Very cheap £7K 98 C2 Cabrio Manual project thread.

Edit - renamed now and will add all the little fixes and repairs as I go along. I finally bit the bullet and bought a C2 Cabrio. I drove it 120 miles home with no issues, then took my Dad out for a drive up some quiet B roads near to us. Pulling away from a junction, with a clear road, I gave it full berries, getting near the redline before changing up and produced a CEL light and a misfire. I've plugged in a cheap generic OBDII code reader and got code P0305, Cylinder 5 misfire. I cleared the code and the light has stayed off for now. On starting the car, the tickover went up and down a bit and has now stabilised just under 1,000rpm. It still feels and sounds a little lumpy though. What do you reckon, I've just upset the fuel trim of could I have caused more damage? I doubt this car has been revved much with it's use before this, as it's been barely used for the last few months and the former keeper was a sensible, retired chap. I have a few niggles to sort out, but expected them as it was very cheap. The passenger window has a microswitch issue and doesn't quite get the pop down a little as you open/close it, which seems to stop the car centrally locking properly and leaves the after market head unit live. The paint needs attention and there's a small dent in the front wing. Other than the damage I may have caused, it's had a fair bit spent on it recently, including a clutch/dmf in the last 3,000 miles, EPS IMS upgrade, a few suspension arms, coil packs, Miltek exhausts, AC condesers, so the AC works. Should keep me busy, just hope I've not properly broken it already! :sad:

Get underneath and look at the condition of the coil packs would be my first call. They crack and breakdown over time and a common fault. High RPM trigger of the CEL is normally the first sign along with problems when its wet and damp. Easy fix if you can twiddle a spanner Edit Just seen you say its had coil packs, might be worth making sure the bolts are tight in the first instance

Will do, cheers. I've checked the invoices, it had coil packs and plugs 2 years and 2,000 miles ago. I've disconnected the Earth from the battery in the faint hope this clears any wrong fuel adaptations by tomorrow. If that doesn't work, it's been moved to the top of the drive, so I can get it up on ramps and have a look at the fit of the coil pack on cylinder 5. I'll also swap it and the plug with another cylinder and see if the fault moves. The pessimist in me has just bought a compression tester, just in case it's a bit more serious. Gulp. Injector would be my next guess, if compression is OK. What diagnostic devices do you guys use? I've got an iCarsoft for my Jag and am not impressed. For my Beemers I used to always have a hooky cable and software to put on a laptop to give me the full dealer range. I have VCDS for my VW Transporter too. The Porsche version seems to be called Durametric, but this seems very expensive for a home mechanic.

Congrats on the car! Are the brand of the replacement coil packs stated? Might be ropey aftermarket ones that didn't last? I've experienced with other car brands that you need to be very selective with your non-genuine products, some are great and some are junk. For 996 coil packs I understand that BERU is ok, others best avoided? I've no idea what else it might be, but don't hit the panic button just yet. The interwebs will lead you to believe these cars grenade every other day and it simply isn't so.

Make wasn't mentioned, but the charge was only for £38 a pack, so doubt they're top quality. I'll swap one over and see if the fault moves, then replace if necessary.

Well, reconnected the battery and gave the MAF a quick clean and so far, revving it on the drive and letting it tick over, it's not pulling the CEL and even though maybe a little rough on tick over (hard to tell with the growly Miltek exhausts) it sounds better when revved. There does seem to be a bit of a chugging noise the the left hand pipe though, which isn't there on the right hand pipe. The right hand also seems sootier than the left. Cylinder 5 is right, i.e. driver's side isn't it? Do the pipes cross over on a 911? I'll give it another quick drive around the block later, when work clears and see from there.

Yes, cylinder 5 is on the drivers side and yes, the exhaust crosses over so the outlet for bank 2 (cylinder 4, 5, 6) is on the passenger side. That's generally the bank that suffers bore scoring and a sooty tip is one of the tell tale signs. However, it's not really an issue that plagues the 3.4 so I'd be surprised if it's that. In terms of the sound on idle. They do sound a bit iffy at idle. Just a bit tappety and whiry like an old beetle, not like the smooth sound of a straight 6 on idle.

