le bouch

Pedal held down

Open valve

Clear fluid emerges

Pump pedal as per instructions

Clear fluid emerges (after 90 secs)

Close valve

This is correct following the wait and slowly releasing the pedal.

Thanks Loren - I couldn't quite get my head around leaving the valve open all that time!

I also had ineffective AC on my 1999MY 996 C2 until recently. I also had a slow coolant leak but no obvious signs of escape.

I hoped for a cheap fix and much against my better judgement took it to KwikFit (UK) for their £49 gas recharge. When I picked it up they told me the car was now like a fridge inside. It wasn't.

I took it to my Indy (Precision Porsche) for an unrelated matter and long story short ended up replacing the rads, condensors and receiver/drier, all OEM (not Porsche) parts from design911.

My aircon now works fine - the only good news is that they declared my compressor to be still A1.

As to the cause? Lets just say I will be fitting mesh to my bumper grilles in the very near futire...

Loren, thanks so much for the reply. I'm obviously being a bit slow today - could you just confirm:

Pedal held down

Open valve

Clear fluid emerges

Pump pedal as per instructions

Clear fluid emerges (after 90 secs)

Close valve

OR

Pedal held down

Open valve

Clear fluid emerges

CLOSE VALVE

Pump pedal as per instructions

OPEN VALVE

Clear fluid emerges (after 90 secs)

Close valve

Thanks again,

Andy

I've successfully followed these instructions and bled my brakes - thanks!

I want to do the clutch but have questions before I do:

"This is best done when you are bleeding the left (driver's side) rear wheel as the clutch bleed valve is mounted high above the axle on the transmission.

Push the clutch pedal in by hand (very slowly) and use a long piece of wood to hold the pedal down. I wedged the other end (of the wood) between the seat and door frame -- with plenty of soft padding to avoid scratches. A second option is to have a 2nd person sit in the car and keep the clutch pedal FULLY depressed.

Open the clutch bleeder valve until clear, bubble free brake fluid emerges (at least 30 seconds according to Porsche).

DO I CLOSE THE VALVE AT THIS POINT?

Remove the wood.

Then, pump the pedal again very slowly by hand for a further 60 seconds. After pressing the pedal down fully about 10 to 15 times, leave the pedal in its normal position.

DO I OPEN THE VALVE AGAIN HERE?

After allowing a fill time of 90 seconds, check that no more air bubbles appear at the bleeder valve (use a collecting bottle with a  transparent hose). Then close the bleeder valve. Wipe off the area and replace the rubber protective cap over the bleed screw.

You may notice that the clutch pedal does not return... so carefully pull it up (slowly) to it's normal position. Then depress it (slowly) a few (at least 5) times. In a few cycles the feel should return.

True enough - but here we are sitting on a 996 forum - a car with a reputation for random catastrophic engine failure!

Note I said 'reputation'...

Well.... I came from a series of Land Rover Discoveries to my 996 and found the Discos to be reliable and easy to work on. The parts are not too expensive and at least you can get underneath one easily :D

LR's are premium vehicles and obviously not without problems - but my own experience was positive. Like the 996 if you believe everything you read you'd be terrified of buying anything. By all means research before you buy but don't be scared off by "I know a bloke who had one of those" stories.

I'm just about to run wiring from parking sensors into the cabin. When you guys say "right side" do you mean as you look at the car from the front or as you sit in it? I'm in the UK with a RHD, I'm a little confused..

I suppose an easier question is what side of the car is the main loom on a RHD?

I looked into this when I got my 99MY C2. I too wanted to keep the stock look but in the end just replaced my CDR with a Kenwood KDBT61U. Trying to work round keeping the (now ancient) Becker in the end seemed just too much hassle and not worth the £.

The Kenwood only has one knob and you can change the display to (pretty much) match the Porsche amber colour. It has Parrot bluetooth built in and a rear USB connection for your iPhone / iPod, etc. The iPod integration is excellent. I'm happy with this.

The only thing I would add to this - on RHD drive cars the filter is on the other side! Ask me how I know..

Mine looks pretty much like that on short journeys. We've had pretty low temperatures in the UK recently, too.

I have this rattle on my 1999 coupe. I haven't been able to isolate it other than 'somewhere in the roof lining, near the back window'.. I have instructions somewhere (not at my PC right now) on how to take the head lining down and from memory it's not a job I fancy doing..

