996.1 C4 - Foxy

So decided to see what all the watercooled fuss was about and purchased a 1999 Carrera 996 C4 from a lovely couple in Adelaide sight unseen. It came with a full service history. Estimation from the documentation is that it's had 4 owners excluding me and not been driven much over the last 10 years. Had the car looked at by an ex-Buik Motorworks (local Porsche specialist) mobile inspector and car presented as an honest drivers car however still needs a few things to sort out namely IMS replacement at some point, fixing up a split CV boot and some new front tyres. What definitely attracted me to the car was the aero kit.  It has the 996.2 GT3 style front lip, I assume an aftermarket 996.2 GT3 side skirt and wing and pretty horrible headlight cover. One of the previous owners tried to make it look like a GT3 and it even had the GT3 centre caps but thankfully the most recent owner swapped those out for OEM porsche centre caps now and to be honest i'm not loving the front lip but seems to be pretty limited front lip options for the 996.1 at a reasonable price. a 996.1 GT3 bar seems to be crazy money too so will keep it as is for now. At first i didnt love the rear wing but thats definitely grown on me Interior is definitely one of the high points of the car Wasn't too long til i got it put on a truck and sent to me here in Sydney

Nice one. Sounds like a good buy. Enjoy water cooled life! 996 is so much fun.

Picked up the car couple Fridays ago and drove it straight to work from the depot, I gotta say, it's way easier to daily drive this car compared to the older stuff (no surprise here). Power wise , it didn't feel as ballsy as my 75 911 and I could barely hear the exhaust note. I've read up about the fister mod so maybe at some point i'll get to that. First priority was to get rid of the headlight covers. Read up a few different methods, went at it for days first using fishing line + hair dryer with limited success then just decided to use a plastic trim tool to get the covers off. What i was left with was a crap load of silicon on the lens. Tried plastic razor blades, metho spirits and none of it seemed to work.... finally decided be super careful and use an actual razor blade and finally got most of it off. Theres still definitely some silicon residue but good enough for now. Much happier with the stock headlights. I used to hate the egg headlights but they have grown on me over the years. I personally prefer the 996.1 look to the 996.2. Also digging the narrow body. One area that took me a while to work out when i was buying the car were whether the wheels were genuine. The seller thought they were as she had an aftersales brochure with the gt3 wheels marked out but a friend confirmed that these are definitely copies of the 997 gt3 rims but in 18''. Again although i don't love running knock off wheels, i do think it suits the look of the car. Would love some OzRacing wheels at some point but priority first is to sort out the niggly issues first. I also had issues getting a matching pair of Hankook RS4s for the front so ended up deciding to buy  a complete set of Advan V601s so had those fitted last week. Was a glorious day on the weekend so decided to take it for a drive. As you can see above, my car isnt all that low but yeah need to get some ramps or something to reduce the scaping.... my kids definitely enjoy this car more than the 75 thanks to air conditioning / heating and comfort haha. WhatsApp Video 2025-07-15 at 9.45.07 PM.mp4 Fetching info... So thats me up to date. I'll be tackling getting the half shafts off to replace that cv boot and replacing the cabin filter, airfilters and brake pad sensors (randomly get brake pad light pop up although I have near new pads...). Theres so much more youtube DIY content for this platform so will give these jobs a go.

Thought that might have been you that bought it when it disappeared off Marketplace 😁 That was good buying in my opinion...and I much prefer the wing! 👍 I met the owner previous to who you bought it from, an older gent that had become ill, and he looked after that car very well when I saw it at an SA Porsche club show. It was at a time I was seriously considering buying a 996, but he wanted way too much for it then, yet I think it was more his daughter pulling the strings with that one. Nice one mate 👍

I think white spirit will break down the silicone. Good luck with the car 😄 , enjoy.

Congrats on the 996. Solid base but needs IMS, CV boot, and tires. Aero kit’s a love/hate thing maybe swap the lip later if it grows on you.

