jmj996

Thank you VERY MUCH Loren, I'll keep looking. Do you know where I could find the part numbers for the PSE mufflers?

Hello, I am looking for a cheap exhaust upgrade from my standard 1999 996 exhaust, I just want to improve the sound. I had a 986 with the sport exhaust and loved it at high revs, but my standard 996 exhaust is very weak in comparison. If I could find the factory "sport" exhaust for the 996 at a very reasonable price, that would be fine with me. I found a guy that has two sets of mufflers (reportedly from 2002 996's). The part numbers are: 1st muffler= # 996-111-132-58 also, 996/25, also, 23/08/01 Gillet Germany/USA 2nd muffler= # 996-111-131-58 also, 996/26, also, 29/08/01 Gillet Germany/USA Can anyone identify these, and if either are from a sport exhaust, does anyone know if they would be a direct swap into a 1999 996 with standard exhaust? If these are not from a sport exhaust, can you tell me which part numbers are from the sport exhaust? Thank you very much for your help! John

I have a 996 wing lying around from an aftermarket install, I can check for you. Can you be more specific - was it the plug inside the wing or the plug that connects everything (fan included) to the car?

I don't believe you'll ever get a guaranteed answer to the first question, but you can assume that Porsche engineers set the rev limit at an RPM that was statistically proven to fall below a level that would damage the engine (assuming no unusual wear or weakness and operating conditions within tolerance). I believe you will find many people (myself included) that have felt the rev limiter kick in and haven't noticed any damage to their engines. Given the number of miles I had on my 986 and now my 996 after having hit the rev limiter on both, I wouldn't even be too concerned about buying a Porsche that has hit the rev limiter, but the other comment about it being stored in the DME is interesting. I would like to know for certain if it is stored, and if it can be cleared out by disconnecting the battery (and if so, shouldn't everyone briefly disconnect the battery before getting any maintenance done?).

Surely ALL the above could NOT have gone??? Just replace what has...... Are they sure you havent got a hole in the radiator(s) and you have leaked out the coolant? This is very common.......... but still expensive....... It does seem improbable that it has all failed. I don't think they have a handle on the source of the problem. I was quoted about $3000US by my dealer to replace the evaporator and fan in my 99 C2 cabriolet (fan was fine, but it all comes assembled in a single box, they wouldn't separately replace the evaporator), so the price you're being quoted is pretty nice. I didn't have it replaced, I just had them recharge the system to see how much longer it would hold out, and it has been blowing cold ever since - that was March 2006. I think the dealer just points to the evaporator when they can't identify the actual source of the leak. To truly test the evaporator, they would have to spend numerous hours of labor to remove it and with that much time invested, you might as well replace it at that point anyway. Ask them to recharge it and determine exactly why it won't hold pressure. Also, did it seem to stop gradually? I.e. was the fan always blowing hard (trying to keep up) for the last several days/weeks before it stopped blowing cold air? Unless the car has been sitting outside, the A/C should be very cold all the time, but I found that mine was minimally cool the last several weeks before it completely went out and needed to be recharged. By the way - on the previous quote, I think he meant condenser, not radiator.

If it's any consolation, your baby is supposed to sit in the FRONT seat, rear-facing with the airbag disabled until at least one year old. You can physically make it work in the back seat with the front seat moved almost completely forward, but not supposed to. This gives you over a year before you deal with this issue again. I'd be interested in hearing any crash test results as well, but I never thought of researching this before. Porsche designs infant/toddler/child seats specifically for use in these cars, and that was good enough for me. iihs.org is another authority for independent crash testing results, but they do not test anything from Porsche either (wonder why? $$). Crumple zones aside, one factor to consider is that any back seat that doesn't have side air bags will not be as safe as a vehicle that does. If the M3 has side air bags in the back seat, then your wife has a pretty good case. Good luck.

I used Warranty Direct and they were a very good company. The warranty was just under $2k but it paid for itself (motor mount, coolant tank reservoir, both window regulators, RMS). The last I checked, they will not provide a warranty for any Porsche > 5yrs old, but having been through that experience I have a few suggestions for you: 1) Contact the service managers at various Porsche dealers and see if they have ever worked with this warranty company. If they have, also ask them if the warranty covered everything after the deductible. My warranty company covered all parts costs (with a 10% discount off list that they negotiated with the dealer), but they didn't cover the full hourly labor rate and the dealer charged me the difference. 2) As suggested above, find out what is not covered. It is normal for brakes, clutch, tires, etc. to be excluded, but make sure no big mechanical or electrical items are excluded. If you can still get a warranty on a 1998 Boxster and the company checks out and the financing piece of it doesn't raise any red flags, I would recommend you go for it. The "no interest" statement is definitely a gimmick, but what it really means is that the base cost of the warranty has already been bumped up to cover the equivalent interest over two years of payments.

A motor mount problem seems like a likely possibility to me. We had a 1999 986 from 2002 (starting at 35k miles) through 2006 (at 75k miles), and one of the problems we experienced was a broken motor mount. The dealer said I should be experiencing exactly what you described, though it wasn't too bad for us yet. We had it replaced under an extended warranty, but I didn't notice that the shifting smoothed out very much. I've seen other cars with a broken motor mount and the engine would literally jump up out of place. Also, going from 2nd to 3rd was always bad when trying to quick-shift, I had to be a little more forceful with the shifter and hold the clutch down longer. I missed 3rd gear several times in the Boxster. Aside from that shifting characteristic, we never had any transmission problems, and when we drove it easy, it was never a problem. I have read in these forums that changing to gear oil (to a non-OEM oil) in the 996 transmission has helped some people. As far as the engine wanting to die when it's cold, that seems normal. I don't know if it's normal for all Boxsters, but it was with ours. It would never die on its own, but the rpm's would go way down and the engine would shudder. We had to be careful with applying throttle when going into first gear. However, if we shut off the compressor, we never had that problem, the engine behaved very differently and drove much better. I would recommend manually shutting off the compressor (just turn the fan all the way to off or hit the button that makes the compressor image disappear) and seeing if you notice a big difference.

As for item #1, I had the exact same problem in our 99 Boxster. The culprit in that case was a bad air injection valve. This runs on cold starts to lean out the mixture. Without this valve operating properly, the mixture on startup is too rich, and for us, created a LOT of smoke.

1999 c2 cabriolet, only 45k miles. Needed the cam cover 'gaskets'/sealant reinstalled at about 37k, last year, car was 7 years old at the time. I had just had the annual maintenance performed, then less then five days later the engine was puking oil out the cam covers (the extra oil pressure from new Mobil1 might have contributed to exposing that weakness). No RMS problems. Had to have the A/C recharged last year. Dealer suggested that I replace the evaporator to stop the leak (which from the dealer is a complete box with the fan and many hours labor), but 14 months later the A/C still runs strong.

There is a much easier way, but you will need a handheld battery charger/starter (all tow companies and many security staff have this). These devices usually come with a cigarette plug adapter to supply power to your car through the cigarette plug. This will give you enough power to use your key to disengage the security system/lock, then you can open the hood.

Search through the forum for NAV system installations. There are several people that have installed aftermarket NAV systems where the A/C controls currently are. They moved the A/C controls down below to the slots you refer to, and it appears they didn't have any problem with it.

