Beecher

Diverter valves are notorious for leaking and recycling boost. I would replace them right away. I got a set from Evoms and put them in myself. My old valves were still good, but why drive around with parts that are known to fail and rob performance?

Exhaust sound is very subjective. One person's loud and obnoxious is music to another. That said, I'll tell you that I have a Fabspeed medium sound sport exhaust. It is loud, but I love it. I makes me think of the old aircooled 911s running a Burch exhaust. I put sound deadening under the upholstery in the rear of the car to make it quiet inside with the windows up.

Talk to lots of owners and try to listen to some cars with custom exhausts. The videos on the web really don't tell the whole story. Good Luck.

When you have to remove paint/glue whatever from any delicate surface like leather, always start with the mildest cleaners and then go to stronger ones if you have to. That said, I would cover the area around the spot with masking tape to keep the cleaners that you use off the rest of the wheel. Put an old towel down over the driver's seat and dash. I would start with a commercial leather cleaner, but test it in some out of the way place first. A big white spot on your steering wheel is going to look really bad. Try different products like Goo-Gone and other mild solvents, if leather cleaner doesn't work. It's always best to test on a hidden area first.

Check with the windshield shop and see what they used to glue in the windshield and get some solvent for that. If you do bleach out the leather getting the spot out there is a great product called Leatherique made in the USA which will restore the color. Good Luck.

I have an 03 TT with 6spd. I observed pretty much the same numbers that you did. I got a GIAC flash for the computer and it made a huge difference. I strongly recommend the flash. I see a steady 1.1 bars of boost with a wonderful roaring sound from the intake. It feels like 70 more hp to me. I had to learn how to use the throttle all over again. Good Luck.

Since no one has replied I will give you my experience with a 2003 TT. I had a squeak on both sides of the dashboard at the windshield. After a lot of of trial and error, I found that the speaker screws were squeaking in their housings. A little soap on the threads fixed the problem. Also I cut out rings of paper to fit underneath the edges of the speakers to keep the plastic from rubbing against the dash. The noises are gone. I hope that this helps. Good Luck.

I live in Dallas and can someone tell me a better repair shop I should go for my 1999 911 C2?

I don't know how Porsche protects their rotors, but many manufacturers place a coating on the surface of the rotor that keeps it from rusting. You need to get this off before your brake pads will grab the cast iron. I always sand new rotors until the sandpaper quits skidding on the the iron and digs in, you'll see scratches at this point. Be sure to degrease them well with brake cleaner before you finish, one thumb print will cause chatter and uneven braking. Good Luck!

:unsure: This isn't really a solution to adding an iPod to the car, but it does get CD quality music of your choice playing. Use iTunes to make CDs of your favorite music, at 36 cents per CDR you can't go wrong. If I take a long trip in the Porsche, I plan on taking my laptop and a supply of CDRs. I can burn music for my next days driving. It's not ideal, but it beats the FM option.

I would also check with Autoscope of Dallas and Plano. The Dallas location is 9796 Ferguson Road 75228 214-320-8280, ask for Kevin. I was very pleased with their work on my 996 TT. I can't give you any price info because I had a computer flash done, not regular service work, but the place was clean and very pleasant.

Are you sure it is not 586 - Back support left seat?

Hi, Loren

It is 584 and I haven't found the rain sensitive wipers in the list. Here's the whole banana: CO2 X54 X99 446 999 375 376 411 441 476 551 567 571 573 584. Maybe it's the code for the Iranian market? :jump:

I've been working on figuring out the option codes on my 2003 turbo. I'm stumped by 584. I can find it in the Boxster list as a rear storage compartment, but nothing in the 996 list. Any ideas?

I am new to this forum, and I just want to thank everyone involved in maintaining and contributing to this forum for all the helpful information I have been able to get from reading prior posts and the tech sections. Thank you. :thumbup:

:jump: I couldn't agree more! This place is a godsend.

I've been looking into adding a direct wired iPod to my 03 TT coupe. I have the CDR23 stereo with the fiber optics. I've found no help doing research on the various forums. There is no cassette player to work with, no one makes a direct interface kit like icelink. FM transmitters are pretty crappy. Here's a thought. Could the radio be opened up and an auxiliary input added? I would be happy to bypass the CD player and just have a wire going directly to the amp in place of the CD player. I've been thinking of pulling my radio and looking inside. Perhaps the CD button switches inputs and could be tapped? Is this a waste of time or is it possible? I don't know who repairs radios anymore, but perhaps a repair tech would know how to do this. Just a thought...