Personally I would remove the front lip and get one of these: https://www.autoatlanta.com/Porsche-Spoiler-Lip-996-Gt3-Mk1-99-01-Parts-PN-V99650598600.html This items fit on many of the standard 996.1 bumpers and the 996.1 Aerokit bumper. My car came with standard front bumper with the lip attached, side skirts and a Taco wing.  That lip on the front added a subtle amount of aggression that it did not look unbalanced without the aerokit bumper. Be aware though that if your car is lower than standard the lip does scrape easily.  However, with standard height suspension it is not so bad.  Plus the installation kit ( which is only $31 ) is great as the plastic mounting screws are designed to break if the lip gets stressed and rather than tear the lip or the bumper they pop loose and the lip comes off and you can simply refit later ( I found this out in a steep carpark in Sydney ) This lip is also available from: https://sierramadrecollection.com/products/porsche-spoiler-gt3-street-911-00-05-996-505-986-00 I have purchased off this company and while it took a while to be delivered their communication was a reasonable and they shipped with a tracking note. They have a lot sales and discounts and when I purchased off them they had a 30% off sale.  If interested I would keep on an eye on their website or subscribe to their email list as they will likely have another 30% off sale at same stage again and the lip would then be reasonable. I have bought two Aerokit 996.1 bumpers and they were a simple fit since they were OEM.  Unfortunately the OEM bumper seems to be quite expensive, but the cheaper aftermarket ones are more expensive to fit as they require fettling.  The second bumper I ended up buying from a race team in Victoria for was quite reasonable in price although it has had a hard life and will need some work done if used.  However given the expense of bumpers now I am more than happy to have a spare bumper just in case. It took me years to find the first bumper and I strongly advocate that you set up some searches that you check across forums as with some patience and a bit of luck you might find one at a decent price but from personal experience it took me years to find bumpers that I was happy with pricewise so if my experience is anything to go by you will need patience.  The good thing is the 996 standard bumper fits on the 986 so if you do manage to source and Aerokit bumper you can potentially sell your original bumper to defray costs to a 986 owner as I did as it provides a more aggressive look to the 986 Boxster. Once you have done all the fixes, maintenance and IMS, should you want to improve noise you may wish to consider the Gundo hack.  I have no experience with this as I have a sprots exhaust.  However I would also consider fitting a cold air intake, with which I do have first hand experience The induction noise from the cold air intake is noticeable over my exhaust ( which is not quiet ) and provides a really 'meaty' noise when accelerating.  The performance gains are negligible but the noise gains are immense and I have never regretted this purchase. Other improvements I would consider: i) 997 GT3 Brake Ducts, cheap solution to get more air to the brakes. https://www.design91.uk/p/porsche-997-brake-duct-air-scoop-99734148392-99734148492/?currency=GBP&country=AU&ppc_keyword=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20952763906&gbraid=0AAAAAD_S1pPR84_Ocr1kOG3Q8KkJxw9xm&gclid=Cj0KCQjwm93DBhD_ARIsADR_DjHolcg881YBD2lpCKBwFajDuYCIdBw6E0h57fIBVLtL0pmW-jnYOSkaArRhEALw_wcB ii) Numeric Short Shift Kit.  If you want to go short shift I would strongly advocate this over the Porsche options.  It is a brilliant piece of engineering, it has no plastic parts and has three adjustable positions allowing you to choose how short a shift you want,  Unfortunately this have gotten a lot more expensive but this remains my favourite modification. https://numericracing.com/products/adjustable-short-shifter-porsche-986-987-996-997 iii) GT3 Centre console delete.  If you are tall or have long legs this option is brilliant as creates a lot more leg room and makes the cabin a lot more pleasant. iv) 997 Sports seats, the 996 standard seats and even the sports seats do not in my opinion do a great job of holding you in place when cornering ( I have had both ) upgrading to the 997 Sports seats is a brilliant upgrade and has greatly improved both comfort and cornering.  However do not buy the fully electric 18 way sports adaptive seats as they are a pain in the butt to fit and wire up and cost me a fortune to have customised and apparently the place that did it refuses to do others due to the hassle it took.  However the partially electric seats appears top be quite straight forward to fit. https://9werks.co.uk/articles/fitting-997-sports-seats-to-a-996/ You can also fit 991 seats

Good score.. 99 should mean dual row IMS..  Do you really need to replace it unless of course you're doing a 'while your in there'..

Wondering whether a caramel wheel is an option to remove the silicone?

