Mijostyn

I suspect you would never use the phone in the car. You have a cell right? Do your self a favor and ditch the PCM. Its performance is poor relative to even moderately priced aftermarket head/Nav units. In response to a bad battery my PCM electrocuted my speed yellow instrument cluster, the gateway module and the PASM computer to the tune of $9000 happily warrantied. With the available aftermarket installation kits the replacement will look factory right down to that stupid silver/gold finish on the plastic. The cost of fixing/replacing your PCM will more than justify replacing altogether. There is one kink that you should be aware of and that is the PCM is connected to the rest of the car via a MOST fiberoptic loop which is digital. The aftermarket Nav units only have analog outputs. BUT, a company call NAV TV makes what they call a MOST head unit replacement module which is an analog to digital converter that outputs in MOST digital. Just plugs right in. This way your get to use the stock amps and speakers which if you have the BOSE option is a terrific deal. I have the Bose system in my car and installed an Alpine INE W927 HD along with the NAV TV unit. The sound is way better and now I have the best Nav, Bluetooth for the phone and flawless iPod integration. The system has been in the car for a year and has not sneezed once.

Jason, I think you are looking at this backwards. How many days do you drive the Porsche that are below freezing? I suspect not many. Couldn't you just drive your X Terra on those days? If so, why not enjoy your Porsche to the max and put a set of REAL tires on it like say Michelin Pilot Super Sports. The only issue with max performance Summer tires is that they should not be driven below freezing as the tread compound gets too hard and wear increases rapidly. If you are concerned about wet traction Super Sports are UNBELIEVABLE!!

Could be anything. Check out Steelman Engine Ear. You can find any noise or rattle with this thing. A must tool for the DIYer.

Wow Jason, that Tire Rack article is out to lunch. The right tire pressure is that at which the tire wears evenly across it's tread. That is also the pressure at which the tire develops it's maximum effective contact patch and thus the maximum lateral load capability. To some the handling may feel better with higher pressures as the car will be stiffer and sharper but in reality if you skid pad test it it will break loose earlier. The right tire pressure is a moving target. It depends on the stiffness of the tire across it's tread, the width of the tire and the weight of the car. Always start with the recommended Summer tire pressures. If the snow tire is narrower than the Summer tire back off on the tire pressure 2 psi for every centimeter narrower to start. Check your tread depth at both edges and the center when the tire is new and every 1000 miles and keep a journal. Use a tread depth gauge. They are dirt cheap. If the tire is wearing faster in the center back off 2 psi at a time until the tire is wearing evenly. Trying to make winter tires handle better is an exercise in futility. They are not designed for that. They are designed to run at colder temperatures and stick to slippery, snowy roads. Summer tires = stiff broad tread blocks with few snipes. Winter tires = numerous small flexible tread blocks with lots of snipes. Snow tire tread compounds are designed to remain supple at low temps. Summer tires are at their best when they are almost worn out. You can run them down to 3/32 just fine. Snow tires need to be replaced at 6/32 as they start loosing their grip in snowy conditions.

That is a quarum for the dipstick. jl-c I know it says that but the guy that wrote the manual is out to lunch and here is why. Oil temp when hot is thermostatically controlled and will be at the same temp regardless of environmental conditions however what is cold?? Cold is whatever the ambient temp is which can vary from (where I live) 10 degrees below zero to 100 F. At different temps the oil volume changes. Technically you want to measure the oil under the same conditions every time. Tough to do that using ambient temp not that it really makes much difference using these stupid electronic guages. What we all are interested in is how much oil the car is using over time and the resolution of these guages is not good enough to give you a good picture but still it is best to use identical conditions. Exactly where the top level is is not as important as how fast the level is changing. I bet most of you like me neurotically keep the level pinned against the top anyway.

The sensor is similar to the one used in medical ultrasound machines. It is bouncing sound waves off the air oil interface. The time it takes the sound to get back to the transducer tells the computer where the air oil interface is and thus the amount of oil in the crankcase. EleCTriCT is right. The level will change with oil temp and the angle of the car relative to gravity. Always measure your oil when fully warmed up ( about 220 F on the oil temp gauge) with the car on a level surface.

Jgaude, JFP is absolutely right. Low voltage does screwy things to these cars. You are the second person who reports that their electric emergency trunk opening circuit did not work. If you use a high enough current device such as a powerpack used for jump starting cars you might get it to work. A bad battery in my car resulted in a blown PCM and instrument cluster to the tune of $9000! (under warranty). One of the cells was shorted out. If your battery is over 5 years old or has been deep cycled it may be your only problem. The battery's date of manufacture is usually stamped on one of the posts. you may need a magnifier to see it. Regardless it is probably toast now anyway. There is an emergency trunk release cable in your driver's side wheel well up high towards the front. Pull the cable to open your trunk. Then replace the battery. If everything works OK then you are in business if not then you can start in with voltage regulators, alternators and such. As JFP suggests it might be a good idea to have the car load tested to make sure the car is not drawing too much current. Braille makes a great battery for these cars which is a direct fit and it is over 1000 CCA (the stock battery is 650 CCA) Suncoast Parts carries them. http://www.suncoastparts.com/product/B10049.html?Category_Code=996braille

Hi Dennis, The PiWIS is telling you that the resistance in the mirror heating circuit is off, either to high as in open circuit or to low as with a short. If you pop the triangular cover off inside of the door where the mirror mounts you will find the mirror's power connector. I do not have a wiring diagram but there will be wires for motion control and the mirror heater. You can ID them with a meter, flipping switches seeing which wire gets power. Once you have IDed the wires compare the resistance of the mirror heaters from each side. If one is much higher than the other then it is bad (open, the usual failure mode) If the Mirrors are ok go too the car side of the connector and check that the mirror wires get power when switched on, If not than you have bad wiring, a blown fuse or a bad switch.

Hi vaulter, The clearance should be the same on both sides. If not there is an alignment problem. The tire rubbing the strut would definitely cause a wheel speed rotation noise. This should be checked out immediately and if the side wall is damaged both front tires should be replaced. When the alignment is checked have the tech check the left front wheel bearing to make sure it is OK. Wheel bearing failure will always make noise at wheel rotation speed but the sound can range from a squeaking, to a harmonic ring to a rumble. The key is wheel rotation speed. Brakes usually squeak when they are applied. I would think that if a tire were rubbing the strut the spacer would have stopped it. Better check that wheel bearing. Yes, 19" rims are too big for that car giving you a smaller side wall and a less compliant ride. Do get 18s when you get the chance. No reason to stick to Porsche wheels. There is nothing special about them and they are over weight and overpriced. OZ Alliggereta HLTs are great wheels for the money and something like 3 lb lighter than the stock wheels. Do not use more than a 5 mm spacer. Your wheels will not index the hubs correctly.

Hi Creekman, Most all of the aftermarket Nav/HiFi head units such as Alpine and Kenwood allow for installation of back up cameras. You would have to redue your system which is actually very straight forward. The camera is a little more complicated as it will take running a wire from the head unit to tha back of the car and mounting the camera in the bumper. Any good installer can do it. Look for the guys in your area that do the high end cars. 996s and 997s are having their systems redone in droves so, you should be able to find some one with lots of experience in your area.

No problem. Not far behind the hub is the cap that covers the wheel bearing. If the bolt is too long it will scrape against this. Measure the shank (threaded portion) of the bolt. The right size is 35 mm. 2 or 3 more mm should not be a problem. If they are too long they can always be carefully ground down to fit.

You need the longer lug bolts for the front. Remember, the bolts now have to go through the wheel, the spacer, and the brake disc to get to their threaded holes in the hub. The shorter bolts will not have enough purchase. I would not like to see you going down the road without a front wheel. Otherwise you should be fine. I would like to have seen you with an 8" wheel in front. 8.5 is a tad wide for a 225. This might make the ride a bit harsher up front as you give up some of your side wall flexibility. But, if you think the car feels good than it is not an issue. Now get those wheels balanced! By the way, the guy that sold you the wheels is a jerk. He told you to put a spacer on a wheel with less offset than the factory wheel. If he sold you the spacer I would shove it down his throat. Screw the refund. Offset is the distance of the wheel's mounting surface from the center line of the wheel. Positive offset is towards the wheels outside. Negative towards the wheels inside. Most wheels like all our Porsche wheels have positive offset. Positive offset pulls the wheel into the car. The less positive offset the more the wheel sticks out. A spacer effectively gives you less positive offset. Instead of spacers it is much better to just get wheels with 5 mm less offset. You actually did just that with your rear wheels! Nothing like fast cars and fast women.

Hi Wausau, Someone sold you wheels with the wrong offsets. You are shaking because your wheels are way out of balance ( assuming you do not have a bent rim). The problem with spacers is the wheel is centered on the hub by the three flanges that stick out past the brake disc. This is critical. You put the spacers on and you have less flange to grab the wheel center. 5 mm you can get away with but you will notice that you have to hold the wheel tight to the brake disc when you put your lug nuts on or the wheel falls off and dings your brake caliper. THE WHEELS ARE NOT CENTERED BY THE LUG BOLTS. Balancing the wheels by the bolt holes is a big mistake. You balance the wheel off it's center hole which is what the car indexes. A 12 mm spacer is a big mistake. do not use it. Use the wheels as they are. It is only a cosmetic issue if that. Use the 5mm spacer in front. Next find someone who knows how to balance wheels which is not easy. Don't worry about the balancer used. Worry about the tech. If the tech does not warm up the tires before he puts the car on the lift, run away. High performance tires flat spot in as little as 15 minutes depending on temperature. This can throw the balance off by as much as 1/2 oz. If the tech uses the balancer in round off mode, run away. Porsche wheels have to be balanced to < 0.1 oz. You can't do this with a balancer that is reporting in 0.25 oz intervals. Out of round off mode the balancer will report in hundredths of an ounce. Such as 0.78 or 0.07 Tape weights come scored in 0.25 oz segments. If all you see used are whole 0.25 oz segments, run away. Although occasionally you will land on a whole segment in most cases you will have to use a fraction of a segment to get the balance right. If the tech adheres to these three rules you are probably OK. If the balance is good your steering wheel won't shake anywhere assuming your wheels are true and your tires are OK. If not the steering wheel will start dancing somewhere around 75 mph.

Kgoertz, May I suggest OZ Alleggerita HLTs. These are GREAT wheels for the money. Beautifully made and very tough. They only weight 16 lb. The Italians know how to do two things better than anyone, leather and metal. Just look at the castings in a Ferrari.

Hold on Luke, You are talking about fractional distillation. Crude oil is vaporized at a temperature of about 1000 F. The vapor then rises in a cooling tower. As the oil vapor cools on the way up the various fractions condense at their boiling points on plates which are piped to various holding tanks. Key point, you have added enough energy, in the form of heat to separate ALL of the crude oil molecules from each other. The separation process occurs as the vapor condenses. Oil temp in Cars is held at just above water's boiling point of 212 F.... To make sure the oil stays dry. Remember, when you burn any hydrocarbon you get mostly carbon dioxide and ...water. The stuff dripping out of your tail pipe. Although gasoline has a substantially lower boiling point than oil in order to separate the two you have to vaporize the lot and catch the fractions as they condense. This does not happen in a car engine. However, water molecules being polar will boil off as they are repulsed by the non polar oil molecules. Try mixing olive oil in water. You can do it actually if you apply enough agitation to emulsify the mixture. This is what happens when coolant leaks into the oil usually via a blown head gasket. Looks sort of like a chocolate frap. You can still separate the two by just heating up the mixture. The oil will rise to the top. Not an experiment I would care to try. Mix gasoline in oil. The gasoline dissolves instantly. Now heat up the mixture. Does the gasoline float to the top?? This reminds me of those folks burning their house to the ground with a turkey fryer.

In order to remove a rear side window you have to remove the C-pillar and seat belt trim exposing two Allan cap screws at the rear apex and front upper corner and one nut at the front lower corner of the window. Unscrew the Allan cap screws and the one nut. Attach a suction cup handle to the outside of the window and release the window pulling down and out. My favorite Porsche tech informs me that the window will be really stuck in there and removal frequently breaks the window. He has also never seen a 996 or 997 rear side window make noise of any kind. If you manage to get the window out in one piece, thoroughly clean the window and gasket and install the window ( with the suction cup handle) by carefully pushing the window up and in. Pull the outer window gasket out over the window with a small spatula then position the window so that the gap to the front side window is 7 mm Plus or minus 1 mm. Reinstall the two Allan cap screws (with washers) and one nut. Tighten them all first to 7.2 ftlb then finally to 17 ftlb. Reinstall all the trim.

RFM is right. I was thinking they were set in like the front and rear glass. They are pulled in against a rubber gasket by three screws which screw into brackets glued to the glass. Looking at the window I do not think these screws are accessible with out removing trim panels in the car. But I may be wrong again. Certainly, glass can creak against rubber and it sounds like RFM has seen this before. But, before pulling the car apart and getting into more trouble it is always best to know exactly where the noise is coming from. I had a 993 TT which had an annoying rattle which sounded like it was coming from the glove box. I spent hours going over that side of the dash trying to stop the rattle. Finally, I went back to the dealer. We road tested the car the tech driving with me in the passenger seat armed with Engine Ears. Waving the wand around I easily located the rattle coming from the floor just in front of the door. Nothing there but carpet??? The rattle was the plastic under panel rapping against the bottom of the car. A dab of butyl gazing tape under the panel stopped the rattle for good. Being a rattle neurotic I got myself a set of Engine Ears and have never been stumped since.

Hi Michelin, It is very unlikely that the window is your problem. They are essentially glued in. Do not remove any rubber gaskets. The location of a rattle can be extremely misleading. If you are the kind of guy that hates rattles you have two choices. Stay away from 911s or get yourself a set of Engine Ears. With Engine Ears you will be able to precisely locate the rattle which gets you 90% of the way towards solving the problem. Then you can use all those tricks Loren mentions. My favorite fix is butyl glazing tape. Stuff sticks to and dampens anything. You can get this from your local glass shop. The next is heavy duty 3M mounting tape. The red stuff.

Hi kgoertz, First, I have to make one distinction. Racing cars have low aspect ratio tires. It is just that the tires are so wide they still have plenty of side wall. It is the absolute size of the side wall that causes alterations in handling, ride and load carrying capacitiy. Ride and load carrying capacity are easy and intuitive. As the side wall gets shorter the side wall becomes stiffer and the ride gets harsher. As the side wall gets shorter there is less room for deflection of the treat before the side wall is completely pinched transferring additional load directly to the rim...bending the rim. Handling is a little more complicated. First the tires act sort of like lateral shock absorbers. Lateral give in the side walls absorbs lateral stress transients which might otherwise cause the tread to loose grip. Imagine hitting a severe bump without any suspension. You wind up airborn! But, with a suspension you control the transfer of these forces to the car and the car stays planted. The next factor is shear stress. As lateral forces build on the tire in a turn the tread deflects towards the inside of the turn essentially pulling the car in sort of like Prosche's new 4 wheel steering. A larger side wall allows higher sheer stress before the tire looses grip. These issues are exactly why we use smaller wheels/larger side walls for snow tires. Having said this, too much side wall is just as bad. All high peformance tires have relatively small aspect ratios and side walls. Really big side walls give a bouncy ride and soggy handling in high performance cars. Stick to 18" on your 996. 997.2s run with 19" wheels. Going to 20" wheels is a down grade in performance. If you own a Honda with 60 series tires, 1+ ing the car is no big deal but our Porsches are always designed at the edge of tire technology and it is better and safer to stick to the factory set up.

Don't mention it. Living in New Hampshire I'm afraid not. But I would start with your local Porsche independent. You might ask your local PCA chapter for a recommendation. Then just hang out and watch the tech in action. Warm tires, machine set to report in hundredths, and odd sized weights, then you probably have a winner. Performance shops are going to be much more sensitive to this. Regular cars can be over 1/2 oz out and the driver would never know. Not in a 911. At about 0.2 oz the steering wheel will start shaking usually around 75 mph. Take your hands off the wheel and watch it dance!