:lol: Some progress on the rattles squeaks! I found that a major source of noise is the speaker screws rubbing in the hard plastic that they screw into. I coated the screws with Door-Eze (soap would probably work too) and the squeaks are gone in three of the speakers. The right rear still rattles a little, but it is much better. I'm going to try a block of foam between the air duct and the back of the speaker panel.

The speakers in my 2003 Turbo are driving me nuts! There are four of the oval ones, two in the dash and two by the rear seats. They all rattle! They make a high pitched chirping sound when driving over city streets. No stereo playing, just sitting there. I have the two rears out right now and am making sound deadening gaskets for them. Any suggestions? Does anyone else have this problem and how did you solve it? I am amazed that Porsche bolts a hard plastic speaker grille to a hard plastic insert and thinks that it won't make noise. The thing looks like it was designed to rattle! :soapbox: I'm glad the big stuff is well engineered, but the little stuff makes me wonder... :o

:oops: Problem solved: The car had rain sensitive wipers all the time. I was fooled because the first owner said he did not order them and the window sticker did not show them. It hasn't rained here until today when I made the discovery. The rain sensor is very well hidden in the rearview mirror mount. The wiring diagrams on Alldata were a big help in seeing what I had. Sorry for the confusion!

:( Hi, Loren! Thanks for the quick reply. I couldn't find a relay with the correct part number, so I pulled all the larger relays out one at a time and tried the intermittent function. It always worked. I hear a relay clicking up above my head, when I'm working at the relay board, but I can't see anything. It sure sounds like it's behind the instrument panel. I wish I had looked around in there when I killed the key chime and had the instrument panel out. Oh, well... Any more ideas?

:cursing: I need some help with installing the rain sensitive windshield wiper kit on my 2003 turbo. I got the 996 612 981 00 rain sensor kit from Sunset and tried to follow the instructions in the TSB. I don't have a relay in the #16 position on the relay board. It's blank, no wires or connectors. When I turn on the intermittent wipers, I hear a relay clicking up in the upper dash behind the instrument panel. Where is the intermittent relay? I need to replace it with the one in the kit and run the rain sensor wiring to it. My wiring diagram shows relay 16 on the relay board, but someone forgot to tell my car. Any ideas? :unsure:

Can someone explain this: B&B exhaust, and others claim to increase hp in 996TT by 35-45hp for anywhere from $500-5000, while still meeting emissions testing. Has anyone done this and dynoed their car to confirm these claims? If so, why opt for X50 for the same hp increase and pay what $18000, prior to its inclusion in the 996TT S, besides that it is a factory option? Am I missing something?

Thanks,

JB ;)

I just installed a Fabspeed medium sport exhaust which is supposed to give an extra 35 hp. I haven't put the car on a dyno, I wanted some exhaust note beyond the baby's sneeze stock sound. Yes, the X50 package seems very expensive for what you get. I plan to go with a GIAC computer flash with their flashloader so I can return to stock at service time. I figure that I'll have spent $3500 for the exhaust and $2250 for the flash so I will be way ahead of the $17,500 X50 package. I would have been happy to buy a used turbo with the X50, but the car I bought didn't come with it. Used car prices don't seem to support the idea of buying the X50 and getting the money back when you sell the car. X50 cars seems to sell for about the same money as regular ones in similar condition. Just my 2 cents...

My 2003 turbo is difficult to shift well from 1st to 2nd in that the rpms drop more slowly in first gear when I put in the clutch than in the other gears. I find that I have to wait longer to grab 2nd gear than I should while the engine rpms drop. This only happens in first gear, the other 5 speeds are fine. Why is the engine computer doing this? The tach drops like a rock in 2nd to 6th. Would a GIAC remap fix this? I came out of an M3 which was consistent in all its gears, not that I would go back! :D It's a small thing, but very noticeable. Any ideas?