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Thanks for all the great info @Carrera28 . Yes priority will be to get those items sorted then can look to mod more to my tastes. Looks like I'll need to do the water pump too. Car did actually come with K&N Intake kit as surplus but Im not keen to install if it doesnt generate more HP, Actually listed in on FB marketplace. Yes i've read it is less likely with dual row but I rather get it done anyways for peace of mind seeing as rebuilds of these engines are not cheap and replacements are hard to come by. Im also sure if i ever need to move this car on, everyone will be asking anyways. I think leaving a soaked cloth with mineral spirits should get rid of the rest of the residue as all the big chunks are off so its more just the residue. Will get to this at some point.

Good to see more love for the ole 996! I'm with @Carrera28 on the lip recommendation, plus its disposable/replaceable easily... the one that is on it, well I have no idea what that is, but it seems to have a big overhang as a result which would not help your approach angle... our stock 996 turbo is a reasonable (stock) height and that is rarely an issue, even on some gnarly NZ back roads, slammed GT3 with the lip is an issue however, so finding the balance is key (hence 996 Turbo reference point).

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I’m with you on this. My 98 had dual row and we did it whilst your there with the oil separator and clutch. Grant at AH tells me the chain tensioners are as much a problem now due to age on these motors. Word is they go and place inconsistent pressure and ims can still fail even if replaced. 2 of the 3 in mine were knackered so for the extra 500 was worth replacing at the time regarding the silicon we have a bunch of chemicals at the shop and as mentioned yesterday we can take a look at how that lips been attached as well when you bring it by

So finally got around to doing the water pump, thermostat. Although it wasn't too hard of a job took a while to work out the best way to get access to the water pump bolts. I had read a bunch of posts about plastic vs metal impellers and pros cons either way. Ended up chatting to the team at Autohaus and they recomennded the metal one so decided to go down that route. While i was in there, decided to also replace the thermostat as well a lot of the coolant hose seemed to have fused onto the metal just due to age and heat cycles. Ordered a few from autohaus and even ordered the wrong thermostat hose (986 instead of 996...) so car was off the road for quite a while just waiting for the right hose to arrive... After all that, used a vacuum filler to replace all the green coolant with Penrite Red. Had to flush the system 3 - 4 times to get rid of all the old coolant. Went relatively smoothly and had to top up a few times after but glad its done and happy to report, car seems to be coolant leak free ! Window tint was also peeling so decided to just strip the old tint from the front windows with a steamer Another small project was just to replace the windshield wipers as it was super noisy. Although I dont particularly love this front lip , had some paint cracking around it. Decided to strip it back and respray it myself. Its not perfect but definitely looks way better than it did. Still needs a buff. Hopefully i'll eventually be able to source an aero frontbar to replace this entire thing. I did initially try to remove this front lip but its glued on..

For those of you that have tried to source 3 spoke steering wheels , you know how hard it is to find a decent one at a 'reasonable' price especially as you cant buy the airbags overseas and get them shipped. Took me several months but finally found a 3 spoke sports wheel I ended up sourcing the airbag locally and buying the wheel from the US. I do like thr silver and black emblem, matches the car well. If anyone wants to buy my manual 4 spoke , let me know. Removal and the swap over wasnt too bad altho I was definitely nervous when i turned the car on after the swap but luckily airbag didnt blow ! Also decided to replace coolant cap with newest version . Sorry if these small things seem mundane.

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Looks like a nice upgrade 👌

Bit of an update, brought the car to Andre at the Pit Exchange and pulled the trigger on the LN Engineering IMS bearing. Went with the standard retrofit and not the oil fed one as was advised that the oil feed pipe is another point of failure. Whilst doing the job , found they clutch and flywheel needed replacing and a few 'while your in there jobs' like AOS replacement, oil pressure sensor as and did a full major service. Definitely relieved that the original IMS is now replaced. Read that dual row was less likely to fail but wanted the piece of mind. Only other thing this year was to troubleshoot the car running hot even after changing the water pump and coolant flush. Found leaves blocking the rads but the culprit was a pinched / stripped wire going to the left front rad and shorting against the metal rad bracket. Last few months , just been enjoying the drive and have taken it to the hunter valley with another mate and his 911 . Very comfortable compared to the 74 911 as you would expect. Exhaust tho is very quiet so might look at the Fisker mod at some point soon