The sooty tip is on the right hand pipe, so from bank 1-3. I'm going to give it another drive tomorrow when work dies down and have ordered a MAF to try. if no luck, I have a compression tester coming and can get it up on ramps and swap coil pack and plug from another cylinder, whilst checking compression between those two. My Beemer 740i used to do similar if I hoofed it too much on LPG. The O2 sensors must detect it running lean, so ups the fuel adaptations. When it restarts on petrol, it's lumpy as hell as it's way too rich on at least one cylinder. With that, I could just wipe the adaptations as I had the full dealer software and cable. Hopefully a couple of hours with the battery disconnected has done the same. On a positive note, I changed the battery in the spare key and now have 2 working keys! :thumb:

I can't put it off any longer. The car has been cleaned and various missing/damaged trim parts have been ordered. I replaced the pollen filter this morning as the blowers were weak. They're now good and the AC is spot on. I also repaired the ashtray lid, which is colour coded to the body and hard to find. It would not stay down, so I took it apart to have a look. It's held down or up by a little metal pin, in a white plastic clip. pushed into the outside of the housing. My pin was snapped off inside the little clip, so would not keep the lid down. I carefully drilled a hole from the back of the clip and pushed out the snapped off piece from behind. The pin is very thin, at 2mm max, so, as my drill bit matched the hole size and pin size, I cut a bit off the end of the drill bit and pushed it into the hole in the clip. It's a firm fit, so doesn't need gluing. Job done. Ashtray lid stays down and opens and closes properly. Time to get the car up on ramps and find how how badly I've broken it! Eek!

Well, it looks as though my worry was a bit over the top. Brown trouser moment averted - it looks like a loose connector on coil pack 5. Clipped it in properly and put the rubber boot back over the right war around. It was fitted back to front so not allowing the clip to click into place. Started up and sounds much better! Time to clean off the oil, so I can trace the little leak. Phew, that's a worry off my mind! It also gave me a chance to have a good look around and degrease all traces of oil, so I can find the small leak. Could be RMS, but with the clutch being done 3,000 miles ago, you'd like to think it was changed. Will soon see. I also noticed there are no heat shields over each bank of coil packs too, so that's something it needs. Manifold bolts don't look too hot either. I need to think about cleaning them up and trying to replace them. Blow torch at the ready! Took it out for a spin around some B roads and it's spot on again, even if a little grunty for my liking with the Miltek silencers on. :grin:

I had the clutch and RMS done on mine and it started leaking again within weeks. I read something about the design means of the whole assembly means it's always prone to leaking even with the new (supposedly) improved seal. Manifold bolts are one of the big jobs. If they look like they've never moved they'll probably shear. Be ready to weld (scary) or drill (even scarier). I'd say if it aint blowing, leave them be, save the pennies and get a specialist who's done it before to do it eventually.

Yeah manifold bolts definitely best left well alone unless you have no other option (eg you need new headers installed). At least one and most likely a good deal more will snap off - it's the law.

Basic rule of thumb is a single cyl misfire is coil related .. not plugged in properly is more unusual but a cheap fix which is nice ! Oil leaks and any pictures help all of us a hell of a lot .. a large mb image that can be zoomed in on .. i for one love seeing the car and searching for leaks via a picture . Exhaust manifold .. i'm going to echo the above comments .. If something isn't broke then Don't fix it .. they all look bad but you need a reason to remove it .. drill out upto 6 bolts and have a large bill afterwards ... and it wont run any different . Only people that will ever see it will be the mechanic who will just shrug his shoulders or you when its on a ramp

Borrowed my Dad for half an hour to bring him round to help take the hard top off and stow it safely away in the water tight shed on a roof stand on casters. The cloth roof underneath is in pretty good nick and the mechanism seems to work properly other than the edge cord slightly misses the frame on the nearside rear quarter unless helped. It appears to have no rips or tears. The only thing missing is the catch covers, which I've ordered from RosePassion for under £40 for the pair. The more I look into this car, it seems a bargain at £7,000, albeit needing serious paint attention and will never reach full value, being a Cat C, 10 years ago and counting. Still, it will make a very sensible first dip into 911 ownership, having recent (last 3 years and less than 6,000 miles ago) clutch, flywheel, new battery (last month), condensers, water pump, rear upper arms, roll bar bushes, brakes, tyres, Miltek stainless silencers and fitting kit, coil packs and plugs, all 4 shocks with Bilstein, receiver/dryer and other sundries. I can tidy it up and add a bit of value to it, but essentially, it needs driving! :thumbs:

There is a thin canvas/cloth strap under the roof which runs from side to side with a tension spring in the middle - it runs through a sewn in cloth guide tube. The spring applys a small amount of tension to both sides to guide the cords into the frame when you close the roof. If you put the roof into the service position (start opening the roof and turn off the ignition when the roof and windcsreen frame are approx 40cm apart) remove the key (for safety) and you should be able to see/feel the strap I'm talking about. The strap may be broken or detached from the spring. Mine snapped off at one side, sometimes it closes perfectly, sometimes it leaves one side out sometimes it leaves both sides out. Welcome to the mk1 cab club :thumb: