vette67

If you want to be sure (and you should be!) have a PPI (Pre Purchase Inspection) done by a respectable specialized Porsche shop. I cannot emphasize enough how important that is. FYI, if you buy the car and the engine (cracks?) blow up in notime you're looking at 10-15K costs to repair!

What should be one of the best experiences (to own a Porsche) will become a nightmare. Take it from someone who learned the hard way.. ;-) (just very persistant.. haha).

Don't mess around with Durametric software (with this tool you can dig intro the computer and such), but have the DME and all electrical stuff onboard read out by whomever is performing the PPI. There is a lot that can be wrong with the car without you even noticing it and could potentionally be very expensive to repair!

Just make sure you do your PPI, then you'll be fine..

ya, i will definitely do the PPI, should i bring it to porsche dealer's service department? I asked this dealer who selling the car, he said he can only allow me to go 5 mile distance. But the cloest porsche dealer is 10 miles.and if there is a crack in the engine, how will they know? I thought the only way to know is to take out the engine. :(any hint on how the car act when there is cracks in the engine? and before the engine blow up?

thanks

Yu

Hi vette67

I know, and i will buy the warranty too, since i am not buying from Porsche dealer who can give certified warranty.

is there some good third party warranty i can buy? (will cover RMS/IMS/engine/etc...)

thanks

If that dealer wont let you take it to the Porsche dealer for a PPI at your expense, tell him to stuff the car and you walk. The dealer will plug in the car and run full diagnostics in addition to doing a physical inspection. If there is anything as dramatic as a cracked block Im sure they will find it. Probably they will find a lot of little stuff instead (but each little thing will end up costing you $1000 to fix, ha). You also want to do a Carfax on the car using its VIN before you buy.

RE: warranties I never bought one but most Porsche dealers will sell you one. You might post this question as a seperate topic and get some feedback from other users.

Relax and go through the steps. There are plenty of cars out there.

Definitely get a PPI (pre-purchase inspection) before you buy. The few hundred $ it costs you is well worth it. If this is your first porsche, dont get so excited that you skip this step. Youll be sorry if you do!

sorry to bother, but i am about to get the car tomorrow, so need some answers

Car model: 2001 Carrera 4

Tran: 6 Speed Stick

Milage: 63,000 mile

My first question is:

when I start the car (parked, with hand break), I rev up to 2k-3k rpm and up, when the rpm is going up, the car is stable and engine sound really nice.

But after I release the gas, when the rpm is dropping, I felt the back of the car vibrating left and right.

I know, porsche has H6, so 3 rows. the left and right cylinder should cancel out the vibration and make the car stable.

so i guess in my case, the cylinder didn't cancel each other (not running at the same time, maybe?)

is this normal?

Second question is:

My friend told me, Carrera 4 is the one most likely to have the RMS problem, it that true?

If i park the car for 1 hour, am i able to see the oil drop? (I am going to try it at dealer's place, before i buy it)

It is my first porsche, please forgive me for asking these stupid questions.

once again, thanks

Mine is a 2000 cab 4 so I believe you have a different engine and a few other things. Could you be feeling a clutch problem? As far as RMS there are several posts on this site and/or on rennlist.org with photos and detailed descriptions on what an RMS leak looks like. My understanding is that they were not any more common on AWD models than they were on RWD and most often seen on MY's earlier than yours.

I agree with White987S but Ill go even further. The 996 is the most tire-sensitive car Ive ever driven. Its really amazing how things like the difference in a couple of pounds of air pressure between your tires will affect your ride. Or how about this: I had a real slow, annoying leak in my back driver side tire ever since I bought the car. I had it to the stealer twice and to a local tire shop and nobody could seem to fix it. (doh!) Finally I just put a can of fix-a-flat in it. Leak stopped but I swear I can feel a difference in the ride. A vibration at speed. Sucks.

As far as alignment vs. balance, that easy. Take a close look at your front tires. An alignment problem will show up as uneven treadwear... either on the inside or the outside edges of your tire... but only on one edge or the other. If you have too little air in the tire you will see more wear on BOTH outside edges of your tire. Too much air pressure and the middle of your treads will be worn lower than your edges. Alignment usually (and probably some racers will correct me on this if Im wrong) doesnt create vibration in your ride. On a newer car like the 996, tire balance is usually the problem, or uneven tire pressure or both. BTW, dont pay extra for "high-speed balancing".. its usually a waste of money. On older cars you need to inspect your suspension to make sure you havent worn out a spacer or damaged a tie-rod end, etc. Suspension problems usually show up as alignment issues and less often are vibration issues, but it can happen.