Interesting. Did you do this event with PCA? That would never fly in our region. If you have a cabrio/roadster the top must be up the entire time. Hardtop is preferred if you have one. Driver's window must also be closed (can be open 1"). Passenger window can be open, provided there is no instructor in the car. It would be fun to drive the track with the top down. For comparison sake, it's also interesting to note that, as you indicated, you do not have the Strosek front spoiler/bumper cover or side skirts. This was a PCA section-sponsored event done in conjunction with two driving schools in the region. I have a hardtop for the car, but they specifically stated that if you have a convertible, you must have a welded-in roll bar or factory pop-up bars (which all the 996 cabs have) and the top must be down. I thought it was unusual too, but I wasn't going to argue, it was a great experience with the top down. I see what you mean though - we should do everything possible to help keep people's limbs in the car. The glass is going to break with any significant impact and wouldn't be of any value rolled up (maybe even more of a danger), but I can see how the hardtop would be of some value. Even though it's light aluminum and the top will be crushed, I'd bet that the hardtop would still provide a significant extra level of safety from direct helmet impact or getting pulled around from sliding. I don't see any value in having a soft-top up. A rollover would tear it apart and introduce various broken pieces of the softtop frame around the driver and instructor. They have numerous events every year and said that only one car has rolled in over 25 years, and it was an older Nissan passenger car with bald tires.

No, it's not normal, but then again it might not be due to wear, but as a result of how they removed the original rear vinyl window. It was originally glued/bonded together. Usually, these only come apart in the bottom corners, the rest of them stay pretty secure, so when they pulled out the original rear window to sew in a new one (not uncommon because this would be 1/3 the price of having the dealer rebond a new window into place), they probably caused this ruffled appearance that you see.

The only way to potentially anticipate the 'oil in the coolant' problem is to find out if any of the cylinder sleeves were replaced, but that would be very difficult. From what I have read, this is the main culprit behind failing cylinder walls. This was done on some blocks that were received out-of-spec to make them 'suitable' for use. I have not experienced an engine failure, but I have 45k on my 99 996 and worry about the same thing. I wish I had read about the cylinder sleeve replacement problem before I had my cam covers reinstalled early last year (to fix a major oil leak). With the cam covers removed, they might have been able to tell me if any replacement cylinder sleeves had been installed.

I also have a Strosek rear spoiler just like yours, except that my spoiler is only the main lower section, not the full two-layer spoiler that you have. I purchased mine through Fred Opert Racing in New Jersey, an authorized dealer for Strosek parts. They told me that I could install the main spoiler body without modifying the front end, but not the additional second level like you have. I have installed the rear main Strosek spoiler and I can confirm that even with the single-level wing, the front end did get a little lighter. For part of my drive to work every day for the last six years, I had a fairly straight section of highway that is pretty much impossible for police to patrol, it is two lanes each way with a concrete divider and guardrails, and downhill when on your way to town. I typically reached between 80mph to 110mph most days on this stretch depending on the amount of traffic. At 110mph, the front end is uncomfortably light, almost spongy/springy. My personal max speed in this car is 145mph, but that was on a section with no turns. Again, it was not comfortable, I knew the car was technically capable of more but did not want to try it. Prior to installing the wing I did not feel this level of discomfort at high speeds. I had our Boxster up to 140mph and felt like I was fairly stable compared to the 911. I also tracked this car (with just the Strosek rear wing) this year at Laguna-Seca, but the top was down the entire day and I never reached more than 110mph on the main stretch so aero wasn't too much of a factor for me there. The balance of the car felt very good even at reasonably high speeds through the corners in turns 4-7. My 996 is not lowered, I have the factory springs, but you can see that it drops pretty low through the corners anyway. I definitely think it's not as safe in this configuration, but it looks a lot cooler (subjective, I'm sure), and I haven't been so worried about the imbalance that I felt compelled enough to spend money to change the front end. However, since you have the second level of this spoiler your car probably experiences more downforce than mine.

I use seat covers from Tweeks. They are neoprene-like (probably not real neoprene) and extremely durable. My interior is all black so I have all-black seat covers and they look pretty nice. The bottom piece is not very easy to install, but it stays in place pretty well once you get everything hooked up. I bought them because I would always take my car to work out and getting back into leather seats after a workout was not good. This link might work for you: http://www.tweeks.com/shop?frame=5.90.4268 They are about $50 for a set of two.

