narkose

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One comment i would add is the following. Be careful when you are pulling out the Ventilation face plate after removal of the three torx screws. The unit is held in place by two plastic clips, one at the top and one at the bottom, and secured down by the three torx screws.

I will say that it is not necessary to remove the side vent at all. There is enough compressibility in the crossing duct to get it out of there without take the side vent out at all - this obviously only works if you are just replacing the switch itself. Steering lock assembly in different

Had no idea about this break-in oil, I switched directly from Mobil 1 0-40 to DT-40. Since I did a direct swap without the break-in/flush, should I plan on changing the oil sooner than 5k miles?

I am mildly annoyed by how sensitive these Porsches seem to be to oil. No car I have ever owned in the last dozen seemed to care what oil I ran through it. My M3 was advertised to go 15k between changes, though I did it every 7.5k. Same interval on my AMGs too. This is crazy to be fretting about oil changes and oil consumption in this day and age, not to mention in a premium car. What do we live in, the 1960s? I do like the 911, it has grown on me, but boy is it an acquired taste. End rant.

I would not be overly concerned about not running the break-in oil first, as I mentioned, that is more for severe cases where the noise may also be related to varnish or crud build up due to slack maintenance.

Don't be annoyed at how sensitive the car it to oils, be annoyed with the oil companies for making significant changes to oil formulations without telling anyone, and marketing departments for creating long change interval fibs. And if you collected oil samples for analysis between oil changes from your prior cars, you would have found that the oils were beat long before 15K, and in many cases beat or approaching it at 6-7K miles. Just like "lifetime" coolants, 12-15K oil changes are marketing myth; all automotive fluids have a limited life expextancy, some more than others. You are going to get 5-6K out of your oil, 4-5 years out of your coolant, and 2 years out of your brake fluid. And don't even get me started on Tiptronic or power steering fluid change intervals............

JFP - would you point me in the direction of the Tiptronic discussion?

Wondering about any follow up on the change to the DT40? I have the same problem that Loren described in that when the car is cold(which in the last few days has been at least 5-8 minutes in the frigid weather.) Once warm the noise is gone. This happening with every cold start(so the end of a work day can do it)

Still not sure this is bleed-down, tensioners or a hydraulic lifter problem

spend $12 and 1 hour to find out.

Did mine recently and as stated above $11 and about 30 minutes. You don't need to remove the side vent to get the crossing duct off. Saves having to take off the headlight switch. If it doesn't work the do the whole housing - that will take longer

I run the Dunlop Winter Sports on 17 inch rims on my 2001 C4 Coupe. Porsche recommended sizes. Work great in cold, snow and ice. Not for the track, of course. So you won't find any N rated snow tires. Also, it looks like Tirerack is out of stock on both the Blizzaks and the Winter Sports.

This is not entirely true. I purchased Pirelli Snowsport 240's from Tire Rack that are N3 tires

UPDATE: Just got my relay - took only a second to replace. Blinkers are functional once again!

Special thanks to Hilux2400 & Flakarter for their support on this subject.

good to know for future reference

Yes, this is a known problem among 996 owners from what I have read

I had removed my headlights to replace the headlight washer nozzles and when I didn't seat the driver side light correctly I was having erratic blinker function on that side when the high-beam was on for example - it was resolved by me firmly pushing the headlight into it's slot.

Did you change any light bulbs on you headlights?

Interestingly, my owners manual supports what Dennis C stated. Same pressures: Summer or Snows