Hi Gordon, The only reason to have 20" wheels is so that they will fit over bigger brakes, which you will not have. The car is designed to operate with wheel tire combinations of a specific rolling radius. In order to maintain this when you go to a larger wheel you have to use a tire with a smaller aspect ratio (less side wall) This is very bad in street cars for several reasons. The tire becomes a real pain in the a-- to mount increasing the likelihood of damaged rims, you are more likely to bend a rim hitting pot holes, the tires will be more expensive which at 10K miles a pop is something to consider and most importantly they will not handle as well. That is right. Take a look at any formula 1 car. BIG side walls! Race cars can operate with smaller brakes than street cars because they are about 1/2 the weight. Plus cosmetics are not so much of an issue with race cars. Go to Singer Vehicle Design. What do they put on arguably the greatest 911 ever made? Custom 17 inch rims with big side walls. (when I win the lottery) The 991 uses a larger rolling radius set up with bigger brakes. The side walls are about the same. The only thing special about Hunter Road Force balancing is that it might be a little more idiot proof, but not much. A good technician using a simple balancer can get every bit as good a balance as the same tech using a Hunter. My point being is that it is not the balancer that saves the day, it is the Tech. Don't worry about finding a good balancer, Worry about finding a tech that knows what they are doing. These are signs that the tech knows their business. 1) The tech never balances a cold tire that has been sitting on the ground for more than 5 minutes. High performace tires flat spot as they cool down. This can throw the balance off by 1/2 once! He will take the car out, warm up the tires and put it immediately on the lift. There the tires can cool off all they want. 2) The tech never runs his machine in round off mode. If all you see on the machine is 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 etc. Run away. Porsches need their wheels balance to < 0.1 oz. What these machines mean when they say "0" is not "0" but rather < 0.25! With round off mode off the machines report weight in hundredths such as 0.37, or 0.12. 3) The tech has to use fractions of wheel weights to get the balance right. Tape weights come scored in 0.25 oz increments. If all you see used are whole 0.25 oz segments...run away. Although you can wind up on a whole segment in most cases you have to use a fraction of one segment to get the balance right such as 3.25 segments ( about 0.82 oz)

Keep that Shell handy Luke. Up there in Calgary you are going to need it!! It is the baulk rings. Once the oil gets too thick they won't clutch correctly. Everything just keeps spinning at different speeds. Nothing else much matters. Cool you know about Porsche's spec. The oil has to be thinner than 600 cSt at 0 C. The only two that meet that spec are the Shell S5 ATE and the Mobilulbe PTX. Anybody know what a centi Stoke is?? Anyway, it sounds like you put the car up for the winter. I still think you will like the EE better. Its kinematic viscosity is around 17 cSt at 100C which is thick for a 75W 90. Dampens that hypoid final drive nicely.

The only way I can imagine that it would not work is there may be a fuse bad or your trunk release solenoid failed. Before you close up your wheel well put in a good battery and make sure the system works. I imagine you just give the cable a good yank.

Maurice, You do not need winter or salt when you use plain steel in contact with stainless under high temp conditions. Porsche is banking on the cap screws lasting as long as the header which obviously and frequently does not happen. They prefer to protect the most expensive part, the head. The screws and the header are relatively cheap. They are counting on their techs to pick up the bad screws before they become a real problem. Many, however do their own work or use indies. We here are aware of the problem and will take whatever measures are needed to prevent a big headache. Thinking it over I think the best approach is to use Porsche's hardened cap screws and change them at intervals before they deteriorate to the point of breaking. Using studs and various fasteners is not going to get you anywhere. The problem is that you have an aluminum head and a stainless steel header, metals at opposite ends of the galvanic scale, in a high temperature environment, exposed to the elements. There is no way to reconcile that. Fabspeed is using composite gaskets which isolate the header from the head but to my knowledge nobody has come up with a composite cap screw.

Hi Luke, Thanx for chiming in. I think that is a great report for 6000 km. I think the Aluminum is lab error. The worry would be that the cylinder liners are Lokasil which is aluminum with a silicon fiber matrix but your silicon levels are normal. I do not know of any bearings that contain aluminum in significant quantities. Pistons are aluminum but only the rings contact the cylinder walls under normal circumstances. If the cylinders were scored you would get both silicon, aluminum and metals from the rings like iron, moly and chrome, and at very high levels. Your aluminum is just barely elevated and everything else is fine. If you drive your car in the winter you are not going to like that tranny oil. Millers EE 75 W90 Nanodrive is better. It has a higher viscosity index and is substantially thinner when cold. Still, below 32 F you are better off with Shell Spirax or Mobilube PTX. I use Shell in the winter and Millers in the Summer. These Aisen transmissions have an annoying amount of lash. The thicker Millers dampens it nicely during the warm months giving you nice smooth shifting but below freezing you need a crow bar to get into 1st and 2nd. So, it is back to Shell or Mobilube.