Has anyone with low fluid sucked any of the old fluid out to see what it looks like? Some of these units (like mine) are now over eight years old. I'm sure there's some point at which we're supposed to replace this fluid.

As if there weren't already enough postings to convince everyone to buy aftermarket batteries, I feel I should add that I called a Porsche dealer about a replacement battery and was told by their service manager NOT to buy one from them. I have a 1999 996 cab. The car was originally purchased in Hawaii and always operated there until December of 06, with the original battery its entire life (only about 42k miles). I've never seen a battery last that long, I was pretty impressed, but it couldn't survive the boat ride over to CA. The car was more or less stranded at the shipyard because it would easily die without the battery booster/starter connected to it. **I thought it would be more than worthwhile to buy a factory replacement if they're going to last this long and called the nearest Porsche dealer, but the dealer said that PCNA switched their source a few years ago and that the new replacement batteries are not very good, according to them. Also, unless they previously prepared a battery for you, you can't simply drive/walk in and pick one up. They now receive the batteries dry, and must fill and charge them before they're ready to go. I would think that most dealers would keep at least one 996 battery ready to go, but this one didn't.** I bought an Interstate battery for around $110 at an auto parts store near the shipyard/docks where I picked up my car (a big local autoparts store, but they only had one battery that would fit the 996). It was much shorter than the original, but it aligned to a mounting hole so I wasn't too concerned. Talk about a weight difference though - I wish I could have actually weighed the old and the new. There was definitely a huge weight savings. Sounds like I paid about $30-$35 more than the Duralast at Autozone has cost everyone else. I hear nothing but great things about the Interstate battery, so I hope to get what I paid for it. It's been four months now, no problems at all.

For your request, I can only comment on the Pirelli's that came with our 986 - the sidewall was rock solid, the slightest bit of steering wheel movement significantly directed the car. We replaced our Pirelli's with Goodyear F1 GS-D3 on both our 986 and 996, and felt like we had completely changed the suspension. They probably have the softest sidewall of any high-performance tire, but they have the best wet-weather rating which was most important to us given our environment at the time (windward Oahu), and since our small kids are regular passengers, the soft sidewall is actually a good idea.

I recommend similar solutions described above: 1) Replace the speakers first. They are junk. If you do this yourself, be careful with what you buy, the mounting depth is too shallow for most replacement speakers. I purchased a set of MB Quart's and they worked out great, and sound awesome. It still took a lot of fabrication work to retrofit them to the existing grills. I also chopped the wiring off of the old speaker so that I could attach it to the new speakers and plug/unplug with the factory harness instead of messing with the original factory harness. 2) Next, install an aftermarket AMP. In conjunction with this, you should get the auxiliary output harness for the stock Becker CDR 220. You do not want to use the amplified/high-pass signal because it is pre-balanced for the factory speakers. I think there is actually a defeat for this that allows you to set the output signal to ALL LINEAR (see page nine of the CDR 220 guide), but still, a low-pass/auxiliary output is best. Note: The auxiliary output is only 2-channel. If you have a four-channel amp and you want to be able to adjust the fade from front to back, you will need to use the high-pass amplified outputs. If you don't care about being able to fade front-to-back, you can use the auxiliary outputs. Also, while you're at it, might as well get the auxiliary input cables so that you can add an iPod or other mp3 player as direct auxiliary input (you can get these adapters at http://www.beckerautosound.com/). 3) Consider a trunk-mounted subwoofer connected to the auxiliary output. A lot of cons here, as it takes up valuable space, but wiring was not a challenge with the relative location of the battery and good, solid available ground connections. I used an Infinity Basslink that I can easily remove when I need the space. I did not have the benefit of existing door-mounted speakers, but if I did, I probably would have focused my low-frequency efforts there instead. With the ability to provide a flat/linear output (exclusive of virtually all other OEM head units), auxiliary output, auxiliary input (or CD Changer), speed-dependent volume control (great for cabriolets), and a perfectly matching front plate with matching amber lighting, the case for an aftermarket stereo can be somewhat hard to make. I have heard some complaints about problems with these, but they are probably not widespread or warranted considering where they're used. My first CDR 220 lasted eight years with a lot of rough driving. Considering the environment, that's probably not too bad, and also consider that the factory still supports these and rebuilds them. I have not seen a single aftermarket stereo that looked good in a 986 or 996, they all look ridiculous. CDR220.pdf