If you want the sweetest ride possible, go ahead and get 4 new tires instead of 2. You will also get a quieter ride with all new, top-quality tires. You will get them balanced at the same time of course. If you noticed the uneven tire wear on your existing front tires like I mentioned, get your car aligned at a top speed shop or at the stealer. The local tire shops (at least in Atlanta) arent capable of doing a front-end alignment on a 996.

I am going to need to attach the Porsche tunnel-side seat belt receptacle to the new seat. I am in the process of doing my homework on it now and looking at hardware adapters, etc. Brey-Krause makes an adapter R-9005 that might be required. Im going to try it without the adapter first.

The situation is that I am using a Recaro floor-mount bracket and sliders, so I know that I will need an floor-mount adapter (R-9040) to get the seat in. I have found side-mount adapters that have the hole in them to mount 996 seat belt receptacles... or you could even drill a hole in a side mount. But with a floor mount you do not get a hole to fit the stock 996 seat belt receptacles.

There is a hole on the Recaro bracket under the seat that might work if my seat belt receptacle assembly is long enough and flexible enough to bolt there and flex 90 degrees up and around the side of the seat. If not then so far the only thing Ive found is the BK R-9005 adapter that might work if it is not going to interfere with the recaro seat hinge which is directly above the previously-mentioned mounting hole.

Im taking pics as I go and if anyone is interested I will post a DIY for mounting Recaro Sport seats in a 996.

Once I took a good look at the seat, I realized the circuit/wiring harness was removable with the OEM buckle itself, I should have realized that ..doh!....Perfect Loren...the project continues. I don't think the buckle mounting to the Reacaro seat will be an issue, I will find out once the seats arrive on Friday.

Thanks again for your assistance, it is very much appreciated! :beer:

Ben

As I recall the factory seat belt buckle can be taken off the factory seat along with the factory cabling. It then becomes a case of connecting the buckle hardware to the new seat.

How did this turn out ? Did it work ?

I am in the process of swapping my std seat on the drivers side for a Sparco seat. I have electric seats with memory, and to avoid having the airbag light coming on I need to re-attach the electrics from the seat, all or is there a separate connector for the buckle ?

Regards,

First and foremost do NOT start your car with the buckle electrical wire disconnected from the connector it attaches to. If you do it will throw an airbag code which the dealer will have to reset for you..cha ching for the "Stealer"!...maybe Remove the buckle and connector from the wiring harness, you will have to disassemble the connector as it has a bunch of other connectors going into it but. ..it's easy to do. You also cannot mess up putting the buckle connector back on as it can only go one way I think. I used a tie wrap to securely hold the connectors together and then some electrical tape. Does that make sense?

Other than that it's a straight forward process.

Ben

Im not so sure about it being a straighforward process. Im in the middle of installing a Recaro SRD sports seat in my 996 and am going to need to attach the Porsche tunnel-side seat belt receptacle to the new seat. I am in the process of doing my homework on it now and looking at hardware adapters, etc. Brey-Krause makes an adapter R-9005 that might be required. Im going to try it without the adapter first.

The situation is that I am using a Recaro floor-mount bracket and sliders, so I know that I will need an floor-mount adapter to get the seat in. I have found side-mount adapters that have the hole in them to mount 996 seat belt receptacles... or you could even drill a hole in a side mount. But with a floor mount you do not get a hole to fit the stock 996 seat belt receptacles.

There is a hole on the Recaro bracket under the seat that might work if my seat belt receptacle assembly is long enough and flexible enough to bolt there and flex 90 degrees up and around the side of the seat. If not then so far the only thing Ive found is the BK R-9005 adapter that might work if it is not going to interfere with the recaro seat hinge which is directly above the previously-mentioned mounting hole.

Im taking pics as I go and once its all done I will post a DIY for mounting Recaro Sport seats in a 996.

I want everything! Have it as a daily street car - and go to the track without ice skating around the seat.

In hope of achiving this, definitely getting racing seats but being budget-minded in case the whole thing doesn't work out.

These are the seats currently being pondered over:

Corbeau racing seats

If anyone has these seats or a view on them I'd appreciate your comments. They recline and fold forwards allowing access to the rear seats.

