Memory" and this hall sensor error has been observed by me in the past well before this issue surfaced, so I believe it's unrelated). - I ordered a CR 2032 battery to replace in my key but I'm assuming this isn't the issue since the little red light still blinks just fine when the button is depressed. I will see if that works when it gets here in a couple days. - The car came with a second key which I have never tried to use until this happened. This second key works just fine manually but the remote lock/unlock on it does not work at all (despite the fact that I see the red light flashing on the key). Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I hear ya... FYI - Vertex lists them both as Porsche OEM suppliers: http://www.vertexauto.com/content/Porsche_OEM_Parts.aspx Pelican Parts lists the Mahle as OEM for the 996

I have used Mann and Mahle with good results... both are German and/or OEM. Like Phillipj said, they are the same and cost less.

Thanks for the response. For the PCA event here on the track next month they are requiring a helmet (probably insurance related). I was looking at a Bell but I will check out the other two brands you mentioned as well. I'm not going to put to much time and thought into it, but it's helpful to know what others like you were happy with for the price. Thanks again for the response.