996 Maintenance Roulette

Anyone else feel that every time they put a wrench to their 996 that its like rolling the dice? Between corrosion, brittle plastic, cramped quarters, dropped bolts etc you just never know whether the easy jobs will be impossible or the hard jobs easy. Just venting a little after trying to clean the Idle control valve on my 99, 2 bolts and some throttle body cleaner, how hard could it be right? Get out my torx sockets, pop it on the ratchet and should be off in 2 minutes...wrong, the first bolt strips out immediately with very little force. No problem I think. I get out my rotary tool, cut a slot in the head and get the big flat head out . Still nothing, its really stuck on there. try some penetrating oil, wait. nothing Decide to regroup, consult google, then decide to remove the throttle body and put it on the bench so I can get better access to the other ICV bolt so I don't strip and get a better angle on the slot in the already stripped screw. Of course the second bolt immediately strips out like its made of cheese. Rinse repeat cutting a slot same result. Ok so now I decide the best course of action for the time being is to order some new bolts and clean the throttle body and ICV as best I can while its assembled and put in back in the car. This all goes fine until putting the throttle body back on and the 5th nut which is attached to a threaded stud mounted in rubber shears with off with almost no force while reattaching the throttle cable. I guess 20 year old rubber is brittle. No big deal, just another thing to order, I continue putting the throttlebody back on but without that stud to rest on getting the 4 other bolts lined up was trickier, which of course leads to me dropping one. Tink, tink, tink....silence....lots of swearing.... as it has fallen to the side and under the plenum, 20 minutes of searching with a light and a magnet on a stick no dice. Another thing to order. That's how my easy 2 bolt job turned into 2 evenings of frustration and ordering 4 parts....here's to hoping the cleaning I could do fixes the cold start (-10C) idle issues I've been getting recently. I've been lucky in other things though, replacing my oil fill tube after cracking it changing my water pump was easy, the alternator which everyone says is nearly impossible came out in about 15 minutes with almost no effort, or my exhaust bolts all came out without snapping any of them even on a winter driven 996. When the car is 20 years old you just never know what is going to be easy and what is going to be a nightmare.

Yes. When you stuff a large, powerful & moderately complex engine (loaded with plenty of accessories) into a tolerably small body (designed with an emphasis on sexy performance, rather than ease of maintenance) you're likely to generate some access headaches.

Yes, I think everyone to some degree shares that fear... Mine is not so much about parts that can be replaced but more so connectors that are difficult to find or not in PET2... The MAF connector is just one example of many...

Throttle body, intake manifolds, exhaust headers - those things are the worst.

Nope. I�ve had good luck with all the Porsches I�ve owned. The only hassles I�ve had were self inflicted. Your Porsche experience sounds more like every Volkswagen I�ve owned, which I attribute to a lifetime of being driven on salted winter roads.

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You have my sympathy...it all sounds VERY familiar.

Exactly the reason I don�t work on my cars anymore. Dropped/lost bolts, stripped threads, skinned knuckles...I�m over it. Plus when I sell it I�ll have all the receipts (even for oil changes) from my Porsche Indy. My bike is a different story. Working on that is a piece of cake.

I can agree with the frustration. At least now you know when you remove the throttle body, stuff every nook and cranny underneath with shop towels so when you drop a bolt or nut it doesn't go far. Learned that lesson long time ago.

Yup, I had the one hour header gasket job take 3 due to one bolt not cooperating...

Oh man, you nailed it with your post. These cars are like a box of chocolate you just never know what your going to get. in September I had an issue with my cab top needing hydrolic fluid. I found the videos online, watched them several times and started the project. When my wife heard my expletive filled tirade she came outside and asked what happened. I said my system looks nothing like the video. Thus what should have been a few minute project took over an hour. I am reluctant to change the O2 sensors as it is like playing roulette...lol

I've shared your sentiment a few times working on my (or friend's) 996s, but the worst for me was my 2001 Audi S4. Working on that car made me hate working on cars. And yet I still want another one. LOL

Ugh, my convertible top gremlin in back.

This is partly why I bought a 911 that never left California.

It was -11 C, with frozen rain then snow covered streets to start the morning off. Shoveled my walk, then fired up the 911. Idled much better and kept the RPM around 1000 before I drove away. Prior to cleaning the TB and the ICV it would seem to drop off from 1000 before it warmed up which would then cause stumbles and misfires if I drove it anything but gingerly. So at least the frustration resulted in fixing the issue, and now I can worry about the stripped bolts on my timeline instead of the cars.