Yeah - £42 for 15 minutes work isn't bad money by anyone's standards!

I'm always surprised that so many so-called experts aren't aware of much of the after-market expertise that the various forums throw up. It's not just Porsche, I have a Land Rover too and my local indy doesn't know about any of the forums or many of the resultant 'fixes' that should have been done at the factory.

I guess these guys work on the cars all day and don't want to spend their 'free' time on renntech, etc.

So.. I took the car to a local indy, Precision Porsche in Uckfield - they had the OBC activated in 15 minutes. They gave me a diagnostic report too (no faults!) and charged me £42 for the privilege.

So much for the guys at my OPC who said it couldn't be done...

Ha!

Maybe they could provide you with a key head with the immob pill in it - the Porsche dealer could code that to the car?

OK, so I have the VW wires and Porsche connector in hand, and a lead on a three stalk assembly. I've read the various 'how-to's' and I'm looking to do this soon.

I'm visiting an Indy tomorrow to hopefully have my OBC activated, even though my OPC said it couldn't be done.. we will see...

Last question - I understand that the crimp-ends of the VW wires each slot into vacant positions in the dash connector, but where does the other end of the loom plug in? I guess it will be super-obvious when I take it all apart as none of the walk-throughs seem to specifically mention it. Does it plug into the stalk assembly?

I have used these guys with great success. Nice, friendly service:

http://www.keysinthepost.com/

They cut a key blade for me (from a photo of my existing one!) - I put that in a s/h remote fob which I took to my OPC to get the immobiliser pil coded - the remote part couldn't be done, as explained above.

How did I spend hours searching and not find that link!?

Thanks so much.

As usual, thanks Richard.

So if I buy a three stalk assembly, I can remove the third stalk and attach to my existing two stalk assembly?

I assumed there would be a loom with plug on the third stalk which would plug in 'somewhere' near the steering wheel. If that's not the case, how are the connections made to the third stalk from the cluster?

Thanks.

Just to add though... after my trials and tribulations (bought 2nd key from eBay = waste of money, etc)....

My dealer told me that they are are two separate processes. If you get a spare / 2nd hand remote key, you can have the immobiliser bit programmed (by the dealer or similar) to work, but the remote part can only be programmed if you have the 2 serial number tags with it and it hasn't been programmed to a car before.

I want to add the OBC functionality to my MY1999 manual C2 and have been gathering information in preparation, mainly from this great forum. I still have a couple of queries..

I'm aware that I need the OBC enabled at a dealer or similar first, which ever route I go.

I understand the 'one-button' hack and how to install that, probably in a spare dash position.

I was though thinking of replacing my two-stalk indicator assembly with a suitable three-stalk one. If I do this, is it simply plug'n'play, or do I still have to hack into the dash connectors?

On a recent visit to my OPC, I asked them to enable the OBC, so I could at least have the temperature displayed. They said that this was only possible on certain cars, and even then only on certain instrument clusters, looked at my car and said it wasn't possible..

Anyone heard of this? I thought it was possible on all pre-2001 cars with air-con (external temp sensor fitted)...

Thanks as always.

Picked up a 1999MY C2 manual coupé a couple of months back. Full service history which shows the engine replaced by Porsche at 20k then a 'Silsleeve' engine from Autofarm (http://www.autofarm.co.uk/pdf/Total911_July06.pdf) put in at 87k! Three engines!

So, we're on 105k / 18k, depending how you view it :-)

@ petespokerplanet - which car do you have? I've been put off doing this because of so many tales I've heard of PnP not actually being PnP..

Thanks Richard - I've sent you a PM with my email address

I'm sorry if I'm being thick, but I still don't understand how you can send only one (stereo) source to the amp and then have the fader control on the head unit affect the amp's output front / rear. Surely the the head unit would have to send two (stereo) sources, front and rear?

Unless of course you're talking about a digital output, which I don't think you are?

Iogray - I'm confused. It doesn't take much :huh:

Are you saying that the head unit only sends one stereo pair to the six channel amp, and it's the amp itself that 'divides up' the signal into front, door (LF) and rear pairs?

If that's the case how does the 'fader' control on the head unit have any effect? Surely if it's only sending one pair then the 'fader' would 'move' the sound from min to max rather than rear to front?