I hope the seat resolves most of the movement but a harness would be even better.

So how about if you have sports seats but no harness/roll bar? Is there a harness on the market that can anchor elswhere on a 99 C2 Cab??

Can the seat itself be used or is that too much force for the 4 bolts holding it down?

In a crash you can crush your spine if your shoulder harnesses are anchored too low behind your seat. There is a measurement standard but I dont know what it is off the top of my head. Its on the net if you look. Thats why you really need a harness bar.

That being said, there are still websites out there that will sell you a 4 point harness that you have to drill and anchor to the floorboard behind your seat. They're not going to let you participate in a DE with them though. I havent seen any 5 or 6 point harness like that.

Have you tried Brey-Krause?

Perfect, thanks! BK makes an adapter (R-9040) which should work for either 996 or boxster. Im looking for good prices on that one now. Here is a link to details: http://www.bkauto.com/porsche/instructions/R-9040.pdf

Im wondering whether anyone has found any other alternative adapters / rail kits?

Im trying to mount a Recaro SRD sport seat in my 996 and need to find the correct rails.

I cant use my 996 rails on the recaro bracket and it would be a PITA to try to bolt my recaro SRD seat onto my existing 996 bracket and rails.

The 996 rails bend down at a 45 degree angle in the front, so I need to find the recaro equivalents. Can anybody recommend a good source?

Thanks!

996 mount pic :

Recaro mount pic:

Well, it's that time to look into replacing the alternator which seems to have a mind of it's own. Works fine for a while hovering around 14 volts and then the next moment .. back down to below 12 volts with ABS lights on. When I accelerated , it pops back up at 14 volts. Question ... is there a difference for alternators betrween manual and automatic transmission? I'm looking at getting one from Autozone and they only have one model and they couldn't tell if they're compatible for both trannies. The only difference I see between the auto vs manual are the pulleys. Most of the sites selling alternators also offer a single model ...

The one with the black pulley (right) is for the manual transmission vs the one with the exposed nut (left) which is for the tiptronic... which is similar to the one I have on my car. I pulled the pics off ebay..

I steer away from 3rd party rebuilds, been there and burned too many times. My feeling is these rebuild houses use cheap components such as regulators etc.. They don't last!

-----------------------------------------

I figured if I'm to purchase from Autozone, they offer lifetime warranty on the alternator. I can alway return it for warranty replacement. At $225.49 and $90 core, its reasonably priced . Their alternator does not come with a pulley which I assume I can easily transfer from my alternator.

Glad you are doing the work yourself. I spent $1200 on getting my alternator replaced and later discovered (after reading the FAQ you referred to) how easy it is to remove the darned thing. Ive had it off twice recently in order to get to some vacuum leaks and it is a no-brainer!

I need is a recommendation for a good detailer who can buff my car. I'm afraid to take it to a stranger .... as I have seen finishes ruined in the process.

Preferably in the Marietta / West Cobb area.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Kim,

Wish I could help. I got tired of seeing swirls in my metallic paint from local detailers so I just bought my own random orbital polish and wax kit from Griots and, like with so much of my cars other maintenance requirements, have resigned myself to having to do it on my own in order to do it right.

Thanks Loren! My dealer told me 26mm was the limit for all wheels. Just another example of how this site should be our primary source for info.

FYI, I just priced all 4 rotors for my 2000 996 cab 4 from Sunset Porshe and they are going to save me $225 even after shipping.

I vote for Lloyd's. They list several grades of quality, the worst of which is very good. My OEMs will go back in when I sell it.

I like black mats in my sea of Savanna interior,

Why not use the porsche mats

http://e-partssales.com/Merchant2/merchant...96gt3interiorup

That is a great, great question!!!

Because I want the Carrera 4 emblem and the stock mats just say Carrera.

I just ordered a set of Lloyds Boxster mats for my '99 996 C2, from Pelican, but got a call from Pelican saying that I can't use the Boxster mats in a 996. That's not true, is it? Can someone acutally confirm that the Boxster mats are OK?

Thanks,

-James.

Not true. The boxster mats should fit your 99 996 with no problem.

I found that my 2000 996 cab-4 takes the "normal" mats... not the special mats for cars with the Bose audio system. I ordered Lloyds mats from www.usspeedonline.com . They seem to have the best prices and offer just about any logo you want. I paid about $100 incl shipping. I just got the front 2 mats in Metro Blue, with CARRERA 4 emblems in silver thread.

