Do you always rip your car apart after buying it?

I always seem to, have had the instrument cluster out a few times, the steering wheel has been off a few times, passenger side air bag, new headliner, etc., etc. Last night I put in my auto dimming mirror and compass that I bought from a guy on quattroworld.com, it was from a 2002 RS6. $110. You need to buy the wiring harness to wire it up, which was $52 or so with shipping from ECStuning, it came from Germany. I ended up only using 2 of the 5 wires, but it was so worth the money. The mirror fits on the existing Porsche mount, they are exactly the same, you rotate it 90 degrees to release it, you can see the new one has a place for the wiring harness. Here is the harness, I added the hockey tape, it's the perfect length, you only hook up two of the wires, unless you want to hook up the reverse function (turns the auto dimming function off), but then you have to take the driver's seat out to splice the wiring in to the reverse wire. I didn't. The green and the yellow control the side mirrors if you have side mirrors that dim (hey, that's a mod I could do!). Here is the "relay support", it has two screws holding it in, you have to remove it to get to the back of it to get power and ground. See the arrows on the picture below? That's where the wires are going to go onto spare terminals. You can see all the brown (ground) wires and the other brown/stripped wire goes to switched power. They are all connected to a common bus. You just push it in and it's connected! I taped the other wires up and secured the wiring harness in place. Installed....the compass is hard to see in this picture, had to go out and calibrate it this morning, has a little button on the bottom. Undimmed state: Dimmed state, it has a light sensor on the front and rear of the mirror, when the rear has more light than the front, it dims. So to test it you put your hand over the front light sensor and it dims after 4 seconds or so: After having auto dimming mirrors on my cars for so many years, plus driving at night on a highway without them, I am happy to have this mod! Running out of things to do to the interior......

Not I said the fly which is why I searched far and wide for THE CAR that I bought so I won't have to do anything at all to it whatsoever P.S. I am jealous of your skill/perseverance/resources to undertake all the mods/projects you have done so far

Wax on wax off? My god you love to tinker. You have my respect and admiration but you are showing me parts of a car I like to pretend don't even exist. It is proof why God created money and The Auto Gallery.

The only people who are more locked in to attacking a wonderful asset as soon as they purchase it than Porsche owners, are the folks who own Les Pauls, especially the really expensive, historic re-issues. "Hey, I just paid $5K for this R9. Which part should I take the drill to first??"

Yep! My neighbors and buddies make fun of me. They call me the Porsche Whisperer. Within 2 weeks of having my 996, I dropped the transaxle and did the I*S, the clutch, the water pump, the RMS, thermostat and oil pressure sender unit. Then did the driver's side door lock mechanism, then the ignition switch.

I had the center console out 6hrs after getting the car. The wife thinks I'm nuts.

ChicagoSpeed996: I'm probably going over to Bolingbrook on Saturday morning for "Supercars Saturdays", it starts at 9 AM goes to 11 AM. If you are around and come by, would love to talk to you about the IMS upgrade. I'm sure I could do it myself, but after reading all the horror stories here, almost thinking of having somebody else do it for me.....I even had access to a lift. http://www.supercarsaturdays.com/

No homelink add on? Make sure you have the LCD based dimming mirror. The liquid filled ones could leak and etch into your plastics. Unfortunately, I know from experience.

Yes!!! I modify everything that I own to suit my needs. My money, my cars.

I haven't really had the urge to "mod" - i.e. add to - my 996. Almost everything I've done falls into two categories: PM and removing stuff I considered superfluous and/or incorrect. * Remove front wheel drive components * Delete rear seats * Delete center console * Replace fugly 4-spoke steering wheel with 3-spoke * Remove rear deck badging * Plug the driver-side keyhole with the appropriate Bumperplug. The only "Performance" mods I've done are the replacing the stock airbox with K&N Performance Intake and swapping the crank pulley with an underdrive pulley, and the only "Look at me!" mods are LED tails and the Kahtec don't-rear-end-me blinking third brake light. On both of my M96-powered cars, "performance mods" I've done on other cars just didn't do it for me. Tried headers, hated 'em, put the stockers back on. Tried cat delete pipes, hated 'em, put the stockers back on. Etc.

I roll up my sleeves when I need to repair something that doesn't require a lot of skill, but I'm usually chicken when it comes to mods and think that I'm probably going to break something else while trying to fix something.

^ I remember one weekend as a kid with my dad...we spent the whole weekend drilling out the end of the crank on our gray-market Jag with a hand drill and carbide bits because the old man didn't like the press-fit harmonic balancer...he wanted to be able to bolt that sucker up. While this particular operation was successful, I spent two full days worrying about how expensive it was going to get if things went south.

I generally roll up my sleeves as soon as I get a new toy home. My 996 has been the exception. It had most of the stuff I would like to do already. So, all I've done so far: Added Porsche crests to the wheel caps Installed Alcantara shift boot Replaced Water Pump (involuntary!) Changed Oil & Filter (added magnetic plug) I've been considering auto dimming mirrors though. Like you I REALLY miss that!

Yeah I have been meaning to catch a super car Saturday. And Bolingbrook is close! I have a mid-day tee time and will be in no condition to drive after. Ha! Definitely will offer any advice I have. I would say it was daunting because of the ramifications but I took my time and had no issues whatsoever.

I see its 9-12pm. Maybe I could show up early! I'll put it on the schedule.

Not since the first one.

Paul did you use your microscope for the relay rewiring???

After 120 mile drive home from purchasing it in another city, I pulled her into the garage, put her one jack stands and changed the oil and filters Have had the car 2 weeks, wanting to change the plugs/coils and belt, but have family stuff. Should be able to get to it soon.