Thanks for the update RangerGress. John

Sure! It's kind of difficult to get a good picture, so I just scanned in a page from the guide that show how to do this with the latch system, without a latch system, and for older kids without the front pad. I use the second column of instructions, except I cannnot use the tether strap in the back on my 996 cab, I have never seen a mounting point for it as the instructions point out on another page of this booklet.

We also went from a 986 to a 996 cab for the same reasons. In the beginning, we kept our 986 for a long time with our first infant riding in the front passenger seat with just one of us (usually just my wife and our first baby), and eventually after we had our second we got a 996 so that all four of us could ride together. I didn't see any really complete responses here on this one, and we have a lot of experience with this so I'll share what I can. We have two kids, now 3 yrs 1 month and 19 months. They have both been riding in our 986 and 996 cars since they were born. The older one has always enjoyed it and crawls into the 996 whenever she can (even when we don't intend to take that car). The younger one's stomach doesn't always agree with it, even when in the front seat. We have the 17" wheels with soft shoulders on the tires (Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3) and stock suspension, so as far as a 996 goes, it's the softest ride they can get. Infants must ride in the Porsche Britax infant carrier in the front passenger seat (see attached pic). 996's and 986's must have the airbag deactivation kit installed, which results in an extra buckle under the front passenger seat that is used by a belt coming from the forward section of the infant seat. 997's and 987's have airbag deactivation switches and don't require a separate kit to be installed. You should not put an infant in the rear seat of a 996, the carrier was not designed to seat & secure properly in the back. As a result, when we used the infant carrier in the 996 and all four of us went somewhere, my wife had to sit in the back. She's only 5'-4", so it wasn't too bad for her. Just a comment - we LOVE having the infant carrier in the front, because the baby is always within the driver's immediate reach and within peripheral vision. There is nothing else like it, you can't do this with any other car on the market that I know of, because all other rear-facing seats are required to be installed in the back seat of other cars. The Porsche junior seat is the next step (starting at 12 months). This is a forward-facing seat that can be used in the front or rear. It also has the special front buckle for the airbag deactivation kit when used in the front seat, and it has the rear strap (presumably for use in the Cayenne) and the seat latches, but in the 1999 996 we have, we cannot use either the rear strap or the latches. We just secure the seat in place with the rear seat belt. They can use this Junior seat for a very long time (the back even expands upward), but until they're much older, they have to use the lap pad. When they get older, they will just be using the seat with a seat belt across it (including shoulder strap run through the special routing clip). We currently have two of these in the back of our 996 (see pic of junior seats), and sometimes we move them to our SUV and use the safety strap and latches in the SUV. Another note - there is somewhat of a gap for infants 9 months to 12 months. At about 9 months, they're almost too big for the infant carrier, but you're not supposed to face them forward in the junior seat until they're at least 12 months. We continued to use the infant seat carrier past nine months and their head was well within the side supports on the seat, but their legs were sticking way out. I can't comment on the seats for older children yet, it will be a few years before we outgrow the junior seats, but the other pictures posted previously provide a picture of the booster.

Ditto on the thank you, this just worked for me as well. I had the same problem - top suddenly stopped operating on my 1999 996, wouldn't work from either the door or the interior switch. I opened and reclosed the trunk and hood, and then it worked. Found out later that my wife had opened the closed the trunk that day. So do I need a new switch?