I havent received them yet, but Im almost positive that these mats will not include any kind of hook system to hold them in place. I have read somewhere on this site that we can go to a hardware store or an auto parts store and buy our own hooks that should hold these things in place.

NOTE: I was wrong about the hooks. The Lloyds mats DO come with them. It was a pleasant surprise!

I've got a bad case of "dandruff" on the front bumper and first 1/3 of my 2000 ocean blue metallic 996. I just put $300 into Griots products including their 6" random orbital. They say that their #3 polish is so lightweight that it is totally safe but Ive heard that you dont want to use an orbital on the edges of your surfaces or on the dramatic curves due to possible burn in.

What is your experience with using good quality tools and polishes on your 996 curves and edges? You know it is hard to find a totally flat surface on our cars. I expect to hand polish the mirror enclosures, rear deck, etc. But is there a problem with clear coat damage using a good quality orbital on the front end, hood, fenders etc? Also, should you avoid the panel edges when polishing with the orbital?

Thanks!

I'm ready to order replacement mats from www.usspeedonline.com which look identical to the Lloyds mats on www.automotion.com but are a few $ cheaper. Unlike the automotion site, usspeedonline doesnt ask about whether or not you have the Bose stereo.

My 2000 Cab 4 stereo sounds crappy... so I wouldnt be surprised if it is the Bose.

My passenger side does have a very narrow footwell due to a carpet covered protuberance which looks like it could hold a subwoofer but there is no speaker grill down there. The only speakers I can see are on the dash, doors and in the backseat area.

I know for a fact that I have the CDR 220 reciever.

Nothing in any of my owner documents says anything about Bose.

My factory invoice says "Digital Sound Package with 490". I cant find anything on the internet to tell me if the 490 means Bose.

Is this the Bose system people are warning about that requires a non-standard passenger side floor mat?

Follow Up: My local dealer says that I have the Harmon Kardon system; that the Bose wasnt available until 2002. However they still werent sure if I have the subwoofer issue. They have both passenger side floormats in stock and I will check them out next week when I go by to pick up some other parts Ive ordered.

In reference to an '03 Cabriolet C2, be aware that a 996 with the Bose sound system has a different passenger floor mat than a non-Bose system. The reason is that the sub woofer is located on the side, resulting in slightly less floor space than a non-Bose set up.

I learned this from direct experience, as I just had my mats replaced - and they inadvertently ordered the wrong ones.

If anybody with a 2000 or newer 996 would take a look at their electric changeover valve, the one that sits above alternator and is easy to access, can you tell me how many vacuum lines should be connected to it?

Here is a photo of mine. Doesnt it look like a vacuum line has broken off of it? There are 2 good vacuum line connections to it, and a 3rd which looks like it is broken off. I cant find a loose line anywhere that might have mated up with it though. Hope I dont have to pull the engine to find it!!

Thanks very much in advance for taking the time to respond.

Jeff

Turns out Porsche replaced the seperate shut-off and check valves with one combined valve starting in MY2000. For some reason my 2005 PET did not have it listed. My local dealer says the new part number is 996 113 249 02.

Hope this helps everybody with 2000 or newer cars when they do the CEL P0410 + P1411 repair.

I am going to post my question about my possible vacuum leak in a new topic.

Cheers.

The pictures and diagrams before yours (vette67) are from a MY99 car and slightly different from your MY00 egas car.

I am sending you a PM with more info...

Loren and All,

I've got a 2000 996 Cab-4 and am doing the CEL PO410 + P1411 fix recorded in this string. When I got the alternator off I found the electric changeover valve for the secondary air injection system with no problem, but what should be the mechanical shutoff / changeover valve (part # 993 113 245 01) doesnt look like it does in the diagrams. It doesnt appear to connect to a check-valve or non-return valve. Here is a photo of what I am seeing:

Is this the right part to change?

Also, while doing this job I had to take out the airbox so took the opportunity to clean the throttle-body butterfly valve. Thanks for the tip!

Take a look at my "non-secondary air injections system electric changeover valve", the one easily accessible without removing the alternator, doesnt it look like a vacuum line has broken off of it? I cant find a loose line anywhere that might have mated up with it...

Thanks very much in advance for taking the time to respond.

Jeff