How to install air horns::

Loosen the lug bolts on the right front wheel and then jack up the front end using the right front jack point. Place jack stands under the rear of the front control arms and lower the car on to the stands. Make sure that the car is safe on the jack stands. Remove the right front wheel. Remove the wheel well cover in the front of the wheel well. It is held on with Torx screws, one phillips screw and three pop in fasteners. The pop ins are removed by prying out the center part then prying out the outside part. Remove the cover and look inside. My air horn kit had a long and short horn and a compressor. I hung the long horn from the stud that hangs down from the very top of the space above the radiator. Remove the nut and bend a U shaped bracket from mild steel and suspend the horn. Put a piece of tubing on the horn before you bolt it in. See the attached picture for locations.

Now look at the braces that run across from the inside to the outside of the space you uncovered. There is an upper one that is parallel to the ground. Slide the compressor over to the inside of the car and drill a hole and hang it. Don't secure it yet. The short air horn goes on the same brace toward the outside of the car. Look under the front end just toward center of where you are working. You will see two electric horns. Pry the wiring connector off the lower one and splice in about 30 inches of wire to both wires. The brown wire is ground and the black/yellow wire is positive. Run the wires along the inside of the space with the radiators behind the plastic shield. The wires will enter the radiator area at the brace. Attach connectors to the wires and push them on to the contacts at the bottom of the compressor.

Now run the air lines from the horns to the tee to the compressor. Tighten all the mounting hardware and try your horn. You should hear the two air horns along with the low electric horn. Very nice! Replace the plastic wheel well cover and bolt on the right front wheel. Unjack the car and tighten the lug bolts on the wheel to 130 nm. You are done! No more VW horn sound!

Here's how to get rid of the key reminder chime and lights on chime. I didn't really mind the lights on chime so much but this method fixes them both because we are cutting the wire from the driver's door to the instrument panel. First, disconnect your battery negative terminal and wrap a rag around the cable so it can't touch the battery post. Next remove your instrument panel, you will have to use a small hook to pull outhe microphone on the left side of the panel and undo the torx screw behind it. On the right side, pull out the center of the hazard warning switch and push two small flat screwdrivers into the slots on that are almost flush with the dash and pull if off. Now take the two screw drivers and press them against the clips that secure the switch housing and using a hook pull out the black football shaped surround over the switch. There are two slots in the surround to give you something to pull on. It takes prying and pulling, but it will come out. Now unscrew the torx screw and pull the instrument panel up to disconnect it from the dash. On the back side unclip the three cable connectors by unclipping their guards and pulling them out and unplugging the plug on the back of the hazard switch. Set the instrument panel out of the way and find the green plug. Unclip the clip where the wires enter the cable to get some room and carefullly unwind the black cloth tape about three inches. Now look for a brown wire with green and white spots on it. Cut this wire so you can reconnect it if you made a mistake and tape the ends. Now set the instrument panel pack in place and plug in all the cables, the three colored plugs and the hazard warning plug. Reconnect the battery, turn on the key, turn off the key and open the door. There should be no more key chime. If all is is well re-install the instrument panel and enjoy!

I hate cars that chime and buzz at me. Here's how to remove the seat belt chime on your 996 car. I have a 2003 TT, but I believe that the other cars are similar. Take the key out of the ignition switch. Unclip the black cable coming out of the bottom of the driver's seat belt latch and cut the cable leaving about three inches of wire on the latch end. Strip the cable end that goes under the seat and find the blue and yellow wires. Connect a 100 ohm resistor (Radio Shack) between the blue and yellow wires and tape up the ends of the other wires so they can't contact anything. Put the key back in the ignition and turn it to the ignition position so the dash lights come on. With the seat belt unbuckled there should be no dash light and warning chime. If all is well, solder your connections and tape up the cable laying the resisitor along the length of the cable and tape the two ends of the black cable back together so the seat end isn't loose. If you are careful and wrap the cable with black electrical tape it will look stock.

Use the Carrera install TSB (4/98 9212 Installing Rain Sensor -dated Jan 26, 1999). It is the same procedure for TT.

:clapping: †hanks, Loren

I just got a 2003 TT that did not come with rain sensitive windshield wipers. I would like to add them if possible. I found a rain sensor here on the site, but I don't know how to install it? Can anyone help?